Black
Sea to Budapest Cruise on the Danube with a Land Trip to Vienna
June
1 – 17, 2023
Saturday touring Bucharest. Parliament building with 1001
rooms, 2nd largest single building in the world after the Pentagon
and many monuments and landmarks around the city. We visited some landmarks related to, and
heard lectures describing, the 1989 Romanian revolutionary break from the
Soviet block.
(Photos:
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Sunday
June 4: We visited "Dimitrie
Gusti" National Village Museum, Șoseaua Kiseleff, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitrie_Gusti_National_Village_Museum,
a tree strewn park with replicas or reconstructed homes from many regions of
Rumania.
Then travel by land to our port of departure, Constanta.
Upon entry our guide pointed out some elaborate multistory houses, saying they
were quite nice inside as well, but the residents essentially lived in tents in
the back yard out of sight. Maybe these were Gypsies by another name. I can’t recall or recover what name our guide
used. Perhaps Roma, Romani, or Tigani,
all of which I find on the web but do not recognize.
Monday
June 5: The morning touring
the “Romanian resort” town of Constanta, considered such by Romanians perhaps
because the biggest and main town on the Black Sea. Definitely not a resort, with a rather unattractive
beach …. many partially constructed but abandoned
buildings. Quite reminiscent of lesser
resorts of Mexico. Guide made a big deal
of a pretty rundown museum (cathedral).
There’s a rather ornate casino on the shore of the sea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constan%C8%9Ba_Casino
We made a short bus ride to a beach in Constanta with a
couple large Black Sea resort hotels.
This was very 3rd world, not well situated or maintained,
beach with long shallow water entry and on our day cold water. If you have visited the great beaches of
Australia, Caribbean, or Hawai’i, this very unappealing.
Some of our travelers came early to the pre-trip in
northern Rumania & Transylvania and spoke highly of their experience there. Afternoon today we begin the river
cruise. Constanta is on the Black Sea
coast south from the where the Danube flows through The Danube Delta, shared by
Rumania and Ukraine, into the Sea. The
river cruise boats, ours the M/S River
Aria, are very long and narrow and do not travel well on the waves of the
sea. Instead, we travel on an inland
canal to Cernavoda, joining the Danube about one third the way to the next stop
at Ruse, Bulgaria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube%E2%80%93Black_Sea_Canal
.
Tuesday
June 6: Early morning
arrival at Ruse, Bulgaria after a miserable night of poor sleep in my room over
the engine room with extreme noise and tossing of the ship and groaning of the
props under the side strains of the forward steering thrusters. The ship so long that it needs these. I went on the optional tour to Veliko
Tarnovo, and Arbanassi. (I should remark
that this seemed to be a one night occurrence due to some unusual river
conditions).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veliko_Tarnovo;
"City of the Tsars"
on the Yantra River and historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbanasi_(Veliko_Tarnovo) In the province of Veliko Tarnovo
Please remember to check out such places on the internet
before signing up, either to skip or appreciate more.
Next day we moved on to Vidin, Bulgaria. As on a previous OAT river cruise, we had
e-bikes on this boat. At Vidin I took a
long afternoon ride about the town, getting lost and hoping not to be left
behind for a time!.
Though there a couple historical sites, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Vida,
the town is very rundown and radiates the communist era environment. There appears very little new built in the
last 40 – 50 years. In strong contrast
to flourishing cities like Warsaw, Budapest, Zagreb, and similar, my impression
is the more remote smaller towns or cities are largely unchanged, or even
maintained since the communist times, peopled by an entire generation who never
knew anything but communism and hardly yet exposed or motivated by the outer
world.
Vidin did have a small symphony orchestra that played for us
in the evening and is supported by the OAT Grand Circle Foundation. It was all strings on out visit, and after a
couple classic pieces it seemed to turn comical with the conductor and a vocal
leading the charge with someone participating from the audience. I claimed he was a shill, even going on stage
to conduct briefly, but others insisting he was just part of the audience!
Surprising how remote and unpopulated Bulgaria and Romania
are along the Danube. We seem to travel
for hours with little or no sign of human habitation visible on the river
banks.
Friday
June 9: We
arrive in Belgrade, now capital of Serbia.
Belgrade, Serbia, formerly Yugoslavia, comprising six districts,
(republics), now broken into six countries in 1991 1992: Croatia, Montenegro,
Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Macedonia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_Yugoslavia.
On a rainy morning we toured the sights of Belgrade and visited the Tito Memorial. Though Tito, President of Yugoslavia, was a
communist he refused to march to Moscow’s drum beat https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito. On an earlier OAT trip I visited his birth
place at Kumrovec, Croatia. In the pm I took a long e-bike ride along
the river finding some interesting modern office buildings. We are emerging from the communist dark
world.
Belgrade was perhaps the gateway to more
developed Eastern Europe and the much more interesting parts of our riverboat
tour advancing toward Budapest and Vienna.
I soon realized it would have been very disappointing to travel west to
east on this river trip seeing the great sights and culture of these cities
first, then moving to the drab surroundings toward the Black Sea. For me this was luck, but I would advise
anyone to avoid the west to east direction.
Next day, Saturday, Novi Sad (new garden),
2nd largest city and cultural hub of Serbia. A large Pertovardin
Fortress on the mountain (hill) south side of the river open to the public
tours – I did not visit. Many
attractive gardens and buildings around the city in walking distance of the
river. After lunch a group of four
travelers accompanied me on a long ride along the river. I extended my ride to cross all the bridges
in sight and bike around the base of the fortress mountain. Unable to find a bicycle access up to the
fortress. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novi_Sad . Serbia celebrates a Pulitzer Prize winner,
inventor, and participating founder of several professional societies including
the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), Michael Pupin. Pupin attended Columbia in the US, spent a
lot of time in the US and became an American citizen in 1883. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihajlo_Pupin
Sunday we moved on to our only visit in Croatia, Vukovar. This city
was heavily damaged and many killed during the Croatian-Serbian war of early
90s. Notable is a
upside down cone water tower with
restaurant on top that was heavily shelled in the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vukovar_water_tower.
We also visited the National Memorial Cemetery of The
Victims of Homeland War in Vukovar (Croatia’s
Stalingrad). More than 900 bodies were
exhumed from a mass grave and symbolizes by 900 white crosses, a monument with
eternal flame and a large number of tombs lined with extensive hedging.
We went for home-hosted Croatian dinner, I believe at
Osijek. Comfortable home with extensive
vegetable garden. Discussion with the
host revealed that he was a happy communist with a retirement income that might
have been considered comfortable in the US.
Monday
June 12: Budapest, suddenly seems like we are back in the populated
world. On a round the world trip in 2005
with friends, out last stop was Budapest.
At that time, like Warsaw, it was showing strides in modernization and
refurbishment from its communist past.
On this 2023 visit it has only improved.
The Hungarian (Budapest) Parliament building is spectacular. There are several (seven?) bridges across the
Danube in good repair, including though the famous “chain bridge” which had the walking crossing closed for
maintenance while my e-bike could mix with other vehicles. Rode the e-bike all around the city including
past the opera house, up a narrow winding trail to the Liberty
Statue – I had to climb a stairway up the last few hundred feet,
sure no tourist gets there! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Statue_(Budapest)
and on an afternoon tour of Margaret Island.
Another interesting landmark, Museum of Ethnography is the result
of a winning competition entry selected as https://www.designboom.com/architecture/napur-architect-museum-ethnography-budapest-hungary-05-27-2022/
. Also note a memorial to massacred Jews by the
Danube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoes_on_the_Danube_Bank . On
the last evening in Budapest our Captain arranged an evening cruise
along the main shorelines of the city – a river boat tradition that is recently
limited to a very few boats because of an accident attributed to overcrowding –
we among the privileged tonight! Danube:
Black Sea to Budapest Album
Wednesday
June 14: Over land by bus about
100 miles to Vienna. Driving the highway
in western Hungary to Austria we observed frequent natural habitat “bridges”
across the highway. We are told these
are to allow small animals, rabbits, foxes, opossum, etc. crossing of the
highway. Notably, in the US this is
only done rarely for large animals like sheep, deer, goats. And, to my knowledge constructed more like
paved pedestrian or small vehicle bridges.
After arrival at our Regina Hotel
our guide took us for a short walking tour and instruction about how to use the
public transport, of which there are several convenient modes, tram, bus,
underground metro, and? Despite her
claim of tram convenience, every time I tried to use it I seemed to wait for
some time, then give up and just walk to the destination. I did find the bus convenient for a couple
longer excursions. The hotel room was so
tiny I had to unpack on the bed – otherwise OK though.
Of course Vienna overwhelms with
centuries old ornate beautiful buildings on almost every street in out part of
the city. Inside the Hapsburg’s winter
palace among other sights were the Lipizzans, famous
performing horses, not to be confused with the Andalusian of southern Spain. Lipizzans are from Hapsburg Empire, Croatia, Hungary,
Slovenia, etc. We only saw them stabled,
not performing. I think this is the Hoburg Palace of the Hapsburg dynasty.
Thursday morning we visited the Hapsburg’s summer palace: “The Schönbrunn Palace in its present form was built and remodeled during the 1740–50s during the reign of empress Maria Theresa[2] who received the estate as a wedding gift. Franz I commissioned the redecoration of the palace exterior in the neoclassical style as it appears today. “
“Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning emperor of Austria, was born at Schönbrunn and spent a great deal of his life there. He died there, at the age of 86, on 21 November 1916. Following the downfall of the Habsburg monarchy in November 1918, the palace became the property of the newly founded Austrian Republic and was preserved as a museum. “
I am most impressed by
the paintings. The general opulence of
decor in the Catharine Palace in Pushkin near St. Petersburg Russia seems in my
memory to over shadow Schönbrunn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Palace
. Afternoon tried to take the tram to the Vienna
Opera House, but no trams running in that direction …… do to major teachers demonstration
for more pay. Walked again!
So many artistic and ornate buildings,
with 100s of columns adorning entries and window openings and large carved
statues. Seems like every 30 years they
have a war and smash it all to pieces and 30 years later it’s rebuilt in the
same artistic and ancient style!
Privileged to attend a concert in the
evening for ~$100. Music and dancing was
very good, but a lot of inconsiderate patrons in the hall. Big hair blocking
view worsened by folks holding cell phones up in the line of view to take video
of the performance. Video is forbidden
but generally ignored - so grossly impolite.
Friday we visited the Prater Amusement Center, more or less a carnival, to see the large and famous Ferris wheel. The Giant Ferris Wheel was built in1897 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Emperor Franz Josef I.
In the afternoon I took
the bus to St. Steven’s Cathedral, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Cathedral,_Vienna.
I
climbed the south tower, 243 steps, 67 m, 220 ft,
twice. First trip I forgot to use the
binoculars in my backpack to view the sights around Vienna, so after a
discussion about “not fair to pay twice” I went up again and got the view. Vienna Album
Saturday
June 17: Austrian Air to LAX
12:10 hrs.