Croatia

We have arrived in Croatia.  Prior to arrival we had to hand our passports in at the ships reception and then the boat was boarded by passport officials and we had to do a face to face passport control.

The ship docked in Vukovar and we had to go by coach to Osijek.   Osijek is a pretty town well known for its Baroque architecture and impressive monuments.  We went into the church and listened to an organ concert.

We returned to the ship for lunch and then after lunch we were able to just stroll ashore into the town of Vukovar where we were docked and we walked around the town and stopped at a café and enjoyed a nice coffee watching the world go by.

Near the ship is the famous water tower where a local man, during the Serbian Croatian war put the Croatian flag atop the water tower and the Serbs would blow it to pieces.  The next day the elderly man would put a flag atop the water tower and the Serbs would blow it pieces.  This happened every day for two weeks.  at the end of those two weeks the Serbs shot the elderly man.  A very sad story.  There are many sad stories.  There is a memorial in the park next to the ship symbolising all the lost houses.

 

In the evening after dinner we had a band of Croatian musicians come aboard and play their instruments for us.  It was very enjoyable and lively music and singing most Croatian songs but then they sang some tunes that we all knew and sang along with them.