WATERWAY WINNER
- Bill Watt
- 15 hours ago
- 6 min read
European river cruises are hugely popular, but what if you want to explore a less travelled part of the continent by boat? BILL WATT boards the Emerald Sun in Romania to find out.
How fabulous do those TV ads look? You know the ones. Luxury river cruise ships sailing past picture-book mediaeval towns, towering castles and lush vineyards.
Over the years my wife and I have been increasingly tempted by such ads until, just recently, we took the bait ... but with one proviso: We wanted a cruise that took us to places we might otherwise not visit.
The result ... in the European spring we boarded the Emerald Sun at the Romanian riverside town of Giurgiu for an Enchantment Of Eastern Europe cruise that would wind along the Danube all the way to the Hungarian capital of Budapest.
And, boy, this odyssey really did meet our (high) expectations. Effortless transport, a room with a view, first class food and drink, memorable excursions to places most people have never heard of, and sojourns in three eastern European capital cities.
ON BOARD
Cabin: The most obvious advantage of a river cruise over travel alternatives is that you can unpack in your cabin and not repack until you disembark. Our "Panorama Balcony Suite" was just perfect for us. It had plenty of storage and an extremely comfortable queen-sized bed. The panoramic window, which ran down the entire length of the cabin, was ceiling-to-floor which lowered halfway for fresh air or photo shoots.
Food & drink: Honestly, we have never eaten so well in our lives ... and I'm not talking quantity here, although you can eat as much as you want. No, I'm talking quality. From the buffet breakfasts and lunches to the three course meals in the evening, it was five-star cuisine. There was plenty of choice, but I generally stuck with the chef's selection as it was cleverly themed to match the particular region we were sailing in at the time. Same with the beer and wine (no added payment) served and topped up throughout your meal.
Special mention goes to the head chef on the Emerald Star. He met my wife who is coeliac and lactose intolerant, at the start of the cruise to understand her diet, then his team produced - day in and day out - the most incredible meals for her. It was a delightful personal touch which we have rarely encountered anywhere else.
Fellow travellers: Mixing with our fellow passengers was a delight. Everyone seemed to have an interesting story to tell about their lives. Mainly English-speaking nationalities were represented - Americans, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis, English, Scots - but there was a sprinkling of others, and all on board seemed to be having a ball.
RIVER DANCE
I loved the wild scenery of this part of the Danube. It was mainly rolling, wooded hills and marshes, with the occasional towns. Very peaceful. There are a few ancient forts and such along the way, too, but I don't think you can compare it to the rivers of western Europe, with their seemingly endless flow of storybook mediaeval villages and castles. A highlight was passing through the Iron Gates gorge, with Romania on one side of the river and Serbia on the other. The massive head of ancient local hero King Decebalus (pictured above), carved into rock on the Romanian side, is spectacular. But, for me, the best part of our voyage was how it gave us access to stunning places that most people in the western world wouldn't know even existed.
A ROAD LESS TRAVELLED
Ivanovo cave church and hermit homes: In the forested wilderness near Rousse, a Bulgarian town on the banks of the Danube, we are transported to a realm of churches, chapels, monasteries and simple cave homes carved out of cliff faces more than 700 years ago. After a 30m climb up to the ancient homes of Christian hermits we are greeted by stunning views complete with wooded hills, rocky limestone precipices and wildflowers.
As a unique bonus, while we waited to enter the Holy Virgin cave church we were gifted the beautiful singing of a group of Bulgarian women inside. The cave church contains a series of astounding Biblical frescoes dating back to the 14th Century, but, in truth, its the singing of those worshippers that is etched in my memory.
Belogradchik Fortress: Nope, I hadn’t heard of it either, but this Bulgarian citadel is as spectacular as it is strange. Its majesty can only be rivalled in the pages Game Of Thrones or Lord Of The Rings. Built into towering bluffs of natural sandstone and limestone it just doesn’t look real. And the views from the top of the fortress - the lush green slopes of the Balkan Mountains - are well worth the climb up.
Lepenski Vir: This is a Serbian archaeological site on the banks of the Danube dating back nearly 10,000 years. The villagers that left their mark here were among the first to build an urban society in Europe. The open-plan museum constructed around the site is extraordinary. It features ancient graves, monuments, jewellery and some really weird looking statues.
Baba Vida: Baba Vida is an ancient citadel on the banks of the Danube in the picturesque Bulgarian town of Vidin. With very few other travellers around, it was great to wander through the rooms of this substantial, largely intact, relic of a bygone era. The fortress carries the name of a Bulgarian princess, Vida, who, legend says, refused to marry and built the citadel to maintain her independence. Its name means Granny Vida.
Golubac Castle: My favourite place visited during the cruise, it was once so poorly appreciated by the socialist government of Yugoslavia that a riverside highway went right through the castle's main gateway. Now part of Serbia, the highway has been rerouted and the citadel that stands at the western entrance to the Iron Gates gorge has been reinstated as a monument of national pride. We climbed to the top of the building using some precipitous, roughly hewn stairs on the side of the castle. It wasn't for the feint-hearted but the reward at the top was a sweeping view of the castle, the Danube and our trusty ship docked nearby.
Vukovar: A Croatian town on the Danube, Vukovar gained notoriety during the Yugoslav War of the 1990s. In 1991 it was the scene of an 87-day siege by Yugoslavia's armed forces and Serbian paramilitary forces. An estimated 12,000 artillery shells and rockets were reported to have been fired daily at the little town until its defenders were overwhelmed, with one of the main targets being its water tower. But, the tower proudly withstood the battering and with the city reincorporated into Croatia, it is now a moving memorial of those dreadful days of bloody battles and war crimes.
Puszta: On our second last day on the Danube we had a shore excursion to a traditional horse farm on the Great Hungarian Plain (Puszta). And, didn't the local "cowboys" put on a show. Their derring-do rivals anything I have seen on horseback. The unlikely star of the show was, however, a mule and his hilarious handler.
CAPITAL Bs
Of course, the eastern Danube region contains some famous capital cities, notably the three Bs - Bucharest, Belgrade and Budapest.
The first of the three we visited was Bucharest, in Romania. Known as the Paris of the East, we wandered through the Old Town and its ancient cobbled streets; visited the extravagant Spring Palace of former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu; and saw the Palace of the Parliament, a magnificent monstrosity that is officially the world's largest civilian administrative building.
Next up was Serbia's Belgrade, where the Sava River flows into the Danube. Our shore tour took us to the heights of Kalemegdan Park where the two rivers can be clearly seen merging along with the city and surrounds. Other highlights were the over-the-top magnificence of the Church of Saint Sava; and the House of Flowers, final resting place of Josip Broz Tito, socialist dictator of the failed 20th Century mega-state Yugoslavia.
We sailed into our third capital of the tour, Hungary's Budapest, as the sun dropped below the horizon ... and what a show this majestic metropolis put on for us. The Emerald Sun traversed the length of the city and back, under bridges decorated with lights and spectacularly illuminated buildings.
That grand entrance to Budapest couldn't have provided a better farewell to our Danube River sojourn aboard the Emerald Sun. We disembarked the next morning very satisfied customers.
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