A Very Brief Visit to Belgrade, Serbia

The short visit to Belgrade, Serbia, as part of our Viking River Cruise, was a bit unsatisfying. To get to the bottom of Belgrade, one would need a lot more time.

For on the surface, it's gray. Even on a sunny day, the city doesn't offer itself up easily. We ate in a recommended restaurant, we toured the Opera House, we heard Italian opera on the street, and we saw the huge new Saint Sava (the patron of Serbia) church under construction.

We also saw the ruins of the Serbian defense ministry building, which was bombed by NATO in 1999 as part of an air campaign to dissuade the former Yugoslavian government from pursuing its policies of crushing opposition in Kosovo.

But as the Opera tour guide said, Belgrade has been extensively bombed multiple times since the early 20th Century. That leaves a mark not only on the physical ambiance of a city, but also on its more subliminal aspect.

Yes, Belgrade will require more investigation. The question is: what are we looking for?

P.S. Belgrade has one of the most intriguingly constructed bridges in the world, which was just recently completed. Here is a very interesting documentary about how it was done.

A bit of color in a gray city. We walked for a couple of hours around the center of Belgrade, Serbia before coming upon the Saborna Church, a Serbian Orthodox gem just up the hill from the Danube. We'd visited the new Saint Sava church, which is under construction and is now pretty much only a formed concrete promise of better things to come.

Yes, Belgrade will require more investigation. The question is: what are we looking for?

P.S. Belgrade has one of the most intriguingly constructed bridges in the world, which was just recently completed. Here is a very interesting documentary about how it was done.