Vukovar in Croatia- a bombed city

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Vukovar was severely bombed during the war between Croatia and Serbia in the 90's. The whole place was evacuated and people had to leave their houses and go with very few possessions. We saw a mural on the side of a house depicting how they only had a rucksack with everything they could carry. Some of the buildings are still peppered with shrapnel. After the war the whole town was rebuilt. A basic house of bricks was built and basic furniture given. After that it was up to the people to make it nice. There are still a few "government houses" as they are called which are still the basic brick and haven't been finished off. We went to a primary school where the pupils put on a lovely show of singing and puppets and then we went all around their classrooms to see what they were learning. Some of their English was very good. Next we visited the Osijek Fortress , a beautifully preserved area around the town which has a square with a monument to the end of the plague as we had seen in Budapest. We visited the Franciscan church of St.Anthony's outside of which there is a Christ sculpture made entirely of munitions- grenades, shrapnel bullet holders etc. and also a Holocaust memorial sculpture of a Menorah of only 6 to represent the 6 million Jews killed. We ended the morning by having lunch with a local family in their home which was really lovely. Our table was all Brits and Ozzies so we had a great time with the locals.

Incidental fact back at the ship we came second in the quiz before dinner and were useless at the music and entertainment quiz later in the evening.

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