More Mostar

We have an outing by car to Kravice today. 

After an excellent breakfast at the hotel, we are collected by our guide Adriana.

Matej our driver looks 18. He is tall! 6’5” and was a professional cyclist but he has a back problem now. Very young to have finished his career …

We can see the bike path (the Ćiro Trail) that we will be taking tomorrow on the other side of the river - thank goodness; I wouldn’t want to be on the road with the traffic!

Very good road (for cars) with several runnels; then we turn off onto a narrower one to the Kravica Waterfall on the Trebižat River. The falls cascade over a limestone landscape and are very beautiful.

We drive next to the shrine at Meðugorje. It’s been an unofficial place of Catholic pilgrimage since the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared on Apparition Hill in 1981. The main street is lined with shops with the usual religious paraphernalia.

Last stop is the lookout on the Hum Hill (at 436m) overlooking Mostar with a huge 33 m-high cross which you can see from wherever you are in Mostar. This Millennium Cross was erected as a symbol of the jubilee of two thousand years of Christianity. The hill has been of strategic military importance but it is also a symbol of the division that exists as the Muslims see it as a symbol of hatred and intolerance and the Catholic Croats of course disagree saying it is a symbol of peace (but also authority!). The views over the city are quite scenic.

We go to the bike shop and spend a couple of hours with Toni fluffing about: picking bikes, setting up lights, putting on my pedals and bike bag (although mine, lugged over here in my suitcase, doesn’t fit so I have to borrow Toni’s!!), adjusting helmets, working the Garmin, checking bike locks, etc., etc. MF’s eyes popped when he saw the size of the panniers we’ve been supplied with - we’ll be travelling light (toothbrush, no toothpaste …).

We eventually set off on our chargers back to the hotel; the Garmin works!

Now to pack for 5 days on the road into the tiny panniers.  

We spend about an hour doing this then head off to find a place to eat. We are only marginally successful tonight; views (sort of) from a terrace by the river and the food is OK only - you can’t win them all!

We walk back via a number of detours along the river enjoying the last of the evening light and the relative peacefulness that the end of the day seems to bring to Mostar.

There is a small cemetery along the main street (Kujundžiluk St); I noticed a lot of the headstones had the date of death as 1993 (Mostar Siege).

We stop for a red wine at the terrace near the river where we had pancakes yesterday just after we arrived. Lovely evening. It’s been overcast all day but reasonably warm.

Then back to our hotel for a cuppa tea and some yummy baklava we bought on the way home from a shop recommended yesterday by Adriana on our city walking tour.

Walked 8.45 kms.