This morning in Vukowar, we had rain all the time, instead of sunshine. The forecast for Serbia and Croatia on wetter.de, too, was a catastrophe (clouds all day long).
So first and foremost, we eat a leisurly breakfast. Are there any alternatives to going by bike? I find an (unpleasant) train connection to Belgrad, permission to take bikes – according to the SR-Website – is doubtful. Well, in that case we prefer riding through the rain.
The weather clears up a little. We start in a hurry. In the end, it turned out to be a hard leg. 108 kilometres. Lots of rain, many inclines, and on 70 per cent of the way extremely high traffic. We arrive in Besna at 6 p.m. and immediately find the beautiful PARK pension.
After getting rid of the wet clothes and hanging them up to dry, we fast-wash some laundry and then go down to have dinner.
After dinner on good Serbian red wine, my reflections on the last four days are: we had a short but intense experience of three countries, namely Hungary, Croatia, and now Serbia. We needed three currencies: Forint, Kuna and Dinar. In a way, I almost had forgotten that there are still more valuta in Europe than just Euros and Swiss Franks.
As always, Hungary was beautiful. Very civilized, very comfortable. What remained in my memory of Croatia are the mine fields. The wounds of the civil war have not yet healed. On the fields, we saw plenty of chemical spraying, nevertheless, the strawberries tasted delicious.
This morning, we “rolled” into Serbia. Compared to the other two countries, it is again different. By accident, we met a group of men in a pub in Petrovaradin right behind Novi Sai who had been cooking together. They invited us to join in their meal. It was fish soup and barbecued fish. Delicious.
Our hosts spoke German, and they also told as a lot about Serbian history and the current state of affairs. The opinions differ.
I also noticed that Serbia is probably the country where most of the world’s R4-s ended up. Several times, I saw exactly the same type that I must have acquired around 1980 myself. So I just had to take a picture. Who knows – it might have been mine a long time ago.
Storks, on the other hand, could be found in all three of the countries. What a pity that they are so scarce at home. For me, seeing a stork is always a very special event.
Seeing all those old cars in Serbia made me again think of the German wreckage bonus. I have no idea how the “wreckage bonus” could be outlined to Serbians: in Germany, you throw a wonderful old car (which in this country is probably still worth a small fortune) onto the wreckage dump and get 2.500 Euros (which is even a greater fortune in this country). At the same time, you promise to buy a terribly expensive new car. I am sure most of the Serbians cannot understand that. Personally, I have a similar problem.
The weather forecast for tomorrow is better than today. We want to cross Belgrad as fast as possible and then find accommodations as far as possible on the opposite side of Belgrad.
RMD
(translated by EG)
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