Danube River Cruise June 2008
Mike and Sandy, with their Danville friends Marv and Joni, and their Bakersfield friends Buzz and' Doreen, enjoyed a two-week adventure in Eastern Europe this June. The trip began in Bucharest, Romania, where the group stayed at a Radisson hotel that was so new, it wasn't entirely finished, especially in the lobby area. Bucharest was interesting, in many ways -- the palace built by the former communist dictator (second worldwide in square footage to the Pentagon, the intriguing street scenes like this "cafe arcade," the new construction all over town side-by-side with much older buildings, and the abundance of shopping malls as well as fountains and parks to sooth the tired shoppers.
Leaving Bucharest, the group traveled by coach through the Romanian country side to the sea coast town of Constanta (oddly pronounced Con-stan-za) where our cruise ship was waiting. The ship was long, narrow, and not too tall, perfect for going under bridges and through locks along the river. After our welcome reception and dinner, we settled in on the ship. The next morning saw a city tour of Constanta (which is an old Roman-era town, with the relevant ruins), and our chance to wade into the Black Sea -- our toes had not touched Black Sea water before.
Our ship got underway, and we were in the Black Sea but a few minutes before we entered a canal, built during communist times, which connects the Black Sea to the Danube River. (The river actually runs into the Black Sea, but by way of a long delta, sort of like the Mississippi River, which adds a whole day of sailing if you don't take the "short cut" canal.) We soon encountered our first river lock, sort of like those on the Panama Canal, but smaller, and noticed the agricultural nature of what was along the sides of the river.
The next day we reached our first port of call, Russe, Bulgaria. None of the passengers had ever been to Bulgaria before, nor knew much about it. While Sophia, the capital, isn't on the river, we found Russe to be a very pleasant, if small, town, with an Internet cafe with astonishingly fast network connections.
The next day was a "day at sea," so to speak, so we enjoyed the sights, the food, the fitness center, the lounge, visiting the bridge, etc.
One of the more famous features of the lower Danube River is the so-called Iron Gates, a pair of hydro-electric dams built across the river in an area of steep gorges. It's well after dark when we reach the first dam, and its locks, and the next morning before we emerge from the narrow stretches.
The next day we arrived in Serbia, another country new to everyone on the ship. Belgrade, like many cities along the river, has a hill-top fortress built many centuries ago, and occupied by numerous different armies over the years. Of course Belgrade was Tito's home, and we visited his museum and grave site. Another highlight of our Belgrade city tour was the sight of several buildings hit by U.S. "smart" missiles during the 1990's when NATO was trying to get Serbia to call off its invasion of Bosnia -- this picture shows the building that housed the Serbian Ministry of Defense, and our guide said no decision has yet been made as to what to do with it. (The missiles were obviously guided; buildings on either side of this one weren't damaged at all.)
Wanting to see a different perspective on Serbia, which seems sort of as the neighborhood bully, we took a day trip out to the smaller town of Novi Sad. Of oourse it too has an ancient Roman-era fortress on a hill overlooking the river, but was of a much more pleasant scale, has a bridge of exactly the same design as the still-under-construction Bay Bridge, and lots of street life.
Another day of cruising on the river brought these scenes.
The next country to visit was Croatia, where we docked at the little river town of Vukovar, heavily damaged by Serbian artillery fire over the river during the Serbian-Croatian war in the early 1990's. Although some damage was still visible, much of the town has been nicely repaired or rebuilt, and all the Croatians we met seemed to have a definite "can-do" attitude.
Just up the road we visited the larger town of Osijek, where we were entertained with some Croatian folk songs, and then had the opportunity to have lunch in the home of a local family in one of the nearby villages. Here you can see our host with her two daughters, one working in tourism and one still in college, but both still living at home. You can see our whole lunch group, as well as the garden behind their home, where all the vegetables for our meal were grown.
Our last stop has perhaps the most fun -- certainly the most beautiful -- Budapest (pronouced Buda-pesht) in Hungary. We left the ship at this point and moved into a big Ramada hotel along the riverside. Here's a few scenes from our several days there.
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