4/2026 Capitols of Eastern Europe Cruise
Our next stop was in Bucharest, Romania to start a Viking River cruise to the capitols of Eastern Europe on the Danube. This was our first river cruise. It met the goal of getting to some cities we probably would never have flown or trained or bussed to. Will we do another river cruise? Probably not – too short of time in each city, too rigid of a schedule, and too many group activities. We were lucky that the water levels were still high so no disruption there.
We flew from Amsterdam to Bucharest. The terminal in Bucharest was a construction zone everywhere but pales in comparison to the traffic in Bucharest which is Abysmal! Took about 7 lights to get up to the Arc de Triumph roundabout which has traffic from 4 directions (4 lanes each) merge and circle and create utter chaos!
Lots of “grand” architecture – symmetric buildings at intersection. Construction going on for a new Metro stops and water pipes.
We were in Bucharest a few days before the cruise and booked a driver to take us to Transylvania through the Carpathian Mountains. Visited Peles Castle, Brasov, and Bran Castle with lots of scenery thrown in. The ski hills still had snow! Many of the drivers are a bit reckless – passing in the mountains where we wouldn’t think of it!
Let the cruise begin!
At this church we learned a little about the arrangements of altar screens in Orthodox churches. Usually there are 2 rows of saints and apostles. This one had only one row – apostles. Then the center row has the patron saint of the church on the left, Mary, Jesus and ??? on the right. I didn’t take very good notes!
The day we went to Pleven, Bulgaria, the second stop was in the center of town to either wander around or go to the mausoleum where many who died at a famous battle are buried. Before we headed to the church, our guide told us where and when to meet – at the Pleven sign at 5:10. Some lady couldn’t understand those directions and asked the tour guide several times – “Do we have to meet at 5:10 if we’re not going to the Mausoleum?” YES!!
Made an overnight stop in Belgrade which we really liked. It was a holiday so lots of people were out and about. The Serbs are quite tall and we saw a group of teens that we would have guessed were basketball players even if their jackets hadn’t identified them! Everyone in Serbia knows where Colorado is because of Jokic who plays for the Nuggets.
At this port town, the walkway to shore wouldn’t match up – the last small ramp wouldn’t go down. They tried jumping on it but it just popped up. Passengers were on both sides – wine tour peoples trying to get back on and Included tour trying to get off. Sue and I watched from the ship. Finally had to use a crane to put another ramp above the first one.
Our next stop was Budapest. Mark and Susan were first there in 1990, right after the wall came down. It certainly looks better in 36 years and no Russian soldiers with guns wandered around. We skipped all the first time visitor sites and went hunting for various monuments and memorials to WWII and the Russian invasions.
Bratislava is not far up the river from Budapest.
After a walking tour of Bratislava, it was time for a Slovenian beer!
Vienna was the last stop on the cruise and the last stop on this 6 week trip. We’ve been to Vienna a few times so we passed on the usual tourist stuff and made it our shopping day for the things we didnt want to lug around for the whole trip – shoes for Mark, shampoo and bath stuff for Julia (The idiot’s tarriffs made the company stop shipping to the U.S.).
The end! Off to Frankfurt and Denver and home to spend the summer in Fort Collins – planning the next adventure, of course!
Sorry … not good funny stories on this trip!
