Danube River Cruise - Viking River Cruises

We awoke in Vidin, and the drive to Belogradchik took about an hour as we rode from the flat lands up into the mountains. After a break in the small town, we had a short ride up to the large red rock formations. The Rocks at Belogradchik are marvelous and look a little like Sedona or the Needles Park of South Dakota.

The Romans (100-300 AD) incorporated the large rocks into the Belogradchik Fortress, and some of the walls still remain. The ride from the town up into the rocks was mostly uphill. We left the buses and walked up three levels to the top of the rocks. It was exhausting, but the views of the rocks and the town below were wonderful. We only stayed at the rocks for about an hour before returning to the ship for a late lunch.

After a delicious lunch on the Viking Neptune of green salad with tomatoes, a steak sandwich, and onion soup, we walked into Vidin and spent a couple of hours burning off calories and visiting the market, the square, and the old Vida Baba fortress overlooking the Danube River. We saw one interesting monument honoring those who had lost their lives to the communists. We also noted that several communist-related monuments were covered with graffiti.

Vidin had a beautiful pedestrian square and shopping area, but many of the shops were closed. Just sad. The town needs help in developing a tourism base. Some of our group met a Peace Corps worker in Belogradchik who was working for the Bulgarian tourism bureau, so development may be on the way.

The Viking Neptune sailed away from Vidin in the late afternoon and headed west into Serbia. We woke up early the next morning to see one of the most scenic stretches of the Danube River, the Iron Gates of the Danube. It is an area of deep gorges, towering cliffs, and a narrow channel. We had gorgeous weather and stood on the sun deck and listened to a narration. On the Romania side of the river, there was even a very large rock carving, similar to those on Mt. Rushmore.

The Iron Gate area used to be a treacherous one for ships, with fast flowing water and steep bends. However, the river was dammed up in 1971, resulting in a 35-yard rise in the river and the complete flooding of some small towns.

After sailing through the Iron Gates, we arrived in Dunaij Milanovac, where the ship docked for two hours while we cleared Serbian customs. We walked ashore and explored the small village, which took less than an hour. I changed $20 for 1350 Serbian dinars and felt like a rich woman. We felt like our small ship doubled the population, if only for a couple of hours.

Leaving Donji Milanovac, we continued sailing upstream. The ship had many onboard activities planned. We attended a Bulgarian Fruhschoppen, sampling two traditional dishes -- moussaka and a cold sausage mushroom bean salad in a white sauce. We also enjoyed a wine tasting that featured four eastern European wines from Romania and Austria. It was a busy morning!

After a delicious lunch, Simona, one of the Romanian program managers, gave a lecture on "Life in Romania". Her story was interesting and touching. She recalls standing in line at 4 am with her mom in order to buy food. She also remembers "nice people" coming to her grade school class and asking questions about what their parents and neighbors were saying about the government.

Since Ceausescu wanted Romania to be self sufficient, they had few imported goods. Simona remembers having four colored pencils, none of which was a good color, and they broke frequently. On the other hand, Simona's grandparents say that during Communist time, everyone had money, but there was nothing to buy. Now, you can buy anything in Romania, but no one has money.

We docked in Kastolac about 4 pm that afternoon, and three archaeologists came on board to brief us on Viminacium. This ancient Roman town and military fort of 30,000 residents was inhabited from 100-400 AD. Only about 3 percent has been excavated to date.

Although the Serbians have known about the site for many years, the Communist government built two large steam plants on part of Viminacium because of the nearby coal mines. These electric plants provide about 15 percent of Serbia's electric power, so it's not possible to do away with them.

The contrast of the huge electric plant, spewing steam and coal dust was a stark contrast to the Roman baths, amphitheater, ancient city wall, and graveyards where the scientists were working.

Sailing all night, we awoke in Belgrade and left the Viking Neptune at 8:30 am for a driving tour of the city, seeing many embassies along the way. Some of the embassies (e.g. France and Austria) had lines of people who were waiting to apply for visas. Belgrade is one of those unlucky cities that has been bombed by almost everyone -- Austrians and Germans in World War I, Germans and Allies in World War II, and NATO forces in 1999 during the Croatian/Kosovo/Serbian War. Many buildings still show the remnants of the bombings.

Our first stop was at St. Sava Orthodox Church. Construction was begun in 1936, and the church looks almost finished on the outside. However, it is being built using donations, so much is left to be done on the inside.

Our second stop in Belgrade was at a hotel on the pedestrian shopping street. The Viking tours are all well-planned, with frequent stops at very clean bathrooms.

During our shopping time, I got some dinars since no one wanted to take Euros or dollars. One good thing about Serbia is that there is no fee to exchange money.

We really liked using the audio devices Viking provided. The guide can speak in a normal voice, and you can hear him/her from quite a distance away on your radio ear piece.

Our third stop on the tour was at Kalemegdan, the Belgrade fortress overlooking the river. It was quite large with nice views of where the green Sava and muddy Danube Rivers join. This confluence reminded me of the meeting of the Amazon waters in Brazil.

Rejoining the ship for lunch, we sailed towards Hungary. That afternoon, we toured the small galley and even smaller bridge. As always, I enjoyed these tours. The galley has 6 cooks and 2 dishwashers. All of the Viking ships serve the same menus, except for the "local" meals, and we seemed to have one local dinner per country. The ship gets big shipments of goods every 2 weeks, but take on fresh fruits and vegetables every 3 days. No bread making is done on board.

The Viking Neptune captain has been sailing on European rivers for 21 years and is licensed on 76 of them. Each river requires a separate license. He also speaks 7 "navigational languages", and has a separate radio for communicating with the locks and "harbor" masters.

The next morning, as we left Serbia and entered the Hungarian section of the Danube River, I walked around the sun deck for about 40 minutes. Marek, one of the program managers, led an exercise class for 30 minutes each morning we were on the river, but the walking felt good for a change, although it was a lot of laps per mile.

Since all the program managers have more than one job, Marek also did an hour's presentation on his home country of Slovakia that morning. He spoke of the history of Slovakia and their union (and subsequent break up) with the Czech Republic. I love learning about new cruise destinations, and Marek did an exceptional job of sharing his love of Slovakia with the Viking Neptune passengers.

Our next stop was Kalocsa.