The Danube has been part of our travels for some time now as we first came across it in Budapest - it is the second longest river in Europe and we will see it again when we get to Vienna.
A noticeable feature of the population in this part of the world is the number of tall young men which made me recall that some of the countries here have very strong basketball teams - Serbia for instance is ranked no 12 in the world.
We placed extreme faith in Mrs GPS today.
As far as we could tell the trip to Sarajevo would see us crossing the Serbia/Bosnia border on the way.
About 90 mins into our trip we duly arrived at a border, wasted the mandatory 45-60 mins in a queue and finally we were through and away again.
As we move from country to country Vodafone send a text welcoming you to the new country and advise call rates etc.
Just through the border we got the message but we laughed when it welcomed us to Croatia!
We pulled into an auto stop for coffee and as I was looking around the store I noticed that the pricing was in kuna, the Croatian currency and not BAM the Bosnian currency- so the laugh was not on Vodafone at all!
We gingerly set off again following HER directions and about 30 mins later we crossed another border this time the Croatian/Bosnian border and luckily it only took around 15 mins to do so - so today we were in 3 countries but only in Croatia for around 45 mins.
Also we must have confused Vodafone as we still await the welcome message to Bosnia & Hercegovina!
Once in B&H the roads deteriorated markedly as we wound up various "mountain ranges" stuck behind all sorts of vehicles, including horse and cart
Prior to the winding bit the scenery was very easy on the eye and there were towns where all the shops had their wares laid out the front
We left Novi Sad at 8.30 this morning and pulled up at the accommodation around 3.45 this afternoon and that was only with 2 stops other than the borders.
Our first impressions of Sarajevo are that we are in a city that has not recovered from the conflict in the 90s - while there is an "old town" which we will visit tomorrow the remainder in the areas we have driven or walked exude a rather sad existence.
A typical accommodation block along the Main Street
Many buildings show the signs of the war
Monuments to fallen townsfolk from 1992 onward
We did come across a very busy fruit & vegetable market which was just closing but the security guard said I couldn't take a photo - stuff him!
And we passed one of the numerous places of worship while we were walking.
Bosnia is predominantly Muslim and we are in the month of Ramadan so a lot of the restaurants are booked tonight for the rush that will come around sunset as the followers are allowed to eat having fasted since sunrise this morning - nevertheless we had a very nice meal in a hotel restaurant before staggering back to our digs for a good nights sleep (we hope & I may have to report on that tomorrow).
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