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 DAY THIRTEEN Arrival in Split - and Goodbye Although I did not know it in the morning, this would be our last day together. I had convinced Rolf that Split was worth visiting and that I had a better chance of a flight back to Germany at short notice. The scenery was breathtaking once more. High mountains and river valleys with a large reservoir-lake in between. Hence we drove overland again from Sarajevo towards Split with a stopover in Mostar. In Sarajevo, we had seen signs of the war that had taken place here 30 years ago: there were still bullet holes in some walls, and signs of repairs to many houses that clearly indicated enemy fire (in residential areas). Sarajevo had been besieged by Serbian troops and the bridge at Mostar was blown up. It has now been rebuilt with contributions, Italy and the Netherlands contributing some millions. Now the small city is bustling with activity again.      After lunch in Mostar we used the motorway to reach Split. The border crossing is actually
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 DAY TWELVE Novi Sad to Sarajevo The penultimate day (day before last) of our travelling, we started by walking down the stairs from our castle and into town. Later in the day the French President will follow in our footsteps on his visit to Serbia! Novi Sad (New Town) rather surprised us with its wide public precinct and many squares with lots of attractive, and fairly new, restaurants and cafes. It also boasted many art nouveau style buildings, and most of there were in a good state.                Whereas, in other towns and cities the doors along the road would lead nto some sort of courtyard, often a garden (today parking) or a small restaurant, the larger doorways here led to narrow alleyways which both served as shopping malls and as passage to the next street and there might be three or four of these in one block of buildings.         Then it was on south and west towards Sarajevo. But first time to take in the scenery; first the usual yellow and brown fields of dying sunflower
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 DAY ELEVEN Goodbye Romania - out with a bang Leaving Sibiu we used the motorway for the first time since arriving in Romania. So far, we had used a combination of main roads and country roads. Generally, both of these were of good quality. Only occasionally had we found roads which seemed to have had their top surface removed (Schotterpiste!), but twice, in relatively isolated villages (e.g. near to where the Harvest Festival had been) there were workers making a new surface to roads. Today´s motorway was of good quality with frequent small petrol stations with services - and free WiFi. After taking a detour to Hunedoara we saw how some of the towns have suffered from not being able to compete economically: fairly substantial iron and steel works, empty and rusting. The town looked rather run down too. However, when we arrived at our destination - Wow (for me at least). The area before the castle was modern and being improved, a couple of gift kiosks, a smart restaurant and a new hote
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