All That Glitters Is Gold

 

After an overnight cruise, we arrived in Belgrade Serbia. Belgrade is the capital of Serbia and it's largest city. It is also one of the oldest continually occupied cities in Europe. They have found artifacts from around the sixth century B.C. That said, because of Belgrade's location, it has been fought over, conquered and architecturally destroyed many times over. Belgrade sits on the confluence of the Danube (which I have been floating down) and the Sava Rivers. Hence the name of our morning outing - “The City By Two Rivers”

Really nice steps greeted us as we departed the ship

We start off heading to the Kalmegdan fortress. There are a lot of fortress visits on this cruise. This one resides in the middle of a park and has what is considered one of the best views of Belgrade. The view was nice, but it seemed like this was mostly a walk in the park. I was not particularly impressed, perhaps because it was sort of overcast and rather a dreary day.

The fortress was well guarded

Even scarier

Where the Danube and the Sava Rivers meet.  New Belgrade is in the background

The Naked Man Statue.
 The Victor stands 46 feet tall and was erected in 1928.
 Rumor has it that the upper crust ladies objected to the placement of the statute with full frontal view accosting them
so they made sure the statue pointed toward the newer parts of the city.

The tour guide decided to try to impress us with St. Sava's, a Serbian Orthodox church. Let's just say that once you stepped inside, you realized there was no need for sunshine outside. The gold in the church alone was enough to light up your whole day. OK, I was impressed. This church is a fairly new church, having been built around 1932.

We learned that during services, the congregation is expected to stand for the whole service. 
Chairs were only provided for the elderly or infirm folks.

The dome.
All that glitters Is gold

There were several tours offered for the afternoon, but I must have been napping as I have no memory or pictures of doing anything more in Belgrade. Napping is very much an underrated activity and one I thoroughly enjoy partaking in.