Tuesday Vukovar

Miro's museum - pretty impressive.

The church - before.

..is with Ivo, Miro, Jelena, touring Vukovar, Ilok and Nijemci in Croatia, all in the former greater Serbia during the war. Nijemci is Miro's presbytery and church, all rebuilt. He has a youth centre, complete with it's own museum. The bike is staying here. Hope they get some use out of it. It's a pretty town, with a nice park at the centre with the church in it. Landmines are still in the nearby forest. The local bridge looked like a beautiful period piece, but sadly got blown up. We pass a Serb village, untouched by both sides, as they stayed neutral.

Louis braves Ivo, with Anna Maria.

Vukovar has a quaint old town at it's centre, totally rebuilt. Some buildings still have damage. One is mostly just a series of columns with the reinforcing sitting out the top half like flowers in a vase. The columns are solid, so must have taken a lot of explosive damage. One corner of the building is there with the good old staircase exposed to the sky, and a few large holes in the walls. Many of the Serb residents of Vukovar stayed to defend their city and suffered with the rest.

Vukovar after being fully rebuilt, is pretty nice.

In the big vineyard at Ilok.

Ilok is Germanic looking, with a large castle. The vineyard has high walls on the street. It was taken during the war, as the residents agreed to leave.