Last Full Day On The Water

 Early this morning we had what could be considered our last walking tour of the voyage (we did get a bus tour the following day). 

Here we visited the Roman runes and a museum of archeological finds after passing through the Iron Gate the day before.

Here are a few pictures of the locks. I could not fight my way to the front so just took pictures of the locks operating as we passed through.

It was really interesting watching the level of the water drop. Notice the top line where the water was when we entered and how far it dropped before we passed through. This happened on all the locks.

The valley leading into this area had very steep sides, more like cliffs with a few homes and a monastery hanging on the side. 

We docked for the night and as I said early next morning we got up for our tour.

The ladies in the picture dressed in their communities traditional Romanian clothing were there to teach some classes on traditional arts and fiber crafts. Oh, how I wish I could have joined in those, but it was not to be.

The above are pictures from the museum. Lots of Roman items.

This is the remains of the only bridge to cross the Danube for many years. Built by the Romans and the footholds still stand on both sides. We were told it took the soldiers just one year to build it. Amazing if true.

We went back to the ship rested, and had a talk by our program director as to how we would be leaving the ship for Bucharest the next day.

My menu seems to be changing daily right now due to harvesting so I am going to redo it and will post it tomorrow along with our last day excursion and bus trip to Bucharest.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Orsova, Romania

 This city was entirely rebuilt in the 1970's. When the dam was built the old city was completely flooded (which happened to many of the small towns and villages at that time). We actually stayed on board once again as I was tired and a bit sore.

We played shuffleboard for a bit and rested on our deck. Later that evening we got our details about disembarking from the ship and the number of the bus we would be on. 

There was also a talk by the Program director about the excursions that would be happening the next day. 

Supper about killed us as far as food and alcohol. We were served two different brandies from Romania, a Romanian wine, three appetizers, a typical Romanian salad, then our taste of Romania main course. To finish all off there were 5 small desserts for each of us. So full I could hardly walk once done (okay slight exaggeration). Later in the evening we went to the lounge and took part in a movie quiz, listened to George play and sing. 

Some pictures of our meal. I seem to have missed the desserts. We left for Turnu Severin at about 5 and docked there at 9 pm. 

Tomorrow we have an excursion early and then head through the Iron Gates. A series of locks to lower us to the rest of the river.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Golubac, Serbia

 This is the gateway to the Djerdap National Park and is the beginning of the Iron Gate of the Danube. 

The Golubac Fortress was built in the 14th century by Slavic Serbians and became the object of many conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and Hungary. The fortress fell to the Turks, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Serbs and Austrians until it finally returned to the Serbs in 1867. Despite all these changes of hands the fortress actually repelled more than 120 attacks through it's history. 

It was very interesting to see all the artifacts that were found by archeologists. Small cannon balls, arrow points, spear points and even chainmail. 

Notice in the bottom picture the large gateway. For awhile the highway traveled through this opening. The opening only allowed one vehicle at a time to pass through, which made the drive sometimes take hours. A new highway was built through the mountain finally and the fortress was saved from even more degradation from vehicles.

The fortress and its 10 towers were restored to their former glory in the 2010's. However one of the keep towers is out of bounds due to the dam which caused the water to flood that tower.

We then got on the bus for a continuation of our tour, the second one we paid for.

We traveled through the park and went to Lepenski Vir. This is an archeological dig that was just wonderful.

Lepenski Vir (Serbian Cyrillic: Лепенски Вир, "Lepena Whirlpool"), located in Serbia, is an important archaeological site of the Lepenski Vir culture (also called as Lepenski Vir-Schela Cladovei culture^[2]). It includes Mesolithic Iron Gates Hunter-Gatherers period and transition to Early Neolithic Early European Farmers period of Southeastern Europe.^[2]

The latest radiocarbon and AMS data suggests that the chronology of Lepenski Vir spans between 9500/7200 and 5500 BC, divided into Early–Middle Mesolithic, Late Mesolithic, Transition and Neolithic.^[2] There is some disagreement about when the settlement and culture of Lepenski Vir began, but the latest data indicates that it was between 9500 and 7200 BC. The late Lepenski Vir (6300–6000 BC) architectural phase saw the development of unique trapezoidal buildings and monumental sculpture,^[3] related with the admixing of Iron Gates Hunter-Gatherers with newly arrived Early European Farmers.^[4] The Lepenski Vir site consists of one large settlement with around ten satellite villages. Numerous piscine (fish) sculptures with human-like faces and peculiar architectural remains have been found at the site.

I copied this from Wikipedia so as you would all know what the site was about.

Such an interesting place, but being as it was really warm and the glass magnified the heat we couldn't spend as long as we would have liked in the main portion of the site. 

Back on the bus after about an hour and off to a small eating establishment, where we got to try fried nettle for the very first time. Pretty tasty.

A lovely garden surrounded the establishment filled with wooden sculptures. We followed the path to the lookout where I managed to get a picture of our ship traveling to our next stop.

The scenery was just so amazing and I wish my phone had been working better for pictures.

I am sorry that I haven't been to visit any of you lately, but once the garden is in, I promise to catch up with all of you.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Belgrade, Serbia

 Overnight we traveled a bit further on the Danube to Belgrade. Belgrade is the capitol of Serbia, and was once the capital of the former Yugoslavia. It is located where the Sava and Danube meet and has always been a contested area. "The White City" as its Serbian name translates to has been destroyed, and rebuilt 20 times. 

Here we visited the Church of St. Sava which is one of the largest Orthodox buildings in the world. The church was rebuilt at a very high cost and they are still working on the outside.

Our guide went to the "small" church on the grounds of St. Sava.

Notice that there are no chairs or pews. The only people that are allowed to sit through a service are the elderly and chairs are brought out for them to use at that time.

This is where I had my own bit of excitement. As we were leaving and getting closer to the bus, I was asking the guide a question when all of a sudden I tripped on the tiniest difference in the pathway stones. Down I went, gracefully I have been told and not a single bad word left my mouth (not to say I wasn't thinking them). Harvey said I went down like I was trying to reach home plate before the ball did. As it was a very hot day, I was wearing a knee length dress as well. I turned over to see the guide wide-eyed asking me if I was okay, and about 8 men trying to pull me up, or should I say help me up. I handed my phone and wallet to the lovely Macedonian couple we had supper with the night before, asked the men to wait a moment while I checked things out to see if legs and arms were still working. Once helped to my feet I noticed I had cut my palm a bit (well there was blood running down my arm) and continually telling the guide I was just fine, a hoard of the ladies descended upon me. One cleaned my wound with wipes she had, another applied some antiseptic, and a third bandaged me up. 

I really was surprised that the cut was the only real damage. I was more worried about the entire world seeing my underwear!!!

We got back to the ship and as we got off the bus everyone was asking me if I was okay (got to be slightly annoying after a few days). 

Lunch was had and then we were off on another tour.... With as luck would have it the same tour guide. Sighs. 

This time we went to the Nikola Tesla Museum.

Such an interesting place to visit. One of the most interesting things was the fact that Nikola Tesla's ashes are in the museum, just where he wanted them. That is the top picture. His urn has a special room all to itself.

Went back to the ship, had supper, listened to the piano player for a bit and went to bed fairly early. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.