Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Mostar,4.5hourstoPlo
č
e,9hourstoZagreb).Asthespecificscheduleisconstantlyinflux,
check your options at
www.bahn.com
. Most travelers find the bus more comfortable and
faster than the train.
Whether you're driving or taking the bus from Mostar to Sarajevo, you're in for a scenic
journey that also takes you past some interesting sights of historical note. The road is in ex-
cellent repair, and the glorious mountain views and intriguing villages will make you want
to come back and stay longer in Bosnia. Even if you're not stopping along the way, keep
track of these landmarks as you roll.
You'll begin by heading up the dramatically scenic Neretva River Canyon, which sur-
roundsathrustingriverthatpowersfourhydroelectricdams.Thescenerycrescendosasyou
twist your way through the canyon.
The first major town you pass is
Jablanica,
famous among Bosnians as the best place to
enjoy spit-grilled lamb (look for restaurants along the road)—and as the site of the WWII
Battle of Neretva, which demonstrated Tito's brilliance as a military tactician. Tito arrived
here with his Partisan army, including some 4,000 injured troops and a squadron of des-
perate villagers and civilian refugees who had joined their ranks. Surrounded by his dual
foes—Nazis and
Č
etniks—Tito got clever: First, his troops destroyed five bridges across
this river, leaving the clear impression that the Partisans planned to push away from the
river. Then, as the Nazis redeployed their troops, Tito's men quickly repaired one of the
bridges overnight. This allowed the Partisans—including all of their wounded and hangers-
on—to cross the river, destroy the bridge again, and swing around to catch the Nazis off-
guard. Tito's victory at the Battle of the Neretva—and especially his pledge, “Wounded
people we shall not leave”—still echoes in the collective memory of Yugoslavs. (In 1969,
the victory was immortalized in the Oscar-nominated
Battle of Neretva,
which featured Yul
Brynner, Orson Welles, and other big names lured by the Yugoslav government's extremely
generous funding.) To learn more about the battle, turn off at the brown
museum
sign in
Jablanica to reach the
Museum of the Battle for the Wounded at Neretva
(Muzej Bitka
za Ranjenike na Neretvi). This huge, abandoned-seeming building was erected overlooking
the gorge and the site of the famous bridge in 1978...and, it seems, hasn't been renovated
since. Inside you'll see dusty old exhibits including original helmets and rifles; life-size di-
oramas of the wounded being evacuated; a model showing how they used the wreckage of
the original bridge to support their new, makeshift one; a small photo exhibit of the recent
warinMostarandBosnia,honoringthoselostinthefighting;andlife-sizemodelsofBosni-
an village life. Huge windows look over the river gorge, where you can see a replica of the
bridge that was built for the movie and kept here as a memorial (4 KM, April-Oct Mon-Fri
