Belgrade to Sirogojno

We left Belgrade after breakfast and headed south into the mountains.  The scenery is beautiful and reminded us somewhat of the Black Hills.  We drove a short distance into Visegrad, Bosnia to see a stone arch bridge that has been placed on the list of UNESCO world heritage sites.  Crossing borders here takes awhile.  First everything had to be checked out on the Serbian side of the border, then we drove a few meters down the road to the Bosnian side so they could check us out.  We did this twice because our afternoon continued back in Serbia. 

We took a 15 kilometer ride on a narrow gauge steam engine, the “Saranska Oamica.”  This train used to run from Belgrade through Sarajevo to Dubrovnik, but now runs just along a 15 km stretch through tunnels and viaducts, just for tourists.  We spent quite a bit of time in the tunnels, but when we weren’t in the dark the scenery was spectacular.

Tonight we’re staying at the ethno village of Sirogojno.  It’s quite rustic.  We have a cabin to ourselves and it is extremely quiet here in the mountains.  We’ve been told that this is one of the last refuges for bears, but so far we haven’t seen any.

We passed this 14th century Turkish fortress.

There are many monasteries hidden in the hills.  This one was built in the 13th century and was hidden from the Turks (they found it of course and burned it)

This bridge was built in 1571 as part of a road connecting Bosnia with Constantinople.  The Grand Vizer who built it was a conscript from this village who had risen in the Turkish army.  It is a UNESCO monument.

The bridge is by the sleepy village of Sokolovick.

Sandy really got into the train ride!  (Originally this train connected Belgrade with Sarajevo, weaving through the mountains and going through numerous tunnels.  With the advent of a road connecting them most of the railroad was closed with only a short line left for tourists.)

The scenery from the train was lovely.

We spent the night in this "modernized" version of an 18th century peasant's cottage.  (The cottage is in a open air museum.)