Mid-Trip Relocation Day

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 what are you going to do? I can't be a picky beer drinker here since choices are limited and it was cold and refreshing on what was a really hot day. As I enjoyed my meal I got a message regarding the cruise. Due to even more historic low water levels, the cruise ship was not going to make it the the port of Giurgui after all. Instead of a 1.5 hour bus trip to the port, we are now facing an 8 hour bus trip to Vidin, Bulgaria, plus another overnight in Bucharest and losing one night on the ship. UGH.

Here is the planned cruise.

Both Giurgiu, Romania and Rousse are lost. Even with rain today, I can't see that there's enough water coming down that could raise the Danube water levels enough to salvage this situation. I'm so glad I was halfway through that beer before the news came in.