Bosnia

Well, we really didn't expect to visit Bosnia on this trip, but we were captivated by the Croatian coast and wanted to see what the fairly barren mountains were like a little further inland. The Lonely Planet book also recommended the Mostar to Sarajevo road as a scenic journey, so off we went. Well, it certainly was quite an experience. Mostar itself was an education for us and the kids - still has war torn buildings with bullet holes all over the sides of the ordinary apartment buildings. We met a person in the car park who told us all about his experience as a 17 year old schoolboy in the war and showed us the shrapnel wounds he got walking home from school with his friend.

We visited the Stari Most - a pedestrian bridge to the old town that had been destroyed in the war and rebuilt.

And the highlight was again the cafes - first a burek cafe - delicious meat, cheese and potato pastries, then later a cafe with great turkish coffee, turkish delight, baklava, halva, some sort of quince thing - we overindulged a bit!

The road from Mostar to Sarajevo was very pretty - through a lovely gorge with a gorgeous river and a backdrop of snow capped mountains. Again finding somewhere to stay a challenge, but managed a roadside stop again.

Sarajevo itself was initially a nightmare drive through some narrow backstreets trying to find parking - you might see a few extra grey hairs on Rob's head when we get back from trying to get a large campervan through tiny streets and scary traffic!

We did enjoy the stroll through the Sarajevo streets and market - the photo shows all the turkish influence with the copper coffee pots and so on. Didn't realise how hard the drive out would be - it doesn't seem far from Sarajevo to Serbia, but the roads are windy and mountainous with snow everywhere. Didn't expect to see so much snow on this leg!! Beautiful though.

Saw more police in Bosnia than we have seen anywhere and even got stopped - apparently a headlight was a bit dim. Language barrier made it a bit nerve-wracking though, but when he recognised the police uniform on Rob's passport he shook his hand and said Colleague and waved us on our way with an invitation to visit again sometime! Took us forever to get out of those windy roads and we have never been so pleased about seeing a motorway as when we crossed the Serbian border and got to a decent road again! The roadside stop even seemed like a glorious campsite after where we had been camping!