A few days in the historic town of Mostar was a first time visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina for us. The three hour bus trip from Dubrovnik was quite scenic, following the dramatic coastline for some time before turning inland.

Mostar spans a deep valley of the Neretva River in Bosni-Herzegovina. It developed in the 15th and 16th centuries as an Ottoman frontier town and during the Austro-Hungarian period in the 19th and 20th centuries. Mostar has long been known for its old Turkish houses and Old Bridge, Stari Most, after which it is named. In the 1990s conflict, however, most of the historic town and the Old Bridge were destroyed. The city was the most heavily bombed of any Bosnian city during the war following the breakup of Yugoslavia. The Old Bridge was rebuilt in 2004 and many of the edifices in the Old Town have been restored or rebuilt with the contribution of an international scientific committee established by UNESCO.

We arrived under a heavily clouded sky and spent the afternoon exploring the old town under our trusty umbrellas, but finally decided to take shelter in a dry, warm and very inviting restaurant, which has a reputation for serving good traditional food. A platter of tasty morsels and a couple of very nice glasses of local red later, and we felt ready to hobble over the cobblestones home.

Our ‘home’ here was a great find. Our balcony overlooks the river, our room is spacious and light and airy, as is the bathroom, and it is in easy walking distance to the bus station and the old town.

Luckily the rain cleared and a couple of days of sunshine followed, which made for much more pleasant wanderings. There are a number of lovely old stone bridges crossing the fast flowing river and side streams, plenty of inviting restaurants, and the roughest cobblestone streets we have come across so far. The prices are much lower than Croatia - you can get good accommodation for under $50 a night and a hearty meal including drinks for around $10.

Sadly, signs of war are still present, both in the bombed out ruins of many buildings and in the division between Bosniaks and Croats. Formally, Mostar is a united city, but it is still divided by tension and duplicate institutions on each side of the Neretva River. The west side is inhabited mainly by Croats, the east mainly by Bosnian Muslims. Despite the underlying tensions, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this lovely spot, and now feel a little bit more knowledgeable about this country.