Day 5/6 - Serbia and Croatia

Another hot couple of days, but it seems like the heat will break tomorrow.  Greatest news today is that, after 5 full days with only a few pieces of clothing tucked into his carry-on, Chris finally is in possession of his luggage.  His experience with Air France was horrible, finally telling him that they would only get it to Belgrade but that he had to come to the airport and retrieve his luggage himself. But Stephan, our Cruise Manager and Ama Waterways angel helped him as much as possible, giving him an escort to the airport.   

The greatest cultural difference that I have found throughout this journey is that we, as a North America generation, have no direct or even family connection to war.  And as such we are so different from the countries that we have visited.  We hear political and historical commentary from the crew and tour guides about their neighbouring country people.  They are all very passionate about the history of various rulers, be they Ottomans, Austrians, Germans, Socialists, Communists, their neighbours and even the current, very complicated governments, like Bulgaria that has both a president and a prime minister and elections every year or two.

For the last couple days, we have continued to enjoy city tours, fortresses and wine/brandy tasting.  Shockingly Dad participated in the wine tasting tour in Croatia and even enjoyed it enough to buy some wine.  We suspect that he is buying it for his guests (Debbie, Theresa and myself) but still, it's surprising since he hasn’t had a drink in over 45 years.

We enjoyed a great thunderstorm as soon as we returned from our excursions yesterday which brought with it a wonderful relief from the intense heat.  For dinner, we were treated to a meal in the special Chef’s Dining Room.  The food was even better that we have experienced so far and that's saying something.  Ama Waterways has had the best food and the best service that I, in my limited experience, have ever enjoyed on vacation.