Day 39 - Vukovar

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Today we head off for a tour of 2 cities in Croatia (and yes, I do have my Croatia t shirt on today). Firstly we visit Osijek, a little town about 20 minutes for our docking place at Vukovar. We get to see lots of interesting countryside and then a local farm visit to sample some locally made fruit brandy (Slivovic). The guy who runs the place was quite the comedian. Lots of stories about how to fish with a net, then he ran through a powerpoint of the local area with running commentary. Afterwards, we got to sample some of his local wines (red and white - very young indeed). Then we went to a local church where we had a private recital. One young lady on the piano and a singer. Beautiful piano work, and the singer did one Bach song then finished with Ave Maria. Very strong voice which worked really well with the acoustics of the church.

We visited a local fort (old town) and then went off to have lunch at a local's house. We were split into 2 groups of 12 and 13. Our family consisted of the Grandma, Mother and 2 daughters. Grandpa had died in the war and the father died 10 years ago (not in the war and not too sure of the reason). The eldest daughter spoke impeccable English and was the spokesperson for the visit. The mother greeted us with both forearms in plaster. Turns out she fell off the ladder out the back of the house. The meal was a real home cooked speciality. We started with a soup of chicken broth with rice and vegies, then into the main. Meatloaf made then separated into patties and cooked on the grill. Peas, cabbage, mashed potato and white beans in a gravy. Very nice and a real change to the ship meals. All finished off with a cherry strudel and another cake made of walnuts and cream in layers. All this with a big plastic bottle of beer, wine spritzer (white wine and aerated mineral water), still water and a cordial of Elder berries and water.

During the lunch we ask and are told lots of information about the family, how they coped during the war between Croatia and Serbia and the damage that was done to the village. A very entertaining and interesting visit. We then walked out the back through their garden (nearly all of the food - except the meat - came from their garden). The bus seemed to arrive too early as we were just finding out more about the area. Fond farewells and off again. Finally arrive back at the ship around 1500'ish.

Sitting in the lounge watching the river when we notice that there is a beach on the other side of the river to us. Then we notice a fleet of 5 tinnies taking people across the river to this beach. The queues on our side are huge, and the crowd on the other side seems even bigger. Eventually this side seems to have stopped, but obviously later they have to come back across. we decide to just stay put, it is bloody hot again so the air conditioned lounge is very nice.

A quick shower and then ready for dinner. They have a local band come on board to entertain us. As I am standing watching I notice the queues of people on the other side of the river waiting for their tinnie to take them back across the river. a constant flow of boats and people. Get our table for dinner and one of the waiters tells us he had been swimming over the other side as well. They took the ships zodiac across with about 6 crew (and a few beers as well) for a swim - even the skipper went as well. Our waiter tells us he swam back across the river. He is a big boy and I am not surprised that he would do that.

Dinner done, and we go up to the sky deck again for a pre bed drink. we end up with a small group again and have a nice chat before going to bed.

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