27/6/19 fortress walk, bus to Belgrade, temple, Tesla and tea

This morning our mission was to get to the fortress and back before we needed to be back at the hotel and on the bus.
It was another hot hot day, and we were glad to be walking across the river and up on the hill in the fortress, rather than enclosed in one of the ancient hot buses travelling around this town,

but we were under pressure to move.

We were later getting out of bed than all the others and found Ivan, our leader still waiting at breakfast for us to make an appearance.  He seems to make this a part of his duties and we greatly appreciate the chance to have a quiet chat with him at breakfast time.  It gives us a chance just to touch base, pass on anything information we need to , ask questions.  I guess it gives him a chance to get feedback and tailor the trip as much as he can to suit as well.  He has already done a great job of  making this trip better by ensuring that we have enough room so that I am not crowding Trevor each night (almost all two bed rooms) . There was actually a kettle, milk and black tea at breakfast (hooray). We have learnt that these are not something you presume that you will find.

Ivan set us up with a question today - well, actually two questions - What is different about the clock at the fort? , and why? So our goal was to get to the clock, high on the hill on the other side of the river ( about 2km from our hotel) .  As we walked across the bridge we passed some of the group coming back already.  We also met lots of people in tour groups walking up to the fort, who were moving much more slowly than we wanted to , but were hard to overtake due to their wish to take up the entire width of the roads and paths and just amble along.

Eventually we found out way up there, and looked at the clock.

The time was wrong on it.  It had a pendulum, If the hour and minute hands were reversed then it would nearly be correct (It was currently 1025am) but we couldn't see anything else, and we couldn't find anyone in particular to ask.  so we went on our way.

The fortress is huge with many levels  - we believe that there was a sprint map in here not so long ago and we can can imagine that it would have been an excellent place for the purpose.  We went to lots of places (like the moat) that people would not usually go as we were looking for a cache, but to no avail..  We found hidden staircases, and looked out over the river far below.

The EXIT music festival is about to be on, and it is really busy getting the scaffolding and stages up all over the place.  Two way traffic in the one way street through the fortress wall is at a standstill and the cops can;t help because they cant get there. We were very happy to  be on foot 

Eventually we decided we had better get a move on or we wouldn't make it back to the hotel in time.
One last deviation in the street just in case we could find another cache - no again.

A rapid walk was required to get back hot and sweaty in time.  We filled up our drink bottles at the hotel before a stressed taxi ride to the bus station.  For some reason some of the taxis didn't want to take luggage, so we ended up a long wait to get going and luggage everywhere in ours.  If we did not pick up tickets at least half an hour before the bus left they were at risk of them being sold off again.  We were not there within that time and Ivan was very stressed by the time we made it to the bus station.  It was all OK.  We got the tickets and didn't have to wait too long before boarding the bus to go to Belgrade - which was packed and a bit smelly from all the hot people.

In Belgrade we had a long, hot uphill walk to the hotel,  Luckily Michael took Kristen's bag as well as carrying his own, which meant that she offered to pull Trevor's bag.  The walk took us past the army headquarters which were bombed by NATO in 1999 (without actual permission due to veto from Russia and China) in an attempt to get Milosovic out of Kosovo and to release Albanians there from systematic annihilation. This building remains as a reminder,  NATO is a dirty word in Belgrade.

We were wringing with sweat when we arrived at the hotel, and very happy to find that out room had airconditioning (although the wine had to go next door as our fridge wasn't working).

We had a bit of time up our sleeve before we needed to meet again and see some of Belgrade.  Sadly the amazing new St Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, which is being built had the top , more ornate, section closed due to works, so we couldn't see it, but the lower part was open.... and very impressive.

There were a lot of pictures all over the place, but we couldn't find one smiling face - they all looked extremely serious. 

Our next stop was the Tesla museum.  It is here that a lot of Nikolas Tesla's  inventions reside , and we took the time out to have a bit of a look and to see some demonstrations of his discoveries.  Tesla knew that he was different and had a gift for invention and scientific discovery ahead of his time.  He visualised his inventions totally in 3D and then built them, knowing that they would work!!!

The big Tesla coil was the drawcard - sending sparks into our hands even though we were not touching anything (just close), thus proving that electricity can travel through air. I enjoyed the personal insight into the man the most.

Trev with the big Teals coil. 

portrait of Tesla

We had a brief stop at the hotel  before we walked to our tea - at the Question mark restaurant. -The sign just says "?" .  Apparently they didn't know what to name it .  The restaurant is over the road from a mosque and we had a quick look in there as one of their services continued .  The chanting voices were absolutely beautiful.  No other music but the men's voices.

? served classic food of the area and a three man group serenaded us towards the end of the evening with a piano accordian, guitar and violin.  They were a bit too much into the eye contact and closing in on your personal space, but it was all in a good attitude

I think Harry's face says it all in this picture.  

There was a geocache hidden in the mosque fence , so we educated some of our fellow travellers about the game on the way home.

We needed to drink that bottle of white wine that we had bought , so after the walk home, we shared it with the kind ladies (our neighbors Syd and Cathy)  who had stored it and cooled it in their fridge.  Apparently we were a bit noisy , and I think the others in our group felt a bit left out, but how many people can really share one bottle happily or fit into one small hotel room?

And so another day of travel came to a close.