20240811 Viking European Sojourn River Cruise Day 10/27 - Belgrade, Serbia - Touring and Tesla

Viking European Sojourn River Cruise Day 10/27 - Belgrade, Serbia

This morning, we left the Danube for a day-long stop on the Sava River while docked in Belgrade, Serbia. Our day was split with two excursions taking up our day. This morning was Panoramic Belgrade - a combination bus and walking tour through the city. This afternoon featured a stop at the Nikola Tesla Museum.

A statue in the port area

On our drive

University of Arts

A cool manhole cover

We walked through the park to Kalemagden Fortress

Monument of Gratitude to France

They added dinosaurs to help encourage locals to visit the fortress

Entering the Fortress

The Serbian coat of arms

Impressive doors

The main entry gate past the bridge over the moat

The moat has been repurposed as an overflow area for the military museum.

An Ottoman-designed mausoleum

This area provided excellent views of the Sava River and the newer areas of Belgrade.

This sculpture was placed here as it was controversial when built as the man was naked - at the time, this location was away from the population center - no more

The exit gate

We walked to a local shopping center and were given some free time to wander.

We were hot and thirsty so we made a familiar stop for a cold Coke Zero

We boarded the bus and headed for our next stop, taking in the sights along the way.

Prince Mihailo Monument

Hotel Moskva - Moscow Hotel

The Old Palace sports stars like Olympic medal winners will come here for celebrations

House of the National Assembly 

Our next stop was The Temple of Saint Sava

The church is still under construction and is being built only with donations

A smaller cathedral is next door - also dedicated to Saint Sava

More impressive doors

The artwork on the walls and ceiling was gorgeous

We saw a Tesla sculpture - foreshadowing this afternoon's upcoming events

A view of that controversial statue at the fortress as seen from the port

We came back to the boat for lunch. We enjoyed conversation with a couple who had previously lived in The Villages, where we live. It turns out that they used to live very near where we live and we have a whole bunch of mutual friends. It is a small world, indeed.

Ted and Nanci Dodd, Garry and Arlona

We headed back out for our afternoon excursion, a Viking "privileged access" tour to the Nikola Tesla Museum. This meant that we had exclusive, private access to the museum for our small group.

The spire of the Cathedral Church of Saint Michael is visible from the port

Monument to Stefan Nemanja

Belgrade Old Railway Station is in the background

This is a fountain designed by Tesla and was purchased by Tiffany

The Tesla Museum

A Tesla-designed aircraft for vertical takeoff and landing

Note the wheels on the top of the wing - it was designed to tip back for takeoff and landing

We learned about Tesla's inventions and desire to provide free access to electricity to the entire world.

Tesla has nine of the 13 patents used for power generation at Niagara Falls - a few of his staggering 312 total patents

A museum guide did several demonstrations of Tesla's inventions

The famous Tesla Coil

You can see the coil firing and the released energy lighting the fluorescent tubes held by our group

Garry, getting a small poke from a high-voltage, low-amperage coil

Tesls was 6'4" and only 145lbs - skinny - he hated touching anything and always wore gloves as shown in this typical outfit

His only officially sanctioned portrait

Tesla was fixated on the number three. He did things in threes. He never owned a home and lived in a series of New York hotels over much of his later life. He died in the New Yorker Hotel, Room 3327 (divisible by 3).

His nephew had Tesla cremated - his ashes are preserved in this sphere in the museum

On our walk to the bus, we passed several buildings that let us see some of the former beauty of the city before the socialist bland-ification - this one needed some love

The Building of the Technical Faculty - the technical university building

A statue of Nikola Tesla is outside the building

We passed by St. Mark Orthodox Church on the way back to the boat

All of our exits and entries from the boat today took us through a German longboat that was docked first in Belgrade. This afternoon, they departed before we did. This required a technical departure on our part so they could depart, and then we docked back on the dock.

We listened to a talk about Serbia and its history before heading to dinner. We ate dinner with Brits and Kiwis and had a lovely time. We went back to the lounge after dinner for a cultural performance from a group of local dancers and musicians. Multiple male and female dancers did a variety of folk dances while musicians provided accompanying music.

I generally don't care for these types of performances. This one was an exception as it was energetic, entertaining, and athletic. It was fun and we're glad we attended. While we watched, on the starboard side, someone launched a terrific fireworks show. I didn't get any photos as I was too busy watching the dancers.

It was a good day today in Serbia. Tomorrow, we revisit Croatia. This is a new location for us and we're looking forward to another good day.

Before I sign off, let me repeat a comment made by our tour guide this afternoon.

Travel is the only thing you spend money on and you get richer.