Day 27: Ilok and Vukovar Croatia – Monday 6th July

In the morning we had an excursion to Ilok which is a rural village up on a fortress.

Looking up at the cathedral and fortress from where we boarded the buses.

Following a short stroll around the fortress we went to a local vineyard, Hungary’s 3rd largest, for wine tasting. As they say, it’s always wine o’clock somewhere.

The footpaths are brick and the individual brick Akers have their initials on the bricks.

Inside the gothic church of St John of Capistrano

Looking back towards the boat from the fortress

The church at Ilok was nice. A Catholic Church this time.

There are avenues of Lynden trees everywhere in the Balkans

Part of the 15th century wind of the winery

Part of the special reserve collection that was protected from Serbian destruction by the efforts of a winery gardener who walled up the cellar. It includes wines served and Queen Elizabeth 2 coronation in 1953 and served at every major royal celebration since then.

The wines were all excellent as were the donut things and cheese that accompanied the wine. 2 white wines from the Traminer grape variety and a red Cabernet Sauvignon.

Mike and Roman, who is one of our group of 6 travel companions. The tasting hall closely resembled the dining hall at Hogworts!

We then bused back to the boat and sailed upstream to the city of Vukovar. We arrived 45 minutes late as the boat is having to sail very slowly as the Danube’s water level is so low. The gangway exits and entrances to the boat are getting increasingly steep and very challenging for many passengers.

Vukovar was the first Croatian city to be attacked by Serbia in 1990. The young guide was excellent and he filled in a lot of blanks that were omitted during our Serbian excursions. He explained that Yugoslavia was held together by a degree of skill exercised by President Tito and things started to fall apart after his death. Evidently the Yugoslav constitution allowed for any of the 5 constituent countries to hold a referendum and leave the union at any time. Croatia and Slovenia were the wealthiest countries but the seat of power was in Serbia. Both Croatia and Slovenia voted to leave and for 100 days enjoyed the freedom of liberation, then the national army’s tanks, supported by Russia, rolled into Vukovar. Milosevich announced they would take Vukovar in 3 days but it actually took 3 months and that gave Croatia time to get weapons and support and largely protect the rest of the country. Initially they had no weapons as the army was based in Belgrade. Many of the inhabitants of Vukovar were evacuated but there were 1800 of the local police and citizens (the men had all done national service) which defended the city. 900 were killed and in the end, those remaining were the patients in the hospital and their medical workers, who were all rounded up and killed and dumped in a mass grave. It was not a pretty story and all the more bleak because of its recency.

Not sure if this was bombed or just derelict

Most of Vukovar has been rebuilt with EU and international money but many of the population did not return so there is plenty of evidence of economic decline. The museum was excellent and the city is evidently renowned for street art and cultural events.