Cycling around

Belgrade is not a very picturesque city but a very nice place to stay and to relax. it is not too large so that cycling around was a good decision. I got a high-quality bike for only 5 € a day and there are several bike stations all over the city in case one gets a defect.
This is the first post about some places I discovered. For cycling I like to hear music pushing me forward. Thus I had a look at the incredible Wikipedia article about Serbian Rock and found

Nežni Dalibor - Ti si sam

The main pedestrian zone, the Mihailova Street.

Interesting architecture in the same street.

Nothern end of the same street.

Somewhere in the inner city.

Some restaurant boats are very impressive.

The oldest house from the Ottoman times.

The Sava lake is another thing that makes Belgrade unique. This lake is a former arm of the Sava river so that the water is flat and not moving. Therefore the water temperature is high which is ideal for swimming and bathing. In the winter the lake freezes early making it perfect for ice skating. At the western end of the lake is a waterskiing resort.

View along the lake from its eastern end

At the beach

In Germany we have the new Berlin airport that is years behind its construction plan. Serbia has the Prokop railway station which is in construction since 1974. This station is the heart of Belgrade's commuter rail system and partially in service. There is much room for improvement for the rail system. Some underground stations look very nice but for example the station in Novi Beograd is an impertinence.

View at the station from here.

As I learned last year in Bosnia, Yugoslavia was a very atheistic country. Nevertheless people often told me that religion is very important for them. Once I made the mistake to ask a woman when she had been the last time in a church - silence, but she looked embarrassed. New churches are in construction and the main church of course need to be super large. This is the Cathedral of Saint Sava - the largest orthodox church in the world. Its interior is still not finished but it is therefore possible to photograph it without any restrictions.

The church is inside a niche park area.

View inside.

Another nice church is St. Mark. By chance there was a church service giong on when I entered it. This was my first time I attended an orthodox ceremony. (I was surprised that one has to stand so long, that were several priests and that they don't look at the audience most of the time. But maybe this was a special ceremony.) I know it is not polite to shoot photos at religious ceremonies but standing there so long I could not resist. What you can see is that the attendance is very small although it was a weekend. I also noticed that there are not enough churches that, let's say, 10% of the citizens could have a seat in a church. So it is a bit strange that many say that religion is extremely important for Serbia.

Also this church is beside a park.

The main entrance.

A ceremony.