Day
1
You spend the night at the Radisson Blu Hotel Bucharest.
This hotel is centrally located beside the Parliament
Palace and
has a health club, a choice of restaurants and different
bars. A welcome dinner is served at the hotel this
evening.
Day 2
This morning we have arranged an included city
sightseeing tour of Bucharest. This sightseeing tour
shows you the city
centre, Parliament Buildings, and the Memorial to Freedom.
The highlight of the tour is a visit to the open-air
Village and Folk
Art Museum in Herastrau Park, on the outskirts of Bucharest.
Here you can see reconstructions of old peasant houses
from
all over the country, complete with furniture and fittings,
and other farm buildings including barns, granaries
and windmills.
After an included lunch, you are taken by coach to
the small port of Hirsova. You embark the ship in the
late afternoon.
Enjoy a welcome cocktail and dinner on board this evening.
Day 3
After breakfast your ship passes the Kilometer „0“ of
the Danube and will dock in Tulcea during lunch. May
you decide to join
the excursion „Danube Delta” (€ 45).
The Danube Delta on the Black Sea reveals an unusual
landscape containing flora and
fauna unique in Europe. You will be taken through the
narrow channels of the Delta (which covers a total
area of about 4,340
square kilometers) in small boats, enabling you to
see this very special natural habitat at close quarters.
The ship leaves
Tulcea in the evening.
Day
4
After breakfast the ship will dock in Fetesti from
where there is an optional excursion to Constanta
and the Black Sea coast
(€ 50). On your way to Constanta you will stop
at the Black Sea resort Mamaia, where you can enjoy
the beach and have
lunch. The tour continues to Constanta, the ancient
metropolis and Romania's largest sea port. Its history
goes back over
2,500 years. On the way to the Casino the bus will
pass by some of the most important buildings in town.
In the evening the
vessel leaves the port of Fetesti and speeds on towards
to Bulgaria.
Day 5
In the morning we reach the port of Rousse,
where we start today’s excursion to Veliko
Tarnovo and Arbanassi (€ 50).
Veliko Tarnovo is located on the picturesque setting
of the two steep banks of the river Jantram on the
bottom of the Balkan
Mountains. In this medieval town the houses were
built on narrow terraces along steep rocky slopes.
You visit the fortress
Zarewez where 22 Tsars made history in the 2nd Bulgarian
empire. You will also have time to look for local
arts craft in a
nearby shopping street. The excursion continues to
the nearby small town Arbanassi whose unique houses
look like small
fortresses. Arbanassi is famous for its painted churches
and the artist market. In between you will have lunch
at a typical
Bulgarian restaurant where you can try local food
and wine. Afterwards you will drive to Nikopol, where
the ship is already
waiting for you.
Day 6
We spend the day at leisure, cruising through Romania
and into the waters of Serbia and Montenegro. Some
450 kilometres
from Rousse our ship reaches the narrow Kazan Gorge,
where a tablet with a Latin inscription commemorating
the emperor
Trajan can still be seen etched in the rock. A little
further on, we reach the Iron Gates, which for centuries
constituted a
hazardous stretch of the Danube, as ships had to
steer carefully through a narrow gorge with high
cliffs on either side.
Today, the water level has been raised and the shipping
hazards removed, but the journey is still of interest,
and you will be
able to observe the various manoeuvres as the ship
passes through the two locks by the Djerdap power
stations. In the
afternoon we ply a particularly scenic stretch as
the Danube passes through the Carpathians and the
foothills of the Balkans.
Day
7
We reach Belgrade, capital of Serbia and Montenegro,
in the morning. The city is built at the junction
of the Danube and
Save rivers, and has been destroyed and rebuilt 20
times during its 2,000-year history. A city tour
of Belgrade (€ 30) takes
place this morning. The main point of interest is
the Kalemegdan fortress, dating mostly from the late
18th century, which
encloses the tomb of the Turkish Grand Vezir, Ali
Pasha. You also enjoy a panoramic tour of the city
by coach. During lunch
the ship continues upstream towards Hungary.
Day
8
After lunch the vessel reaches Mohacs. From there
you can start the optional Puszta-excursion (€ 50).
This excursion takes
you through the Hungarian lowlands to a Csarda (a
large kind of farm), where you witness an unforgettable
Hungarian
horsemanship performance. After tasting some regional
wines, the tour continues past the famous red pepper
fields to the
charming little town of Kalocsa, where a short organ
recital is scheduled in its cathedral. Finally you
visit the world’s only red
pepper museum and a folklore museum, where you can
buy among other things, items from traditional knitting
handicraft.
The ship sails from Mohacs and moors in the evening
in the town of Fajsz. This stop is purely to allow
excursion participants
to rejoin the ship. On the second-last evening of
your Danube cruise, the captain will be delighted
to welcome you to the
Captain’s Gala Dinner. The ship’s indefatigable
orchestra will make the final evening one to treasure,
with tunes and rhythms
to suite all tastes.
Day 9
The vessel arrives in Budapest in the morning. Budapest
is a city made up of two parts: Buda and Pest, built
on opposite
banks of the Danube. Buda is the older and more graceful
part, with its cobbled streets and medieval architecture,
while Pest
is the administrative and commercial centre, with
wide avenues and impressive 19th-century public buildings.
East meets
West in this fascinating city, and this can be seen
in the variety of shops and restaurants. If you choose
to participate our city
sightseeing tour (€ 30) you will rejoin the
ship in Esztergom, where the ship will be waiting
in the early afternoon. The ship
sails from Esztergom during lunch.
Day 10
Disembarkation after breakfast in Vienna. End of
the program.
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