Friday, 24th August 2018 The day was spent cruising through Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia, passing through the 140km scenic gorge on the Danube between the Carpathians and the Balkans, known as the Iron Gates. The two hydroelectric dams, built as a collaboration between Yugoslavia [now Serbia] and Romania are called Iron Gate I and Iron Gate II. Before entering the gates we passed the point where three countries meet: Romania on the starboard side and Bulgaria and Serbia on the port side separated by a small tributary to the Danube. The completion of the dams in 1970 resulted in the Danube rising by up to 45m and there are now three locks to pass through. The geography of the area had to be changed and buildings and communities were sacrificed, including a whole island, Ada Kaleh, which was home to a thriving Turkish community. Prior to the dams and locks it would take ships four days to navigate the shallow waters through this part of the river, now it takes about 15 hours. The Iron Gate II lock is a double lock [one lock immediately adjoined to the other with a common gate] the combined lock has a drop of 34m […]
Romania
Wednesday, 9th August 2018 The boat had travelled through the night southbound through Romania, before curving westwards along the Danube on the border between Romania and Bulgaria. At 10:00 the boat docked at Oltenita on the Romanian side of the river, south south east of Bucharest. With the exception of us and about 8 others, the passengers disembarked to join the waiting coaches. While they all drove off for the one and a half hour coach ride to the capital, and their tour, the boat, with us moved on to Giurgiu. We had a relaxing time on the boat as it travelled along the river. Because the weather has been so hot and dry across Europe, the Danube is about 3 meters shallower than normal. This meant that in this part of the river even on a boat with a draft of just 1.6 meters we had to travel slowly, meandering backwards and forwards across the river following the deepest channels. At 14:30 we moored at Giurgiu. In the photo below you can see the ‘Giurgiu-Ruse Friendship Bridge’ that connects Romania with Bulgaria across the Danube. This is one of only two bridges connecting the two countries across the Danube, […]
Tuesday, 21st August 2018 So today is our first day of 12 on the River Danube, the second longest river in Europe, after the Volga [Russia], and at 2860km long, travels from Donauesschingen [Germany] to the Black Sea. It winds its way through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. Where the Danube joins the Black Sea is the Danube Delta. The delta is the largest bio sphere in Europe with a huge range of birds, flora and fauna. Its approximate surface area is 4,152 km2 and it is listed as a World Heritage Site. We decided to join the excursion on a local boat to travel for a few hours around the delta. Firstly, we passed our cruise boat. Robert and Matilda’s room is on the middle deck, ninth window from the left, with the curtains open. Next we passed a military naval base. One of the ships moored up here is the boat that formerly belonged to Ceauşescu. It has a solid gold toilet. The boat is now used by the state for formal functions. The delta is made up of three main channels of water with many small interconnections. As part of the trip we were […]
Monday, 20th August 2018 Only a short post today as it has been a very lazy day with just one purpose. We caught the 12th train of the trip, a short ride from the coast at Constanta to Medgidia, from here we changed to a small modern DMU train for a three hour trip on a single track line north to Tulcea. Tulcea is at the beginning of the Danube delta. It is here that we would be joining our CroisiEurope river cruiser the MS L’Europe. We arrived in Tulcea at 12:35 and could see our boat moored up, unfortunately we could not check in until 16:45. Because of our luggage we did not want to walk around the town, so we had a lazy afternoon sitting on the terrace of a local hotel watching the world go by.before boarding the boat, unpacking and settling in for the next twelve days. Miles walked today: 4.0 Route Map:
Sunday, 19th August 2018 Today started with our eleventh train journey of this trip, the 09:00 from Bucharest to Constanta, arriving at 11:00. Constanta is located on the Black Sea; is the second largest city in Romania and its largest port. It also has a very large beach stretching north from the city, which includes Mamaia, a strip of sand 7 kilometres long and 300 meters wide, between a sea and a lake. This means that not only is Constanta a big industrial port but also a major holiday beach location for Romanians. Unfortunately the main bulk of Constanta, like most of Romania is very run down, with many derelict and empty buildings. The old port area and the old town have fared a bit better. So, having dropped off our bags at the hotel, we went for a walk down to the beach and then through the old harbour and into the old town. At the end of the old town, between the old and new industrial port stands ‘The Casino’, being too expensive to maintain, it is now empty and left to decay. The Roman Cathedral of St Anthony stands next to the ruins of the first christian […]
Saturday, 18th August 2018 After breakfast we took the metro to see Ceauşescu’s Palace which is an extraordinary monument to one man’s power and sense of self-importance to put it mildly. To put this building into perspective, it took only six years to build, from 1983 to 1989. However, it is still not finished, of the 1,100 rooms only 400 odd are complete, and some of these are not carpeted or furnished. It is the second largest building in the world. It is huge [330.000 m²] and would take an hour to walk around. Ceauşescu wanted to prove to the world how wealthy and powerful the Socialist Republic of Romania was. Although the Palace is smaller than the Pentigon, it is heavier. This is probably due to the one million cubic meters of marble used to clad the interior walls and floors. As it is a functioning parliament building we had to take photo ID with us and go through airport style security to gain entry. We were also given individual badges with a visitor number on. As we left the security area we walked in to a corridor… The two houses of the Parliament of Romania: the Senate (Senat) and the […]
Friday, 17th August 2018 An early train at 07:40 meant foregoing breakfast and we were caught in a rain shower just as we were putting our luggage in the taxi to the station. The rain is the second we have experienced this holiday and was very short lived: it was dry again by the time we reached the station. Bucharest is much more built up and bustling than other places we have visited in Romania, as befits a capital city. We deposited our luggage at the hotel, where we found we could see Ceauşescu’s Palace from our room. With the luxury of two nights in the city, we went on a walk to get our bearings. The walk took us past Coltea Hospital, Cretulescu Church and the National Art Museum. By the time we had walked to the river and Ceauşescu’s Palace to find out about tour prices and opening hours for the next day, then back up into the older part of town, the brunch which Robert had promised Matilda had turned into beer snacks and a cold drink. Unsurprisingly, Matilda found that her freshly squeezed orange juice didn’t really complement the beer snacks as well as Robert’s cold […]
Thursday, 16th August 2018 We planned to visit Bran Castle, but rather than take a guided tour – you should be aware of Robert’s opinion of those by now – we decided to take a local bus from Bus Station 2. Buses leave every hour, on the hour in both directions and we caught one at 10:00. The fare is just 8 lei [£1.60] per person each way. The bus itself was old, the windows were hazy with age and some were damp between the double glazing so the views were very limited. There were also road works on the route which caused some delays in this direction. The journey usually takes 40 mins, but today it was an hour and 10 minutes. We were of course aware that Bran Castle is marketed as being associated with Dracula and Vlad the Impaler although Vlad was only in charge of the castle for two months. We were also aware that we were visiting one of the most popular tourist sites in Romania on a public holiday. We still weren’t quite prepared however for the crowds and the sheer commercialisation of the place. Arriving in Bran you first have to queue to buy […]
Wednesday, 15th August 2018 Today was an unusually late start for us. We normally like to get a train around 08:00 which allows us to get up about 06:00, pack, then breakfast at 07:00 and then leave the hotel at 07:30-ish. This means that if we do a train ride of around two hours we can walk to our new hotel, drop the bags off, grab a free local printed map and then get to a cafe for the day’s planning over a cup of coffee. There is nothing better than circling the spots to visit on a paper map using a real writing implement so that you can visualise, and draw, the day’s route. Our train today is at 14:04, only because it is the only direct service to Brasov that has 1st class accommodation available. The hotel we are staying in has the luxury of a swimming pool. As you know Matilda likes a good swim, but not on a full stomach. So pre breakfast swimming it was. Matilda doing lengths while Robert was doing strange under water exercises to combat his sciatica. After the pool we enjoyed the Romanian’s view of a full English breakfast. After a […]
![Sighisoara, Dracula’s birthplace [allegedly]](https://i0.wp.com/iciel.uk/imagesTH/18-05-Danube/Post8/18-05-08-feature.jpeg?resize=570%2C350)
Tuesday, 14th August 2018 One of the things Robert likes about the main stations in Romania is that many have a vintage, stationary, steam engine on display out side. We left Cluj-Napoca on a train at 09:37, the rail route to Sighisoara is about 120 miles [approximately equivalent to Birmingham to London]. We are scheduled to arrive at 14:01, that’s near on 4.5 hours [average 27mph]. Oh well, sit back and remember the reasons we travel by train. Matilda who, when traveling, likes to read books set in the area she is visiting, was able to make significant headway towards finishing her current book: she has been re-reading Bram Stoker’s classic gothic novel Dracula on this journey. Robert watched a couple of documentaries on his iPad, then watched the fields go by. It would appear that sweetcorn is grown extensively in this part of the world, however, none of the local dishes seem to include it, so we wonder what it is used for, or whether is it just exported? Throughout the whole journey we ran parallel to a massive new engineering construction comprising a new railway line, half finished bridges, laid ballast, drainage channels and virgin trackwork. It is very nice […]
Monday, 13th August 2018 An early swim before breakfast helped to get the day off to a healthy start. Following Robert’s friendly criticism of her backstroke technique yesterday, Matilda googled this and realised she was using the recreational technique, not the racing technique he was recommending. Looking in the wardrobe we found bathrobes and slippers for the pool which we had overlooked yesterday. Even though we got to the pool at 07:00, there were already several people there before us including a coach training several young swimmers: Matilda, always open to constructive comment, tried to interpret his arm actions to help improve her backstroke technique, but will probably stick with the recreational approach. At breakfast we realised we were sharing the hotel with the Austrian and Norwegian youth judo teams as well as those from several other countries which we did not see. This explained the signs to the “unofficial weighing room” on the mezzanine floor. The signs were positioned by the lifts and seemed to suggest these might become overloaded. In fact, the Cluj-Napoca Junior European Cup 2018 – International Judo competition ran from 11 August to 12 August, 28 countries and 290 competitors were involved. Although on the train […]
Sunday, 12th August 2018 A much more leisurely start to today. We were able to lie in at the hotel, have breakfast at 08:15 and then walk to the railway station to catch the 09:57 from Oradea [Romania] to Cluc-Napoca [Romania]. Today’s journey takes 2h 36mins and is approximately 100 miles. We had elected to travel 1st class because it was only slightly more expensive. An equivalent train journey in the UK is Coventry to London. It cost 39lei for the two of us [£8], and that includes reservations for the window seats at a table. Well thank goodness we had booked our seats because the train was heaving, with people standing everywhere. Strangely, the gentleman we had to ask to vacate Matilda’s seat opted to stand and leave his luggage on the seat next to her, despite the heat and the length of the journey. Unfortunately, the train’s air conditioning was not working and the windows were locked. So it got pretty hot, especially with the volume of people. We mentioned yesterday about the state of the railway infrastructure here in Romania. Below is an example of a typical rural station. Most of the buildings are derelict, the platforms […]
Saturday, 11th August 2018 When booking today’s train Robert had several choices. Bear in mind that it is 45 miles between Debrecen [Hungary] and Oradea [Romania]. There is only one direct train between the two cities each day, all the other routes take one to two hours longer and involve one change. So he decided to get the 07:11 from Debrecen arriving in Oradea at 11:05. That is three hours 54 minutes which is an average speed of 11.5mph. We had to get up at 05:45 this morning to give us enough time to do our ablutions, dress, pack and walk the 20 mins to the station. We were leaving the hotel before they started serving breakfast, so we had collected our packed breakfasts from reception last night. Just 30 minutes into our train journey the compartment door opened and we were asked for our passports by the Hungarian authorities. Romania, like the UK is not in the Schengen zone of the EU. The train was stationary for 30 mins while all the formalities took place. Then we were off. Ten minutes later we stopped again for the Romanian passport checks. This time the border officer took our passports and […]