Trips

Flag of Croatia

License plate of Croatia

Today we had an "included" all day tour from Vukovar, Croatia, where we are docked, to Osijek, Croatia's third largest city and to the village of Laslovo.

In 1991 the Serbs took three months to occupy Croatia. Milosevic wanted every region that had Serbs living in it to become Greek Catholic Serbians so he started the Homeland War that evicted or killed most of the Roman Catholic Croatians here. With foreign assistance, Croatia regained its freedom in 1998 but the Serbs had occupied and then destroyed 90% of the cities like Vukovar, Osijek, and Laslovo.

Vukovar - Church of St. Filip and Jacob

Vukovar - Memorial to 1991 war

Vukovar and the Vuka River

Building riddled with bullet holes from the 1991 war

Vukovar - The green market

We visited a school in Laslovo. Grades 1 to 8 are mandatory and free and then the student chooses a vocational school for three or four years or high school and university for many more years. English is taught in grade 1 and German in grade 4. The school at Laslovo was completely destroyed in the Homeland War and was closed for eight years. Most kids moved in with relatives elsewhere to continue schooling after the fall term in 1991 when there was nothing but chaos.
The school kids put on a nice presentation and then ran around, as it was a Sports Day. Boys played soccer, girls played bombardment dodge ball and some kids were doing something like volleyball. It looked more like recess than anything with organization.

School visit in Laslovo

We drove back into Osijek and passed several white sign boards in the fields indicating that the land had not yet been cleared of land mines. It was another chilling reminder of war. At an intersection in town there is a small car on the front end of a Serbian tank. In 1991 the tank ran straight over such a car. This now memorializes that the Croats have regained the top position.

Osijek, Croatia
Monument showing Croatians to have come out on top of the invading Serbians - originally the tank ran over the small car

Osijek - Franciscan Monastery of St. Cross
Church of the Holy Cross

Church of the Holy Cross - interior

Osijek - Plague monument in the Holy Trinity Square

Osijek - St. Michael's Church

Osijek - Old city wall - Franciscan Monastery in background

Garden of the hostess for our home-hosted lunch

Onward to our eighth country and eighth capital city, Belgrade, Serbia. By the way, should you think that being in all of these European Union countries should make spending money a snap, after all there is the Euro, think again. Only Germany, Austria, and Slovakia use the Euro. Six of the others, Croatia in not an EU member, all use their own currency. We came home with a little left over from everyone.

Flag of Serbia

Serbia's EU license plate

War damaged building in Belgrade

Tomb of Marshal Tito

We had the usual city tour by bus and then, after lunch on board, we went back into the city to explore on our own. Belgrade is another lovely city and we enjoyed our touring there.

It was hot and this hit the spot!

Approaching Kalemegdan Park and the Belgrade Fortress

Belgrade Fortress entry doors of oak built by the Turks

Belgrade Fortress
Tanks in front of the medieval wall with the original Roman wall exposed behind it

Belgrade Fortress
Tomb of the last Turk to try to invade Serbia

Street scene

Church of St. Aleksandar Nevski - from the moving bus

Students celebrating the end of the school year by jumping in the fountain

Hotel Moskva - a valuable architectural monument

Presidential Palace

National Assembly Building

National Assembly Building

Soviet construction - unrenovated and renovated

Public drinking fountain in the middle of the city

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