Meanwhile in Ruse, Bulgaria, 13 August

Have arrived in Ruse, Bulgaria, after a flight from Belgrade and a 3 hour taxi ride from Bucharest, was supposed to take 11/2 hours but my driver told me he had only been working for 2 months.

First impression of Ruse not that great but have a week to change my mind. People look like ordinary people, especially the young people look the same as in Malmö. The town is rather run down except for an enormous square with fountains and everyone is out with dogs and Kids and grandparents, hoping for some cool breeze. The square is surrounded by outside restaurants, ice cream places and coffee bars. Since I will be here for a week I will work my way round the square and eat at a different place every evening. I have a huge problem with the language and have googled Cyrillic text, written it on a paper so I can know where I am. Seems like most of the younger generation speak some English. Even so, I thought I had ordered one glass of wine, but got half so bottle. Will know next time. It was actually very nice wine, Cycle Savignon Blanc, product of Minkov brothers tradition since1875,Bulgaria.

The Danube at Ruse, enormous and wide!

Over to Carl for further blogging.

Höllviken-Belgrade, 12 August

Arrived in Belgrade at 1 pm, 32 degrees and humid. LelleBelle is doing fine, waiting for us. Met a neighbour, Mikki, who lives half the year in Johannesburg, some time in Greece, where he has his boat, and sometimes in Belgrade, where he has a restaurant. Of course we were invited to dinner, but had to decline because we will soon go to the airport to fetch the new crew member, Konstantin.

Lots of activity in the marina tonight with people coming down to their boats for the evening.

Ordered 30 Liters of diesel in a cannister. Now Carl has to find place for it!

Bojan's sidekick came with the geranium that we left with Katarina the Greenline owner. They were away but asked Bojan to give it to us on our return. The flower was in excellent condition. 

Leslie gave me the last Bismark herring from Stralsund so we could use the herring box for the surviving flower. 

While waiting for Konsrantin to arrive we walked over to our favorite restaurant Marinada for a glas of wine at the Sava terrace. 

Höllviken 6 - 11 August

Home for a wedding. Returning to Belgrade tomorrow 

The kids.

The Wedding 

At home with the family.

Belgrade-Höllviken, 5 August

We are off for a 7 day visit to Sweden. 

LelleBelle lies safely in the Yachting Marina in Belgrade.

For reasons unknown to us we were given business class tickets. It must be our good looks. 

Champagne breakfast

Back to normal. Erlanda Håkan with the kidsen Rebecka nd Elizabeth and Denise and Anders came for a braai and very enjoyable evening. 

Belgrade, 3-4 August

Woke up to a lovely warm day and decided to take it easy, have a breakfast of all food left in the fridge and spend the rest of the day swimming and relaxing on an island where there is an artificial lake. But you can never make your own plans in Belgrade! A gentleman on a neighbouring boat came over for a chat and told us that we would have coffee with him and his wife while they waited for the grandson to wake up. After that we were to go with them to have lunch. No discussion.

Dushko, Ceca, Nikola and Leslie on the way to lunch.

We had an excellent lunch, fish soup and fish, at this restaurant. It is a canoe club sponsored by Rotary. Dushko and Ceca's daughter Maria works there.

Dushko, Carl and Nikola leaving the restaurant.

We met another neighbour, Katarina and her family. Katarina and her husband have their own bussiness and spend a lot of time on their boat, a GreenLine 33, in the marina where they have access to internet. (Everywhere in Serbia we have had very good, free and fast connection to internet). Katarinas son, Milan, 4 years old, loves lions and we were able to show him all our photos of lions and other animals from our trip to South Africa last year.

Booked into the Majestic hotel for the night because of a very early flight to Copenhagen. Enjoyed a light lunch in one of the many street cafés. Great for people watching. 

We went to the Skadarska street and the Dva Jelena (two deer) restaurant. Skadarska Ulitsa is a cobble stone street in old town Belgrade. Music, people and restaurants. A very lively and vibrant atmosphere. In the yellow restaurant behind Carl was a wedding party, dancing music and lots of fun. When we later in the evening met with Alexander and Natalia they sad they had celebrated their wedding at the Dva Jelena restaurant. Quite a coincidence. 

We forget to order only one main dish. The portions are so generous so a whole family could eat one dish. No wonder Carl is getting fat. 

Belgrade, 2 August

Saturday and Belgrade. We have heard that it is going to be very hot today and our friends are very happy about that. They say that they have had a very bad summer so far. 

Woke up in the marina to a beautiful day. Visited Delta City, a relatively new, enormous shopping mall with all the shops you can think of, including H&M, Marks and Spencers, C&A, Beneton etc etc and even Costa coffee. Of Course many, many more coffee shops because here is really a coffee shop culture.

Alexander and his family, wife, Natalia and son Milan gave us an interesting tour around Belgrade. Here we are at what is locally known as " the horse" this is a statue of the son, Michail, of a ruler who had a dream for a United Serbia. (Will check the name of the ruler and his son)

During our walk through the park on the way to the fortress, Milan lost a baby tooth. Great excitement and great expectations for the tooth fairy. Imagine, the tooth fairy is so international!

View from the Fortess 

A view of the Sava joining the Danube river.

Alexander told that over history Belgrade had been conquered, burnt and destroyed about 41 times. The Fortress was under Turkish siege for 81 years before they finally succeeded in the 1560. 

The latest attack on Belgrade was the NATO bombings in 1999. The ministries that were targeted are still standing as sore reminders of mans stupidity.

The happy family and the traveller.

First Alexander took us to have a beer at his very, very favourite place, the Red Stars football stadium. After that we had dinner/lunch (5 pm) at one of his favourite local restaurants. And we had a meal to compare with the best we have ever had.

Milan with his fifth or was it seventh ice cream for the day. 

Novi Sad - Belgrade, 1 August

Today is the last leg of our journey before taking a break for a wedding in Sweden. We have 90 km to cover which should take just under 6 hours. 

The marina in Novi Sad with carl returning from the "en suite" bathroom, which was in the restaurant!

View from the bathroom.

Marina Liman seen from the restaurant 

Early morning start in cloudy weather, not sure if it will rain today, but it is still hot.

Remains of one of the bridges bombed by NATO.

Building a new bridge. Wonder who got the contract?

Today the river is just getting wider and wider. During the whole trip we met only 2 barges and 2 or 3 small boats. We also passed a man paddling a canoe which, judging by the packing, is probably making his way to the Black Sea. We passed this beach with tents and families and canoes.

The Danube Hotel welcoming visitors.

Another hotel and apparently a very good fish restaurant.

Approaching Belgrade a new bridge still under construction. Was a bit confusing because it did not show up on the charts.

Alexander and Nenad meet us in Nenad's beautiful boat and guided us to the marina on the Sava river where we will park LelleBelle until 13 August. Alexander and Nenad have been incredibly helpful. This marina is very safe and secure.

We all went off the a fantastic fish restaurant a couple of hundred metres from the Marina. It was impossible to decide what to eat so we let Alexander order for us. Great food, beautiful presentation and great service. 

Alexander, Nenad and Carl having polished off a whole fish. Thank you Alexander and Nenad for a wonderful introduction to your city.