8 July - Kostolac, Serbia

We left Belgrade during breakfast and had a view of the fortress as we cruised away. Hans, our Cruise Manager, gave us a lecture on the European Union which was very interesting. The next two countries we visit, Bulgaria and Romania only joined last year.

At lunch time we docked at Kostolac, still in Serbia and after lunch we had a presentation by a team from the Viminacium Archaeological site before we boarded the buses to see the site. Terry stayed behind as his knee was sore and he wasn't interested in ancient Roman ruins anyway. Our bus drove through the village of Kostolac on the way to the site. The area is dominated by a large power plant which is the main employer for the area. The plant was built in the 1970s with no regard for the heritage value of the area, so much of the main burial areas were simply bulldozed. The rest of the excavated site is very close by and now the government has a more enlightened attitude to its ancient heritage. We saw three excavated sites – Roman baths, part of the army camp, and the burial grounds. Viminacium was larger than Pompeii and was built in the first century and destroyed by the Huns in the fifth century. Unlike other Roman cities, it was never built over and remained largely intact but was subject to pilfering. Many of the bricks were also used for other buildings down the centuries.

As we drove through the village, I saw photographs of people with birth date and death date below the photo and they were posted on the fences outside the houses. Our guide told us that it was a Serbian tradition that when someone dies, this “notice” is put up outside the house for a year.

We returned to the boat and enjoyed dinner with Ari and Lee, the American/Israeli couple and Deeanne and Arnold from South Africa. We had some interesting conversation. Towards the end of our meal a group, Belgrade Old Town Music, played for us and they were great. So another wonderful day of history and culture.