November 21: Belgrade, Serbia

rnorell
Nov 21, 2025
7 min read

Friday

Last night, we were told to leave a shoe outside of our door and there would be a surprise in it in the morning. We forgot, but they were still nice enough to leave one chocolate Santa for each of us outside our door.

Today we are in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. This is the fourth largest city in southeast Europe. The confluence of two rivers is here: the Sava, which flows from Slovenia, and the Danube. The port on the Sava River is where the passenger ships dock; the commercial cargo vessels dock on the Danube.

I signed up for the “Belgrade Fortress Hike,” which they said would be a 6.5 mile hike up into the fortress and around the city, including the St. Sava Cathedral. When I was here last time, Vic and I wandered on our own through the fortress and then to the Nikola Tesla Museum. Lisa did the “City by Two Rivers” tour, which also visited the fortress, the Nikola Tesla Museum, and the St. Sava Cathedral, with a lot less walking.

As we walked through the fortress toward the city street, I saw Lisa’s group ahead of us. She hadn’t seen me or my group, so I ran ahead and snuck up on her. I opened the zipper of her backpack, and then she turned in surprise and saw me. She was not happy with me, lol!

As we walked, the guide shared a lot of information (I’m quite talented – I can walk, listen, and type notes into my phone, all at the same time!)

Belgrade is one of the oldest capitals, estimated to be here 8 to 9,000 years. It is the site of 116 battles, has been destroyed 44 times, and had 15 different names. It has been called Belgrade since the 4^th or 5t century, which means white city. 18 Roman Emperors were born in what is now Serbia. This river, which borders the former Yugoslavia, was the site of the first battle in World War 1. In that war, 25% of the population died – 60% of the men, a total of 1.3 million people.
The guide used a term for the architecture that the Soviets brought to this country – she called is brutalism. I hadn’t heard that term before but it totally fits the stark style.
They were occupied by the Ottomans from Turkey for over 400 years, and were finally freed in 1867.
There is a zoo here, which is the home to the oldest American Alligator in the world (he was born in 1937).

Our guide told us that there have recently been some protests here. On November 1, the government reopened a reconstruction project on the railroad and station. The job was done poorly, and the ceiling collapsed, killing 16 people. The students barricaded the Royal Academy to protest the government’s bad values. During 16 minutes of silence, the military used sonic sound weapons, which sent many people to the hospital. The students say that the biggest criminal in their country is the government.

Our guide also said that we probably noticed there were not many holiday decorations. She said they keep the Orthodox calendar, so they don’t celebrate until January 7.

She took us to the People’s Square, built in 1869. The building on the left, made with red bricks, is now the National Museum. It is the biggest and oldest museum in the country, with over 400,000 artifacts and three woolly mammoth skeletons. The vaults have documents dating back to the 11th century. There is also a statue with the figure pointing. It is pointing toward Istanbul, Turkey, to tell the Ottomans to go home.

There are two palaces separated by a park. The building on the left was the previous palace, and the one on the right is the newest and is used by the president. There were many protestors in the park in between, the Royal Park, so it is closed off. Behind the park, in a parking lot, there are many tents. They used to house protestors, but now they are either empty or hold people paid by the protestors to make it look like they are still there protesting.

Our walk continued to the iconic Saint Sava Temple. Construction started in 1935, but wasn’t finished when the war broke out. The Nazis, while they were occupying the city, parked their tanks inside the building.

The outside was finally finished in 2007, and it is the highest point in the city (130 meters high) and can be seen from any direction. There are no seats inside; they stand for the worship services. The choir sings from the upper balconies, and there is room for 800 choir members.

We walked down toward the river, past the National Railroad Department building with columns, and behind that building is a railroad museum. The large yellow building from 1844 was the former railroad station, and it is being renovated to be a museum of Serbian history. Out front is the largest sculpture in Belgrade. It is a saint standing on a destroyed shield.

We were back onboard for lunch. Afterward, they had shuttle buses running every half hour to take people into the shopping area. They also offered a second complimentary excursion today, a brandy tasting or a guided bike tour. When Vic and I were here two years ago, we went to a hillside farm and bought some of their national beverage, rakia, which is like a brandy. I didn’t love it, but I do remember its medicinal uses. Lisa wasn’t up to the excursion, so I went on the first one, which left at 2:30 pm. They took us to a local distillery, and we were seated in a room with a plate of bread, meat, and cheese, and four shot glasses.

Rakia is a brandy made from any kind of fruit, and it can be up to 40 percent alcohol. It came to this area with the Turks in the 14th century, but they add spices to theirs.

The first one was Quince (with honey), which is a kind of fruit, and we all tried it after toasting with Живјели (živjeli), which is pronounced like jee-vah-lee (where the “jee” sound is like the “s” sound in leisure). It tasted like gasoline or turpentine or some other undrinkable liquid, yuck! The next one was apricot (which also had almonds and wild rose), and it wasn’t really any better. It was like they killed all the apricot flavor out of it. Then we tried the aged plum (aged 2 to 3 years with 15 herbs added), and that was the first one I didn’t gag on.

The last one was Raspberry, which was only 25 percent alcohol, and that one I actually liked.

In between the tastings, the gal from the distillery told us about the colors. The standard Rakia is a lighter color, and the premium ones that have been aged longer (over three years) are darker. The aged plum wine is 50 percent alcohol.

She also said that every morning, most Serbians have one or two glasses of homemade Rakia, coffee, toast with jam, and a smoke.

She shared a story that the first time she got drunk on Rakia, she was around seven or eight years old. She opened the refrigerator and saw the pitcher. Thinking it was something else, she drank half of it and passed out for 13 hours.

Many young children have Rakia, as mothers use it to help fix sore throats or fevers.

There are 42 million plum trees in Serbia. Eighty five percent are used for Rakia, and 15 percent for jam.

They have other flavors that we didn’t try, but she invited us to sample as many as we wanted in the other room. They also have cherry, walnut (30 percent), honey, honey with mint, honey lavender, honey cinnamon, and honey thyme. In addition to bottles (large and very small) of the Rakia liqueur, they also have milk chocolate filled with plum Rakia. And they even sell Rakia in a tube that looks like toothpaste. She said they sell it at the duty free registers at the airport and people buy it thinking it’s hand cream or toothpaste and get a big surprise!

They had put together a little “Christmas garden,” with a few people selling local crafts. Outside, we each had a coupon for a hot wine, hot Rakia, or coffee. They were served in little mugs that were a gift from AmaWaterways. You could also trade the ticket for a mug, so that’s what I did. Then you could either take the bus back, or walk on your own and then take the shuttle bus back. I rode the bus back to the ship.

We had another treat tonight, more dancers. This time it was young men and women, accompanied by a violinist, a flutist, and an accordion. The amount of energy in their dances is amazing!

The layout of this lounge is different from ones on other ships. The piano, which is flanked by two Christmas trees, is about two thirds of the way back, with the largest seating section between the piano and the front windows. So when trying to view the dance floor, many of us had a view blocked by the piano, the trees, or the individuals who stood right in front of us to take their own video.

When I looked before bed, my fitness tracker showed that we had walked 5.2 miles. By the end of the day, I actually walked 19,000 steps.