After arriving and checking into my hotel, I headed out to dinner. The choice was Lorenzo and Kakalamba, which got great reviews on TripAdvisor and sounded fun on top of it.
I’ll admit, when I walked in and saw this in the entryway I was a little scared:
…and when I sat down and got the menu, I was even MORE scared:
The view from my table:
…and right behind me on the wall:
View to the side from my table:
Started with a glass of local wine which was quite good, and a meat and cheese plate, that I was assured was appropriate for an appetizer. Um, I think not. I ate it and was way too stuffed to even consider a main course. It was, however, delicious!
…of course there’s always room for dessert though. A baklava and some plum brandy:
Slept in a bit the next morning, and then headed out for a walk. Didn’t have too much of a plan, but was going to head to the old fortress and play it by ear from there. Was just above freezing, so just warm enough to make a long walk tolerable with hat and gloves. Stop one, just down the street from the hotel, was St Mark’s Church:
Followed shortly by the National Assembly:
A bit further down the road was the Hotel Moskva:
Random statue “guarding” the way into the fortress compound:
Shot of the fortress, aka the Kalemegdan. Settlement of what is now Belgrade started from this area around 300 BC, and for a long time the area within the walls was the city. It grew from there, was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries. In 1521 it was conquered by the Turks and taken over until 1867. Now, it’s a large park and supposedly filled with people in the summer.
Great views from inside:
Inside the courtyard:
After seeing this, decided to go for a long walk to the other major attraction I’d been told was a must see: St Sava’s Church:
Unfortunately, it was under major construction inside, and there wasn’t too much to see. It was started in 1939, and the exterior was only finally completed in 1989. It is the largest orthodox church in the world, even though the interior still isn’t done! Since it was only a 3km walk away, decided to walk to the Museum of the Former Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, the walk wasn’t too straightforward, crossing under and over highways, strange paths, etc, but after over 90 minutes (and two stops for espresso to warm up) I made it there.
Random car display out front:
…and even more random modern art inside:
Behind the museum is the House of Flowers, the resting place of Tito. It houses an unusual collection of relay batons, gifts from his admiring citizens each year:
…and Tito himself.
I hopped a bus back to the area near my hotel, and tried to get to the Tesla museum, but unfortunately it was closed. Who’d have expected it to close so early?
Back to the hotel, where I enjoyed the complimentary massage and rested up, since I had to be up very, very early the next morning to fly home.