New Belgrade

 Today we crossed the river over to the newer area of Belgrade. It is mostly office buildings and residential tower blocks.

The absolute showstopper building that was built for both uses is the Genex Tower.

It can be seen across the whole city and was built in the brutalist style in 1977. We saw it from miles away on our first day and I was keen to see it close up.

It is 36 stories high and was built to resemble a high rise gate to welcome people arriving in the city from the west.

The right hand side was an office building for workers at the state owned Genex company, the left hand side was apartments for the workers and their families. There was a top storey walkway between the two buildings with a revolving building that unfortunately never actually resolved.

It looks magnificent from a distance, but closer up it is in a very sad state. The whole of the office side is derelict and is covered with a massive Serbian flag.

The apartments are still occupied, but it's not a nice place at all to live. Quite shocking really.

Belgrade, Serbia

Our minibus turned up and we arrived in Belgrade just before 10pm, so just checked into our very nice hotel and went to bed.

Next day we were off on an epic hike around the city.

The weather was beautiful, but I have to say that most of the city is full of tall communist era looking buildings that aren't very photogenic.

I do realise that this photo doesn't show the buildings, but we didn't take any photos of them, and the trams look pretty.

Our first stop was the fortress and that was very impressive.

As we arrived there was a background noise of cannons being fired, and throughout the morning jets and helicopters flew in formation overhead. 

I found out that these are rehearsals, and on Saturday there is going to be a huge military parade for Serbian Unity Day, although apparently not all Serbians are happy about it.

Then we went to the Temple of Saint Sava.

This is the world's largest Orthodox Church by volume and is called the Golden Church for obvious reasons.

Finally we walked along the waterfront where they are building a huge new luxury area that looks a little like Dubai or Kings Cross.

It is a lovely area and completely different from the rest of the city and looks incredibly expensive, so I imagine that very few local people will be relocating to it.

Weekend in Timisoara

 We have just had a great weekend with Darren's cousin Melissa and her husband Steve in Timisoara, Romania.

We have spent most of our time in the pedestrianised city centre which is full of lovely buildings, and lots of bars and restaurants. Final stop on the first night was the Jack Daniels whiskey bar.

On Sunday we caught a boat up and down the river, stopping for ten minutes to look at one of the many local churches.

For our final night we had a great sausage based meal at a restaurant that was right next door to Timisoara's claim to fame - it was the first city in the world to have electric street lights.

Then a last night in the town where we had to shelter from the most incredible thunderstorm.

Up early this morning for a run through the local forest, and at 6pm tonight we are catching a bus across the border into Serbia and our hotel in Belgrade.

'In conversation' at Kew Gardens

 Just had an excellent couple of days, starting with a train ride to London Paddington then a Brompton across London.

We took a picnic and were very comfortable at our stop in Hyde Park.

Then we parked up the bikes and wandered around Kew Gardens and inspected the lovely new Climate Garden.

I am not sure what this structure is, maybe an enormous mushroom.

There was also a giant TV screen showing a year in the life of an ancient oak tree that stood right next to it.

We also climbed to the top of the spiral staircase in the Great Pavilion and the one up into the tree tops.

Of course, there were loads of beautiful plants to see as well. 

However, we were there to listen to Tom Holland and Mary Beard talk about the Ancient Romans.

The talk was very interesting, but Darren had a little nap and I fell off my chair, to the amusement of all of the people sitting around us.

Fast forward to the next morning and we ran the Osterley parkrun. 

It was another beautiful day and a great run.

Quick shower and back to Kew for today's talk from Adam Frost and Frances Tophill about Gardeners World.

Not quite as enthralling as Ancient Rome, but pretty good and I picked up a few tips for my garden.