Mostar, Bosnia - 234 Km

Last night in Sarajevo we had dinner in the hotel’s Middle Eastern restaurant.  Norma decided to try the hookah pipe!

Do you believe us??? After dinner we went for another walk in the market. There are very few buskers so we were surprised to see this little fellow. He was intent on fixing his accordion therefore had no music to entertain us.

We left Sarajevo under clear skies at 0830 this morning. Matej, our guide, joked that maybe we should all ride through the market to join the road! He is still amazed that we made it to the hotel using the route we did. It was a bit cool to start but before we knew it the temperature was up to 20 degrees so - a very nice riding temperature.

Doug got a workout today with all the curves, uneven pavement, inclines and declines and need to share the very narrow road with passing buses and trucks. We had to watch for tractors, free range cattle, sheep and goats. There even was the odd land mine warning sign! Nevertheless, it was a fun ride along the Zellezinca River and through numerous tunnels, many of which were not lit and dripping water from the ceiling. One was over 1900 meters long but luckily it was lit and had exhaust fans placed every so many meters. It was 12.5C in the tunnel.

Our coffee stop was beside the river in a lovely outdoor café in Srbinje (Foca). Onward we went into the Sutjeska National Park with a stop at the WWII monument to Tito and his partisan army. It was a long walk up many, many stairs but well worth it when we finally got there.

WWII Monument

Three of our group opted out – chickens! We are the oldest in the group and we did it! So much history and stories of war.

Our lunch stop was at Blagaj, a wonderful little Osoyoos-like community on the Buna river source. The tour had a special table booked on a platform above the falls and the Rekija monastery. The restaurant is famous for trout but we had tried it a few days ago and weren’t impressed so made other choices. During our drive to the restaurant we passed through a huge agricultural area where they were growing cherries and figs. Tomaz (pronounced Toe mosh) the new guide that joined us today, bought cherries for us to try. They were very good.

Rekija Monastery

After that it was a short ride to Mostar. We are in a very new hotel, just built a year ago. It sits on a hill overlooking the city. This meant we walked down a long very steep hill to the old town. We were able to see the old bridge “Stari Most” with the towers on both sides. As a tourist attraction guys will jump the 27 meters from the top of the bridge into the river below. One of our fellow bikers, John paid the guy 30 euros to jump for us. The streets leading to and from the bridge are

Stari Most

slippery stones so the walking was a bit dodgy.

Bridge Jumper

Dinner tonight was another traditional Bosnia fare “muckalica”, which is a delicious tomato veal stew. We decided we would try all the various traditional items and so this was our choice. After dinner we made the very steep uphill climb back to the hotel.

Us cat lovers are seeing so many stray cats. It is pretty sad seeing them skulking around looking for food.