Belgrade is a great place to visit, no doubt about it. We splurged for a good hotel in a good location and it paid off. We are right on Republic Square. Right outside our door is the huge square, pedestrians only, and then branching off the square are 4 or 5 pedestrian only streets. European cities know how to make cities pedestrian friendly. On the down side, the traffic is just awful. When you are sitting in gridlock traffic and nobody is moving, and I mean nobody, blowing your horn helps. NOT!!!

Our hotel, Centar No 1, is walking distance from everything we want to see. The weather isn't great but we have the right clothes so we are fine, damp but fine.

One of the sites at the top of our list was the Tesla Museum. We watched a 15 minute video and then saw some experiments. The man was a genius when it came to electricity. The movie was spellbinding, I wished it had been longer. According to the map the museum was easy to find. It wasn't, we needed help but then that's normal.

We walked further east to St Sava church, a gigantic eastern orthodox church. The size was astounding. Unfortunately they are doing major renovations to the main floor and we were limited to seeing the lower level. I can't in all good conscience call it a basement, the beauty rivals anything we have seen. All kinds of mosaic murals and gold on everyting in a stark white room with lots if arches. Hard to describe and a challenge to photograph. The budget for the renovations for upstairs is 3.5M €. (About $5.25M CDN)

Then we walked back to the 2 palaces the old one which is now city hall and the new one that is the residence of the president of Serbia. Grand buildings and very large and you cannot go in them. Surprisingly there were no guards at either palace. They are very close to each other just separated by a large garden. We have pictures.

We had a great supper at Casa Nova, a restaurant Kitty found on line. Google maps helped us find it. Serbian meals are huge so we are sharing an appetizer and a main course and it is always enough food. This night we shared a salad & curry chicken. We didn't want dessert but Kit ordered a cappuccino. Our waiter gave it to her as a gift. Serbians seem to be a very nice gentle race except when behind the wheel of a car

Did a little window shopping to kill some time. Really haven't bought much, this isn't a shopping vacation.

Educational Break

Belgrade is on 2 rivers, the Sava and the Danube. They have a 10 year 3.5B€ (billion not million) called Belgeade Waterfront. They are developing apartments, sports facilities and commercial properties all along the river front. We have seen artists renderings, it looks beautiful. Construction is underway

Belgrade has lots of parks and lots of fountains. We have fountain pictures, oh do we have fountain pictures. I wish Calgary had a few more fountains, they are so simple and they look so neat, maybe not in February but for sure in July.

I would estimate at least 75% of men here carry purses. Makes sense to me, I may try to start a trend.

I know I have already mentioned it but there so many shoe Stores (There It Goes Again , This Crappy Web Site Wants To Capitalize Every Word)and most of Them Are Women's Shoes Only. THere Will Be 2 or 3 In A Row. I Don't Know How they stay In Business.

We still have the fortress the parliament building, another palace, St Marks church, the mosque and few dozen stores to see. We are also planning trip to Zemun, a suburb, apparently it is really a quaint village with Hungarian tower . It was built in the fourteen hundreds.

Hope the weather gets better

London weather sounda horrible, we have our panchos.

More later

The best to both of you that read this

Hippies Out