Ahmet Erkun

Good thing we had the TV tuned to the bow camera! Otherwise, we would not have seen Ilok coming up around 2:30p … half an hour ahead of schedule … even though we were late leaving Vukovar by the same amount of time.

In any event, forewarned is forearmed. We were ready to disembark the ship to do Ilok on our own when it was tied up and the gangway was extended. Mui and I were the first off and hot-footing it into town … minutes before 3:00p. We weren’t hurrying to get ahead of everyone. Rather, with the sun setting at 5:48p, we wanted to make the most of the daylight hours to see what we could see.

Ilok is the easternmost town in Croatia … right on the Danube, which in this section, forms the country’s border with Serbia. With a population around 5,000, it is a small place. And today being Sunday, it felt like it was completely deserted. Except for a few people on the terrace of the Hotel Dunav — overlooking the river — there was not one soul around on the streets. That would change later as more and more of our fellow-passengers walked into town to check it out, but by then we were long gone … up the hill to the castle.

To reach the top of Fruška Gora Hill, we followed the simple directions from Michal, our Program Director … “Follow the road into town and take the steps on the right side of the street, after about the fourth or fifth house.” I think the steps were actually after the 6th house, but no matter. We found them and began the trek up.

The hike up wasn’t bad at all … especially since we took it easy, stopping frequently to enjoy the views. We detoured to a small overlook near the top for distant aerial views of the city and the cemetery. And then, we continued up to walk through a break in the fortifications and enter the medieval old town.

In addition to the 17th century Odescalchi Palace (home to the Ilok Town Museum), there are a number of interesting places to see in Old Town. To name a few … the remains of the 13th century St. Peter's basilica and the medieval castle walls; the 14th century Sanctuary, Church and Friary of St. John of Capistrano; the newer 15th century fortress and walls erected by Nikola Iločki; the 16th century Ottoman türbe [tomb] and hamam [bath house]. There are also the residences where the locals live, and a beautiful park and public gardens … dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Our first stop was the Sanctuary, Church and Friary of St John of Capistrano … only because it was the first thing that caught our eye, its orange brick walls glowing in the afternoon sun. Constructed in 1349, the church predates the citadel and castle. It is here that Capistrano came to die. He spent many days in a chapel in the church and died there in 1456. This cell-chapel has been preserved as it was back then.

Leaving the church, we wandered around to the back to see what was there … the church tower and a building with the doors locked … perhaps the friary. We were outside the fortifications at this point and got to enjoy the expansive views. In the foreground … the Dunavac, which the “Visit Ilok” website describes as a permanent backwater running between the Danube and the old town on the hill; in the middle ground … the port area with Rinda mostly hidden by trees; in the background … the Danube with Serbia on the other side of the river.

Having now spent 20 minutes in and around the church, it was time to move on. We meandered for a bit, stopping frequently for photo ops. Like the Buda Castle District, the citadel has a residential community. But there were no locals around … just a small number of tourists, including some from our ship.

Noticing that the museum was open, we went in to find a collection of exhibits and a temporary art exhibit … I’ll do a separate footprint to show some of what we saw.

We continued our meandering further into the citadel, using a spire peeking out from behind some buildings to guide us. Turned out to be an Orthodox Church … closed. On the way back, we cut through the park to check out the views. A peaceful green space that invited us to sit for a while.

On our way out of the park, we came across the 16th century Ottoman hamam. It was locked up tight, so we didn’t dally. Going back out the same break in the fortifications, we made our way down and then retraced our route to where Rinda awaited us. When Mui found a path through the vegetation, we detoured to check out the Dunavac. The mossies were out in full force, but the reflection of the citadel on the calm backwaters made it a worthwhile detour nonetheless.

By 5:30p, we were back on the Rinda. All aboard wasn’t until 6:45p, but it was starting to get dark. When the sky started to take on some color, I decided to head up to the Sun Deck to enjoy a delightful sunset. Swatting away the mossies that were making a pest of themselves, I took a couple of photos, waiting until the colors disappeared to head down again. The daily briefing, and dinner … and we called it a day.

Tomorrow we’re in the first of three Serbian ports on this itinerary. It will be interesting to hear the Serbian side of the war history and how it differs from the Croatian point of view.

By the way, we’ve been instructed to collect our passports before we leave the ship tomorrow morning for our walking tour … and keep them until we are told to return them to the front desk. Why? Serbia requires that we carry our passports with us at all times Likely because they are not part of the EU yet.Read more