The Joys of Retirement Production Company

Our last day on the Danube,  we have a rural Hingary tour.   We visited the cathedral in Kalosca for a beautiful organ concert.

After that incredible instrument and concert in that beautiful church,  we visited a horse farm!  And had a very entertaining show there,  as well as a wagon ride!  Each bus was escorted into the arena by a rider!  The showd off their skills riding and cracking their whips ( which never touch the horses,  just make noise!)

On our drive to and from the village and farm,  we saw several stork nests

An enjoyable day with quite a contrast on entertainment!  We loved it!

This is our first visit to continental Croatia altho we have visited Zagreb, the capital,  Istria and the Dalmatian coast 2 times. This area is the bread basket of the country.

We stopped at a farm stay place for a sample of rural living.  

Driving thru the villages

We also visited a small church and had a concert from a local musician

We toured the old fortified city center of Osijek

The white city,  called so because of the color is the fort on the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers,  was capital of Yugoslavia during its time.   We had an interesting guide who lived thru Tito and explained a lot about life during those years.   We are learning a lot about the Balkan nations now. 

The students here are protesting the corruption of the government.  We saw the signs and some odd the student protestors near the university buildings

The fortress in the large Kalemegdan Park is very near our ship dock.   There is a monument The Victor there overlooking the tivers

We visited the walking streets of the old city

The large orthodox church is fairly new,  having started construction before Tito, but “put on ice” during those years behind fencing,  it was not begun again until years after his death and not finished until a few years ago.   is design is after the z Jakia Sophia in Istanbul.   Much of the money and donations were from the Russian orthodox church

The inside is filled with gold mosaics and quite spectacular

On tomorrow to Croatia,  still part of the Balkan nations.

We were sailing up the Danube thru 2 sets of locks, 1 during the the night and the last right at dawn.

The weather is still rainy,  misty,  and foggy but the route thru the national parks. 1 on the Romanian side and 1 on the Serbian side of the Danube was still beautiful.

We dropped off a few who were skiing an optional hike to a Vista ( hopefully they could see something if the clouds lift a bit), we sailed on thru this stretch of the river to Golubac, Serbia to visit the Fortress there.

It is Balkan night,  and several crew are wearing the costumes of their native countries

When we left Romania,  we only crossed the Danube and docked in Ruse, Bulgaria overnight.   In the morning we joined an all day tour to a world heritage village,  Arabanasi, where we visited a 500 year old orthodox church.   Unfortunately we couldn’t photograph the inside frescos which covered the walls.

We also visited a house museum there,  typical of the village.

We then go to a wonderful overlook of the town Veliko Tarnovo

We docked in Vidin the next day but the rainy weather kept us from seeing much of the scenery.   We traveled over an hour by bus in fog,  but saw very little of a Rocky fortress Belogradchik.  Emmett walked up a bit,  despite the rain but the view is the rocks was obscured by the clouds

Back on ship,  a Bulgarian folk dance youth ensemble performed for us.  

Our cruise begins today so we began the trip to the ship with a city tour.   There we visited an interesting open air museum of buildings from across the years and across Romania.   Each building had information on the village and region it was brought from.   Each once houses a family.   Very interesting tour

After a great lunch,  we are On to the ship!

You might remember in the days Nicolae Ceaușescu,  the Romanian dictator from 1964 to 1989, when he was assassinated,  he built grand buildings covering the old city cents.   Today we visited the repurposed palace which was to be the communist  government offices,  which today houses the elected parliament of the country.   Romania has come a long way in 35 years!

The avenues around the parliament were part is the project in the 1980s.  Some house ministries while some remain unused.

Also being built in the city right now,  is a new grand cathedral,  designed to be the large orthodox cathedral in Eastern Europe

Our traveled through the braiding mountains and along some very country roads to see one of the 132 fortified churches from the 13th to 14th c. 

We visited them the old walled town of Sibiu for a walk around the streets and to see the cathedral.   We had time for a leisurely lunch before our drive back to Bucharest.

The Lutheran cathedral outside and in!

The countryside and villages along the way

We arrived back in Bucharest to a new hotel,  the one Viking uses,  the JW Marriott Grand, and had a great dinner in their steak house.

We arrived in Bucharest a couple days early to relax and see a bit more of the country before our Viking Danube River cruise.   We had booked an over night trip to Transylvania with a private guide.   There are 4 of us only so it is a very enjoyable group.   The other couple,  Drew and Janet,  are also going on the same cruise in a couple days! 

Our trip has taken us up to the 2 famous castles of Transylvania. The first. Peleş Castle, the summer palace of the Royal family of Romania built in the 1870s.

Inside it is very grand

We then visited Bran Castle,  a more medievil 13th C castle fortress from which Vlad the Impaler and his father and grandfather all ruled in the 14th and 15th centuries. 

This is a much more rustic fortress

We had a nice lunch in the main square of Brasov where we visited the Black church

We chose the overnight trip so that we wouldn’t have to ride back to Bucharest in 1 day,  and because it added a stay in Sighișoara, the hometown of Vlad the Impaler and, for us,  the opportunity to stay inside the fortified city.  

The square and buildings inside the old city are charming

In the evening light

Neither of us were toooo hungry but a cup of herbal tea and these wonderful desserts,  homemade ice cream and the Romanian national dessert of these small cake-like sweets made with boiled cottage cheese, a cheese dumpling,  with whipped sour cream and blueberry jam. Papanasi it is called.   It sounds strange but they were delicious!

Nice end to a long but interesting day!

Started in almost a white out!  Snowing and about 6″ in surfaces near the airport!  We had to be de-iced before flying since the temp was about 27°F.  Then,  after arriving in Istanbul, we have 6 hours before our connecting flight to Bucharest.  It will be a long day but having access to the airport lounges sure helps!