The Ham Nomads

25 Apr 2015. <RS> Karlovachka, & Irig, & Ruma, Vojvodina —

Anzac Day — and we'll be in Turkey in a week or so.

Today we finally left our little nest at Fruška Gora. We did a little shopping first, at a local market — an experience in its own right — and then set off for Belgrade (Београд).

We were going to try to find a monastery on our path southwards, but got past its supposed location without finding any directional signs — so we reset out destination for Manastir Krušadol (Манастир Крушедол). Good choice — not only did it put us on a road across to Irig (Ürög, Ириг), and put us onto the road southwards through Ruma (Рума), setting us up for the final drive into Belgrade.

Manastir Krušadol is an experience. It was set up about 500 years ago, and is still alive and kicking. While we were there, at least five busloads of schoolchildren called through to learn about the place. We wandered in to find a well-kept monastery — even to the subtly secreted lines of clothes pegs in the cloister. We went into the central church, where one of the monks was describing the history of the place to a group of tourists and schoolchildren. Unfortunately for us, it was entirely in Serbian. The monk himself was obviously no stranger to liturgical chanting, as the entire recitation, as recitation it was, had the pitch and timing of a long chant.

We were fascinated by the amount of work required to keep the whole place to rights — there were teams out in the grounds mowing the grass — and this on the steep banked slopes.

After our time at Manastir Krušadol, we continued westward on the same road until we reached Irig. This is the centre of a large winemaking district, so we dropped in on a winery — Mačkov Podrum (Tomcat's Wine Cellar) — to see what they had to offer. We could have gone through a tasting, but Warren decided that a Merlot would be just the thing. Their selection included Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Camerlot (60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon), Portugizer (a port), Traminac, Akacia (100% Sauvignon Blanc), and Incognito (a good name for a Rhine Riesling). Liked their trademark — a stylized cat! — We've noticed a lot of stray cats here in Serbia.

Then we drove down to Ruma. We'd driven through here a couple of days ago, but today we stopped and had a walk around, and paused for a cup of coffee al fresco on the main town square.

From here, we drove south until we joined the E70 that runs all the way between Zagreb and Belgrade, and turned eastward towards Belgrade.

At the toll gates ...
Think he might be a little ambitious
with his spare tyre!

We decided to spend the night parked beside a stand of maple trees in a picnic stop on the E70, just to the west of Belgrade, so we would have a short drive in on the morrow. While we were parked off, we checked out possible parking spots in Belgrade, and decided that one just near the zoo, just below the Citadel, and within an easy walk of the main pedestrian precinct, would be worth checking out when we got there. And tomorrow is Sunday, so parking should be a little more relaxed!

Distance driven — today, 53 miles ( 85 km ); to date, 18,782 miles ( 30,227 km )