It was an amazing drive for a couple of reasons:
* for the first 80kms there was not a hill in sight no matter which way you looked. The GPS recorded us as travelling at 115m above sea level for almost the entire distance and you could literally see as far as the eye could see! It is a very flat part of the world.
* we stopped at a service station for a fill as well as a coffee. As we left the cafe I just happened to look back to where we had been sitting to see our travel card (on which the funds are loaded to pay for the trip as we go) was just showing from down the side of the seat - it had slipped out if my wallet.
*the drive today was scheduled for 111kms. I say scheduled because we had some issues. As we approached the turn off to Novi Sad there were numerous areas of roadworks mainly around the motorway exits and the motorway had obviously been realigned. Suffice to say Mrs GPS had not been advised of the new layout and she was counting down the distance to our turn off but alas it was some 800m before the point she thought it would be so we sailed on past it. The next off ramp was 15kms down the highway so off we went (rather pissed off I add) for that distance and then we got back on the other side and headed 15kms back again only to find that the off ramp on that site had been moved and Mrs GPS was unaware and we sailed passed that one as well but not to worry the next one was only 15kms back up the highway so off we went again (more pissed off than before it has to be said) but the killer was the fact that within that distance there was the only toll station we had encountered all day so we paid the toll 3 times, once when we first went towards Novi Sad, the second time as we doubled back and the third time when we turned around to go back again. So our 111km drive was increased by 60kms all because of road changes which the GPS was unaware of!
As we arrived finally in Novi Sad we were greeted by a rather sad looking town, the majority was not pleasant on the eye, the parts that were are in the following photos interspersed with some that aren't
This is within 25m of the main centre of the city
As was this horse and cart
The tourist map we picked up did not have street names on so we are unsure exactly what the buildings actually are!
Back at the hotel we cooled off from another scorching day by taking a dip in the hotel pool.
At dinner tonight we got speaking to the two waiters who were on duty and spoke with them for quite sometime about Serbia, the written language, as well as the 1990s conflict - it was a really interesting discussion and we learnt more than we could have hoped from these two youngish guys.
Tomorrow we head south west to Sarajevo which sees us crossing into Bosnia & Hercegovina - it is quite a long drive which may be made longer by delays at the border. We will see.
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