Here and There Blog

Back to the contrasting images in Belgrade. This building was bombed by NATO in the late 90's and still has boarded windows today. The banners in the street are for an upcoming Beer Fest which shows that life is festive and goes on even when reconstruction lags in other areas. Inside the courtyard of several buildings are more murals, depicting an inner beauty to the city that you don't see from the streets. Then you have the ridiculous amount of money that was spent on building the Temple of Saint Sava, the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church. This building isn't old or historic and only completed in 2020 after an initial ground-breaking in 1935 followed by interruptions of conflict and war. The building is huge and a good picture would probably need to be done by drone. The interior is spectacular. The estimated cost is 100 million Euros and 50 million was from private donations. The government of Serbia contributed 40 million and Russia 10 million. I hope this pays of...

Belgrade was a stop that I had been curious about. I didn't know much of what to expect other than a reputation to watch out for pickpockets/theft, the usual big city dangers. We were required to carry our passports in Belgrade which was different than the other stops, even in Golubac. Arrival into Belgrade showed that this part of the Danube was industrial and that artwork/murals were going to be part of the experience. There isn't a distinctive style to Belgrade, it's a mix of old and new, run down, neglected, cared for, and artistic depending on which direction you're looking. I liked this shot because it showed a mix of an art gallery in front with one of the older buildings in the back. Older neglected looking exterior with a completely different architecture. Side of a building. While the art is great, I had to wander around bags of trash to get the picture. I cropped those out so you could focus on the cool part but you can still see some of the bags in the lower...

 After a full day of only seeing river banks, the ship docked at Golubac so we could get off and partially explore the fortress. I thought it would be a couple of hours of intense stairs but it turns out that only 4 of the 10 towers are open. This is due to the construction of the fortress to prevent breaching by outsiders. Not all the towers are connected and the upper ones each have a different entrance. You can only explore as part of a private guide since some of the areas are on steep rock and require use of the hand rail to climb. Oh, and there are venomous snakes at the top where the fort meets the cliffs! Our guide told us he'd only ever seen two of the vipers at ground level, they prefer to be in the hilly area. I didn't have a snake sighting but I looked. Looking out from one of the smaller towers at the front. There were four cannons pointed in all directions on the river. It doesn't show well in this picture but it's nearly straight up to the top levels. The...

Cruising along the Danube is a day's view of water and mountains and then something interesting comes along. Mostly it looks like this view with Romania on the right and Serbia on the left. The ship was sailing to the narrowest point of the river and what I didn't realize or remember was that when people were fleeing Communist Romania for the west, many swam, floated or sailed to freedom in this area until the Romanian government started patrolling their waters. Even today you can't sail from one side to the other since there's no border control. Well you can sail and cross but the consequences wouldn't be good. The Mraconia Monastery is in the same area and the original dated from the 11th century. People, governments and wars being what they are saw this place destroyed and rebuilt over the years. Then when the Iron Gates were built to control the water and shipping along the Danube the latest version was flooded and rebuilt here. So go monks. After centuries your...

Life on the river often means spots where I can't get a good wifi connection so I'm a bit behind on blogging. I'm going to do this one fast and then get more detailed on the last two stops. I'm sailing with AMA Waterways and the ship is the AmaVerde as seen from the dock in Vidin. Usually I share a bigger cabin with a friend but for this trip we decided to splurge and get our own cabin. Here's my little home for the week. Most of Thursday was on the ship as we sailed from Bulgaria to Serbia. This lock is the second gate of the Iron Gates. Looking over at the dam on the river. View from my cabin. The water is just below the window. There are only three decks on this ship and I'm on Level 3.

The ship is docked right by the city center and this is the view that you get as you head into town. Vidin was once one of the biggest port cities along the Danube and influences from other areas show up around the city. Since I can't resist a fortress, I took the walking tour to the Baba Vida fortress, pretty well intact and good for exploring.  The fortress must have had a great view back in medieval times to see anyone approaching the area. Today it was hard to find a view that wasn't blocked by playgrounds, shops, or restaurants. This was the closest I could come to imaging what it would have looked like. This is also a fort where safety is your own responsibility. You can go through the tunnels and into the room but especially in the dungeon rooms there are drop-offs to the area below that are hard to see in the dark. I'm curious how many people have taken a tumble down. Overall, Vidin is great place for a day trip. I'm glad I made it!

8.5 hours by bus even a chartered one with guided commentary is a long time to be doing nothing but watch the corn go by. Once in a while we'd pass a cool looking village but the bus sped along and there was no photo op. There was a gas station stop for a restroom break and this is what the area looked like: Leaving the gas station and heading onwards, the bus went slow enough that these homes were in focus. When I wasn't looking at fields of corn or ruined sunflower crops due to the extreme heat, most of the Romanian area we went through was industrial. Lots of car factories, abandoned car factories, and places that looked like this: We did get a lunch break at a Ramada hotel mid-way through the ride. At long last, we arrived at the Romanian/Bulgarian border and cleared the border control. Another 15 minutes and we were onboard the cruise ship and ready to start the lower Danube cruise.

  The cruise group arrived last night and after a week traveling solo it was strange to be with so many people. The advantages of course were someone to go to with to enjoy a couple pints of Guinness!  The next day was slightly off-kilter since we had to check out of one hotel and into the hotel next door where the cruise ship was putting us up for the night since the ship couldn't make it in with the ever decreasing water levels. So far the rain isn't helping the the river continues to shrink in depth. Time to explore some different streets so yes, today's images are statues and churches. This monument marks the 1989 Romanian Revolution. Base of the monument. The map labeled this as "White Church" and that's what you get. Some of the others are "Brick Church" of which there were plenty. Tomorrow brings the long bus trip to Vidin.

This is the last day to myself and it's been raining off and on. Not too bad except for the thunder that warns you when to head inside for a bit. There was still plenty of time to walk around Old Town Bucharest and some of the surrounding areas before the heavier rain came down. This area needs tourism and I can tell the last two years without tourists have been hard. More places are out of business and if possible, Old Town is even more run down that 4 years ago. Side street looking down at the restaurants. This short tunnel was actually fairly clean. Quite a few people were out cleaning up and getting rid of trash. It's not like the city isn't trying.  Shortly after the tunnel I went down a side street that I didn't recall going down before and looked over and saw an old orthodox church. Music started up, a choir was singing and I remembered it was Sunday. The mass was going on outside, not in the church and suddenly it clicked in my brain about the taxi driver tellin...

The relaxing time in Austria is over and I'm now in Bucharest. This is the staging city to meet up with friends and the cruise group for what I hope will be a successful Danube cruise. Brief history, I was supposed to be on the Bucharest to Budapest cruise in 2018 but due to historic water levels, the cruise was cancelled and we ended up flying to Vienna and cruising the Austrian Danube. Then before a redo could happen, Covid happened. So here's today. What does one do on a travel day? It's fairly boring with airports and immigration and simply going from Central Europe to Eastern Europe. Upon arrival to the hotel I spotted the most wonderful sign on the elevator "Guest Laundry." I was going to hand wash clothes and instead the hotel offered free self service wash and dry!  I pack really light so that I can hand carry all luggage to this was a traveler's dream! Once that was complete then it was time for something a bit better. Dinner and a beer. A lager but w...

Continuing the theme of smaller points of interest, I headed off to the Globe Museum in Vienna. An easy walk from the airport train I was able to still enjoy looking at the tourist draw buildings and navigate the crowds without having to be part of the long lines. There were no lines to get into the Globe Museum and at 5 euros, the small showcase was worth the visit. Today I learned about Globology which is a word even though spell check is telling me it's not. The collection in Vienna mainly covers globes produced before 1850. When you walk inside, you get globes and for a round object, they aren't easy to photograph and all of these are behind glass and protected due to age. There's no hand's on spinning the earth around here. The transition hall or Golden Cabinet between rooms is oddly impressive. The museum is located inside the Austrian National Library and these murals date from the end of the 17th century. Nice visual bonus. Another teaching globe And cat charts....