We had a day of absolutely beautiful weather today - bright and sunny, but not too hot - so it was a perfect day to go out and explore Belgrade.
We had a later start in deference to the time differences (7 hours ahead of Kansas, 8 hours ahead of Colorado, and 9 hours ahead of Oregon) and the long travel days on Friday and Saturday. We had two wonderful student guides from the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade who gave us an interesting tour round the Belgrade Fortress, which sits high on the hill above the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, in Kalemegdan Park, as well as taking us to various parts of the University and some other sites close by.. The park is fascinating as there are outside art exhibits and there was a whole section of handicrafts from Morocco set up in tents along the ridge above the river, and the park is full of families enjoying time together, so it was a very pleasant atmosphere.
We also visited the only surviving mosque in Belgrade - from the 16th century - and a relic of Serbia's 400 years of occupation by the Ottoman Turks, as well as visiting the site of the old National Library that was destroyed in the bombing of the Second World War. We'll be visiting the new National Library on Tuesday.
Our tour lasted about four hours and we then split up to various pursuits - lunch, shopping, or napping!
Our official visits start tomorrow morning and we have two libraries on the itinerary in the morning and a trip to the American Embassy in the afternoon.
Everyone is doing well and looking forward to seeing the libraries.