Kiev, Ukraine - Museum of the Great Patriotic War

This sculpture forms part of the «The National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945» complex opened in 1981. There is an 18-gallery Museum, an eternal flame (that at the moment is not eternal at all, i.e. there is no flame...perhaps symbolic of the Russian gas to Ukraine and Europe issue?) and military vehicles and equipment. Towering over everything, and looking out over the Dnipro river, is the 62 meter tall Motherland Monument, 12-ton sword in hand. The same story is told here, similar to the urban myth doing the rounds in Skopje about the Alexander the Great, aka The Warrior on the Horse monument, that the pedestal supporting it is not sufficient to support the colossal weight. 

Standing over three meters high the «Heroes of the Front and the Rear» sculpture is for me the most sobering aspect of the complex. 

Three generations visting Novi Sad

It has been an early start indeed, but with coffee and more on the train toward Novi Sad, outside a coldish damp autumn landscape of endless maize fields, its been cosy to travel, even though we were given the oldest of all wagons available with Serbian Railways, and this means something!

The pedestrian zone of Novi Sad is packed with Coffee places - never seen as many elsewhere in Serbia, and this, too means something!

ET quickly got it out on how to ride this horse, and the one that invented it was genious! It really rides! Please also take note of ET new hair clips, we had to buy uppon arrival in Novi Sad!

The real treasure of Novi Sad for us this time was however the fort just accross the river, in Petrovaradin - amazing, not only our hotel Leopold! (Breakfast however comes highly desrecommended! but definitely recommended come the modernly furnished rooms on the second floor with a view over the Danube!)

Built only two hundred years ago, it took a huge toll in human life of constuction workers, but was at the times in terms of modern warfare outdated from the start. First and foremost it was a political sign of the Austria Hungarians they demonstrated never wanting to allow the Ottomans to retake Voivodina again.

Our first trial of food up on the fort was a failure, despite the views...

...but not so the second and third trial, both in "fish and vegetables"! ET ordered home made pasta two times in a row!

Always hard if not impossible not to love Voivodina, this time, too!

Three ladies circling Tsarska Bara

 After Tili instructed Nadia on how to pack things best, Nadia set off ahead, along great wide open Voivodinian landscapes, always following the dam surrounding the Tsarska Bara nature reserve, one out of two Serbian Ramsar sites! Terribly dry, at times the dam was cracked and full of wholes.

 The typical Voivodinian Church towers, often the only landmarks indicating settlements, perking out above a forest or endless maize fields!

 A fantastic group of birch trees - what a great sound their leaves in the wind provided us!

 Well, this poster we discovered at the end of our three hour round trip, and obviously our route, the yellow one, did not even fit on this poster! No wonder, we have not met any other brave cyclists or hikers along, but only a sign for a marathon route!

Having Gulash in the nearby Voivodina speciality restaurant The Mulino was better deserved by us than anybody else there. It made us proud to put our bikes in the entrance, and it was great to have you, Nadia, with us - any time welcome again!