Europe Part 1 - England, Bosnia, Serbia - July 2025

Another trip to Europe in 2025.  Mostly to places I/we have visited before but, as usual, there were a few new places along the way worthy of note.  We flew from Orlando, Florida to Manchester on July 4, a quiet day to travel from the USA.  

We went first to the flat in Derbyshire and there was nothing much to report for the first few days - finally we got a new bridge over the River Wye next to the mill in Cressbrook that made getting up to the Monsal Trail easier.  Everything looked lovely in the Cressbrook area despite it being a heat wave and drought.

On Tuesday 8 July, we took the train into Manchester from Grindleford.  It’s the way to get into Manchester.  There are trains from Sheffield every half hour that pass through Grindleford and there is reasonable parking at the station.  It is a beautiful scenic journey into Manchester through the Peak District.

In Manchester we did many of the usual things I have written about before - the Alan Turing statue, the Engels statue, the Gandhi statue, the Manchester Art Museum with it’s Lowry’s and Valette’s and the Cathedral.

Victory over Blindness, Piccadilly

There were a couple of new things - one was the statue "Victory over Blindness" that stands outside Piccadilly Railway Station. This bronze statue shows 6 blind World War I soldiers being led by a soldier on crutches. It was put in place to mark the 100 year anniversary of the War.

Peveril of the Peak, Manchester

Another new thing was the wonderful old pub, the Peveril of the Peak. This pub with its yellow tiled walls is surrounded by much more modern buildings. Apparently the interior is quite good too but we didn't go in.

St Mary's Catholic Church, Deansgate

St Mary's Catholic Church, Deansgate

St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church is a gem of a church hidden away off the main street. Unassuming from the outside, but the interior is quite magnificent.

Queen Victoria in Piccadilly Gardens

We were both amazed at the multicultural nature of this city which in my day would have been quite white.  Today the Queen Victoria statue in Piccadilly Gardens was thronged with people of every nation under the sun - only rarely was there a white face.  It is a wonderful city.

Renishaw Hall

On the 10th, we paid a visit to the gardens at Renishaw Hall near Staveley.  I hadn’t realized the gardens were so extensive.  There was a whole new area I hadn’t seen down by the lakes.  The Sitwells’s lived a good life there.

The Quad and Hall, Netherthorpe Grammar School

On the same visit to Staveley, I went to an Open House at my old school, Staveley Netherthorpe Grammar School.  It is a much bigger school now, twice the size of what it was in my day.  The new buildings were not very inspiring but the old library from the 16th Century is still being used.  You are also very restricted as to what you can do in a school these days - check in and be given a badge at the entry, escorted around, no pictures as there might be children present (even when there weren’t any), escort off the premises and sign out.

Buxton Well Dressing

The next day we went into Buxton and found that it was the Buxton Well Dressing week.  I had always known of well dressings but I hadn’t ever seen one.  The one in Buxton was quite remarkable - an image of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring made from leaves and petals and bark pressed into a clay panel.  Quite beautiful.

Hathersage Well Dressing

Being quite taken with Buxton’s well dressing we drove over to Hathersage to see theirs.  It was equally beautiful.

On the Saturday, 12 July, we flew from Luton to Sarajevo.  It was a late evening flight and we didn’t arrive until 10:00 pm.  We drove to Zenica to Diana’s sister’s apartment.

Zenica

Zenica was quite lovely in it’s summer attire.  Lots of flowers and the weather was very nice.  Again I was amazed at the wonderful coffee shop culture they have there - there must be dozens and dozens of coffee shops and usually they are all busy.  Shame about the smoking that a lot of people still partake of.  You get used to it.

On the Tuesday we drove to Belgrade as Diana had some business there.  We drove north from Zenica into Croatia and across the border to Serbia and the motorway into Belgrade.  Belgrade was busy and active and again the coffee shops and restaurants and bars were many.

We dined with Diana’s friends Zejka, Lalo and Beba in a waterside restaurant along the Sava.  A meat focused restaurant - it would be difficult to be a vegetarian in Belgrade.

Hockney exhibit in Belgrade

The next day we took a cab into town to visit a new development that everyone is upset about - they have eradicated an old neighborhood and built big new tower blocks - Dubai on the Danube.  We then went to the Museum of Contemporary Art where there was an exhibit of David Hockney’s work - he’s one of my favorites.  The exhibit of work by the local Joksimovic was pretty good too. 

Novak the warrior with a tennis racket

After that we walked around the city and had lunch at Novak Djokovic’s restaurant.  The restaurant is a bit of a shrine to the man, it has a large statue as Novak as a warrior with a tennis racket and it is full of Wimbledon and other cups he has won.  In the evening we again dined with Zejka, Lalo and Beba in the old part of Belgrade - another meal consisting entirely of meat. 

Kosovo is Serbia?

The next morning we drove back to Zenica.  As we left Belgrade there was a large sign by the motorway saying “Remember Kosovo is Serbia”.   At the border between the non-EU Serbia and the EU Croatia the line of trucks waiting for entry into the EU was over 4 km long.  

Welcome to Republica Srpska

As we drive into Bosnia there is another sign saying “Welcome to the Republika Srpska”.  More signs of the troubles that are just below the surface of this country.

At the weekend we drove to Sarajevo and visited other friends - Masud and Bilijana (Diana’s family friends) and Benjamin, Mira and Havusa friends we had met in the USA.  Then a late evening flight to London courtesy of WizzAir.  I had a fun time diving through a litter bin to find a parking lot entry ticket that we had thrown away when we returned our car.