"Breakfast included" is always a plus in hotel accommodation on our travels. Our Sarajevo Hotel provided breakfast but by 11:00am Greg was wishing it hadn't!

We left the hotel about 9am for our 300 km journey to Belgrade. Usually this distance is covered by about 2pm with stops included. Today, the GPS showed that it would take us close to 7 hours without stops. It was soon evident why as we followed a light torquoise coloured river and mountains again, great riding with sweeping curves and reasonable roads.

By 11am Greg was desperate for a toilet stop and wasn't feeling well at all. We stopped at a Cafe and Greg quickly found what he needed. A curious young boy about eight years old was given a sit on the bike, an Aussie 50 cent coin and a photo by Mum, a future biker for sure! Greg was given Panadol and Gastro Stop before we rode on.

Our next stop was about an hour later for coffee and another toilet stop at a little cafe beside a garage - Greg was in no condition to find anything more salubrius. It was 12:30 and we had only ridden 120km of our journey.

We crossed the border to exit Bosnia and Herzegovina, only needing to show our passports and answer two questions - Is this your bike? and Are you tourists? Of course the answer to both was Yes. Next was entry to Serbia. This was even easier, just show the passports and stamp them. We expected to pay for more insurance here but no one asked so we didn't volunteer.

Riding from the border into Belgrade was tedious. You no sooner rode in to a small village, then out of it and then in to the next village. There were many trucks and narrow roads to negotiate and it seemed to take forever.

A brief rain shower proved a disaster as the brown spray from the roads was followed by the smell of cow poo. Yes, the country roads were covered with dry cow dung used as a fertiliser that quickly turned from dry dust into a brown, smelly shower of sh**!! In no time at all our riding suits and the bike were covered with this brown, foul smelling stuff...yuk!

We arrived at our apartment in the suburbs of Belgrade almost 4 hours later than we had expected both tired and smelly. By the time Kerrie returned from getting supplies from the local supermarket, Greg had showered and was asleep on the couch where he stayed until dinner time. He then he trundled off to bed passing up food and not stirring till the next morning.

In the morning Greg felt slightly better but not well enough for much else other than spending the next day in our apartment resting, and watching the crime channel on TV. At 11am I knew Greg was feeling a little better when he declared, "Come on, it's bike washing time. Time to get that sh** off the bike." I guess his Bosnian Tummy Bug had somewhat passed on.

We left our apartment after two nights and rode into Belgrade as we have checked into a city hotel to be closer to the sights figuring since we were here we had better check it out. Arriving in the city at 11am we parked the bike in a covered parking spot under the hotel, changed into walking gear and armed with a little map we set off for a foot tour of the sites.

We headed towards the Kneza Mihaila the main shopping mall. The only things we were interested in purchasing was a fridge magnet and a sticker for the bike, for these we needed cash. After withdrawing 1000 dinar ($13.50) and being charged 500 dinar ($6.80) for the privilege we decided to use our card and forget about cash. Putting this into perspective we did have 2 coffees at Starbucks which cost us less than 500 dinar.

Following the length of the mall we eventually came to Kalemegdan Park, the largest in Belgrade. It is situated on a cliff at the junction of the Rivers Sava and the Danube. Inside the park we found Belgrade Fortress, the most visited tourist attraction in Belgrade and it was free! We wandered passed many monuments and statues and soon found the high point of the Fortress where we had a great view overlooking the two rivers and the city.

We then retraced our steps to the other end of the shopping mall where the elegant Hotel Moskva is located - only 200 Euro to stay tonight - too rich for us! We headed off to find the National Assembly of Serbia and discovered banners along the fence of this magnificent looking building proclaiming Albanian Uck Terrorists had killed Serbian civilians in the wars of the late 1990's. Riot Police, complete with hard hats and shields, were lined up along the front of the Assembly building anticipating trouble but thank goodness it was all quiet.

We then visited St Mark's, a Serbian Orthodox Church which was completed in 1940 and built in Serbo-Byzantine style. The interior of this church had magnificent murals on the walls but very little else in decoration and was quite beautiful. "No photographs" proclaimed the very large and stern looking woman patrolling the entrance way. Kerrie managed to sneak a few anyway when the 'guard' wasn't looking.

After our self guided walking tour Kerrie's phone app showed we had travelled 10km exactly or 14868 steps - time for a rest before dinner and preparations for another country tomorrow.

Romania here we come.

*Blog of the Day 5