Cruising Europe 2017

SUMMING UP We have been back almost two weeks now. We were met by Blue at the Ottawa airport. Norma drove her car home and Akira and Blue drove me home. When I didn't hear from Norma confirming her safe arrival home, I called to learn that she was coping with a flood. A pipe had somehow developed a hole and water was pouring into her dining room. Luckily, she had the help of a neighbour and they managed to turn off the water, call a plumber, and sop up some of the mess. Just the thing she needed after being up for over 20 hours of travelling. To follow up, her insurance has been busy sending workers to tear down the ceiling, walls, and floors in preparation for drying everything out and to ready her home for construction. She may have to move out but that is covered as well as replacement of rugs and dining room furniture. With any luck, in a month this will be well behind her. It has taken me this long to finally get back into a routine. My garden was a mess due t...

ROMANIAN AIRPORT EXPERIENCE All went well with our transfers from Tauck and we arrived at the airport by 3:30 am. A quick check of the board, confirmed my fear that none of the counters were open. I did manage to print our boarding passes from one of those terrifying machines - who knew I had a biometric passport? Norma went off to find out if she could find a Lufthansa counter. She did and we went and stood in line until 4:05 when it finally opened. My big bag is just under the weight limit. That is because I collected a lot of paper on this trip that I will use to make a scrapbook. Then it was a journey through security and passport control. How we managed that was a miracle because the signs were quite confusing. It is such a relief to be sitting in the Lounge waiting for our boarding call. Next stop, Frankfurt.

The friezes.

See what I mean about being dark.

36 people could sit around the table

The King collected armaments and this was one of his collection

It was three stories high

SINAIA AND THE CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS We left the hotel at 7:45 this morning en route to the town of Sinaia, the home of Peles Castle, summer home of the Romanian Kings. The drive took 2.5 hours enough time for me to enjoy a nap. As both the king and queen were of Germanic origin - the Hohenzollerns - the castle was built and decorated in the Germanic style. This meant lots of heavy dark carved wood in every room. I found it dark and dreary, Norma found it warm and cozy. The town was the preferred summer resort of many noble and rich families as the king and queen vacationed here. Now it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Romania. It is a credit to the organization of the tour guides, how many thousands of people made their way through the palace. We also noticed the conspicuous lack of the ubiquitous graffiti in the town that is found everywhere else. The Carpathian Mountains are more like the Gatineau Hills at home but much more settled. The temperature wa...

This illustrates the design of the building with its four towers and connecting corridors and rooms.

Notice how grey and dirty the chandeliers look - that is not because they haven't been cleaned but because of the high lead content in the crystal. They sparkled when on.

The glass in the doors isn't glass but crystal.

The steps had very short risers. Ceaucescu was short and this made him appear taller.

Wider and longer and lined by apartments built for Communist party members

Statue of the first king of Romania, King Carol I.

Holding my hand in front of the 'naughty bits'. I look like two-ton Tilly! Diet starts Tuesday.

Notice the graffiti gracing the bottom of the pillar. This is where many died protesting against Communism and Ceaucescu

Now a museum

Now a museum

BUCHAREST, ROMANIA We were off on a 2-hour bus ride to Bucharest by 8:30 this morning. We picked up our guide for the day on the outskirts of the city and had a panoramic tour past many of the sights. The Communist leader, Ceausecu, had a grand vision for the city. He wanted the city to be approached by a grand boulevard and to do so, destroyed much of the city for his purposes. (To be fair, the city had suffered greatly in an earthquake a couple of years before he had his vision. He had visited China and North Korea and was highly influenced by what he saw there.) Whole neighbourhoods were eliminated including churches, shops, homes, hospitals, monasteries and upscale Commie Condos were built in place to be inhabited by party members. Other boulevards are lined with Commie Condos inthe usual ugly Russian-inspired 1950s style. Some of the grand houses were left so there is a great mishmash - new and old and partially destroyed. Graffiti abounds and so is the evidence of po...

Doesn't this look pleasant!

In danger of collapse

Gone to Wrack and Ruin - even a tree is growing in the gutter. No one has the money to restore these gems to their former glory.

It looks a bit like a swastika.

It's a snake with the head of a lamb.

CONSTANTA, ROMANIA We learned that Romania was settled by the Italians hence the name. Their language is based on Latin so shares the same alphabet as other romantic languages and we could recognize some of the words. Mersi is thank you, Piscine is pool, Restaurant is restaurant, etc. We boarded our bus which I nicknamed the Icecube as the driver had cranked up the air conditioning. Thank heavens we had our Tauck blankets with us - even then we froze. We didn't say anything as we seem to be the only ones who dislike the AC cranked up so high you think the season is winter not summer. But when others complained, we added our voices and the return ride was quite comfortable. Costanta is a city of about 400,000 people. The Communist influence is everywhere. The Commie Condos - apartment buildings - as our guide referred to them, were everywhere. We visited the Old Town where some of the beautiful buildings lie in ruins as the Soviets took them over and then proceeded ...

These were part of a competition in Ruse - some were beginning to show a bit of wear and tear.

You can see how high the windows are - from the outside, they are at ground level. Notice also the ornate and highly decorated interior as opposed to the very plain exterior seen in the previous picture.

You can see it is not very tall. The windows you see at ground level, are actually very high up in the building.

RUSE, BULGARIA We had a delightful dinner of Balkan specialties last night after which we retired to our cabin for an after-dinner drink. We left both our patio doors open wide last night so drifted off to the sound of the water and lots of fresh air. I awoke at 5 am to the most wonderful sunrise. This morning we are starting our packing because after today, we have three jam-packed sightseeing excursions because we cannot sail all the way to the Black Sea. This will entail long bus rides to get to our destinations. This afternoon we dock in Ruse in Bulgaria, a city founded in the first century by the Romans. We are taking the panoramic tour to view its neo-Baroque and neo-Rococo architecture before visiting the Ruse Historical Museum. We chose to skip the Ivanovo Rock Church with its medieval frescoes. The temperature will be in the 90sF or 30sC and only a strenuous hike will get us there. The entertainment tonight is an all-female quartet of the Ruse Philarmonic. ...

We dropped 100 feet altogether in this lock. We went down much further than this picture shows..

At 40 metres the tallest stone carving in Europe

Only 150 metres wide and a depth of 53 metres

At the beginning of the Djerdap Gorge or Iron Gate on the lower Danube

OUR LAST CRUISING DAY This morning we were up at 7 to enjoy the views as we entered the Djerdap Gorge or "Iron Gate", the most scenic and dramatic stretch of the Lower Danube. We first passed Golubacs Castle, an impressive fortification and one of the best preserved along the Danube. The massive towers and town of Laslovar acts as "Guards of the Danube". We passed through the Great Kazan Gorge which is only 150 metres wide and reaches a depth of 53 meters. I should mention that this entire area was flooded with the building of a huge dam and hydroelectric power plant. All the towns, roads, and bridges disappeared under the water and people were moved to higher ground much like what happened with the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway. On the way we passed the site of Lepenski Vir where archeological ruins and relics were found dating back 9,000 years ago, the early Neolithic age. They, too, were reconstructed on higher ground and covered by a building...

BELGRADE, SERBIA - PART TWO We had a wonderful guide, Liliana. She had the most wonderful, self-deprecating sense of humour. I wish I was better at remembering the jokes she told us. We learned quite a bit about the history of this area of the world. We saw all the sights and sites mentioned in my last blog post and even drove by the Canadian Embassy, festooned with a huge banner announcing our 150th birthday. Belgrade is also known as the "White City" due to the colour of the stone used on its older buildings. Unfortunately, pollution has taken its toll and they have all turned an ugly shade of grey or black. This includes the white carrera marble used to build the Canadian embassy and it was built very recently. Liliana informed us that the Canadians want to replace the marble now but because it would be too expensive, have had to live with the initial poor decision to clad the embassy in white marble. However, she did praise the Canadians for not hiding behi...

Where we had our dinner. This palace was in the Royal Compound and was built in the 1930s for the king's three sons.

Norma was too shy.

Note the lack of any natural light down here. After all, it is a basement!

Can you find the star the Communists added so they would feel more at home here?