Tuesday October 18, 2011

Nancy and I just completed a River Cruise on the Danube. We started in Bucharest, Romania and ended in Budapest, Hungary. It was a great trip. We had a slight change in schedule because of a severe drought in Eastern Europe. Water levels were so low that we had to start further upstream from our origninal schedule. We spent two nights in Bucharest instead on one. This means we spent one less day on the river boat. Grand Circle, our tour guide, did a great job adjusting the program.

So I won't repeat myself I want to say that the food on the River Boat was great. I put on 9 pounds. Breakfast was buffet style. They had all kinds of breads and fruits. Eggs were served at every breakfast. Our coffee cups were always being refilled. Breakfast was from 0700 to 0900. Lunch was a sit down affair. We had soup then the main dish and dessert. They always had a salad bar for those so inclined. Dinner was more elaborate. We started with a shrimp cocktail then we had soup, the main course and of course dessert. Wine was served with dinner and they kept our glass filled. I did not deny myself anything. No wonder I put on 20 pounds.

I liked the way the our boat was configured. Our rooms were small but we had plenty of storage space. The boat was 410 feet long and 38 feet wide. It draught was only 5 feet. The wheelhouse was able to go up or down. This allowed the boat to go under low bridges. There were about 150 folks on our trip. I think Nancy and I were the youngest couple. We had folks from all parts of the USA. We had the opportunity to talk with most of our mates. It was very enjoyable to spend an evening leisurely talking and eating with our boatmates. Dinner was usually served at 1900 and last about 100 minutes.

Our trip started on Monday October 2. At 0900 we loaded up the C2 and headed to Chicago. The trip to Chicago was uneventful. We parked in an economy lot and had to take a shuttle and tram to get to the terminal. We very flying on KLM. We did upgrade our economy seat to economy plus. We wanted more leg room. The plane left Chicago at 1600 for Amsterdam. It was an 8 hour flight. We spent about 2 hours in Amsterdam and they flew to Bucharest. We arrived in the the early afternoon on Tuesday. We were taken to our hotel, a modern Howard Johnson. The hotel was very modern and I thought quite nice. We were served a buffet dinner and then headed to bed.

Wednesday October 5: After a buffet breakfast we boarded our buses and headed to the City of Constanta on the Black Sea. The tour group was divided into four groups of about 35. They always had four buses. Our tour guide for the entire time was Reka. She was very knowledgeable. We drove through what I considered some very fertile farm lands. The land was flat with few trees. The Villages we passed through looked very poor. We arrived at Constanta about 1300. The City is a summer tourist mecca. We saw large hotels on the Black Sea. We had lunch at a very large hotel. The beach at Constanta was sandy. Nancy took her shoes off and test the water and said it was warm. Several folks went swimmming. On our long trip Reka told us about Romania. Romania has a language that is based on Latin. In fact it is very similar to present day Itilian. The citizens are mostly Roman Catholic. Bucharest is the largest city with a population of over 2,000,000. It also the capital.

Thurday October 6, 2011. After breakfast we piled into our buses and took a tour of Bucharest. The City has many dreary Soviet era aparment buildings. It was very depressing. We did stop at several interesting landmarks. After the City tour we headed west. On our trip on the boat we passed through many small villages. All the villages looked very poor. We got to the Boat about 1800. The boat was docked at Calafat, Romania. We had our first meal aboard the boat. It was great and everyone was happy we had finally had a chance to unpack.

Friday October 7, 2011: During the evening hours the boat crossed the Danube to Vidin, Bulgaria. My first impression of the Danube was that it was not very big and not blue. This morning was took a walking tour of Vidin. The town had cobblestone streets, interesting buildings and I thought it looked like a typical small river town. The town was going through hard times.

After lunch of soup, Monte Cristo sandwich and ice cream we headed to our buses. We were going on a Tour of the Legendary Fortresses of Bulgaria. The fortresses were located in an area that looked like the landscape in Byrce Canyon in Utah. We climbed up to the top of the fortress and the view was spectualar. We took many picture. The Turks occupied Bulgaria for a long time and the forts were used to keep the Turks at bay. Bulgaria uses the Cyrillic alphabet and the major religion is Orthodox Catholic. We returned to the boat to a great meal and then we watched a local Bulgarian group perform a folk dance show.

Saturday October 8, 2011: Saturday was an easy day. The boat sailed all day. We passed through two massive locks on the Danube. We also passed through the most scenic stretch on the Danube. Massive rock formations were on both sides of the river.

This ends our first week of travel.