It was an early start to get packed with our bags outside our cabin in order to be loaded onto the buses. Still time for a final breakfast, though I always have an identical breakfast so it was not particularly special!  We all slept for a good deal of the 2.5 hour journey to Budapest.  […]

We had 2 optional excursions, both of which involved a bus ride. Pauline and I opted to do the trip to Pecs (pronounced Petch)which has a church, organ recital, world heritage archaeological site and pretty town. Mike opted to chill out on the boat.  The boat is very low in the water and we needed […]

In the morning we had an excursion to Ilok which is a rural village up on a fortress. Following a short stroll around the fortress we went to a local vineyard, Hungary’s 3rd largest, for wine tasting. As they say, it’s always wine o’clock somewhere.  The church at Ilok was nice. A Catholic Church this […]

Another beautiful sunny day and not too hot. We first had a quick bus tour of Novi Sad, which is Serbia’s second largest city and then a walk through the central town. Novi Sad was rebuilt in the late 1800s after the town was flattened by the Hungarians that were occupying the fortress across the […]

We had a morning bus and walking tour of Belgrade in the morning and free time on board in the afternoon.  Our guide in Belgrade was excellent. He had a great sense of humour, laced with irony, but was able to provide context to many of the characteristics of Serbia and the Balkans more generally.  […]

It was a spectacular sailing morning as we went through the Iron Gates and a narrow gorge before the Danube opens into a large artificial lake beyond. We still had Romania on the right bank until we got to Golubac in the afternoon. More importantly, it rained the previous evening so the daytime temperatures are lower […]