Belgrade; Wednesday, 30 July, 2014

Breakfast consumed and off out into town. First stop of the morning was across the road from the Serbian Parliament for one of the two open-top sightseeing tours that occasionally run around the city. Unlike other tours they are very infrequent and just do a circuit – no getting on and off – but it did mean getting to see a lot more of the city than I would have done otherwise.

Having completed the tour I walked back to the site of the St Sava Cathedral, the world’s largest Orthodox church, which like it’s counterpart in Barcelona the Sagrada Família is still being built nearly 100 years after the initial plans were put in place (though it did have a full 45 year hiatus in building between the outbreak of WWII and works starting again in 1985). Inside it is a stunning space that is impressive even without all the rich decoration that’s due to go in it.

I walked back towards the centre of the city, detouring to take in the long since completed (and now being refurbished) St Michaels church before wandering over to Republic square to have a look around and then a late lunch.

After lunch I wandered back over to the fortress area to have a longer look around in daylight, first taking advantage of one of the electric land trains for a ride around much of the park and fortress area.

Inside the fortress I stopped off at the Military museum before having a wander around the ramparts and a stop for a late afternoon coffee in a café on the walls.

Back over to the Serbian Parliament to pick up the other open-top sightseeing tour which was set to head off at 6pm. The first part of the route was much the same as the morning tour, but once it crossed the Sava River it went for a much longer tour around Novi Beograd.

Returning to the parliament building I wandered back down the main pedestrian street and stopped off for dinner before heading back to the hotel just as the first drops of what turned out to be a massive overnight storm were starting to fall.