On the Way Back to Belgrade Through Bosnia
After our three weeks on the Croatian coast, it is better to drive back to Belgrade for a few hours each day. We stopped for two nights, one in Mostar to see the Mostar bridge and the next night in Višegrad to see the bridge on the Drina River.
Mostar
When driving into Mostar, we made a wrong turn and saw a portion of the old town we might have missed as we only had an afternoon and sometime the following day. The old part of town is charming, and the city seems well worth visiting for a couple of days, but we came to see the bridge.
The bridge, first built in the 16th century, was severely damaged after the Cration-Bosnian war and was rebuilt in 1993 to the exact specifications of the original and completed on July 23, 2004. The royal family of England became involved in financing some of the reconstruction work, and then Prince Charles was there from the opening. A famous picture of the Prince was taken with the bridge in the background in a spot right where we sat for dinner.
Our hotel was right next door, and while the room was perfect, the noise made for a hard night’s sleep. Somewhere around 10:00 PM, the techno music from a club next door began with the same beat played over and over so loud the room almost shook. The loudness of the beat continued until around 1:00 AM, when the club turned the volume down, but it did not end until 3:00 AM.
Višegrad
The next day, we traveled to Višegrad, where the famous bridge is the setting for the novel by Ivo Andrić Bridge on the Drina. We stayed at the hotel where he wrote the novel. The room still had the old phone, his typewriter, and pictures of him on the wall. The whole hotel has photos of the bridge over the years. We ate in the dining room on the balcony, looking at the bridge for dinner and breakfast; it was very relaxing.
All said these were excellent waypoints in our trip back home.