Day 19 - Belgrade

Day 19 Thursday September 1

Belgrade, the capital of Serbia is the 4th largest city in the Balkans. It lies at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers in the north-central part of the country.

The national fruit of Serbia is plum. They are one of the largest producers of plums and raspberries in the world. In 2021 alone 70000 tons of raspberries were grown in the country.

We stayed at the famous Moskva hotel which was built in 1908 by a Russian insurance company for its offices and is now converted to a hotel. Sitting in a prime location on Terazijska Square, it has outlived two World wars and eight state systems. Nobel Prize winner writers and other world famous personalities like Robert de Niro, Albert Einstein, Indira Gandhi, Luciano Pavarotti, Maxim Gorky and Alfred Hitchcock have stayed at the Moskva.

Our walking city tour was scheduled at 10 am but it's raining quite heavily. We waited for 45 minutes and then T & S bought umbrellas for the group and we all started off with a local guide.

The main Kneza Mihaila street is a pedestrian plaza. It is about a kilometer long and full of shops and restaurants. Many benches below lovely trees along the center make a pretty picture. I saw an unusually large number of bookstores which was quite fascinating. In the evening, restaurants lay out the tables on the streets and the place gets crowded with people out for dinner or a drink in the festive atmosphere.

In the late afternoon we went for a cruise on the Danube river. The Danube is the main river in Europe. It flows from the Black Forest in Germany to the Black Sea, passes through 10 countries and is 2850 kms. long.

By the way, the currency of Serbia is the Dinar and RSD 100 = INR 74