May 25-26, 2011 Wednesday - Thursday
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
We are back onboard the Prima Donna (what a great name for a river boat!) We will soon be leaving Serbia for Bulgaria. One more stop is necessary in Serbia to clear customs, so we have a few minutes to spend our Serbian dinars. Two bottles of beer and some hair conditioner does it. Although these villages are small, the prices are very good. We don’t speak a word of Serbian, but money talks.
We then went down the Danube River gorge, which reminds us of the Columbia Gorge, but with different architecture along the side. We pass the remnants of a Roman bridge, built by the emperor Trajan. The more we learn of the Romans, the more impressed we are with their achievements. Even today, the Danube is quite hard to bridge! It is quite spectacular, and after miles of flat land upstream the mountains look good. We approach the Iron Gate, which now has a series of locks on the Danube to drop the river level down 100 ft or more.
Thursday, May 26
Vidin, Bulgaria
Here we are in Bulgaria, the poorest country in Europe and we enter the poorest town, Vidin. Many of the buildings in Bulgaria are left over from the Communist era and have the personality of the average warehouse. They are functional, but ugly. Vidin is a clean town with quite a few stores, but not much for sale, with the exception of some fantastic looking farm produce. These are the reddest tomatoes we have ever seen… and without chemicals! We were surprised that Bulgaria has not developed its agriculture more, since it had a favorable climate and great soil.
We really had an opportunity to practice our Cyrillic alphabet today. Donna had to be pulled away from a few signs!
The Bulgarian people do not smile, but, according to our tour guide, they are really happy people. Smiling is not part of the culture.
Our bus took us to Belogradshick Fortress, located in the hills about 2000’ above the level of the river. The Romans built the original walls, which are still intact. Go Rome! John climbed the treacherous steps 200’ to the top for a beautiful view of the crags, even with the ground fog. It reminded us of a Scottish movie scene. Donna decided not to risk her life and took these photos and bought a few items for souvenirs. John got back in one piece with a big smile on his face.
We finally had some good news about the Holocaust. When Germany ordered ally Bulgaria to transport its Jews to the concentration camps, the Bulgarians stalled and complained about bad trains and buses. By the end of the war, not one Jew had been transported by the Bulgarians to the death camps.
We had a wonderful dinner with some new friends and are looking to more of Bulgaria tomorrow.
Photos
Danube Gorge watchtower
Danube sunset
Belogradshick Fortress
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