Life on the High Plains

One of the places I was looking most forward to seeing on our Danube cruise was the Iron Gates.  It's a gorge that forms the boundary between Romania and Serbia. The river separates the Carpathian Mountains from the Balkan Mountains. Fortunately, the gorge is narrow and deep so our longship was able to sail through.  What is that square block over there? This plaque is a memorial on the Serbian side of the river that was built by the Roman Emperor Trajan to commemorate the completion of his military road along the Danube.  It was built between 98 AD and 101 AD.  However, this is not its original location.  It was moved in 1972 when the Iron Gate Hydroelectric Power Station was built and the Danube water level was raised by 35 feet. Before long we got a glimpse of what I really wanted to see--The Rock sculpture of Decebalus, the last king of Dacia who fought against the Roman Emperors Trajan and Domitan. Apparently it resembles the Argonath, a pair of statues alo...

After leaving Turnu Severin in the early morning we had a three hour cruise to Orsova, Romania.  The excursion that Viking arranged for us there was a trip to the Baths of Hercules or Baile Herculane. The history of these baths date back 2,000 years ago to Roman times.  People came to enjoy the healing waters including Hercules and the Roman aristocracy.   At one time this spa town was a getaway for the rich and famous.  The centerpiece of the town is the Imperial Austrian Neptune Baths built in the 1880s for the Austrian royalty.  It now stands abandoned, in disrepair with peeling paint and rust. We asked the tour guide why it hasn't been preserved.  He reminded us that Romania only had its revolution 36 years ago.  The Communists saw no reason to preserve history or buildings.  Therefore there are hundreds or even thousands of historic sites that need work.  It's going to take years and lots of money.  In the meantime, we couldn't...

On our recent Danube cruise almost all the ports of call on our itinerary where thrown out due to the low water levels.  We could only be in dock in a port where the water was deep enough to accommodate the ship.  Viking did its best to find interesting sites along the way. One of these ports was Turnu Severin, Romania and the ancient Dacian and Roman settlement of Drobeta. Construction on the first phase of the Roman fort began in 101 AD.  The fort was built to protect the northern side of Trajan's Bridge across the Danube. By the 3rd century the settlement had grown to 40,000 inhabitants and covered 60 hectares (about 148 acres). I can't tell you what all these ruins were, but the fort consisted of barracks, baths, a church, hospital, amphitheater, and more.   The amphitheater was discovered in 2010 when the adjacent Museum of the Iron Gates Region was expanding. We were able to walk through the Museum. There's Irv reading the informational brochure on the mus...

On our recent Danube River cruise we made a brief stop in Golubac, Serbia where we disembarked and toured the Golubac fortress.  The blue sky made for a wonderful backdrop. It was built in the 14th century by Medieval Serbia.  It is comprised of three compounds built at different times and it has ten towers. Prior to its construction it was a Roman settlement.   Many battles occurred here between the Ottomans and the Kingdom of Hungary and it changed hands between the Turks, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Serbs and Austrians.  It was turned over to Serbia in 1867. In the 1930s a major roadway was built through the fortress which resulted in significant damage and a very tight squeeze through the gates for some vehicles.  Fortunately, the European Union stepped in and built a bypass tunnel outside the fortress walls and the renovation on the fortress started in 2005. One of the lower chambers has been made into a museum with lots of interesting artifacts. A beautif...

Last week I started documenting our recent journey to Eastern Europe with my Skywatch Friday post.  Now I want to dive deeper into our brief visit to Romania. First of all, I never in a million years thought I'd ever visit Romania.  It was a communist country until 1989 and was someplace that you'd never think to visit.  When choosing which river we wanted to cruise this summer we decided to go somewhere new and unexpected. After a long day of traveling Viking picked us up at the airport and took us to the J.W. Marriott in Bucharest.  Beautiful hotel!   The first order of business was dinner.  I usually go with an Aperol Spritz when in Europe, but on this night I decided to try an Elderflower spritz.  Delicious! Viking gave us two options for the following morning.  1) Load up on the bus at 8:00 and make the 5 1/2 hour journey to where the boat was docked; or 2) Load up on the buss at 8:00, take a tour of the city, have lunch and then make th...