Three rough blokes were having a beer one day and Roger was saying how he’d like to do the other half of the Amazon from Manaus to the coast. The other two didn’t take much persuading so in January 2015 we met in Manaus, Cam flying in from a week in Guatemala, AJ arriving after a few days in Panama and Roger after the shot show in Vegas and a few days in Panama.
Check out the full story below.
Tuesday 25 – Thursday 27 November 2025 – At Sea: Sylvia
We have had three sea days in row. Lots of the same sorts of activities. Lots of different exercise classes and walking around the deck for me. The sea has been mostly fairly calm although the wind has come up a bit, which makes walking around the deck interesting. The wind has also resulted in a little more movement on board which makes balancing for stretch, yoga and Pilates classes extra challenging. I have also had bridge lessons every morning.
On Wednesday I joined the last line-dancing session for the cruise. It is always a bit of fun to engage in this activity and I wish they had done it a little more often on this cruise given the number of sea days we had.
On Thursday the crew held a ‘country fair’ on the pool deck with lots of different games for us to participate in – tying knots, ball tosses, guessing spices by smell etc. We won raffle tickets at each game station and the draw was held at the end for some Oceania-branded merchandise but we were unsuccessful in the raffle. It was a bit of fun and very well attended, even though Roger found the music a bit loud.
Our fantastic butler, Akshay, handing out tickets at the Ball Toss
We enjoyed afternoon tea every day up in the Horizon Lounge. There is something very decadent about being served tea, scones and cakes, with fine china teapots and a string duet playing. And all while looking out to sea. This has quickly become one of my favourite things. On Thursday we had a special Viennese afternoon tea. Usually they serve the cakes and sandwiches from trolleys but on special days they set up a buffet instead.
Roger has enjoyed his cigar and G&T up on deck 9 every afternoon/evening. He meets some very interesting people and always enjoys chatting with them.
On Thursday evening we attended a Magician show in the Sirena lounge with Stuart Lightbody. He had done a show a few nights ago and people had been raving about it so we arrived early to ensure we had good seats. Just as well we did as the theatre was packed out. And it was well worth it. He is certainly an incredible magician and we both walked away completely gobsmacked by his illusions.
Tomorrow we arrive in Namibia.
Friday 28 November 2025 – Walvis Bay, Namibia: Roger
It was mid-morning when we sailed into Walvis Bay harbour, which was encased in a light mist. This time it was a face-to-face meeting with the immigration officers, who were seated in the Sirena lounge. We were called down in groups, our passports and visas handed to us as we moved along the queue. When our turn came the officer had a quick look and made a couple of stamps, then we handed our passports back to the Sirena crew on our way out the door.
Namibia, has a population of around three million. Its main exports are minerals, diamonds and uranium along with some gold, fish and petroleum products. Most of these are exported from the port here at Walvis Bay. Once again it was discovered by the Portuguese in the 1400’s, but over the years owned by the Dutch, then the English, and in the late 1800’s the Germans. After WWII it was controlled by South Africa until the seventies when it was recognised as a state by the UN. It gained independence in 1990. South Africa retained ownership of Walvis Bay, the country’s major port until 1992. With the Namib desert being the oldest in the world there is evidence of man roaming around here several thousand years ago.
About 1145 we headed down the gangway onto the wharf, where a gaggle of tour guides and taxi drivers ambushed us, wanting to sell us a ride or tour. After many “we already have one booked” they left us alone until our guide JP turned up. In a convoy of 3 vehicles we headed out of the port to our first stop along the waterfront, where large flocks of greater flamingos were feeding in the shallow waters, along with a few pelicans, cormorants and other sea birds.
After taking a few photos we headed to the next stop, being Dune 7, which is a ~140m high sand dune people get to look at and walk up. A couple from Portugal along with Sylvia headed inside the fenced off area to buy a ticket. At the ticket booth they asked if they could pay in USD, which should have been just under 27 USD. They wanted 45 but dropped the price to 40 after complaints and refused to drop it any further. The Portuguese couple were not prepared to pay that so we walked off and took pictures from outside the fence, until they told us we couldn’t do that either.
We moved on, heading north along a four-lane motorway for some distance, at one stage passing an oncoming freight-passenger train that apparently comes across Africa from Tanzania. We turned off, heading east along what is a salt road. It is common practice here to spray large volumes of dissolved salt on the road, which dries into a very hard surface but apparently becomes very slippery on the odd occasion they get rain.
About 30 minutes along this road we came to a sign that said ‘dust free area’, which we couldn’t quite figure out; with all the sand around they must get dust. Not long after the sign we turned left onto a shingle road where the desert on each side had a slight green tinge to it, almost like there was very short grass growing on it. We pulled over at a lay-over and walked to a monument-type rock on the side of the road where JP explained to us that what we could see on the desert was actually a lichen that grows in this part of the world. There were a couple of them growing on two little rocks on top of the monument. He poured some water on them to highlight their colours and also pointed out that these ones are quite big because they get well watered. These lichens take moisture from the sea-fog that hangs here all the way from the coast most mornings. We had seen this when we arrived this morning, although it had now burned off. This moisture, along with the ~20mm of rain that falls here annually enables these lichens to grow and basically hold the ground together, which is not quite sand but a very fine shingle, almost at the sand stage, so that there is no dust.
Further down the road we stopped at a viewing point, which looked across some quite rugged country to some low hills in the distance.
The next stop was Goanikontes Oasis, a small camp where people come to holiday. With a bar, restaurant, museum, a couple of shops and a number of cabins it could be quite an idyllic spot for the city folk nearby to camp at.
After purchasing the mandatory fridge magnet and having a beer we headed out of the camp and up a dry river bed which apparently did have water in it earlier this year, to the point that the water actually reached the sea. As we bounced our way up the sandy track, which not long ago had been a river, we spotted the odd bit of bird life, including a swallow-tailed bee eater.
Some distance up the valley we took a left turn up another valley, eventually coming across some Welwitchia pine trees. These have two leaves, one on each side, which eventually get split by the weather. They have small cones; the ones on the female tree also have a little sail on the seeds so the wind can disperse them. They are pollinated by a sectopia beetle. These plants grow very slowly. The ones here ranged from about 100 – 600 years old. There was also a pile of dolomite rocks nearby which when hit with a rock made a musical noise.
We headed down another valley looking at the many rock formations, which can only be described by picture.
Back on the road we headed back the way we came, then to the city of Swakopmund. With a population of around seventy thousand this town is immaculate. With its German origins, it is apparently the tidiest town in Africa. We enjoyed a pizza and a beer at a local restaurant, followed by a stroll to the beach near the lighthouse. Lots of locals were gathered in the bars and restaurants.
We took the coast road back to Walvis Bay, stopping along the way to walk up a small sand dune for some photos. As the sun was well down in the sky by now shadows made the ridges really stand out.
Saturday 29 November 2025 – Walvis Bay, Namibia: Sylvia
We had arranged a private tour today and, after breakfast in the Grand dining room (Roger has started enjoying their breakfast steak), we headed off the ship and met our guide, Martin. We headed south this time, passing the flamingoes we had seen yesterday and soon arriving at a massive salt mining area. The Walvis Bay Salt company was established in 1960 and now covers 40 square kilometres and exports 1.2 million tonnes of salt a year. Huge mountains of salt were piled up by a few buildings. We drove past massive lagoons, some still with bird life. As we drove further on the water became pinker and the bird life scarce. At one stage we came across a black-backed jackal. The scale of this venture was impressive to say the least.
Martin let a bit of air out of the tires and we headed about 50kms south along the beach to Sandwich Harbour. This used to be a whaling station until the 1970’s and got its name from the supply ship that used to visit. We started in a fairly flat area with a bit of scrub here and there. At one stage we stopped and Martin jumped out of the vehicle and dug in one of the dunes, coming out with a tiny, very attractive web-footed gecko. These well-adapted little animals sleep under the sand during the day, then come out to hunt at night.
A little further on we stopped again where we could see quite a dark reddish colour in the sand. This mineral-rich sand makes its way here via rain, wind etc from mountains in South Africa. Up close it is easy to see the many minerals that give it its red colour. Martin also waved a magnet over the sand, picking up heaps of small iron (hematite) shards. These are what give the desert in the Sossussvlei area its distinctive red colour. The sand there is 70-90 million years old and the hematite has rusted. The sand in this area is only 8-12 million years old and while it has a slight reddish hue, it has years to go to fully rust.
We rocked along, speeding down the beach with the dunes to our left getting gradually taller. Every now and then a small group of vehicles would emerge, shimmering out of the haze in the distance, as we got closer, revealing people fishing.
Sadly we also passed a decomposing humpback whale and many, many dead seals. With ~3-million seals in Namibia I guess it is to be expected that there will also be a lot of dead ones but I didn’t love seeing them. Every now and then we would see seals in the water, and at one point spotted a pod of dolphins.
Eventually we reached Sandwich Harbour, where the dunes meet the sea. It is truly a stunning landscape with the reddish dunes, blue sea and bright blue sky creating some fantastic contrasts. At this point we headed into the dunes, making for some quite interesting driving conditions. Every now and then we’d slide sideways a bit in some very soft sand but generally kept a pretty good line – slowly down the steep slopes then accelerating like crazy to get to the top of the next one. We had done some dune driving in Qatar earlier in the year but this was much more impressive.
Eventually we reached the end point, high up on the dunes with great views back over the surrounding landscape. Martin dropped us off to walk up to the end of the dune, then back down the other side to meet him again. I was a bit nervous about stepping off the top as I couldn’t see any footprints heading down. I decided to go Namibian-style and take my shoes off. (Most of the locals don’t seem to wear shoes). Roger headed off in the lead giving me the confidence to head down too. It was actually quite fun. I can see why there weren’t any footprints as the sand is so fine it covers them up straight away.
Back in the vehicle again we drove back through the dunes. The photos really don’t do this place justice and certainly don’t give a good sense of the thrill (for me anyway) of the driving experience. We kept an eye out for animals, hoping to spot an ibex or a springbok. Unfortunately they proved elusive today but we did see a few ostrich in the distance and some type of eagle. As we got back to the coast we also saw a few humpback whales not too far from shore, including one that was doing a lot of breaching and tail waving. Of course, by the time we got the camera out it had stopped.
We continued further north along a rather bumpy sand track to Pelican Point. We passed thousands of cape fur seals, gathered in colonies, with lots of young. There were also many flamingoes, cormorants and other sea birds. Black-backed jackals sat in the sun near the colonies; there is obviously plenty of food for them to scavenge around here. There was a lighthouse and a small hotel towards the end of the peninsula. Heading back again we stopped at a rusty shipwreck and had a picnic. Martin had brought a delicious selection of different finger foods with him, along with beer for Roger and water for me.
We arrived back at the Sirena at about 2:45pm, completing our face-to-face, very straight-forward emigration process in the Sirena lounge. At 3:30pm we enjoyed another decadent afternoon tea, then I joined a Pilates class at 5pm as we sailed out of the harbour.
It has been quite windy today and there is a little more motion on the boat this evening… We will be rocked to sleep tonight.
Sunday 30 November 2025 – At Sea: Roger
It was a very quiet day at sea as the walking deck was closed due to the strong wind. After a gym session, Sylvia’s bridge lesson and lunch there was not much happening so it was good to relax. In the evening we were invited by a nice couple from Florida to join them for dinner at the Tuscan Steak restaurant. We had a very enjoyable evening with Mark and Julie, who had both travelled extensively all over the world and done lots of cruises.
Monday 1 December 2025 – Cape Town: Roger
After a coffee in the cafe Sylvia headed off for her final bridge session. She had seen a whale just near the ship while on the treadmill earlier in the morning. I headed back to the gym to try and work off some of the excellent cuisine we have enjoyed over the last 25 days.
It was around 1400 when we headed into the port of Cape Town, looking much more like a big city than what we had seen since leaving Lisbon. Passing Robben Island on our port side we entered the port. With Table Mountain towering a thousand plus’s meters above the city it’s quite an impressive site.
Once the ship was tied up, at right angles to the large 4000-passenger German ship we had seen at Walvis Bay, we were called down to disembark and front up to the immigration people in the terminal building not far from the ship. As we entered the terminal we were handed our passports then led by one of the staff to the front of the queue; a bit unexpected and embarrassing, apparently it related to the rather nice suite we were staying in. A nice smile from the immigration officer and a couple more stamps in our passport and we were free to roam the streets.
Not too far from the terminal is a really nice up-scale shopping area called the Victoria and Alfred precinct. With lots of very nice galleries, shops and restaurants it was a nice place to be. A local dance group performed in a square while a couple of guys played on a giant chess board with a crowd watching on. We headed into one of the many souvenir stores, purchasing some presents for the grandchildren before heading back to the ship.
I was supposed to catch up with Mark for a final cigar on deck 9 later but as we arrived at the ship they were heading off to walk up Table Mountain. Mark messaged me at 2100 to say they were still walking down the mountain.
We packed our bags and said goodbye to our Butler, Akshay, who was leaving the boat in the morning to fly back to his home in Mumbai, India for two months. He had done a great job, always with a cheerful persona and was excited for his break after 6-months on board. We also said goodbye to the service team when they came to do the turndown service. They both had 6 months to go on their contracts, working 12-hours a day, seven days a week, always with a cheerful smile on their faces.
Tuesday 2 December 2025 – Cape Town: Sylvia
We woke to a glorious day in Cape Town and, after enjoying our last breakfast in the Grand Dining Room aboard the Sirena, we disembarked for the last time at 8:30am. I had mixed feelings about leaving. I am looking forward to being home but have really enjoyed our time and could easily have stayed onboard longer.
We wandered along the wharf to meet Rowan, our guide for the day. This being Roger’s first time in Cape Town, I had booked a full day Cape tour as a good way to get an overview of the city and surrounding area. We climbed into a very comfortable Mercedes van and headed off to our first stop, Table Mountain. This incredible chunk of primarily sedimentary rock dominates the skyline. We had fast pass tickets so were able to skip the ~45-minute queue and head straight onto the cable car. With its rotating floor this enables good views for all the passengers inside. We did just over a full rotation as we rapidly made our way up the mountainside, a much easier ascent than the few walkers and rock climbers we saw. At the top we were treated to clear views back over the city and surrounding countryside giving an excellent overview of the area we would be covering later in the day. About 7-million of South Africa’s 64-million inhabitants live in the Western Cape area, ~5-million of them in Cape Town. The top of the mountain is covered with fynbos, a group of plants endemic only to the Cape area. Some of the smaller proteas were coming into flower. After wandering around a bit and taking some photos, we leveraged our fast passes again and headed back down the mountain.
Our next stop was the Bo Kaap area, where we met a local guide, Sharyne for a walking tour of this colourful part of town. Sharyne has lived in Bo Kaap all her life and seemed to know everyone we passed, stopping to greet them and ask after their health and family. She gave us an overview of the South African history, and the apartheid era. Originally discovered by the Portuguese in the 1400’s it was not until 1652 that the Dutch, through the Dutch East India Company, started to settle in South Africa. They brought with them slaves from all over the world, including exiled religious leaders (any religious leader that did not change to the Dutch Reformed Church) from their various colonies. This included a lot of Muslim leaders from Malaysia and Indonesia. They were originally imprisoned on Robben Island (which is where Nelson Mandela was later imprisoned) and some were eventually freed and established a community in Bo Kaap. These people are known as Cape Malay and the area celebrates their unique culture and heritage.
In the late 1800’s the British took over the country from the Dutch for a few years, then the Dutch took it back again, then the British again. It became a separate territory under the Commonwealth in 1910. Apartheid was introduced in various forms from 1924 with increasingly divisive legislation being introduced. Sharyne explained that after WWII it really accelerated. The white leaders had watched Hitler try to rule by killing those that were different and be defeated. As minority leaders, they decided that they would try and rule by division without killing people and hoped they would be accepted. This was not the case and in 1960 they were kicked out of the Commonwealth and became an independent country, a different way to gain independence from the wars that happened in many other colonies.
Under apartheid there were strict rules and classifications for whites, Indians, coloureds and blacks. Groups were not allowed to inter-marry and were segregated into different areas. This further established Bo Kaap as a distinct Cape Malay area. The area now features brightly painted houses with a distinct architectural style. There are lots of art galleries and museums as well as several mosques. As the tour ended, Rowan showed up with a number of Cape Malay delicacies for us to taste as Sharyne explained how each one was made. I particularly enjoyed the donut-like breakfast one called a koeksister.
Leaving Bo Kaap we headed south out of the city, passing many beautiful bays with stunning beaches, expensive looking houses and high-end restaurants and cafes. These stand in stark contrast with the township areas scattered about. Anytime we neared a township we saw many people walking along the roads and a lot more rubbish around with dirt roads leading off the main road. We would soon come to the township itself with row upon row of tiny corrugated iron shacks stacked alongside one another seeming to fill every space. Most do not have running water or any toilet facilities.
At one stage Rowan pointed out a woman sitting beside the road in a car flying a rasta flag. This is apparently the sign she is selling weed. Although cannabis has been decriminalised in SA it is still illegal to sell, but this didn’t seem to be policed as this car was just down the road from a police station.
Eventually we arrived at the National Park leading to the Cape of Good Hope. This is the most southwestern point of Africa. The park itself is covered in fynbos and is home to numerous species of animals, although they are hard to spot in the heavy undergrowth. We saw several ostrich, including a couple right by the beach. A couple of baboon wandered right along the road edge, seemingly unperturbed by all the vehicles. We also saw eland and bontebok in the distance.
We arrived at Cape Point and caught the funicular up to the old light house. Apparently this lighthouse didn’t work too well as there were numerous shipwrecks in the area. It had been built too high and was often obscured by mist. Since a newer, more powerful, lighthouse has been built closer to the water there haven’t been any more ships wrecked in the area. The lighthouse though boasts impressive views over the cape and we saw a colourful rock agama lizard sunning itself on the rock.
We rode the funicular back to the base, then drove to the Cape of Good Hope for the obligatory photo in front of the sign. As we were driving back out of the park we spotted a smallish puff adder on the side of the road. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately as it is very venomous) it slithered off before we could get a photo.
We drove north along the east side of the cape to Simonstown where we stopped at Boulders Beach, which is home to a large colony of African penguins. These are sometimes known as Jackass penguins due to the braying noise they make as part of their mating process. We spent a while watching from the boardwalk. There were a few chicks, several ‘teenage’ baby blues and many adults. They do look quite hilarious waddling around and jumping up on the rocks.
There were also several dassie’s in the area. We had seen these small, rodent-like animals, which are apparently the closest living relative of the elephant, at Table Mountain as well but here they were right by the path creating some much better photo opportunities.
Leaving Simonstown we headed back to the west side of the cape and were dropped off at Tintswalo Atlantic, a boutique hotel on a secluded bay just outside Hout Bay. I had stayed there the last time I was in the Cape Town area and was very glad I had decided to go back again. The service was excellent, the views stunning and the room delightful. We relaxed on the terrace, enjoying the sunset while Roger enjoyed his welcome strawberry wine cooler and his last cigar for the holiday. A number of small fishing boats made their way into the Hout Bay harbour for the night.
We retired early; tomorrow we will start the long journey home, via Johannesburg and Singapore. It will be good to have time at home catching up with family and friends for the Christmas period before we head off on another adventure in January.
First of all, thank you for all your comments. It is always lovely to hear from you.
Friday 21 November 2025 – Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana: Sylvia
We arrived in the twin cities of Sekondi-Takoradi, the capital of the Western Region of Ghana, at about 9am this morning. Several brightly coloured fishing boats were returning to shore after their night’s fishing.
It didn’t take long to be cleared to disembark and by 9:30am we had been met by Solomon, our guide for the day, and were comfortably settled in a Toyota SUV, ably driven by Benjamin. It was a refreshing change from the chaos in Abidjan yesterday with Solomon waiting right at the bottom of the gangway and numerous vendors set up along the wharf.
We headed out of Takoradi Harbour, the oldest of the two ports in Ghana, having been established between 1920 and 28. The second harbour is near Akra. About one-million of the 35-million total population of Ghana live in these twin cities. Huge reels of undersea cables were stacked up along the port as we left.
Ghana achieved independence from the British on 6 March 1957 after a brief period of struggle. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in 1471. They were followed by the Danes, Dutch, Swiss and then English, who ruled from the 1800’s. Prior to independence it was known as the Gold Coast. Ghana is still the largest supplier of gold in Africa but do not refine here. The country is also known for cocoa, oil and timber. The country has had its share of coups but is now much more stable with the fourth republic in place since 1992. It is a democracy with presidents limited to two four-year terms.
It seems to be quite a tolerant society with 70% Christian and 25% Muslim, as well as more than 50 different ethnic groups. Apparently there is lots of intermarriage both between tribes and religions.
Once out of the port we saw several large schools. Education is free to age 18 and the country boasts 70% literacy and numeracy. Even though 24% of the population live below the poverty line the country feels much more organised than the Côte d’Ivoire. There are still lots of traditional market places and small villages but we felt less sense of chaos.
We had been driving through town for about 20-minutes when four coach-loads on Oceania-organised tours raced past us with their police escort. We tucked in behind – apparently this is allowed as we are also from the cruise. We weaved in and out of the traffic making great time on the crowded roads. It seems they only get one cruise ship in every week or two, and only for a few months of the year so I guess the locals accept the inconvenience. We are apparently on the last ship for this year.
We drove past multiple local market areas bustling with people and with lots of plantains, cassava, pineapples, mangoes, watermelon and other fruits and vegetables on display. Sheep, goats and chickens wandered about freely. Straight-backed women, men and even children carried all sorts of loads on their heads. Some looked very heavy. Women stood at the side of the road with big basins of cold drinks, plantain chips and other snack foods on their heads trying to sell them to passing motorists.
We also passed numerous police and customs checkpoints and were even stopped at one for a random license, insurance and registration check. The roads must be a bit treacherous as we passed two burned out trucks at different points. Just in case the many pot-holes are not enough to keep the traffic to a reasonable speed, there are also many judder bars so it was a fairly bumpy trip.
After about 75-minutes we turned off from the main road and lost our police escort. The coaches were heading on to one of the old slave-trade castles a little further up the coast. A bit later we came to a massive high-security prison structure, complete with guard training school. There was also a psychiatric hospital and a leprosy hospital in the same general vicinity.
Just on noon, we arrived at Kakum National Park, ~325 square kilometres of pristine rainforest. It is home to a number of animals and hundreds of butterfly species. It also boasts a 350m canopy walk with eight canopy bridges 12-40m high strung between wooden platforms high in the trees. This is what we had come for and we quickly headed off, walking up a fairly steep track to get to the canopy. This attraction draws people from all over and we passed several school groups and other visitors. We were lucky though and had the walk itself pretty much to ourselves, and a small group of maintenance workers. It was a truly impressive experience with the trees towering above us. Unfortunately, given all the visitors, one rarely sees animals in this part of the park, although we did see a few lizards, several brightly coloured butterflies and thousands of red soldier ants, which we were careful to avoid.
We were on a tight timetable for the day so after the canopy walk, quickly got back in the car to head to our next stop, Cape Coast Castle, another relic from the slave trade era. This castle is one of about 60 forts and castles in Africa dating back to colonial times, 40% of which are in Ghana. This one was built by the British in 1664 and was another of the last points of exit for slaves. We were introduced to Gloria, one of the site guides, who gave us a very informative tour, apparently the quickest she had ever done.
She was very open about how the local populations were complicit in the slave trade, gathering up slaves from competing tribes and walking them, often thousands of kms in bare feet, to these slave trading centres, from where they would be shipped to the Americas. There was a memorial plaque on the building that was a joint apology from the tribes made in the 90’s.
We visited the dungeon areas where 150-200 men were held in each of the 5 small chambers for 2-3 months waiting for shipment. There was only a small gutter around the edge of the room for them to use as a toilet. When it rained the waste would be washed through the other rooms and out to sea but it was clear that this would overflow and that conditions in general were absolutely squalid. The women’s quarters were no better but there were only two chambers rather than 5. Eventually the men would be herded through a tunnel towards the women’s quarters and then together through the door of no return and out to sea.
A few years ago the remains of some slaves were repatriated to the country and the outside of the door is now labeled as the door of return. Once again a very sobering visit. Like many military sites the intention is that these places serve as a reminder of the atrocities to ensure we don’t ever repeat them.
We headed back towards the Sirena. I was struck by the many funeral notices displayed on large posters and small billboards in many areas. Apparently this is standard practice. Bodies are held in the mortuary for a number of months until everyone gets together for a funeral, which generally lasts from Friday to Sunday to commemorate and mourn.
We arrived back at the port in good time, with special thanks to Benjamin for his fantastic driving. I had used Hausa Tours to make all the arrangements for today and I would definitely use them again in the future. They were fantastic.
Saturday 22 November 2025 – Lomé, Togo: Roger
As we steamed into the very tidy looking port, there were once again numerous ships anchored off the coast, no doubt waiting for access to the port, which is situated less than 10kms east of the Ghana border.
Walking off the ship this morning we were greeted by a rather active local grass band, which included a couple of guys on tall stilts.
Togo, originally settled by the Portuguese, was taken over by the Germans in the 1800’s. After WWI it was divided up, with the French on the west and the British on the east half. In the late 1950’s it gained independence. Now it has a population of around 9 million, about 40% of whom live below the poverty line despite a GDP growth of over 6% in 2023.
Today we were on a ship’s tour as Sylvia couldn’t find a local guide she trusted. Mounting a 60-seater bus we headed out in convoy with another bus, a police motorcycle leading the way, and a van load of police and an ambulance following along behind us. After driving through what appeared to be the tidiest port area we have seen in west Africa, we did a right turn east onto the best road by far that we have seen in this part of the world. With two lanes in each direction and street lights along the medium there were no pot holes. We sped along at up to 80kph, the police escort ensuring all traffic stopped for us and moved over so we could speed past. Lots of tuk-tuks and motorcycles were about, just like the rest of West Africa. Everything along the way was quite tidy with the normal roadside stalls but little evidence of the red dust.
Soon we turned down a dirt road, which lead to one of the king’s palaces. There are three kings in Togo, each responsible for a different part of the country. The palace was by no means grand. As we dismounted the bus, some cute kids raced out to greet us with smiles from their mother in the doorway.
There was a brief ceremony to welcome us, where a bottle of gin was decanted into a glass then tipped on the ground, followed by a vessel of water mixed with cornflour. We were seated in the hall with a concrete roof and no walls while speeches were given on how the system of kings works in Togo. Eventually the chief was escorted down a ramp, shaded by an umbrella. More speeches followed explaining how Queen Victoria had presented the country a staff commemorating the abolishment of slavery. This area had been a centre for the slave trade, primarily under the Portuguese.
The king never said a word. At the end of the speeches we were invited to get our photos taken with him. I found him quite a friendly chap, whose face lit up when I said I was from NZ.
Back on the buses, we headed a short distance back to the main road, went west then turned onto another dirt road towards the beach where we drove east, again passing numerous beachside restaurants. We stopped to observe a large number of fishermen and their boats that had returned from the 2am net setting expedition. Lots of woman sat around filleting small fish.
Turning around we headed back along the beach to a fish-smoking house. The catch is mainly sardines and anchovies. Other very small fish were laid out on the sand beside the road to dry in the sun before being mixed with other food and cooked.
At the next stop along the beach we saw dozens of people pulling in a huge net. Of course a few of us jumped in and gave a hand. They were pulling in both ends of the net which was hundreds of meters long. Being a Saturday the kids were off school, the older ones also giving a hand along with the mums, some with babies on their back. They were still pulling when the whistle went and it was back on the bus for us as dozens of kids, too young to help with the net, gathered in a field to watch us with amusement.
Next we headed to Lake Togo, a large fresh water lake with fish farms, from which they harvest fresh water tilapia, shrimp, catfish and crabs. There we had a buffet lunch including goat meat, chicken and fish at Hotel Le Lac, a resort with jet skis and other water toys.
After heading east again on the highway for about thirty kilometres we turned off and headed north through a village famous for its cheap petrol that is stolen in Nigeria and smuggled down through Benin then by canoe into Togo, where it is sold in bottles by the roadside. The border with Benin is only about 5kms from here.
Back on dusty roads we eventually arrived at what we were told was a forest. It turned out to be a group of buildings on the edge of a forest. We dismounted and gathered around a statue figure. As the guide stated speaking an altercation took place as one of the locals tried to remove the guides boom box that her microphone was routed through.
This place is sacred as people from Ghana came here hundreds of years ago and brought some stone with them, which is hidden in the forest and brought out for ceremonies. There are little sculptures along the track leading to the stadium. (This is all part of the voodoo religion)
We were eventually led through an arch with an eye painted on it to a waiting group dressed in white sheets. They were behind a line which I think defined the entrance to the forest, which we were not allowed to cross. A gin and muddy water ceremony was conducted, I thought this would give us access to the forest but that was not the case. Ceremony over, it was back on the bus for another dusty road drive to a different village.
Here, the whole village turned out, including the local band beating drums and various metal items capable of making noise. Suddenly a large grass object came spinning and gliding down the path towards us. Another gin and muddy water ceremony was preformed after which we were lead down the path and seated in the shade of some large trees while the band played and several of the colourful grass objects danced around, one splitting into 4 smaller versions, which continued dancing around. Every now and then they would lift one up and a small strange object would come out and move or shake. They even tipped one of the big ones over so we could believe no one was inside. Many of the local villagers were dancing and working themselves into a trance. This is all voodoo stuff. Apparently as they didn’t have weapons to fight with the story goes that the warriors would change their shape into different objects to defeat their foe. The local children all gathered around us to watch the spectacle.
The drive back was quite quick as traffic was once again pushed aside for us to pass through.
There are large fields along the way, many with irrigation and lots of people manually tending their crops. There must have been a great concrete block salesman here in the past as many properties have high concrete block fences around them. According to one of the guides this was to stop people from stealing the land. There were also some really nicely decorated walls in places made of tiles.
It was just after 1630 when we arrived back at the boat, putting to sea at 1730 for the next leg of the journey.
Sunday 23 November 2025 – At Sea: Sylvia
It was another quiet day at sea today with all the usual activities. Bridge lessons continued for me again as well as lots of gym sessions and walking around the deck. Roger enjoyed a massage this morning. We also attended a talk about São Tomé and Principe, where we will be tomorrow. Afternoon tea today was a special cheesecake afternoon tea with many different varieties of cheesecake on offer. They certainly do this sort of thing well.
At 5:30pm Roger attended a cocktail party for Oceania Club members (I was at a HIIT session in the gym). He wasn’t overly impressed. A lovely sunset rounded out the day.
Monday 24 November 2025 -Sao Tome: Roger
São Tomé and Principe were discovered as an unoccupied archipelago by the Portuguese in 1470. Later that century it was occupied and colonised by the Portuguese. With very fertile soil it was ideal for growing sugarcane and slaves were bought in from Angola and nearby countries in Africa as cheap labour. Some were also exported on to the Americas. It became a large sugar producer until harsh conditions on the plantations led to slave revolts, including the one led by Rei Amado in 1595, who briefly ruled the island before he was captured and executed. In the 19th century, coffee and cocoa were introduced, and the rich volcanic soils proved ideal for their cultivation. By 1908, the islands had become the world’s largest producer of cocoa. Following a military coup in Portugal in 1974, the Portuguese government recognized the islands’ right to independence, which was gained in 1975.
Yesterday afternoon we went to a session about Sao Tome called ‘Culture and Heart; Nature in Harmony’ with Chris McPherson. This is something the boat puts on prior to visiting each port. Reading from a computer screen in conjunction with slides, McPherson is a little hard to listen to. However, he painted a rather magnificent picture of Sao Tome. With it’s magnificent waterfall, volcanic plug national parks, and a rather luxurious looking coffee and cocoa plantation our expectations were quite high.
This is the only port on the trip where we anchored offshore and had to take a tender into the wharf. It was just after 7:30 when we boarded the tender for the short ride to what looked, from a distance, like quite a picturesque Island . It was around 8am when we landed. We were met by Sipson, who Sylvia had communicated with to organise the trip. The impression that she had was this guy was going to be our guide because we were the first to book and we were going on the best trip, highly recommended by him. That was not the case as we were introduced to our driver-guide Fred. We piled into a rather old Honda and headed into the town.
We stopped outside the church opposite the palace, both well kept and recently painted. It was at this point we quickly worked out that Fred didn’t really speak a word of English – well maybe the odd word, but he certainly didn’t understand many.
Off we went, heading south on EN2. There were a few roadside shops and the odd stall. There certainly hasn’t been a paint salesperson here probably since independence. The houses are mostly pretty rough, most with walls dividing the properties, many made of rusting corrugated iron.
We stopped at the first river, where women were washing clothes. This became a common sight at just about every river we passed. Often the clothes were laid out along the roadside on grassy berms to dry. Sometimes they were even laid out on the edge of the road. We even spotted a car getting washed in a local river.
The other task women seem to be responsible for is collecting water at local water points, some on the roadside, others in the village. It became quite common to see a woman with a 10-litre container on her head. The other task that required a walk was dishwashing. Women and older children carrying all the dishes in a large bowl on their heads was another common sight.
Now you’re probably thinking ‘what do the men do?’ Well it appears – not too much. Many young men tended to be sitting around in groups talking or looking at their phones. Some older ones were cutting the grass on the side of the road with a machete, others carrying loads of wood on their heads.
Our first proper stop was at Agua Ize, once a cocoa processing town. We parked beside a large run-down building. Apparently there is an information centre there that goes through the cocoa making process. Eventually Fred managed to communicate to us, after Sylvia threw her hands up in the air in a disbelief gesture (frustrated at trying to communicate), that the place was closed today. There were many dilapidated, large, concrete dorm-type buildings there with narrow gauge railway tracks running between some of them. It must have been quite a grand setup in its day.
We drove a short distance up a hill and pulled up outside what was once a large, rather grand hospital. A barefoot and rather pregnant woman came running out and insisted on showing us around. Leading us inside she pointed out where various things used to be, such as the infirmary and maternity wards etc. People now live in what’s left of the place, we presume squatting there.
We went up the once grand staircase to the top floor. From there we could see, not far up the hill, the original hospital built in 1914, this one having been built in 1928. All the roofing material on most of the buildings has long gone and now the steel rafters are rusting away. Jessica, the barefoot lady, pointed out her garden running off the ground floor, where she and her six-soon-to-be-seven children live. In spite of her ragged dress and seldom washed hair she appeared happy and proud of her place.
We continued heading south around the coast, stopping at Boco do Inferno (Mouth of Hell), a low cliff top where there are some interesting lava formations, along with a few stalls selling souvenirs. The water rushes in and spews out of holes in the lava. It must be quite impressive during storms but was not too spectacular today.
We stopped and checked out coffee and cocoa bean trees growing on the side of the road, then wound our way further along the road, often crossing to the other side to go around potholes. The gears grated as Fred, not the most skilled driver we have come across, tried to change down to get the under-powered Honda up the hills.
Next we stopped at a beach. A short walk revealed a failed restaurant overlooking a nice beach, where a man showed off his prized catch of two miniature fish.
More hills, winding roads and a couple of large trucks with containers on board, constantly sounding the “get out of my way” horn, and we stopped to view the volcanic plug in the distance. Unfortunately the top part was surrounded in cloud. The view was across a valley covered in jungle with a nice river running through it.
Finally we turned off and headed down a cobbled road, with houses spaced out along the way, to a stop where we dismounted and headed down a track to look at this magnificent waterfall the tour company had told us of. Well I’ll be buggered, it must have shrunk over the last few weeks – got wider and shorter I suppose. But anyway we looked at it from some boulders while a guy took a bath in the river and a woman scrubbed away at the dirty clothes on her washboard, crying baby attached closely to her back, which she seemed almost oblivious to.
It was then time for the journey home. On the way out we had passed through a number of villages with schools. Schooling starts at 6-years here and is compulsory to the age of 14. There are six years of primary, three years of lower secondary, and three years of secondary school. School attendance at primary is so high that there are up to 80 children in each class and schooling is often split into two sessions, part of the class attending from 7:30am to 1pm and the next session from 1pm to 6pm. There is a massive shortage of teachers here. This explains why we had seen so many children around.
We think Fred thought we might be spotters for the Grand Prix as he drove like he was trying out for it, on many occasions nearly hitting one of the hundreds of school kids that were now walking down both sides of the roads and crossing the street in the towns. It got to the point where Sylvia, hanging on with both hands, yelled out to him to slow down, and I followed up with a bit of a serve. The rest of the trip became quite civilised and Sylvia was much more relaxed .
Often we saw kids packed on the back of a ute, sitting on the sides and looking quite happy as no doubt they hung on for their life. There were quite a few car wrecks on the roadside.
Arriving back in Santana, the capital, we stopped at a local artisanal chocolate-making factory. We didn’t get to look at the factory but the shop part was well set up with mouthwatering displays of chocolate cakes and chocolate ornaments. I’m not usually a cake fan because normally the nicer they look the worse they taste but I picked a nice-looking cake and it was probably the nicest piece of cake I’ve ever eaten, flavoured with passion fruit and chocolate. We had a few minutes of relaxation away from the speedy Honda.
Next we went to the Independence square near the palace, where a couple of people were dressed up in some form of costume, I think celebrating something to do with Independence Day, although that was in July. Fred couldn’t tell us so I can only guess. Back in the Honda we headed down to the other end of town to where the fort, and once slave distribution centre, was now a museum. Passing that we were dropped off back at the port where we said goodbye to Fred, who probably wondered why he didn’t get a tip.
We took a stroll back down to the fort and bought a couple of fridge magnets, then headed back and caught the tender back to the ship.
In summary I think Mr McPhersons picturesque impression had been left out in the rain before the paint had dried as most of the colour had run out of it. There were however some very nice beaches.
As we were having our tea and scones in the horizon lounge, the last tender returned from port, the passengers just dismounting before it was winched back on board, the anchors raised and we were on our way again. For the next three days we’ll be at sea, sailing down the west coast of Africa to Namibia.
Sunday 16 November 2025 – Dakar, Senegal: Roger
It was just after 0600 when we felt the bow thrusters spark up, turning the boat around and sidling us into the Dakar wharf. Senegal was formerly a French colony until 1960 when it became independent. Prior to the French it was owned at various times by the UK, the Netherlands and was first colonised by the Portuguese in 1444. It has a population of 18.9 million, 4.5m of whom live in the Dakar metropolitan area.
Dakar is the busiest port in West Africa and also services Mali, which is land-locked. The main exports are gold, refined petroleum, phosphoric acid and frozen fish. Other important exports include cement, titanium ores, and processed food products like peanut oil and gum. There are dozens of ships at anchor offshore, waiting for a space at the crowded wharves.
It was 0800 when we disembarked. We had booked a tour for just the two of us but got an email yesterday stating there were now going to be 6 on the tour in a 22-seater bus. They said that was because they only had one English speaking guide available. Yeah right! On the bus we headed not far to another wharf, where we received tickets to catch the ferry to Goree island. Then we sat in the terminal until the 0900 ferry left for the island. Over the next 40-minutes the terminal filled up, mainly with people who worked on the island, many in very colourful costumes. A woman sitting next to me had a long conversation with Sylvia in French during which she suggested we should visit her shop.
Along with 300 plus people, we boarded the ferry (called Beer although it didn’t have a bar). We rode on the top deck for the 30-minute journey. It took some time to disembark, after which our guide, Oumar, gathered the six of us up and began to talk non-stop about the history of the island. There are around 1600 people who live on the island.
It was in 1501 that the Portuguese first started exporting slaves from here to the Americas.
We wandered down an alley, stopping at a slave house that has been restored back to what it was when it was built in the 1800’s. There were around 20 of these in operation back in the day. We waited for some time for the previous group to exit before the entrance opened and dozens of people crowded in. We headed to the ‘door of no return’ where the slaves would head out and down a wooden jetty onto small boats to be rowed out to the waiting ship for transport to the Americas. Guards with rifles stood at the arrow slits to shoot anyone that jumped off. Apparently there was a large shark population here back then as dead slaves were thrown into the sea to feed them.
Oumar proceeded to tell us that 60-million slaves were shipped out of West Africa over 300 years, one third of whom perished along the way. Then he said ten thousand a year passed through Goree island, which was the main exit point. Finding the numbers not stacking up, I did some research. 22% of slaves to the Americas were shipped from here, a total of roughly 256,000, which equates to just over a million over the 300 years of trading. I am often quite cynical of information provided by guides!!
Next we looked around at the rooms that the slaves were kept in. They were pretty draconian with ~20 men in a 2.6×2.6 m room, manacled in twos at their wrists and ankles, with little ventilation and a once a day toilet visit. The same applied to the women’s quarters. Only the girls and young women were kept in a room with a toilet hole in the floor. They were taken at night for the soldiers to have sex with. Those that got pregnant were then released onto the island to bring up their half-cast child and often given their own slaves to assist with the child raising. There was also a room where underweight slaves were kept and given a special diet to get them up to 120lbs, which was the minimum weight for shipment. Above the cells there was accomodation for the slave buyers and guards. The buyers would lean over the balcony and bid on new slaves as they were brought in.
Slavery was not something new to Africa when the Europeans arrived. It had been going on for thousands of years. At some points in the early centuries up to 50% of some African populations were enslaved, particularly after wars and conflicts. Often slaves were used as soldiers, housekeepers, agriculturists and miners. Some, as soldiers, even rose to the rank of general. Slavery was only outlawed in Ethiopia in 1930. In some parts of Africa it is still going on today.
We continued on around the town often being told the same thing several times. One interesting stop was a guy doing sand painting by putting some glue on a board then making a picture by adding different coloured sand.
There is a high achievement girl’s school that takes 25 of the brightest kids from around the country every year.
We wandered slowly (being passed by the local snails) back past the wharf towards the fort at the other end of the island. Apparently this is a museum but we didn’t get time to look inside.
Back at the wharf we waited in the shade for the ferry to come in for the trip back to the mainland. Even though we were told they were very strict about only letting 340 people on the ferry at a time it seemed there were twice that many packed in.
Back on the mainland and in the bus, we took a quick trip around the central part of the town. Oumar pointed out various land marks including the railway station, the high speed train that runs most of the way to the airport, a large museum (apparently the largest in Africa) and alongside it, a large art centre, both built by the Chinese.
Passing the Peace Park, we headed past the Presidential Palace, the headquarters of the Senegal equivalent of the CIA and a large cathedral. With 95% of the population being Muslim it’s hard to fathom how the Catholics fronted the money to build this. The national theatre had a canoe outside to commemorate the story of how Senegal got its name. Apparently it comes from the Wolof word Sunugal, which means all in the same boat.
Next was a stop was at the 12-million dollar Africa monument, which was built by the North Koreans. With over 20% of the population out of work I am not sure of the justification of this monstrosity which is meant to be pointing to a brighter future for Africa.
As we drove back to the boat Oumar told us about how polygamy works here. A bloke is allowed up to four wives as long as he can support them and declares himself as a polygamist, when he marries the first one. Apparently one can tell how many wives a man has by the number of satellite dishes on his roof as each wife has to have her own TV.
Back on the boat we headed to the Horizian lounge for tea and scones. While the violin and cello dragged the tail of a horse over the gut of a dead cat – sounding to me more like someone had put a large weight on the cat and it was screaming to get away. (Note from Sylvia – actually the music was really lovely)
It was after 1700 when the ship pulled away from the wharf as I think the bunkering had taken longer than expected. As we headed away from the town the pilot boat pulled alongside to pick up the pilot. He exited the ship from a door on the lower deck, not down a rope ladder as I was expecting.
The steward came into our suite and made sure the curtains were securely pulled as we are heading into what can be troublesome waters and now have a private armed security party on board. Our lights will be dimmed overnight and the outside decks closed from sunrise to sunset as a security precaution until we get to Namibia.
Monday 17 November – Banjul, Gambia: Sylvia
I was woken by the hum of the bow thrusters just after 6am, indicating we were arriving in Banjul. Gambia is the smallest country in Africa and is just a thin strip of land almost entirely surrounded by Senegal, except for at the coast. Banjul, the capital of The Gambia, sits on a small island in the Gambia river, which runs through the centre of the country. It is very small for a capital city with only 11,000 of the ~2.2 million inhabitants of The Gambia living there.
At 08:30 we disembarked and were met my our guide for the day, Dembo. Enterprising locals had set up market stalls all along the port area. One guy had a sign out saying ‘Welcome to Mr Fix It’. Some local women were dancing and playing drums. As Dembo explained, there is not a lot of unemployment but there is a lot of self-employment. We jumped his Ford Explorer and headed off.
As in many other developing countries there were people everywhere, selling all manner things from stalls or small shacks. Women in bright coloured dresses carry loads on their heads and babies and young children slung across their backs in a sling type contraption. Men in traditional robes or pyjama-type outfits stop and chat to each other. I saw one man, who would not have looked out of place in the business district of any major city, but who looked quite incongruous here. School children wander along in groups, in the different uniforms of their schools. Some of the girls were white veils or shawls, looking quite nun-like.
Mini-vans are obviously used as some type of communal transport. Crowds of people stand by the roadside waving them down and they quickly get packed to the gunnels. I am not sure how the driver knows where to let people off.
We drove past the Peace Arch and the National Assembly (Parliament) building as we made our way out of town and headed southeast on a fairly well-maintained, almost 4-lane road. The traffic is crazy with donkey-drawn carts sharing the road with vans, cars, buses, trucks, bicycles, tuktuks and pedestrians. We drove through the town of Serrekunda, the largest town in The Gambia with a population of ~75,000. Women were busy going to the market to buy fresh produce. As we got closer to the edge of town we could smell the animal market, but only caught a glimpse of the animals through the odd doorway.
We soon came to the Abuko Nature Reserve, our destination for the morning. This is a 106-hectare protected area known for its birds and wildlife. A small troop of green vervet monkeys was playing at the gate as we arrived. There are about 5kms of walkways in the park and we wandered along, grateful for the shade in the ~30 degree heat. We stopped every now and then to scan the area for birds. Eventually we arrived at a hide, overlooking a small wetland area that is apparently home to Nile crocodiles. We saw numerous bird species including the very impressive violet turaco, plantain eaters, purple herons and others. I have the full list but wont bore you. Roger is always very patient with my love of birds. He enjoys the challenge of photographing them and does an amazing job. We also saw a Nile Monitor lizard, several Gambian Sun Squirrels, a large millipede and an army of ants.
Speckled Pigeon
Black-headed Heron
Bulbul
Purple Heron
Senegal Coucal
African Jacana
Violet Turaco
After a few hours we headed back to the vehicle and drove southwest to Lamin Lodge. This rustic shack, built on the edge of the mangrove area was a fabulous place to rest. There were several yachts moored in the river nearby as well as some traditional canoes. Oysters are harvested in the area from December until May and there were huge piles of shells around, which are used to make jewellery and other things.
We ordered drinks and lunch and sat upstairs being entertained by the vervet monkeys. They have learned to steal people’s drinks and they tip them out and lap up the coke or sprite from off the table. They spent a lot of time playing and grooming each other.
Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of our lunch. It was very tasty. I had a chicken dish and Roger had fish yasa, which was flavoured with lime and onions. Both were served with chips. It is thirsty work out walking in this heat and Roger polished off three beers as well. He seems determined to try the local beer in every port.
We headed back through Serrekunda towards the port area, stopping to look at more birds in the waterways including pink backed pelicans, greater flamingo, yellow billed storks, great egrets and western reef herons. Roger spent a lot of time getting some fabulous photos of village weavers (birds).
Pied Kingfisher
Village Weaver
Great Egret, Black-winged Stilt, Western Reef Heron
Back on board we headed to the Horizon Lounge for our customary afternoon tea. It was a fantastic place to sit and watch all the activity as we left the port.
Tuesday 18 November 2025 – At Sea: Roger
Another sea day with, apart from a rather large buffet lunch well displayed in the grand dining room, a visit to the gym and many laps of the deck, not much to report. I did attend another of the photographer’s lectures on how to edit photos on the iPhone but I didn’t learn anything new.
At 1900 we headed to the Red Ginger restaurant to dine, by invitation, with the Food and Beverage manager, Freddy. We were joined by Stephen and Donna, a nice couple from LA. Stephen had been a tax lawyer and they, like us, had traveled to over 100 countries. They were great company.
Freddy, originally from Holland, lives in Croatia with his wife and family. He has been at sea for 20 years and working for Oceania for the last ten. With 4-months on and 2-months off. he enjoys the life style. He explained how all the protein, grains and non perishables are packed in Florida and shipped in containers to the ship. Menus are designed by corporate so the 124 chefs on board just have to produce the food. Fresh fruit and vegetables are normally purchased along the way, although in this part of the world, when they head into town with a bundle of local cash, they often can’t find produce up to standard.
The subject of pirates was raised; Freddy said they have only been chased by one lot in this part of the world, back several years ago, but they couldn’t keep up. He said they are mainly interested in cargo ships as they have stuff that can be flogged off in the local market.
Wednesday 19 November 2025 – At Sea: Sylvia
Another quiet sea day. We have been blessed with incredibly calm sailing conditions and this continued today, even though we passed through several impressive rain squalls. We are nearing the equator and it is consistently warm.
I am enjoying the sea days much more than I had anticipated. The gym is well set up and there are regular classes. The last two days I have attended morning stretch, followed by an abs class and then an HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) class in the afternoon. Combine depth many laps of deck ten is keeping me pretty active.
I have also been enjoying the bridge lessons. Hopefully by the end of the cruise I will have at least a reasonable grasp of the rules. It is certainly good for keeping the mind active.
We have been trying to manage our food intake, but it is difficult with so many delicious choices. We had lunch in The Terrace buffet restaurant. Later we went to afternoon tea up in the Horizons Lounge and I managed to enjoy my tea without anything to eat.
I knew we would be eating at the Tuscan Steak specialty restaurant for dinner and it was worth waiting for. I had the burrata as a starter followed by a trio of pastas (penne with veal ragu, lobster risotto and gnocchi with pesto sauce) with a spinach salad. Roger had the french onion soup and a filet mignon. Another delicious meal and a great way to finish the day.
Thursday 20 November 2025 – Abidjan, Ivory Coast: Roger
As we sailed late into the river leading into the massive harbour at Abidjan it looked like a prosperous city with hundreds of ships lining the many wharfs. Many more were waiting at sea and also in the large harbour waters. We were late as we had had to wait in the queue to enter the harbour.
French merchant-explorers and missionaries arrived in the 15th and 17th centuries, naming the area “Ivory Coast” due to the abundant ivory trade. Formal colonisation accelerated during the “Scramble for Africa,” leading to the Ivory Coast being declared a French colony in 1893. In 1904, the colony became part of the French West Africa federation. It gained independence in 1960 with a population of about 4 million, and has grown rapidly with the population now around 33 million. According to the IMF The Ivory Coast has sustained a GDP growth of around 6% over the last few years.
Originally we were supposed to disembark at 1330 but it was 1445 when we finally disembarked. There was a line up of police motor scooters on the wharf. Three armed police stood around, one with a FAL (former British military rifle), the other two with AK47s. They seemed more interested in their conversation than in what was going on around the place.
To add to this there were some 50 SAMS and SAWS (stand around men and women), many sitting on chairs under a canopy.
We had arranged to walk to the gate to meet our tour guide. We got to the first gate and were told we were not allowed to walk to the main gate for safety reasons. Sylvia had a long conversation in French with the guards to no avail as they checked rather old trucks leaving and entering this particular wharf area. We walked back to the ship where we were told the only way out was to join the huge queue to get the shuttle bus to the square in town.
Finally we were crammed onto the third lot of shuttle buses and left the wharf at 1545 with a police motorcycle escort, which took us into town rather quickly by driving in one of the oncoming traffic lanes a lot of the way.
Jairus our guide met us there surprisingly quickly. We hopped into a reasonably new Peugeot and headed off as he pointed out various sights. He then explained how Abidjan got its name. Apparently when the early French arrived they met a woman carrying a basket of leaves on her head. They tried to ask her what the name of the place was but she could not understand them and gave the response ‘Abidjan’ (which means I am carrying a basket of leaves). They thaught she was saying the name of the place. There is a monument to her that we drove past.
Next we drove around a large mosque. 45.2% of the population are Muslim, 39.8% Christian and 12.6% have no religion in this country. We drove past the football stadium, then the pyramid which is an ugly derelict building built by the first president in the 1960s.
Next was the Catholic cathedral, where we stopped and went inside. Not only was it a unique shape but had probably some of the best stained glass windows we have seen in a church.
Back in the car we headed alongside a waterway, over a bridge into some local markets. At the entrance was the poultry area with a rather putrid smell. Dozens of people sat around, most not doing anything. We looked at some clothing for the grandkids but it was so badly made we didn’t purchase anything, exiting the markets back through the poultry section just to remind us not to come back.
We drove some distance, eventually arriving at the attieke processing centre. This is where the cassava root vegetable is skinned, cut into chunks, cooked, then mixed with 50% raw produce (so it is a little sweet), ground in a portable machine that goes from stall to stall, seived, then sold as part of the staple diet here. It’s all very basic with no food safety observed anywhere in the process.
We were supposed to visit a few more places but they were too far away to get us safely back to the last shuttle bus at 1930. As we arrived back at the bus area thousands of bats were circling the city, leaving the trees they rest in during the day as it turned to dusk. By 1800 we were on the shuttle and back to the ship, not a SAM or a SAW in sight.
Being the world’s largest producer of cocoa, along with coffee, palm oil and cashew nuts, with oil and gas plus some manufacturing, we were expecting to see a much more prosperous city, not the rundown markets and surrounding buildings in large parts of the city. There are a large number of multi-storey buildings under construction including Tour F (F Tower)m a 421 metre building, which will be the tallest building in Africa when completed. In spite of an unemployment rate of under 3%, 40% of the population live below the poverty line. Reality was well short of the expectations we had when we headed into the harbour.
Tuesday 11 November 2025 – Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Roger
It was about 7am when the ship did a 180 degree turn and sidled into the berth at Santa Cruz. I watched from our balcony as the crew threw thin lines to those onshore, to which the heavy ropes were then attached and pulled ashore, then attached to the steel bollards on the wharf. Large winches then tensioned up the lines to hold the ship in place. There are five or six of these lines at each end of the ship holding the 30,000 ton vessel in place. Round discs are put on the ropes to stop the local rats getting on board.
At 8.30am Maria, our driver-guide for the day, met us at the bottom of the gang plank for a short walk to her Mercedes van. She drove us around the town pointing out various landmarks, including the rather spectacular opera house that was built here between 1997 and 2003 at a cost of 72 million euros. Designed by Santiago Calatrava Valls it is recognised as one of the great engineering feats in the world. There was also a large drilling platform nearby, which was here last year when we visited; apparently they come here for refurbishment.
Maria drove us around the old part of town pointing out various buildings and a statue of Franko, the Spanish dictator who came to power during the Civil war (1936-1939) and ruled until his death in 1975. Originally a water feature, the water has been turned off as the young people of the island want it gone. They just don’t have the money to remove it or so the story goes.
Next we headed to San Cristobal de La Laguna. This old town with neatly laid out streets was originally the capital, built in 1496 and strategically planned with a Renaissance influenced grid system. It became a supply base for ships travelling to the Americas. With a cathedral and buildings painted in various pastel colours it’s quite an attractive place to visit. We were probably lucky as ours was the only ship in town. Yesterday there were seven large cruise liners in Santa Cruz. I am sure it would have been a mad house.
From there we began heading for the hills and up into the mist through a large cedar forest. This had recently had a fire through it, which the trees survived as their bark somehow closes up and can withstand temperatures of several hundred degrees. Maria was stuck on send and had talked non-stop since she had picked us up. Sylvia had a polite word to her and we were privileged to some moments of silence. At around 1900 meters we came out of the mist into clear blue skies. We continued up the hill, stopping from time to time to look at the views across the mist below. At one point we could see the top of La Palma, a nearby island. Lots of cyclists were heading up and down the hill, one of whom was getting some repairs from the local ambulance after he had come a cropper. In places we could see the layers from the different eruptions over hundreds of years.
At about 2000 meters there were a number of observatory buildings standing out with their bright white paint. Apparently they belong to a number of different countries as the dry air here makes for clear night skies. We saw the odd parasailer head off the hill and disappear into the mist below.
We arrived at a packed car park and were dropped off to wander a short distance to look down on a valley that looked a bit like the surface of Mars. It was here that NASA did a number of trials on the Mars rovers and related instruments. It is really quite rugged with many varieties of rocks and boulders that have been thrown from the crater some thousand plus meters above.
Heading further along the road we saw trampers heading off up to the crater. Apparently there is a small hotel part way up the hill where they spend the night before the climb to the top. They come down on the cable car, which we passed shortly after seeing them. The cable car stops short of the top of the volcano crater. During the winter they get snow here and apparently one can see the fumeroles which omit sulphur gas year round.
Passing the bottom of the cable car, which was surrounded by hundreds of vehicles we continued on, Maria constantly complaining about the tourists parking their cars in the wrong place and walking on the wrong side of the road. Reaching Canada Blanca we turned down a short road to Torrotito, for a look out over a valley where apparently a number of movies have been shot. It’s a lot cheaper to shoot here and the scenery is similar to some locations in the US.
We then headed back the way we had come to the beginning of the park, then taking a road down to Puerto de La Cruz, stopping only once to look at a rose shaped formation in a rock face.
Reaching the town we then took the motorway back to Santa Cruz early enough not to be caught in the late afternoon traffic. We were back on board by 3.30 in time for afternoon tea in the Horizon Lounge, where once again the cello and violin accompanied our tea and scones.
It was bang on five when the ship pulled away from the wharf. We have to make sure we are back on board on time as they don’t wait for anyone. With the ship holding our passports it would be quite a challenge if one got left behind!!
Wednesday 12 November 2025 – At Sea: Sylvia
Today was another relaxing day at sea. We have been incredibly lucky with the weather and the sea was remarkably calm, even though there has been a bit of wind.
It would be easy to do nothing on a sea day except eat… but we opted to balance that out with a bit of exercise. I did a cardio session before joining the sunrise stretch and Roger also started the day in the gym. After breakfast I went to my second Bridge lesson. I am really starting to see why people enjoy this game. Then it was time for a bit of a rest and a catch up before lunch.
After lunch we did several laps of the walking track. There are always a number of different people doing this, at varying speeds. There was even one guy up there doing laps with his walker at one point today. There are also always lots of people lolling about on sun loungers on the pool deck. After attending a talk on how to use the iPhone camera more effectively and a bit more rest and chill time I headed back to the gym for a weights session and then did several more laps of the track while Roger enjoyed a cigar and a gin and tonic.
This evening we had a reservation at Red Ginger, the specialty Asian restaurant on board. This is the first time we have had dinner this trip and it was absolutely delicious. I know some of you have shown interest in the food. We both had a lobster and avocado salad, followed by Miso-glazed sea bass and then Steamed Ginger pudding with apple and cardamom ice cream.
This evening the clocks go back so we will have an extra hour to sleep off the meal before we start all over again tomorrow.
Thursday 13 November 2025 – At Sea: Roger
Today was once again a sea day. Sylvia headed to a stretch class while I clocked up a few kms on the elliptical machine. This was followed by a walk around the walking track on deck 10, which overlooks the pool on deck nine; 13 laps is one nautical mile or ~1800m.
All the movies I have seen with the Atlantic Ocean in them depict huge waves and rough water. That is not the case around this part as the ocean is just about flat, and with some 4000m of water under the keel the chances of running aground are zero.
After a coffee at the cafe, Sylvia headed to her bridge lesson while I retreated to our cabin to listen to a book. Then it was lunch time in the grand dining room, followed by a few more laps of deck 10. We saw one small sailing boat in the distance, just a spec on this large ocean several hundred kms from land.
I headed down to the not-very-inspiring photography lesson in the Sirena lounge. Sylvia turned up after that to join the Salsa class, which I watched for a while. A little later Sylvia headed of to a Pilates class while I headed to the bar for a gin and tonic.
The day finished with a rather nice sunset off the starboard bow and very quickly we were in darkness.
Friday 14 November 2025 – Cape Verde: Sylvia
Just before 7am I headed up to the gym for a stretching class, followed by an ab workout. Roger headed up to use the elliptical trainer. We watched from the gym as we entered the harbour at Mindelo, with the sun rising over the surrounding hills. It looks a pretty place but very barren.
After a quick breakfast back in our room we headed off the ship and walked along the port to meet Adriana, who would be our guide for the day. She speaks impeccable English and after showing us a map of the island and our route for the day, we headed off. Mindelo is the largest city on the island of Sao Vicente, one of the several islands that make up the country of Cabo Verde. Only about 85,000 of the ~610,000 inhabitants of Cabo Verde live on Sao Vicente, and of those about 80,000 live in Mindelo. It is quite a striking town with brightly coloured buildings clinging to the hillsides.
We headed straight out of the city, passing lots of half finished buildings along the way. Apparently these belong to Cabo Verdians who have travelled overseas for work. When they return they build their houses as they can. We headed up a narrow, winding cobbled road to the top of Mount Verde, the highest point on the island at ~750m. It seems every tourist follows a similar route as there were many buses, vans and taxis along the way. We even saw a few brave souls making the trek on foot. I was grateful that we had pre-booked a private guide and weren’t stuffed in a bus with a whole lot of others. We made several stops along the road to the top to take photographs of the surrounding countryside and the views back over Mindelo. I was struck by how large the Sirena looked in this small port, given that it is actually a fairly small cruise ship.
Cabo Verde is a volcanic country although only one island has an active volcano these days. It made for some striking scenery with rough, craggy mountains, set against the sparkling blue ocean. The island receives very little rainfall. Usually they only get a couple of days of rain during their rainy season and none in the dry. Sadly, on 11 August this year there was a major storm with seven straight hours of heavy rain. In the resulting floods and mud-slides 4 children and 5 adults lost their lives; another 2 remain missing. As we drove around the island the scars from this storm were evident in washed out roads and collapsed houses. Some parts have already been rebuilt but in other parts the work is ongoing.
Towards the top of the mountain we stopped at a small hut, where the warden uses grog (Rum made with sugar cane) to make a couple of other flavoured alcohols, and also brews tea and coffee for the visitors. He has an ingenious setup to catch water. The mountain is often covered by cloud and there is a system to capture the water vapour and have it run to a small cistern. He uses this water to grow a few vegetables in a small garden area.
From this point we walked up the rest of the way to the actual top of the mountain. There are a number of satellite dishes and aerials at the top, guarded by a small group of military personal who rotate in and out.
We jumped back in the van and headed down the mountain to the small fishing village of Salamansa. It is obviously pretty tough living in this place. Most houses do not have running water and we passed the water station where desalinated water is trucked in every day and people pay a small amount to fill up their plastic containers to take home. Apparently there are many here earning a minimum wage of about 17,000 escudo (~NZD315) per month.
From the nearby beach we could sea a couple of small fishing boats returning to land under sail. The original sand on the island is black due to the volcanic nature of the land. Many of the beaches are now covered with fine white sand that apparently blows over here from the Sahara desert.
We drove a little further to another fishing village, Baia das Gatas. This small village hosts the largest music festival in Cabo Verde, drawing local and international bands and thousands of visitors every year. The town only has a population of about 500, with many holiday rental homes. The town boasts a very sheltered, safe swimming area and a large stage area for the music festival.
From there we headed to Praia Grande (Long Beach), with its huge sand dunes. I could not get over how soft and fine the sand was. This is also a swimming beach but one needs to watch for rips and currents. At certain times of the year turtles come to nest on the island.
We drove a little further to another fishing village, called Calhau. There is a very small turtle sanctuary in Calhau where they help stranded baby turtles to recover until they are healthy enough to return to sea. There are two large adult turtles that are not able to be rehabilitated, one male that lost a flipper to a shark, and a female that was attacked by a dog and blinded. Whilst I applaud their efforts, the life of these two adult turtles in a tiny pool looks pretty bleak.
The area around Calhau showed some of the worst of the storm damage.
We stopped at Restaurant Hamburg, a very popular place, for lunch. It seemed that every tourist tour that included lunch stopped at the same place. I can see why it is popular. We had a very tasty lunch of pork chops with salad, vegetables, rice and fries. Roger enjoyed a couple of local beers. We could have had dessert too but declined.
After lunch we followed the back road past the only agricultural area on the island. There is a small area of land that has well water for irrigation and is able to grow a few meagre crops. The majority of food on the island has to be imported, either from one of the other islands in the group, or globally.
We arrived back in Mindelo and did a quick drive through the city, stopping to take a photograph at the main beach area, before heading back to the Sirena. I had a bit of a hike as we had left our euros on board and had to pay cash for the tour.
Still, we were back on board in plenty of time to enjoy the special cup-cake afternoon tea up in the Horizons Lounge. It would be easy, but dangerous, to get used to this sort of thing.
At 6pm we headed back up on deck to watch as we pulled away from the port and left the harbour, with the sun setting behind the hills and bathing us in a warm glow. One of the most interesting lighthouses I have seen guards the entrance to the port area.
While we had been docked we had noticed a 5-masted sailing ship, the Club Med 2, moored alongside us. It headed off at about the same time as us, making an interesting addition to the scenery.
Sunday 16 November 2025 – At Sea: Sylvia
Clocks went back an hour overnight, which was rather weird as we had only moved them forward two days ago. Today has been a bit windier, with quite a few whitecaps. Although we have had a bit more boat motion today it is still incredibly calm overall.
It has been a very quiet day. After stretching and abs classes, and several laps of the walking deck early this morning, we headed to Barrista’s for a light breakfast, after which I headed to my bridge class and Roger went to a talk about Dakar, where we will be tomorrow. I did a load of laundry and then we enjoyed a buffet lunch in the Terrace Cafe. After another few laps of the walking track we headed back to the cabin to relax.
Late afternoon Roger had his usual cigar and G&T… We had a 6:30pm reservation at the Tuscan Steak specialty restaurant and enjoyed a delicious dinner overlooking the stern of the boat.
Tuesday 4 November 2025 – On the way: Roger
It was late afternoon when we boarded the Singapore airlines flight from Auckland to Singapore. As usual on Singapore Airlines the service was great and the food not too bad either. A few hours into the flight I put the bed down to endeavour to get some sleep. Even though the journey was a little bit bumpy in places I’m sure I got a bit of sleep on the way. Over 10 hours later we relaxed in the first class lounge at Changi waiting for the next leg. About three hours later we were on the 12.5-hour flight to Munich. This journey also was a little bumpy on the way; nothing serious but just those little shakes that are enough to wake you up if you happen to be sleeping.
At Munich we headed to the lounge to pass another boring few hours. It’s not the flying so much on these trips but the time you spend going through security and immigration and waiting in lounges that can make it all a little tiring. Eventually we bused to the A320 that was waiting on the tarmac, along with dozens of other aircraft, and boarded, only to be told by the pilot. “Sorry to inform you that there is a cyclone going through Lisbon at the moment and they’ve cut down the number of aircraft that can land, so we’re going to have to wait here for a while before we commence our journey’. After a hour-plus sitting in the aircraft, we finally got underway. The flight to Lisbon was pretty uneventful until we came into land when the aircraft was getting tossed around quite a bit and I felt a bit sorry for the pilot as he must have been having a bit of trouble getting the thing to hit the runway. But soon we were on the ground and on a bus to the terminal, where we walked out and met our driver for the ~45-minute drive to The One Palacio da Anunciada Hotel in the middle of the city. It appears to be a couple of old buildings that have been joined together to make it into a hotel. It is still in the process of being renovated but once we worked out how to get to our room it was pretty nice with all the mod cons.
We grabbed a couple of umbrellas and took a stroll to Decathlon, just under two kms from the hotel, where I replaced my walking shoes for a mere €65. By 7 o’clock we were both falling asleep so that was the end of the day for us. Sylvia worked out that the journey had taken ~44 hours.
interestingly now Sylvia has retired I had thought we wouldn’t be flying very much. This year I have spent 186 hours on flights with the trip home and a trip to Malaysia to come before Xmas.
Thursday 6 November 2025 – Lisbon: Sylvia
We woke early this morning after having crashed early last night. Having been to Lisbon a few times in the past, we decided to explore some of the lesser-known places that we haven’t visited before. We enjoyed a lovely, leisurely breakfast in the very well-decorated restaurant. Roger even finished his breakfast with a warm pasteis de nata, fresh from the oven. A little later we headed out, waiting out a passing rain squall before leaving.
First we stopped to look at one of the impressive art installations by Bardalo II. He has several of these wall size pieces of art around the city, all made out of various pieces of junk that would otherwise have been discarded. Hopefully we’ll get to see a few more while we are here. This one is of two marabou storks.
A little further down the road we came to the church of Sao Domingos. Dating from the 13th century, and once the largest church in Lisbon, this building was severely damaged during the 1755 earthquake, and again in a severe fire in 1959. Today the pillars clearly show the scars of this damage.
We headed to a nearby metro station and caught the underground towards the northwest of Lisbon. We then wandered out towards a large aqueduct that had been built to supply water to the city in the 1700’s. The main section is 14kms but is part of a larger network of ~58 kms. The water was gravity fed from an area near Sintra. Most of the time the channels were at ground level but in order to cross the Alcantara valley this large above-ground aqueduct was built with a series of arches, including the world’s largest stone arch built in one single span. At 65m tall and 29 m wide it is quite impressive. We were able to walk about one km of the aqueduct, then crossed over to the other side to walk back again. As we crossed over we had quite a good view of the two channels that carried the water.
We then caught an Uber to the Lisbon 1755 Earthquake experience. I had seen signs for this exhibition during previous visits. This facility has some great interactive exhibits, including some earthquake simulators. We were assigned to a small group and we moved together through 10 different rooms, each with different exhibits. We had 10 minutes in each room to explore. One ‘room’ explores life in Lisbon in the 1750s. At one point we were ushered into a ‘church’ and a mass was started, probably the only time Roger will ever attend one. A few minutes in and the room began to shake violently. The images that had been projected onto the walls changed from a tranquil cathedral interior to show the destruction of the building and the fire. As we moved into the next room the strong smell of smoke was everywhere and the exhibits focused on the aftermath of the earthquake and the large tsunami. Roughly 20% of the population of ~200,000 were killed. The last room had stories from some of the survivors and showed the process of rebuilding. A decision was made to level what remained of the city and use the rubble to create a flatter area with grids of wide streets. This became an example that is still referred to by town planners today.
We jumped back onto public transport, catching the bus to Time Out, a large indoor market area featuring numerous food stands. We had visited this place last year. My sister, Debbie, and I had bought a couple of eclairs to share after our main lunch. I had offered a bite to Roger and he had taken a huge chunk, much to my horror. After indulging in a very tasty burger, I bought two more eclairs for Roger and I to share for supper this evening – one salted caramel and one raspberry and passion fruit. Delicious they were too.
We returned to the hotel, where we had booked 80-minute massages. A very pleasant way to end our first real day of vacation.
Friday 7 November 2025 – Lisbon: Roger
Breakfast was in a different part of the dining area today with an ornate pink ceiling and copper lights on the wall. There was another couple on one side of the restaurant and a single woman on the other and they persisted in engaging in a conversation right across the restaurant in their loud American twang.
Breakfast over we took another stroll back to Decathlon for Sylvia to buy a couple long sleeve tops and we also picked up some protein powder. Next was an Uber to the waterfront, where we joined a queue of well over 100 people and worked our way to a desk where they checked that we had a yellow fever certificate, a boarding pass and Passport. They also took our bags. From there we went to another place, this time to check in. From there we went upstairs joining another queue, this time to really check in, but the queues were not over because, next was the immigration queue that took at least an hour. Eventually we made it onto the Sirena at about 1:15 pm. After visiting the muster area, we headed to the buffet restaurant for lunch. We joined a lovely couple, Charles and Suzanne from Quebec, and enjoyed a nice lunch while we chatted away.
We had received notice late yesterday that we had been upgraded to a bigger cabin or should I say suite. This is right up the front of the boat with windows and a balcony overlooking the bow. As we were settling in the butler came and introduced himself and ran us through, most importantly, how to order the booze, along with a few other things.
Later in the afternoon Sylvia went out for a stroll to look at some street art while I relaxed in the cabin, or should I say the lounge part of the cabin. It’s actually quite big.
Saturday 8 November 2025 – Porto: Sylvia
Neither of us slept well last night. It was certainly not due to a lack of comfort. Our suite is fantastic and the bed very comfortable. I guess it was just the jet lag catching up with us.
A couple of days ago we received notification that due to strikes in Portugal we would not be leaving port in Lisbon yesterday evening as scheduled. Instead we would spend an extra 31 hours here and skip our first two ports, Funchal and Santa Cruz de la Palma. Luckily we had visited those ports last year so it was not too big of a deal for us. But we didn’t really want to spend another day in Lisbon either. So, after a tasty, early breakfast in our room, we headed out to the train station, about a km away. There we purchased return tickets to Porto and settled ourselves in for the ~3 hour trip. At exactly 9am the train rolled out. Very impressive timing.
We rocked along at up to 220kph passing villages and farmland. The land is pretty flat and seems to be well tended. The driver made liberal use of the horn as we sped through towns. We had caught the express train with only 5 stops along the way so time passed pretty quickly. Unfortunately the windows were too dirty for us to capture any photos. Eventually we arrived at the coast and followed it north for the last 25-minutes or so to Porto.
We arrived in Porto bang on time, just before noon and grabbed an Uber to take us to the cathedral. This Romanesque building was completed in 1737, some 600 years after ground was first broken. Things moved much slower back then… The cloister area features large areas covered with azulejos, one of the main reasons I wanted to visit. For some reason I am absolutely fascinated by these Portuguese tiles. There were good views over the rest of the city from the cathedral area. There are certainly a lot of large churches in the town.
We wandered down the hill and found a very nice restaurant for lunch. I can highly recommend Impar if you find yourself hungry in Porto. We each enjoyed a delicious sirloin steak with a port wine sauce. Roger finished his lunch with an apple crumble and I had a trio of mousse (chocolate, caramel and lime). While we were eating lunch, four break dancers put on quite a show outside the restaurant.
After lunch we wandered across a square and followed a circuitous route over ramps and narrow pathways into what, from the outside, looked to be a derelict building. It was, in fact, the Sao Bento train station, which featured a whole lot more azulejos. This was probably the most impressive display we saw all day and was even more enjoyable because of the crazy route.
After making our way back out we headed up a hill to Igreja do Carlo, a baroque church built between 1756 and 1768, you guessed it, covered in more azulejos. The outside was quite impressive. We paid the entry and went inside. To my eyes, this was one of the ugliest and weirdest churches I have ever visited. It has several heavily gilded altars which dominate the overall space. This church, which was originally for the monks, stands next to another, Igreja dos Carmelita’s, which was originally for the nuns. Between the two churches is a very narrow house, known as the hidden house. At the front it is only about a metre wide but opens up to about three metres at the back. It was occupied until the 1980’s and apparently hosted secret meetings during the French invasion by Napoleon in 1932/33. We meandered up and down stairs and in and out of various rooms show-casing all sorts of weird and wonderful items. There was even a small catacomb complete with a mummified nun and a few skulls. We were also able to climb up to the roof for views back over Porto.
We strolled back past the cathedral to the Luis I bridge and across the river to Gaia. This bridge has train tracks running across and pedestrian access. We were not there at peak time but there were certainly plenty of people around. I would hate to be a train driver here. Silly tourists step out in front of the trains to take photographs, seemingly oblivious. Luckily the drivers seem to be well used to this behaviour. The bridge provides great views down to the Ribeira area, which was absolutely pumping, full of people enjoying the great weather. We saw street performers all over the city but the Ribeira area seems to be the busiest.
Across the river in Gaia, we climbed up to the Monastery of Serra do Pilar, which was unfortunately closed but provided excellent views back over Porto.
We grabbed an Uber down to the Ribeira area and just had time to sit and enjoy a green tea (me) and a coffee (Roger) and do a spot of people watching, before it was time to grab another Uber back to the train station for the ~3 hour journey back to Lisbon. Once again the train departed bang on time.
Sunday 9 November 2025 – At Sea: Roger
It was about 0100 hrs when we set sail with very few bumps and bangs to only slightly wake us from our slumber. Today we were at sea all day so apart from an ocean with a slight swell on it there was not much to see.
We headed to the grand dining room for an a’la carte breakfast, after which we took a bit of a wander around the Sirena. The layout is much the same as the Marina that we were on across the Mediterranean last year except the Sirena is a little smaller. She has an overall length of 180m, nine passenger decks and a staff to passenger ratio of 1.71 to one with a full load of just under 700 passengers. She is powered by two diesel electric motors and four Wartsila engines. A couple of 750 kW bow thrusters help her move in port areas very precisely. She also has a couple of folding fins or stabilisers that extend out just over 4 m to stop her rolling around too much on rough seas. Interestingly, she was built in Saint Nazareth, France, which is where the British ran a ship full of explosives up onto a dry dock in World War II, putting it out of action until well after the end of the war.
We are definitely not going to go hungry with a choice of five restaurants, a couple of cafes and a few bars. Oops, I almost forgot the casino and the Horizon lounge, where afternoon tea is served while a couple of musicians stroke the strings of a violin and cello. And of course the canapés, which are served in our room late every afternoon. Ashu, our Butler, delivered us a bottle of gin and 6 bottles of wine. Apparently they come with the room. “Bugger,” thirst will not be a something we have to worry about for the next 25 days.
After lunch we headed to the lounge where an Australian travel writer gave a not very inspiring talk on her travels.
Interestingly with some 69,000 commercial ships on the oceans of the world we never saw one all day. Makes one appreciate just how big the Atlantic Ocean is.
Here is our itinerary for the next few weeks…
| Date | Day | Port | Arrive | Depart |
| 7-Nov | Fri | Lisbon, Portugal | Embark | Overnight |
| 8-Nov | Sat | Lisbon, Portugal | Overnight | |
| 9-Nov | Sun | At Sea | 1 am | |
| 10-Nov | Mon | At Sea | ||
| 11-Nov | Tue | Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands | 8 am | 5 pm |
| 12-Nov | Wed | At Sea | ||
| 13-Nov | Thu | At Sea | ||
| 14-Nov | Fri | Mindelo (São Vicente), Cape Verde | 8 am | 6 pm |
| 15-Nov | Sat | At Sea | ||
| 16-Nov | Sun | Dakar, Senegal | 7 am | 4 pm |
| 17-Nov | Mon | Banjul, Gambia | 7 am | 4 pm |
| 18-Nov | Tue | At Sea | ||
| 19-Nov | Wed | At Sea | ||
| 20-Nov | Thu | Abidjan, Ivory Coast | 1:30 pm | 9:30 pm |
| 21-Nov | Fri | Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana | 9 am | 6 pm |
| 22-Nov | Sat | Lomé, Togo | 9 am | 6 pm |
| 23-Nov | Sun | At Sea | ||
| 24-Nov | Mon | São Tomé, São Tomé & Principe | 7 am | 4 pm |
| 25-Nov | Tue | At Sea | ||
| 26-Nov | Wed | At Sea | ||
| 27-Nov | Thu | At Sea | ||
| 28-Nov | Fri | Walvis Bay, Namibia | 11am | Overnight |
| 29-Nov | Sat | Walvis Bay, Namibia | 5 pm | |
| 30-Nov | Sun | At Sea | ||
| 1-Dec | Mon | Cape Town, South Africa | 3 pm | Overnight |
| 2-Dec | Tue | Cape Town, South Africa | Disembark |
Monday 10 November 2025 – At Sea: Sylvia
It was another peaceful day at sea today. We started early this morning in the gym. Roger did his usual workout and I participated in a stretching and meditation class… a very nice way to ease into the day. After a quick shower we headed to breakfast in the Grand Dining Room. There are so many options of places to eat on board, including the option to have breakfast in our room, but on a sea days, eating in the dining room is a lovely option. The service is fantastic and the food is very good. I am particularly fond of the sticky buns.
At 9:30am I headed up to the 10th floor and joined a beginner’s bridge class. Apparently they will hold these every sea day. By the end of the cruise I should have a reasonable grasp of the basics of the game. The hour certainly passed quickly.
In what seemed like no time at all we were back in the Grand Dining Room for lunch. Again, this is a very relaxing place to dine on a sea day. At 2pm we headed down to the Sirena Lounge to hear a guest speaker giving some photography tips. It was fairly straight-forward but some useful tips nonetheless.
Straight after the talk, I joined the line dancing class. I always enjoy this for a bit of a laugh. And the gentle motion of the boat makes it even more fun. It is a good way to get a bit of exercise when we can’t get off the boat. I was surprised by how many people joined in. This boat has about half the number of passengers that were on the Marina last year, and about twice as many people at the line dancing.
Since we hadn’t eaten for a while (haha) we headed up to the Horizon Lounge for afternoon tea. It feels very decadent to be sitting looking out at the horizon, listening to the gentle sounds of the string duet and sipping tea from bone china while enjoying a scone with jam and cream and a selection of sandwiches and cakes. Roger used the time to finish his blog from yesterday.
It was time for a bit more exercise so I walked about 3kms doing several circuits of the walking track. There were quite a few people out walking, but even more laying by the pool.
Back in the room, we were joined by Suzanne and Charles, who we had met at lunch the first day. Roger had invited them over to help drink the champagne we had. They are a delightful couple and we laughed and chatted for an hour or so before they headed off for dinner and we settled in for a quiet evening.
Thursday 18 September 2025: Bucharest to Sibiu – Sylvia
Our guide and driver for the next few days, Florin, met us at the JW Marriott Grand at 9am. It was nice to have a relaxing morning and we had enjoyed a lovely breakfast in the hotel. We set off for Transylvania. Romania is a country with a population of about 18 million, 1.8 million of whom live in Bucharest. The country is divided into three regions, Wallachia (which includes Bucharest), Moldavia and Transylvania.
Like the other countries around it has a potted history. It was part of the Roman Empire from about 100 AD, fell to the Mongolians under Timor in the 12th century, then the Ottomans. Unlike neighbouring Bulgaria, it was never occupied by the Ottomans, but the people had to pay taxes, in corn, wheat, gold, and their sons (as soldiers). In 1866 the government invited a German officer to be king. King Carol I built a coalition against the Turks with Russia, Serbia and Bulgaria. He built an army that eventually overcame the Ottomans in the 1877 independence war. The country, at that time only Moldavia and Wallachia, became an independent monarchy in 1878. Transylvania was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It became a part of Romania after WWI.
As we made our way to our first stop, Curtea de Argas, where all the Romanian royalty are buried, Florin shared some of his experiences with us. Back in the Communist era he was a driver for the National Tourism board. He had to undergo extensive training and testing to get this position. The Secret Police would brief hm before each new group about where he could go; sometimes he had a wire tap in the car and had to stay within a certain distance of another car; he had to write a detailed report after each visit, etc. He reckons about 50% of the tourists at the time were spies. At one stage he was assigned to work as a driver for the building of the Parliament building. That is where he met his wife. Right before the revolution he got in a bit of trouble and spent three months in the rental car office. He noticed an unusually large number of young American and Russian couples visiting.
Ceausescu, the ruler under Communism, did good things for the country but bad things for the people. People were suffering. There was no freedom and no bread but the country had no debt. The revolution lasted for one week over Christmas in 1989. 1200 people died during the revolution. Ceausescu and his wife were killed on Christmas Day. Florin thinks they shouldn’t have been killed but that the country is much better off without communism.
We made our way on very good roads. Once out of the city we rocked along at 130kph, mainly through well cropped farmland, dotted about with the odd oil well. One long, straight, flat area of the road apparently used to be used for military planes during communist times. We past an oil refinery and a huge defunct factory from Communist days. On the other side of the road was a big manufacturing area for Dacia cars. The main sources of income for the country are car manufacture, oil and agriculture.
As we continued further, the roads narrowed and we started driving through forested hills, dotted about with small villages and the odd hydro power station with large red and white pylons marching across the landscape. We saw lots of big yellow-roofed chicken farms, but very little other stock. It seems most animals are kept indoors here,
After a couple of hours we arrived in the pretty little town of Curtae de Argas, the religious centre for the Romanian royals. We stopped to visit a monastery that was built between 1512-1517. Unfortunately it is being renovated at the moment so from the outside all we could really see was the wooden scaffolding. Florin shared a story about how, during construction, things were not going well. The primary builder received a vision saying he needed to make a sacrifice so he agreed to sacrifice the next person he saw. That was his wife when she brought his breakfast the next morning, so he apparently buried her alive in the walls of the building. When the monastery was being renovated a few years ago, the bones of a pregnant woman were discovered inside the walls. Apparently the builder and his 9 workers all were locked inside the roof and also died because he told the person that ordered the building that he could build a more beautiful building.
In Orthodox churches the men and women sit in separate places. In this Orthodox church there is a throne for the king and the queen also has a throne and was allowed to sit next to him in the men’s area, but her throne was much smaller and on a lower step.
The graves of the first and second kings of Romania and their wives are buried in this monastery. Probably the two most important royals are King Carlos I, who helped overcome the Ottomans, and Queen Maria, the second queen, who is descended from both British Royalty and the Russian Tsars. She played a very important role in the decision of Romania to side against the Germans in WWI, which resulted in Transylvania becoming a part of Romania as part of the Treaty of Versailles.
Next to the monastery is another Orthodox Church, this one dedicated to Filofteia, a 12-year old girl who was supposed to bring food from the village to feed the construction workers during the building of the monastery. Apparently she gave the food to the poor people she met on her way and after the builders complained, her father killed her. Today she is recognised as a saint.
The rest of the royal family is buried in another church just down the road as there is no room left in the monastery. Even though the monarchy ended in 1947 with communist rule the royal family is still buried here in the chapel. The royal family still live, some in Romania and some in Switzerland. There are unnamed tombs waiting, ready for when more of them die.
As we continued further we drove through several tidy villages with a mix of rustic and more modern homes. Generally these are much better kept than the ones we have been seeing over the last few days. The road became narrower and started to get windier as we got closer to the mountains. Twice we came across a brown bear lying near the side of the road in the sun. Apparently there are about 12,000 brown bears in Romania, and only about 2,000 in the rest of Europe.
We came to the massive 200m high Arges dam, which provides power and water to a large area. A monument to electricity and man’s ability to harness it stands on the hill above. At the moment the lake behind is being emptied so some restoration work can be done. It is still huge but water levels were clearly very low. Apparently it will be completely empty in another month.
From here we could also see the fort that Vlad the Impaler (probably the source of the Dracula myths) built. More on the Dracula legends to come.
We stopped for a traditional shepherd’s lunch at a small stall just before the road started really climbing. Two big pots were bubbling away, one containing sheep meat and the other smoked pork. Lunch consisted of a big helping of each, along with a slab of polenta and a pickle, and another big ball of polenta with sheep cheese inside. It was pretty rustic, and the sheep meat was pretty tough but it all tasted okay.
After lunch we started the climb up the Transfargarasan Highway. This highway was built during the Communist era, primarily for military reasons. The military built the road from the dam through to the top, where a 1km long tunnel cuts through to the other side. A road leads off to the right about halfway through the tunnel, still out of bounds – for military only. There is a marker every kilometre with details of distances and every 100m another marker. In certain areas, the road is covered with a concrete roof, I assume to protect from avalanches. I cannot imagine the labour involved in creating this road with its massive switchbacks. It is pretty impressive.
After the tunnel, we stopped briefly to take photos of the road down the other side. There were lots of roadside stalls, most selling cheese, sausages and dried meats. A cable car leads up this side of the hill, the only way to get up when the road is closed from the first snow until 1 July. Apparently an ice hotel operates up on the hill over the winter. The cable car was not working today due to high winds.
Halfway down the road is a monument showing where the military road crews met the prisoner crews that were building from the other end of the road, after it had been decided to make the road available to the public.
About 45-minutes later we arrived in Sibiu, which used to be the capital of Transylvania. It is one of the seven cities that were fortified after the biggest Mongolian invasion in 1241. After checking into our accommodation at the lovely Artisans Boutique Villa, I went for a walking tour around the town with Florin while Roger sat in a nearby bar enjoying a beer and cigar.
Sibiu is a really lovely town with lots of pastel coloured buildings. It has a lot of history and many things to be proud of: the first iron bridge in Romania – 1859, the first beer factory – 1717; the first hospital – 1292; and the first mint – 1350 to name just a few.
We visited the Catholic Church, dating from 1733, with its impressive stained glass windows and fresco. It also has an interesting heating system for the pews.
We also visited the newer Orthodox Church, built in 1910 to resemble the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul. Despite the fact that both these religions started the same – the Orthodox Church only started in 1054 as a breakaway from the Catholics, the churches today look very different.
There are three main squares inside the fortified part of the city. Back in the day, executions were conducted in the main square. It was also in the main square that another unique feature of this city started. All the houses have vents in the roof. Meats etc were hung in the ceilings to cure. The mayor at the time changed the shape of the vents in his house to resemble eyes, saying that it would enable him to keep an eye on visitors. In 1703 apparently he made a comment that only the Germans in town (about 10% of the population) were paying taxes and complaining that the Romanians didn’t want to pay tax. After this he was decapitated in the square. From then on, a number of the German citizens built their houses with the same eye shaped vents in their roofs. In Sibiu the walls don’t have ears, but the roofs have eyes….
Friday 19 September 2025: Sighisoara and Brasov – Roger
As we drove out of the city of eyes we headed into the countryside, where there is lots of cropping and large mobs of sheep. The sheep are accompanied by local Romanian shepherd dogs, which stay with the flocks overnight to protect them from wolves, bears and other such predators. These look like a mixed breed of dogs, some quite big, but they seemed quite friendly as they drove the mobs of sheep across the paddock with the shepherd.
The hay is in the process of being baled at the moment with both hay and lucerne, some in the process of being cut and others having already been baled. We watched as mowers went round the paddocks followed by tedders, putting the hay into line ready to be baled. There were also large crops of corn, some which had already been harvested and others we saw being harvested. The other big crops here are sunflower seeds, most of which have now been harvested but some stood ready to be harvested, and sugar beets.
Our first stop was at the small village of Alma Vii, which is a very old town dating back to the 1400’s. Back in the day the villages didn’t have enough money to fortify the whole town so they fortified the church. When the town came under attack everybody withdrew to the church and defended themselves there. There were walkways around the walls with arrow slits where the locals could shoot their arrows from. There were also a number of towers, one of which was where the locals would hang their meat and collect their weekly supply every Sunday, and another to hold the grain, which was once again collected every Sunday when the locals came to church to get their week’s supply. There was also an old bell tower, which we were able to climb to the top of through some rather rickety and narrow, probably more ladders than stairs and tap the bells to hear the sound they made. We also climbed the meat tower, where we got views over the town and out into the country. We could see farmers going about their business, some with their horse and carts and others with tractors. This church and and its fort had just been restored and our guide hadn’t been there before so he was quite excited he was taking us there for the first time. If you organise in advance you can also get a traditional meal there prepared by the locals.
The next stop was another fortified church at Biertan. This one was a bit more substantial and had three layers of walls protecting it. Back in the day the river flowed right around the fort, I think between the second and third wall to make it even harder to attack. There was an impressive locking mechanism on a rather impressive door inside the church. It even won an award in Paris in the 1500’s. The priest here had set up a ‘prison’ for couples that confessed to marital difficulties. He locked them up together in a small space until they agreed not to get divorced.
Driving a little further we came to the fortified town of Sighasoara, dating back to 1280. There were seven fortified cities in the region and about 300 fortified churches. It’s interesting that even back then they had managed to fit three churches in the town, one Lutheran, one Catholic and another Lutheran church that was dedicated for women and a was up some steep covered stairs.
We enjoyed a nice lunch at a local restaurant before exploring the town. I particularly enjoyed the pork and sausages, which were rather tasty. After lunch we wandered around the town, admiring the walls and the nine remaining towers (there were originally 14). Each tower was owned by one of the guilds and they were responsible for maintaining it and defending it. There was one for the shoemakers, one for the leather workers, one for the blacksmiths etc. This town even had a massive town hall behind the walls. As we looked across outside of the walled town, a massive new Orthodox church had been built there. Interestingly, since 1990 they have been some 1900 churches built by communities throughout Romania but no new schools and no new hospitals as the churches are built and paid for by the community.
There was also a house in Sighasoara where Dracula was born in 1431. His real name was Vlad. Apparently he got the name Dracula because it kind of means ugly/evil. His father used to make coins to be used in the community which had his face on one side and I think a dragon on the other, but they were so badly made that he was nicknamed Drac meaning ugly/evil. The nickname stuck and his son became Dracula or son of Drac.
The next stop was a house in the small village of Viscri, owned by King Charles III, who bought it some years ago when he was the Prince of Wales. He used to come and stay here every year and apparently still comes to Romania every year since he has been King but doesn’t stay in this place. It has now been turned into a museum. There were lots of boards about King Charles and the Royal family but one interesting piece showed the lineage of the royal family going right back to Dracula. It is just as well the stories of the vampires are not true or the royal family may have a couple of fangs in place of their eye teeth.
As we continued, Florin pointed out a fort on a hill from the early days, which was like a hotel to house travellers and keep them safe as they made their journey. This one was situated about one-days journey from Sibiu, where we stayed last night, and one-day’s journey from Brasov, where we will stay tonight, making it an important half way stop. It had been hit by a large storm or tornado in 1780 and nearly destroyed; it is the in process of being rebuilt. Apparently at the same time in the same storm another town was destroyed quite some distance away. There is so much history in this country that it is impossible to write it all down; it would be a volume of an encyclopaedia in itself so I’m trying to keep this relatively brief.
Eventually we reached the city of Brasov, which is a city of some 250,000 people and was originally a fortified town. We headed to the white tower on the hill overlooking the city and also got a view up onto the mountain with the city’s name on it. There is also a cable car that runs up there that was built during the communist era.
As we headed to the Schuster Boarding house, well hardly a boarding house but that’s what it’s called, we passed the University where they had knocked down the fortifications to build it. The old city with its narrow streets and alleyways is quite charming and the receptionist at the very nice, boutique hotel was very welcoming. We both enjoyed a massage in the small spa downstairs, a pleasant way to end the day.
Saturday 20 September 2025: Brasov, Liberty Bear Sanctuary and Pelés Castle – Sylvia
The Schuster Boarding House, despite its name, is a very pleasant and comfortable hotel. We slept well and enjoyed a very good breakfast. We will stay here again tonight. Florin met us at 9am and we headed off on a walking tour of Brasov. This city of ~250,000 people has retained the character in its old medieval heart. It is impossible to really explain the history but like the other fortified cities we visited it was fortified in the 1200’s with the support of the Germans. At that time the Lutheran religion became more prominent. Many of these towns have a huge German or Saxon influence.
We first walked down Rope Street, a very narrow corridor covered in graffiti. Narrow alleyways like this were built throughout the town as a way for fire-fighters to be able to get quick access between the streets. As Roger put it “they must have had very small fire engines”. Today, this is the only one remaining, the rest have been widened as buildings have been knocked down.
We walked outside of the old German gate. After the devastating fire of 1689, which destroyed almost the entire city, the German’s blamed the Romanians and when the city was rebuilt, the Romanians had to build their houses outside the city walls. There were separate gates for the Romanians to enter the city and one of these still remains. In my opinion it is much prettier than the austere German gate. Most of the city walls have now been destroyed.
We walked past Vila Katharina, which used to be the home of the girlfriend of Vlad (Dracula – Roger wrote about how he got named Dracula yesterday). He had three children with her and she was the love of his life. He ruled Wallachia for two different periods of time and was imprisoned for a time in between. The history here gets complicated – something to do with his cousin giving him up but they later made up. Apparently when he was in prison Katharina was given a very hard time by many of the local people. She was German and in theory was not supposed to be in a relationship with a Romanian. When he was released from prison he was very angry and rounded up all the people who had made fun of her and impaled them in the main square of Brasov. He was generally well regarded by the people because he fought against the Ottomans. He was extremely tough on his enemies though and impalement was his favourite way of dealing with them. (It was a fairly common form of punishment back in those days). Thus he became known as Vlad the Impaler. It is this gruesome way of dealing with his enemies, combined with the nickname of Dracula that gave rise to the legend that was popularised by Bram Stoker, even though there is no truth at all to the vampire legend.
We walked past the Black Cathedral, which was one of only two buildings to survive the fire, and got its name after turning black from all the soot. After being restored it is now more grey in colour but seems to have retained its name. It was originally a Catholic Church, constructed over 100 years, finishing in 1477. It was changed in 1543 to a Lutheran church due to the increasing German population in the town. The old town hall was the only other building to survive the fire. Apparently all the other buildings were made of wood. After the fire the city was rebuilt all in brick and stone.
Florin left us to wander around the pretty main square and poke our heads into the small Orthodox Church while he went to get the car. We met him again outside a striking pink building to head to the Libearty Bear Sanctuary.
We drove about 40-minutes through the city and surrounding industry and then countryside, eventually arriving at the sanctuary. Prior to Romania becoming part of the EU, it was common for brown bears to be kept privately, generally in appalling conditions. Restaurants and service stations often kept a bear in a small cage for entertainment. Others were made to perform in circuses or kept in tiny zoos. One of the requirements of EU membership, which was achieved in 2007, was a change in the laws, banning private ownership of wildlife. This law was passed in 2006. The sanctuary, which opened in August 2005 now cares for 130 bears on 69 hectares of land. Relative to wild bears this is still a relatively small space, but compared with the cramped cages they used to live in, these bears now live a luxurious existence. Unfortunately they cannot be released into the wild as they have no natural skills and don’t even know how to prepare for hibernation. The sanctuary stress that they are not a zoo and only allow visitors through one of 5 tours a day, all in the morning so the bears get a break from people.
We were first shown a brief, heart-wrenching video showing how the bears used to be kept. We were then guided along a ~2km path, stopping regularly to look at some of the bears and to hear their stories. The sanctuary provides about 2000kg of food per day, funded from the tourist fee. The bears are all behind electrified fences and are free to roam within large spaces. Staff only enter the enclosures to provide necessary medical treatment. Food is thrown in to ensure the bears live as naturally as possible. Obviously I would much rather see animals in their natural environment but I can definitely see that these animals have a much better existence today. I was proud to see that Mars and Royal Canin are sponsors of the sanctuary.
We then drove another hour or so to the tourist area of Sinaia. This is a lovely town in the Carpathian Mountains. As with tourist areas the world over, there are large holiday homes and row after row of market stalls selling mostly Chinese goods. As well as the beautiful scenery, and in the winter skiing, the main attraction in the area is Pèles Castle, built by King Carol I, the first king of Romania. In 1870 he rode his horse from Bucharest. He stayed overnight in the area in a local monastery and decided he liked the area so much he wanted to build his summer palace there. He liked it so much it became his permanent residence. It was the first fully electric palace in Europe.
We stopped just outside the palace for lunch. Entrance to the palace is managed by time zones. Florin had it worked out perfectly. Our entrance time was between 12:30 and 2:30pm. After lunch, we arrived at about 2:15pm. There were queues outside of people waiting for their entry time starting at 2:30pm. Inside though, we were almost on our own and felt like we had a private tour of the magnificent place – we were always ahead of the crowd. Having visited numerous castles and palaces over the years, we both felt this was the best one we had seen. It is still a clear display of exorbitant wealth and excess but there was something quite appealing about it. One of the highlights for Roger was, of course, the armoury. The photographs will not do it justice but I could not begin to try and explain it either.
After exploring the castle, we went to visit the monastery. The initial, quite modest monastery was built in 1695 by Prince Mihail. In 1870, King Carol I stayed in the monastery, and ended up living there for 10 years while he built the castle. He built the newer, larger monastery as a form of thanks. Interestingly he also built synagogues and mosques in Romania during his reign – quite inclusive for that era.
On the way back to Brasov, we detoured briefly to have a brief look at another castle. This one once belonged to the Prime minister of Romania and has recently been used for filming the new Addam’s Family series, Wednesday.
We arrived back in Brasov around 5pm. Florin has been an amazingly knowledgeable guide with a very interesting personal story. His driving has at times left me on edge. I have gritted my teeth but even Roger commented that I’d have given him a pretty hard time if he drove like that. Florin also has a healthy disrespect for the rules. This has worked in our favour as he has found us close parking places and back entryways. All part of the tour experience.
We decided to wander around the city a bit, exploring some of the back streets. It is much prettier than I had originally thought. We found a cigar shop, and a bit later a nice outdoor bar/restaurant, where Roger enjoyed his cigar and a couple of wines, while I indulged in a local Romanian desert specialty of a type of donut with sour cream and jam – delicious it was too. We had a lovely chat with a Romanian couple at the next table before taking the long way back to the hotel to explore this endearing city a little further.
Romania is a really interesting country. It has an incredible history, some really beautiful scenery and the people we have met have all been extremely welcoming and hospitable. Yet, I am left with a sense of discomfort too. Maybe it is still the hangover from communist days. One part of me would like to have had more time to explore other parts of the country and the other is definitely ready to head home.
Sunday 21 September 2025: Bran Castle to Bucharest – Roger
After a nice breakfast in the Schuster Boarding House, Florin picked us up and we were on the road again, this time heading to the Bran Castle. This is a castle that was originally built as a fortress – it almost looks as though it has been stuck to rocks on the top of a hill. The car park and surrounding area was full of large buses. We wandered through some shops and some markets full of Chinese junk to the gate where Florin bought some tickets from the machine. We joined the queue, which must have had about a thousand people in it. Florin tried to take us up the fast lane but we were directed back to the main queue. We stayed in that line until we were around the corner and then Florin lifted up the rope and guided us back into the fast lane. We walked past everyone merging only at the castle entrance.
The first room had pictures of all Romania’s leaders and kings dating back to 1211. There seemed to be a few gaps and it is quite hard to understand exactly what was going on. Not only was the country initially broken into three separate countries, but after the Romans, the different parts were at times ruled by different empires. The southern parts were under Ottoman rule and Transylvania under the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Bran castle was originally built as a fortress in 1211, on the border between Wallachia and Transylvania. It burned down and the current one was built in 1377, still as a fortress. It wasn’t until 1921 that King Ferdinand and Queen Marie, the second king of Romania and his wife, decided to turn the fort into their summer palace. Queen Marie was present at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I and arranged for the unification of Romania. In 1917 the French correspondent wrote: “there is only one man in Romania, and that is the queen”. She was also known as the soldier queen as she went to the front lines during the war to encourage the troops. She was also described as a true romantic, loving everything beautiful.
In 1921 they moved into this somewhat dingy castle. There was one floor for her and a floor for her husband above. Probably the nicest things on display were a frock that she’d worn at some point and a uniform from the Saxon knights, part of the crusaders that came through this area in the 1400’s. After visiting her quarters, we pushed up a very narrow staircase cut into the stone cliff, that led to the kings floor. Originally it had been hidden behind the fireplace and when the Ottomans raided the fort at one point they couldn’t find out how to get up to the next level. Some other stairs have since been added.
Next we came to a Dracula display with ghostly figures moving across the concrete walls, and a few other Dracula objects. Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) himself, never occupied this castle or any of the other castles in the country. However, the movie Dracula was made in this castle. Signs around the place indicated that they would have a scary, and maybe dangerous, Halloween here. There was a small torture museum that we didn’t bother to enter, and eventually a spiral staircase took us back down to the ground. As we wandered back down the path there were probably only about 500 people queued up.
The next four hours were spent in the car, with the first two just getting to the town of Sinaia, where we had been yesterday. Sinaia, with its two pedestrian crossings created quite a road block, with Sunday being the day everyone heads back to Bucharest. After that the journey sped up; the road took us over some tree-covered hills, eventually ending up on the plains, another massive cropping area, that runs all the way to the Danube. There was a new motorway just being started that will eventually run all the way to Brasov. Maybe if we come back in 10-years or so the journey will be a lot quicker, no doubt being funded by the EU.
We stopped for a brew at a cafe attached to a Service Station before making our way to the airport, passing an area with four oil refineries in it. Florin dropped as at the door and we made our way through security and immigration to one of the roughest business class lounges I’ve seen anywhere in the world.
The flight from Bucharest to Qatar on an A320 was only around 4-hours. As we disembarked from the aircraft somewhere in this massive airfield, a woman was there to greet us and escort us through security to the first class lounge to await our flight to Auckland.
In summary, over the last four weeks I’ve probably been into more churches than a good catholic goes to in a lifetime. This reminds me of a story one of the guides told us about a bus driver and a priest that turned up at the pearly gates. St Peter apologised and said we’ve only got one place so I’m going to have to check the records to see who deserves to go in. After checking the records he returned and ushered the bus driver in, telling the priest he’d have to go downstairs. The priest was shocked and asked why. St Peter said, well Mr Priest, you gave a sermon several times a week, but most of the people slept through it. The bus driver drove his bus every day carrying thousands of people who all prayed to God all the way.
That’s it for six weeks until we head off again.
Monday 15 September 2025: Vidin and Belogradchik Rocks – Roger
We woke in the morning to find ourselves moored up alongside the town of Vidin in Bulgaria. Bulgaria has a population about 6.5 million, of which around 30,000 live in this town. It was around nine when we boarded the buses and drove through the town and into the country. It was a beautiful clear day with bright blue skies.
This poor town really has the signature look of the communist days. In 1991 it had a population of about 65,000, there were big factories here and the other sorts of things that were prominent in the Soviet state, where everybody had a job but nobody really worked. There are still many of the derelict factories that would have been here back in the Soviet days. It has been an EU country for sometime and I noticed last time I was here that there is a lot of infrastructure being invested around the country, including a four lane road that was running along the side of the road we were on, yet to be completed. Our guide, who was probably in her mid-to-late 40’s did not have a kind thing to say about the communist regime. She said they basically stole everything from us and left very little. They even took over all the small businesses and despite state funded education and healthcare they lived very poorly.
It was about an hour later when we arrived at some rocks on the top of a hill next to a town, which hundreds of years ago had been kind of turned into a fort. They believe this was originally built during the Roman era as there were a couple of wells there, and under the Roman regime there had to be a well every 31 miles. Belogradchik, the town of a few thousand situated under the fort had lots of buildings in disrepair with plaster falling off them and attempts made to re-cement the ridge capping on the tile roofs, I presume to prevent leaking.
The guide gave us a rundown on the fort and the souvenir shops around it and said ‘don’t go to the pub because we don’t like the man that runs it; he’s not nice to us’, not that we had time to do that anyway. We took a stroll through the fort and up a number of steps and in some cases ladders. From the top of the rocks we had a great view of the surrounding areas. Looking across the tree covered slopes we could see in the distance large cropping areas. Wheat, along with petroleum oils, and copper are some of the main exports from Bulgaria.
Arriving back at Vidin, the guide had the bus driver take us on a tour of the town, pointing out the post office, the shopping centre, the cathedral and the town square with lots of pride, before dropping us back at the boat.
After lunch Sylvia and Susie went off to a cooking class, hosted by a local family in their home, to learn how to make banitsa, a Bulgarian specialty. By all accounts it was a fairly interesting experience.
Gregg and I went for a stroll around the town. We past the post office and poked our heads into the shopping mall, which looked like something you would have seen in New Zealand in the 80’s. We wandered across to the cathedral, which at the moment is under repair. It certainly needs it as obviously the roof has been leaking inside. Being an Eastern Orthodox Cathedral it was quite dark and gloomy inside compared with some of the other ones we’ve seen over the last couple weeks, and based on the number of chairs is not very well patronised. They had made a real effort in the centre of town to tidy it up with new paving but the buildings in most cases still need repair. There was a large Soviet style statue in the square, and a six-platform railway station near the centre.
After we got back to the boat I went back to the post office to send some postcards. I had pulled some local currency out of a cash machine earlier as I’d been informed that the post office only took local money, no credit cards or anything like that. Arriving at the counter with a nice Mexican lady called Mercedes, who was also on the boat, I pushed my phone across with the translation for overseas stamps, The man looked at the stamp pile, grumbled, yelled out to somebody and disappeared. Soon he came around into the front part of the post office and grabbed us and led us out of the building to the shop next door, where the lady shook her head and said she didn’t take credit cards. Well I think that’s what she said so I pulled some cash out of my wallet and flashed some locals. With Google Translate again we got both mine and Mercede’s postcards off to their destinations. I’ll bet you we get home before they do.
Sylvia returned from the cooking class just after 1700 having been told she shakes well!! I presume something to do with the cooking.
At 1800 we pulled away from the jetty onto the river, where there were a number of barges moving about. The river levels are very low and we have been advised that we will not make it all the way to our scheduled destination of Ruse tomorrow, but no matter, arrangements have been made…
Tuesday 16 September 2025: Veliko Tarnovo and Arbanasi – Sylvia
We woke this morning moored by the small town of Nikopol, still in Bulgaria. With the water levels in the Danube being too low for us to make it all the way to Russe, we stopped here instead. Today has been a good reminder for me (as if I needed one) about how much I really dislike large coach tours. At 8:30 we were aboard our coach and headed off on a ~2-hour drive to Arbanasi. The land around is mostly flat, with gentle rolling hills in a few places. It is well cultivated. The road in places is pretty rough and in most of the villages we pass through many of the houses look to be in need of repair.
After a couple of hours we arrived at a large castle-type building, built only about 12-years ago, where we were ushered into a hall, along with several other bus loads for some tea, coffee, water and snacks, as well as the obligatory toilet stop.
Thirty minutes later we were back on the road and headed to our first main stop, the Nativity of Christ church in Arbanasi, built in the 16th century. From outside it looks just like another farm building. Under Ottoman rule the churches were largely hidden this way. But inside, it seems every inch of wall space is covered in detailed frescoes. The church was active for ~500 years but was closes for refurbishment and has been operating as a museum since 1976. They hold one annual service at Christmas.It was extremely crowded inside the church with a different bus group crammed into each of the three spaces, moving on as the next group finished. There was the entry or reception area and then two separate rooms for men and women to worship in.
After waiting around outside for the group to complete their shopping at the nearby embroidery and icon stalls, with much encouragement from our guide, we eventually wandered a bit further down the street to a large home, dating from the 17th century and originally belonging to a wealthy merchant family. We hung back and avoided the crowds, almost able to be alone in each room to have a bit of a look around. The Turkish influence is quite palpable.
More waiting around for shoppers followed. Bulgaria is apparently very famous for its rose oil and the small shop underneath the house, according to the guide, a great place to purchase it. My patience was wearing dangerously thin. We bumped into Susie and Gregg, who were on a different bus but also had their teeth gritted together. The horde was then ushered into a small room to sample the local liquor. I walked up and down the road a bit to try and stretch my legs. It was pretty warm out, which didn’t help.
Lunch was in the restaurant next door. They managed to serve about 6 bus loads a four course meal very efficiently: local salad of tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, feta cheese and dill, which was quite delicious, vegetable soup, a chicken casserole, and some lovely thick Bulgarian yoghurt with honey for dessert. Drinks were also included. This was probably the highlight of the day. We had some interesting conversation with our four table-mates, three women from the US and one from Australia. Towards the end of lunch some locals, in full traditional dress arrived and entertained us with their singing and dancing. To our surprise, one of their instruments was very much like bagpipes.
Outside there was a very long line for the toilets, so we wandered around the yard, replete with chickens, peacocks, rabbits and the like, even finding a hammock to lie down in for a bit.
Back on the bus again, we headed for the nearby city of Veliko Tarnovo, which was the capital of Bulgaria from the 12th to 14th century. We stopped to take photos of the old fort area, Tsaravets, which defended the place. Today the city hosts numerous large homes, perched precariously on the hillside overlooking the river. Then, it was into town for a bit of free time. For many this meant more shopping, but after a quick wander, we opted instead for a delicious ice cream at the local cafe. Definitely the second highlight of the day.
Tour over, it was back on the buses for another two hours or so back to port. At least the guide didn’t keep up a steady patter on the way back.
Apologies if I sound a bit negative. I am incredibly grateful for the experiences and for the opportunity to visit this part of the world. Many, I’m sure enjoyed the experience but I much prefer to travel more independently and this was not an option for us today.
Back on board we made the ‘long’ sail across the river to Romania. The whole process would have taken less than 15-minutes. Given we can’t go any further down river, we will now dock here tonight and then take buses to Bucharest tomorrow.
Wednesday 17 September 2025: Bucharest – Roger
We were on the bus to Bucharest at 0745. The guide on the bus prattled on and bloody on. telling us lots of useless information about her life and about the different populations in the country. It became obvious as we headed northeast that this is the part of the country where the money is made. The cropping fields go on for mile after mile. The towns, although still showing the Soviet effect in places, looked a lot better off than in Bulgaria. At one farm machinery dealer there were large Claas tractors for sale. It is very different from the north part of the country that I drove through a couple of years ago, where there were a lot of 1950’s Massey Ferguson tractors, along with donkeys towing carts. Apparently some of the large cropping farms are still owned by the state, others by Italian and European companies.
Heavy rain set in as we headed through many small towns. The guide continued to prattle on. Originally from Sweden, she fell in love with a guy in Hungary, then somehow ended up in Romania. She also gave us a background on Count Dracula’s story. Apparently he delighted on driving stakes through the hearts of his dead enemies. Surprise, surprise the vampire bit is a bit of a myth.
Arriving in Bucharest, we bailed from the bus when it stopped outside the heaviest building in the world, the Romanian Parliament building. Rain persisted as we stood with Gregg and Susie sharing our ponchos while waiting for an uber. The uber took us to the former home of the last president under Soviet rule. The Ceausescu’s were executed by the Romanian people after the revolution of 1989, I think without a trial. We entered the palace of some 4000 sq meters with plastic covers fitted to our shoes. I had been through here in 2022 but still enjoyed the tour. Coming from an uneducated background the Ceausescu’s made their way to the top in the communist system. While the people lived in poverty in this so called equal society, they lived in absolute luxury, along with their two sons and daughter, who all had apartments in this place. The palace was extended in the 70’s adding a gold embossed bathroom for Mrs Ceausescu along with a huge wardrobe and dressing room, which many foxes and minks gave their lives up to be housed in. A large lobby, including a grand piano and a large marble stairway led us up to the living quarters. We made our way through the apartments, then a mahogany stairway led us down to an indoor garden with pools and fountains. then through the saunas and massage rooms to the 20m indoor pool, ornately decorated and with a wave machine to swim against. Outside, in the now reduced gardens, peacocks with feathers trimmed strutted their stuff.
As we waited for an uber outside the Kuwaiti embassy a guy parked his car to drop something off across the road. The security guard raced out, called him back to his car and told him sternly to move on. Our uber pulled up in the same spot so we got in fast to head back into the city for our tour of the parliament building.
Arriving early we checked in at the tour place then headed for a brew at a cafe nearby. Across the road were a couple of the ugliest buildings I have ever seen. We concluded that an architectural expert must have put these forward back in the Soviet days just taking the piss but they got accepted.
At around 1440 we headed with the guide woman up the road to parliament. Construction was started in the late 80’s before the revolution. After a large earthquake demolished large parts of this area, Ceausescu decided he wanted to build a building bigger than the North Koreans had. He moved thousands of people out of the area to make way for what would become the world’s heaviest building, along with surrounding appartments to house government officials. Built to withstand on 8+ earthquake, the concept came from a 28 year old woman architect. The plans were completed with the input of some 1200 other architects, but the building, started in 1984, was only about 60% finished by the time of the revolution in December 1989. The new government decided to finish it. With the input of over 1000 workers it was finally completed in 2004. Apparently Micheal Jackson was one of the first visitors; he stood on the front steps of parliament and said “hello to the people of Budapest”. The tour guide says to this day she still gets calls from visitors to Budapest looking for this building.
With some 1200 rooms, the smallest ~300sqm and the largest over 2200sqm, it is simply ostentatious. Several thousand tons of marble were used in cladding and huge columns. There are also marble maps of the building in the floor between each column, and a large marble diagram in the centre of the building on each of the floors. Apparently it houses the largest parliament chamber in the world, with a massive 5-tonne chandelier. With eight floors above the ground and six below it has a floor area of 365,000 sqm. The pentagon is the only bigger public building on earth. We only saw a very small portion of it, the guide telling us it would take 18-hours just to walk quickly through every room in the building. It is simply impossible to describe the vast passageways. I hope the photos will help. One area of amusement was the media area, where they have little container like boxes for the media to work in. I am sure they are very circumspect in what they write.
Tour over, we headed back to the souvenir shop where Gregg had left his pack. We strolled back to the hotel, passing a cellphone aerial on the roof of a building with the cables running out of the window of the apartment below. At the back of the parliament building we passed the largest Orthodox church in the world, part of which is still under construction as it was nearly 3 years ago when I was here last.
We checked into the Grand Marriott hotel with its large shopping hall and grand staircase, which goes all the way up past the 5th floor, which we were on.
Thursday 11 September 2025: Kalocsa – Roger
It was 8:30 in the morning when we disembarked and boarded buses for a short trip to Kalocsa. The river in this area is 4 to 500 metres wide, 6 metres deep and flowing at a rate of about 2500 cubic metres per second. As we headed along the country road on each side of us were large fields. Down this part of Hungary they mainly grow sunflowers. Hungary produces about 1.9 million tons of sunflower seed each year and up to 15,300,000 tons of grain. Nearly three years ago when I drove down the other side of Hungary it was all large cultivated rolling hills. Around here it is dead flat; most of the land has been recovered from river flats and swamps over the last few hundred years.
Cutting through a part of the town, the guide pointed out old military barracks from the days when this town was the centre for compulsory military training, which has now ceased. These are now part of the town’s accommodation. Not far into the country on the other side of town we came to a horse farm with a rather unique entrance made of hay bales. A horseman cantered along in front of the bus, cracking his whip as we drove down the drive and pulled up to a rather extensive group of buildings with lots of parks for buses. We were herded around the corner into the grandstand which faces onto the arena. A bunch of horsemen cantered around the arena on their sturdy looking steeds, followed by a short stocky but sturdy donkey with a rather large bloke on it. They put on a number of displays including one where they stopped in front of us and the horses lay down with the horsemen sitting on them. It was then I realised that the saddles on these horses had no girths but just sat on the horse. Staying on like that this is a skill in itself. The donkey too laid out.
Next they were up and going again and demonstrating with their whips how they used to catch quail by knocking down a small wooden block as they galloped past. Next up was a bullock-pulled wagon, pulled by a bunch of Hungarian cattle. Originating in Asia, these are a sturdy animal whose milk is too powerful for humans to drink, but I’m sure with the amount of meat on them they are pretty good eating.
There were more wagons in the demonstration, one in particular 4 x 3-horses, two tied to the front stay and one to a stay coming off the back wheel apparently making this much more effective in muddy ground they called it primitive four-wheel-drive.
The finale was a guy standing on two horses at the back of eight other horses as they galloped around the arena. He was pretty effective at adjusting his balance as they rode around.
The display over, we were all taken for a ride on a wagon out of the yard and across the paddock and back again. There were some lovely thatched buildings around. Beside some of these buildings was a well with a long pole and a bucket attached to the device for extracting the water. Apparently back in the day the bucket and pole were left in different positions to let people know what was going on around the area. For example, if the wife was having an affair, common practice here they say, she would leave the bucket in a certain place so that her lover knew it was safe to come in because the husband was out – well so the story goes.
We then wandered through the stables, where apart from horses, cows and pigs, there were also some Hungarian Racka sheep. According to my farmer mate, Ross, back in NZ, only 2,500 of these are left in the world. With sharp, corkscrew-like horns, I imagine they would be pretty hard to manage.
Back on the buses, you guessed it – we had to go and visit the local cathedral. This, originally build in the 1300’s, burned down, was rebuilt, was knocked down by the Mongolians, rebuilt, knocked down by the Ottomans and then rebuilt again. The one that stands here is the fourth one. It was quite bright inside with, of course, lots of gold and a massive pipe organ, which we had to listen to for 20 minutes while it played some Bach and various other pieces of music.
On the way back to the boat the guide pointed out some old Soviet barracks from the communist days when apparently there were lots of Russian troops here.
Back on the boat we enjoyed lunch with Greg and Susie, who had been in a different tour group this morning so we enjoyed a good catch up. We were soon on the move, heading down river, stopping again about 4pm at a place called Mohacs. Here, the people who had gone on the afternoon wine tour from our last stop rejoined the boat. There was also a car ferry there taking vehicles back-and-forth across the river. There are very few bridges on this part of the Danube so car ferries are a very common sight.
Later in the evening, Gabor, our cruise director shared some of his personal memories of growing up in Hungary during the Soviet era. It was very interesting and even humorous at times.
Friday 12 September 2025: Osijek and Vukovar – Sylvia
We woke this morning in Vukovar in heavy fog. It made for quite a pretty view out the back of the boat, the fog almost seeming to shimmer in the morning light.
At 8:30am we were on our bus, headed for a small village just outside Osijek, about a 45-minute drive away. As in Hungary yesterday, the land around here is very flat and heavily cultivated. We passed many fields of sunflowers, their petals having long faded and their heads now drooping, loaded with seeds waiting for harvest. We also passed lots of fields of corn, most already harvested.
Along the way, our guide regaled us with the history of the area, with a focus on the war in the 1990’s. As she put it, “Tomorrow you will hear the Serbian side; today you will hear the truth.”Croatia is a country of about 3.8-million inhabitants, about 90% of whom are Croatian. Croats are generally Roman Catholics and use latin script. About 7% of the population are Serbian, mostly orthodox and using cyrillic script. Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire but after WWI in 1918 became a part of Yugoslavia. At that time Yugoslavia was a monarchy, made up of several smaller countries, who believed they would be better served by combining resources. The king was Serbian, and moved to London, in exile during WWII. At that time the country became divided – some people collaborated with the Nazis. Tito fought against the collaborators as part of the partisan resistance. But as a communist he also fought against the king. After the war in 1945, the king abdicated and Tito became president. He was a communist but remained separate from the Soviet regime and maintained some ties with the west. He died in 1980 without leaving a successor. It was intended that leadership would rotate among the different countries but Milosevic, a Serbian became leader and clung to power. When Slovenia and Croatia chose to break away (as was their right based on the constitution), Milosevic chose to fight. The war with Slovenia lasted only two weeks, but in Croatia it lasted for seven years. It was not a religious war but was really about access to the Adriatic Sea and the tourism industry and agriculture of Croatia.
Vukovar is a smallish town close to the Serbian border. It became the centre of fighting, facing three months of intense bombing with ~300 bombs being dropped per day. On 18 November the city was occupied by the Serbs. Many of the residents evacuated and became refugees. Two hundred and sixty three people in the local hospital waited for evacuation but instead were handed to the Serbian paramilitary. They were taken to a concentration camp at Ovcara, where they were tortured and killed. They were buried in a mass grave that was discovered about a year later but the bodies were not recovered for another 6 years. To this day not all the bodies have been recovered. The devastation of Vukovar was massive with about 95% of the town ruined in the war. Even today many of the buildings bear the scars of shrapnel.
We drove through the city of Osijek (130,000 inhabitants), which was bombed during the war but never occupied. A brave Croat refused to back his car away from the tanks and it was crushed (he jumped out at the last minute). There is now a memorial in the town showing the car attempting to crush the tank.
Soon after, we arrived in the small village of Bilje. We were split into three groups of 14 and each invited to visit with a local family. We entered the home of Helena and her daughters, Anita and Mariana. We were warmly welcomed and served a piece of chocolate cake with honey from Mariana’s apiary, as well as some mint and herb tea, made with herbs from the garden. They shared stories of their life and answered our questions. Prior to the war they were living in Vukovar. The father was a soldier in the Croatian army and ended up in the Ovcara concentration camp for three months, after which he was released as part of a prisoner exchange. They lived as refugees in a different part of Croatia for ten years, The father lost four members of his family and after the war they did not return to Vukovar as there were too many memories there. Instead they moved to this house in Bilje. For the last 18-years they have been hosting tour groups like ours up to three times per week during the season. It was a very inspiring visit.
After leaving the home we bused into the Bilje village hall where a local woman played piano and sang a number of hymns. She is a member of the Croatia choir, which has won numerous awards, and sang beautifully. We were offered a glass of plum brandy after the concert, but declined.
We next visited an old fortress in Osijek. It was originally built in the 18th century by the Hapsburgs. We wandered around, with the guide pointing out a number of different buildings and places of interest, before getting back on the bus and driving back to the Lif for lunch.
At 2:30pm we were back on another bus, a much smaller group of us this time – only 13, heading out on a tour specifically related to the war. Our first stop was the military base, which today serves as a museum, showcasing a variety of tanks, guns and other equipment. The Croatians had to use whatever was available. I could not help but make parallels with what is happening in Ukraine today. We spent about an hour wandering around and exploring the different exhibits.
Next we headed to the site of the Ovcara concentration camp, which is today a memorial to the 263 people who were killed from the hospital. It was very poignant. Whilst what happened in Vukovar was absolutely tragic, it was unfortunately not the worst massacre that took place in Yugoslavia. In Bosnia, over 8,000 people were massacred in Srebrenica in 1995.
We stopped for a refreshing drink at a cafe near what would be our last stop for the day, the water tower, originally built in 1968 and 50m tall. It was built on the highest point of Vukovar and took over 600 hits during the three months of bombing in the town. Today, while the outside facade remains the same, showing all the devastation, inside it has been reinforced and now stands as a monument to the war, with a museum of sorts inside. Susie, Greg and I climbed the ~200 steps to the top while everyone else took the elevator. From there we walked up to the roof of the tower, with fantastic views across the city.
We decided to walk the kilometre or so back to the ship, through the picturesque town. Vukovar stands as a monument to resilience, although the population today, at 20,000, is half what it was before the war.
As we sailed on down the Danube, the sun set over the city, a fitting way to end this day of reflection.
Saturday 13 September 2025: Belgrade – Roger
It was just after 9 am when we stepped off the boat, which had tied up at Belgrade on the Sava river, just off the Danube. We walked down alongside the dock passing numerous restaurants and shops and a number of fishing poles tied to the rail alongside the river – no owners in sight, but I presume someone was keeping an eye on the lines in the water. We found a spiralling ramp that took us up to the Kalemegdan fortress. Originally built in 270 BC, this is a huge fortress and at some stage would have been a walled city. The fortress was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times throughout history, with significant reconstructions under Byzantine, Serbian, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian rule.
There was a huge amount of activity going on at the fort today with lots of young, strong-looking men running around as if there was some sort of competition on. We eventually wandered into the military museum, the outside of which is surrounded by a huge number of tanks and artillery pieces, just about every size and shape you could think of.
Inside the museum it was a bit dingy, but it took is through the military history of this area dating back to the BC days. Starting off with clubs, spears and other objects, which were used to try and kill each other, and advancing through matchlock, flintlock and percussion-cap into modern firearms, it took us through conflict after conflict. What was really apparent here was the huge number of Serbs and their rivals that have been killed in battles over the last couple of thousand years. Numbering well into the hundreds of thousands, it makes you wonder what the population would be if there had been no wars in this area.
It’s a long and complicated history involving the Romans, Genghis Khan, the Ottomans and the Austro-Hungarians, before becoming Yugoslavia and finally Serbia, the country of today. As Sylvia covered yesterday, in the 90’s it was involved in another conflict, which cost thousands more lives. Interestingly this last conflict was not really mentioned in this museum.
From the museum we went out the other side through a Jurassic Park type area, with lots of dinosaurs etc., then through some markets and onto the Main Street, which was packed with pedestrians. Restaurants were full with people out having Saturday lunch. We found a restaurant on the fifth floor of the shopping complex and sat and enjoyed a very nice pizza and I tried the local beer. As we were dining, the Serbian Air Force was having a big day out. About 12 fighter jets flew past, followed by a couple of cargo or fuel type planes, more than a dozen helicopters and some other aircraft. Not quite sure what was going on but they didn’t drop any bombs so we were okay.
We strolled down to the end of the Main Street to catch a bus out to the local cathedral. Unfortunately we struggled to get internet coverage and didn’t have a paper map with us so it took us a while to work out which bus to take.
Eventually, we got things sorted and bus 31 took us to the Saint Sava Temple, one of the largest Eastern Orthodox churches in the world. It is huge and bright inside and out. As we were there there was a wedding going on down the front. They had a small group of people standing off to one side with great voices, singing through the wedding vow process. Photographers circled with cameras on gyroscopes as the process went on.
From there we got a bus back into town and headed into the Ice Box, which is an ice-cream shop, where if you don’t get your ice-cream in a cone, they put it in a box with ice in it to keep it cool. Quite a smart idea and it was very tasty ice cream as well.
After that we caught the shuttle from outside the French embassy back to the boat where we relaxed for the rest of the day.
Sunday 14 September: Golubac and Kazan Gorge – Sylvia
I was woken about 6:30am by an odd motion of the boat. Peeking out the window I could see white caps and noted the shore a long distance away. Turns out we were very close to the widest point of the Danube river, nearly 6.5kms wide, and the wind was howling. At about 8am we docked at Golubec, the site of a restored medieval fortress, and we disembarked shortly after.
A very short walk, leaning almost horizontally into the wind, brought us to the fort, still in Serbia. Despite Roger having remarked as we were leaving the boat that he was nearly ’forted’ out, it turned out to be a very good visit. This fort, which was built in the 14th century, has never been defeated. It has a very good position with the wide river on one side, high cliffs behind, and a clever design for defence.
There is another fort on the Romanian side of the river and a rock in the middle of the river. Apparently a chain used to run between the fort and the rock to make it easy for the king to stop boats to ensure they paid taxes on their way past.
The river here was not always this wide – in the 1960s Romania and Yugoslavia collaborated to build the Iron Gate dams, which we would sail to later in the day. These dams raised the river level by 30 metres, and this inundated the bottom level of the fortress but the rest remains and has been extremely well preserved.
We were only able to climb the three lower towers (a limitation from Viking unfortunately) but really enjoyed exploring what we could.
Afterwards we returned to the boat and continued sailing down river (or down lake), with Serbia on the right bank and Romania on the left bank of the river. Sometime after lunch we reached the Kazan gorge and sat up on the upper deck to enjoy the views. This 9km gorge includes the narrowest part of the Danube, at one point it is only 150m, and also the deepest part, reaching 96m. It is part of the reason for the high winds this morning, apparently acting as a very good funnel. Prior to the dam, the river was very treacherous to navigate but now is much easier. The cliffs tower on both sides, 300-500m high, making for some very picturesque sailing. We sailed past a number of small villages, caves, and monuments. At one point we passed an old monastery on the Romanian side of the river. The original had been flooded when the dam was built but the monks got together and built a new one.
A little further on we came to a giant carved sculpture of Decebalus, the last king of Dacia, who fought against the Romans. Standing 43 metres high, it took 12 people over 10 years to carve and was finished in 2004. It is the tallest rock relief in Europe and is quite imposing. Apparently there are mixed feelings about it locally.
On the opposite side of the river is a monument to the Roman Emperor, Trajan, who built a 1100m bridge across the Danube in 103-105AD to conquer the Dacian kingdom. This had to be raised when the river was flooded.
For Roger, the highlight was the Iron Gate dam itself. Over 1.2 kilometres wide and 30 metres deep it has a power station on each side of the river, one supplying power to Serbia and the other to Romania. Finished in 1972, there are 24 turbines in total, generating 2000 megawatts of electricity. We sailed through two locks, each 15m deep, to lower us to the level of the river on the other side. There is a second, smaller Iron Gate dam a little further down river that we will pass through at some stage during the night.
Tomorrow we will wake up in Bulgaria.
Sunday 7 September 2025: Vienna – Roger
When we woke up we had berthed on the Danube, just adjacent to Vienna. It was just before nine when Sylvia and I set off for a stroll into town. The area we walked through was a relatively new residential area with very tidy looking apartments with lots of green spaces and gardens.
We jumped on a tram for a few blocks and then walked the rest of the way to an art gallery, which also included an art village, which we walked through first – basically full of souvenirs and other stuff made in China, but it all related to a bloke called Hundertwasser. This guy drew a lot of stuff that looked like kids drawings to me. He was also involved with various city design in Vienna. He bought a property in the Bay of Islands in NZ, where he was involved in tree planting around the area, and designed the famous Kawakawa loos. He was buried there after dying on the Queen Elizabeth ship in the pacific. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the cafe at the museum.
From there we strolled to the cathedral in the city centre. As I was wandering around the square to get a photo of the cathedral, which seems to be in very good order – probably the cleanest one we’ve seen, I ran into Greg and Susan. They had done the tour with the Viking people and Greg informed me that the cathedral had burnt during World War II and was rebuilt.
After a look inside the cathedral, another Gothic style, we strolled out of the square and round to where the stables are. There I had watched the Lipizzaner horses do a display last time I was here. Next door to the stables is the old public library, not quite like a library we would expect in New Zealand. It is a rather fantastic building with huge columns and statues, and frescos on the curved ceiling. Surprisingly, none of the images in the frescos are reading books. The are doing all sorts of other stuff by the look of it, maybe they were talking about books, but they definitely weren’t reading books. Well that was my observation – maybe others would see it differently. Regardless, it’s a pretty amazing building.
From there we went around the corner and there’s another batch of amazing buildings. This was the Hofburg, the original palace with dozens of buildings. We walked through into the main grounds and there was something going on a bit like a local A&P show, but much bigger than the one they have in Fairlie in the South Island of NZ. There were different sorts of games for the kids, including a gondola car on the end of a crane which was hoisted up in the air for people to have a look around. We went and got a ticket to go to the palace of Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, and Queen of Hungary. We had to wait half an hour or so before we were allowed in so we wandered into another building through a large steel door which was hitched open. Up the stairs the Crown Jewels, uniforms, frocks and various other garments worn by the royalty in the past were on display. It is all quite overwhelming the amount of jewellery, gold and fine clothing that was owned by these people. Apparently that was the way for the Hapsburg dynasty that started in Switzerland around the seventh century and ruled most of Europe and many other countries around the world until Napoleon came along in the early 1800s and buggered it up. Maybe it was all his fault the world went to pot after that but we will never know.
Heading into the apartments where Sisi the queen lived, we picked up an audio device, which took us through room by room and also gave us a pretty good rundown on her life, which seems to have been less than a happy one. She was married at 16 to Franz Josef I. She had four kids, was addicted to keeping her body in shape and worked out for two hours every day, but seemed to get quite sick when in Vienna, so build a pad down in Corfu in the Greek Islands, where she spent a lot of time. She seemed to be in good health down there. She was assassinated in Italy in 1898.
Next we popped into the local gardens where there was a nice cafe, which was also quiet, We enjoyed a late lunch before heading back into the palace to visit the armoury. This magnificent building was built by Franz Josef for the queen, but was only partially finished when she was assassinated on Lake Geneva by an Italian radical. It was not finished until early in the 20th century. Today the top floor houses a magnificent display of swords, old guns and numerous sets of armour. Back in the day, when the Austrians had such a large empire, they had to be seen as the rulers and often went on long visits to various parts of the world to demonstrate that they were in charge. Part of this was looking the part of a ruler with lots of soldiers in armour. Both horses and soldiers were dressed to fit the part and impress locals. As roads back then were often just tracks an entourage of ~1000 people would accompany the king on these journeys.
The next part of this magnificent building was dedicated to music. Back in the early days the rulers made Vienna into the musical capital of the world, bringing the best musicians and the best instrument makers from all over Europe to keep the passion alive. In doing so, this also brought more wealth to the city as tourists piled in from all around Europe to hear them.
Heading out of the city by tram we passed more local farmers with their tractors and trailers dressed up, most of them with a bottle of beer in their hand, much like at the local A&P shows in New Zealand.
A couple of tram rides, a train ride and another tram ride, and we arrived at the Sigmund Freud Museum. This I had tried to visit when I was here a few years ago but it was closed that day. What we saw there is a little too complicated to explain as it went through his life in great detail. There were even some home movies of him and his family, presented by his daughter Anna, who was working with him before his death. She carried on the practice after the war. Freud, being a Jew, had had to escape the Nazis and move to England after Austria kind of gave themselves up to the Germans without a fight. He had a few different theories on things and was even given a professorship by the psychologists of England. At one stage he experimented with cocaine to see if it would cure addiction to heroin. I am sure there’s a whole lot more that I didn’t see that he did as well because the museum went on through many rooms.
A tram and a train bought us back to the boat where we relaxed for a while before heading out again. We took an uber into town to Deutchordenskirche, a small Catholic church and apartment complex, where Mozart lived for a couple of months in 1791. He played for the bishop in a little theatre there for a couple of years. About 70 mainly-antiques filed into the small theatre, with chairs placed in semi-circular rows around the small stage. In walked a quartet, dressed in period costume: two men with violins, another with a viola and a woman with a cello. They started with a piece from Mozart. The acoustics were excellent and the quartet was very skilled. Not that I know much about music but it sounded very good to me. This was followed by pieces from Mahler and Haydn, after which we all filed out into the courtyard for a drink, and in many cases a fag, (they smoke a lot in Austria) before returning for the last session with pieces from Mozart and Strauss. The quartet, bowed, left and then came back in and did an encore by plucking the strings on their instruments, a bit like you would a guitar. From this one could assume that Vienna still attracts quality classical musicians from around Europe. All in all today we walked over 15kms around the city.
Monday 8 September 2025: Vienna – Sylvia
It was nice to have a night uninterrupted by banging and rocking as we stayed docked in Vienna overnight. A few more Viking boats had arrived and we were now docked in a group of five, three behind us and one more beside us. The crew have been busy washing windows and decks. There are many other river cruise ships docked in the area as well.
At about 8:45am we headed off again, walking to the subway station and heading into town. We had purchased a two-day travel pass and a two-day Vienna pass and this made getting around the city very easy. The Vienna pass gave us access to all manner of sights, often through a fast line so we avoided queueing in most places as well. Having both been to Vienna before we were able to do things that were a little off the beaten path.
After taking photographs of the stunning parliament buildings… as Roger put it “they put our beehive parliaments into insignificance”, our first stop was the Justice Palace. This is an incredibly ornate building that still functions. They only allow 25 visitors per hour and only for 6-hours a day. We arrived just after opening at 9:30am and were the last visitors allowed in for the hour. After undergoing a thorough security check and exploring the beautiful interior, we headed to the rooftop cafe for breakfast and fabulous views over the city.
We have both been very impressed by how clean everything is here. In many of the other towns we have visited the buildings are grey with grime but here they almost seem to shine. Around every corner there is another beautiful building with so much history to share. I have had a little giggle at times at the incongruity of a McDonalds, or other modern business in a building dating back to the Renaissance, or earlier.
We then caught a tram to the Belvedere Palace. Last time I was here I had spent time wandering the gardens but had not visited the museum inside. Today we spent time admiring the ornate interiors and magnificent artworks inside. The museum has a lot of works by Klimt, as well as at least one each by Van Gogh, Monet and Rodin, and many other artists. The top floor houses much more modern works, that didn’t do much for either of us.
By this time Roger’s knees were feeling the effects of all the walking we’ve been doing the last few days, so he took a Uber back to the boat. I continued to wander around the city a bit. I had hoped to visit the Opera House but it was fully booked today. I wandered through some of the gardens to the Rathaus (town hall) and stopped for lunch at Einstein cafe, where I enjoyed some traditional Weiner schnitzel.
Wandering around the town I was quite taken with the traffic lights for walkers… this is obviously an inclusive city.
I had thought about heading out to the Schonbrunn Palace but my phone was running out of battery and I didn’t want to get lost, as the boat was leaving in the afternoon. Instead I headed back myself.
At about 4:30 we pulled away from the dock and left behind at least 15 other river cruise boats as we set sail for Budapest. We sat up on the top deck, Roger enjoying a cigar as we sailed out of the city and under several more low bridges.
Tuesday 9 September 2025: Budapest – Roger
It was about 8 am as we sailed down the Danube, passing a lot of beautiful buildings, and parked up just near the Chain bridge in Budapest. Hungary originally became its own state about the year 1000. Saint Stephen took over as the boss and set the place up as a nation. It appears that the people originally came from Western Siberia as the language is closely linked to them and not Roman or Germanic like the other languages in the area. Like other people in Europe, the Hungarians have fought many wars and in most cases got their arse well and truly kicked. As our Hungarian cruise director said last night during the daily briefing “if you want to go into a war find out which side Hungary takes and then take the other side because Hungary is about to pick the losing side”. The city of Budapest was pretty much leveled by the Russians at the end of World War II and every nice building you see here today has pretty much been rebuilt so you’re not looking at a lot of historic buildings but rather recreated historic buildings that were raised from the ashes of World War II. Even many modern buildings being constructed at the moment are being built in the old style making it a very attractive city.
It was just after 9 o’clock when we left the boat and headed for Saint Stephen’s Basilica in the centre of town. It is slightly different than the other cathedrals we have seen along the way. Just as well or I would be cathedraled out by now. We climbed up to the dome and had a look around the viewing platform giving us a good look around the city. We then descended some stairs to look at the so-called crown jewels, which were not particularly impressive compared with other ones we have seen.
After that we stopped in the square for breakfast and a cup of coffee before strolling across to the parliament buildings. Originally built between 1885 and 1904, over 1000 craftsman worked to complete what is a truly magnificent building. We made our way up a stairway to the fifth floor, then along a corridor to the top of the grand staircase, which is only allowed to be used by very important parliamentarians and visiting dignitaries. There was a large amount of 24-carat gold used in the construction of various parts of these passageways and other important parts of the building. From the grand stairway we moved into the centre dome where the 2kg crown is stored in a glass box with a couple of ceremonial guards alongside. Here we were not allowed to take photos, which is a pity because this particular part is quite grand and around the circumference on pillars all the leaders that have lit over the last thousand years are displayed.
From here we pushed on down another corridor to the secondary parliament chambers. Prior to World War II they had a two chamber system here; laws and legislation went before the crown for signing. As a Soviet state after World War II and up until the 1970s, there was no such thing as a parliament. This was reinstated after the Soviet collapse but they went back to a one chamber system so this chamber is now used as a backup. The other half of the building is apparently a mirror image of this one. Once again there are a lot of statues and the walls and the ceiling of the chamber are laced with gold so to speak. In the corridor surrounding the chamber were rows of brass cigar holders, so the parliamentarians could race out for a puff on a Cuban between debates. They have now stopped that practice. From there we made it back down another set of stairs, through the gift shop of course, and back out onto the street.
Next we took a tram down to the bottom of the yellow underground rail line, the second oldest in the world with the oldest being in London. It may be old but it still works rather well. Dismounting about 4 km east of where we started we popped up in Heroes Square with huge statues on one side and two large buildings to the left and right. It is very picturesque. In the background there’s a large castle, which we headed towards, stopping into a restaurant on the way for some lunch. There, a violinist serenaded a lady having lunch on her own, his skills nowhere near what we had heard in the chamber in Vienna a couple of nights ago. But he did try hard and even got a bit of money out of the lady.
We then wandered around the under-repair lake or skating ring to the Vajdahunyad castle. A little different than many we had seen so far, it almost looked like it had a vampire leaning. We strolled around one side until we could go no further, then back around the other side where there was quite a lot of activity, including an agricultural museum in the main building. a church, and numerous towers and buildings, none of which we could really go inside. As we crossed the bridge leading out of the castle we looked back to the huge gate with big spikes on it, I presume to keep the unwanted out. Across the park we saw the outside of what is Budapest’s oldest and largest hot pools.
Near there we descended back to the rail line and a rather vivacious chap offered me a seat because I looked old he said. He then got on the train with us and tried to get everyone to chant the local soccer mantra as Hungary was playing Poland tonight and he was on the way to the game, already somewhat lubricated, but about to have a good time no doubt. We got off the train by the river and strolled a few hundred metres back to the boat. Sylvia went a little further up the river to have a look at some bronze shoes that had been laid out as a monument to the Jews that lost been shot into the Danube during World War II.
There are a huge number of statues in this town where they must employ an army just to clean the pigeon droppings off them.
Just before 7pm we wandered a few hundred metres down the river and boarded the Buda boat. In the morning we had bought a couple of Buda pass tickets off a couple of smooth dudes on the side of the street, which included all our public transport, discounts to museums included this night cruise up the river and back again. It was just getting dark as we left. We headed up past the parliament building, then turned around and came back down under the Chain Bridge and the Liberty Bridge, and past the stadium, which was lit up in the Hungarian colours for the soccer match tonight, which our enthusiastic friend was no doubt attending, then back to where we started. The view of Budapest by night can only be described as outstanding, as shown by the many pictures we took. For anybody heading this way I would highly recommend this 60-minute boat cruise. And a tip for any antiques (over 65s) heading this way – public transport is free.
Wednesday 10 September 2025: Budapest – Sylvia
We had another leisurely start this morning, after a nice quiet night’s sleep with no vibrations or banging of locks, given we had stayed moored in Budapest all night. We met Susie and Greg just after 9am and walked across the magnificent Chain Bridge with its lion statues over to the Buda side of the city. Susie and I walked up to the castle area while Roger and Greg caught one of the small electric buses. We had planned to take the funicular but it was closed for maintenance. We strolled around, past the St Matthias church and then headed to the Hospital in the Rock, where we had booked a 10am tour.
This was one of the best tours I have ever been on. Our guide was knowledgeable and easy to hear and understand. The information shared was interesting and the museum itself was fascinating. Photographs were not allowed, but somehow Roger seemed to take several… Underneath castle hill are about 10kms of caves. These are natural caves formed in the limestone and have been used for at least a thousand years for various things. They had largely been abandoned when in the early 1930’s a decision was made to build a hospital. The hospital takes up about one kilometre of the cave system and was originally intended for up to 60 patients. During WWII it hosted many more, particularly during the siege of Budapest in 1945, when up to 600 people were hospitalised here. Conditions were incredibly bleak with supplies limited. Photographs showed the absolute devastation of the city. It is incredible how well it has been restored. At one stage the water system was shut down. Many patients died of disease.
The museum recognises the incredible efforts of the doctors and nurses who worked tirelessly to save people, in particular Frederick Bonn, the Swiss Red Cross man who managed the hospital and managed to save over 15,000 Jews.
The hospital was strengthened after the war and served a critical role during the Hungarian uprising in 1956 when many locals rose up against the Soviets. They were eventually shut down but did win some concessions from the Soviets. Later, the Soviets further reinforced the hospital and it became a top secret nuclear bunker. This section of the museum has a lot of information about the horrors of nuclear war, including photos etc from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At only 18m deep, the bunker is no longer of use and now forms part of the museum.
After the tour we wandered over to the Fisherman’s Bastion, where we stopped at a panoramic cafe for coffee, with fabulous views across to the Parliament building. Susie and Greg headed off to continue exploring and Roger and I walked over to the castle building. We had a quick look at the Hungarian history museum then wandered back down the hill towards the boat. Roger decided to head back and rest for the afternoon.
I kept walking, I visited the beautiful Opera house, which I had done a tour of the last time I was here. It is a really magnificent building.
I then headed over to the Dohany Street Synagogue, the second largest synagogue in the world. I have visited numerous churches and many mosques over the years but this is the first time I have been inside a synagogue. It was very ornate. All male visitors had to don a skull cap for the visit. Out the back was a memorial to the many Jews who had lost their lives during the holocaust.
I stopped briefly at the Grand market. This huge, covered market area has loads of stalls selling all sorts of different food and souvenirs. Paprika is a staple here in Hungary and many stalls were strung with the dried peppers. I bought a chimney cake, a specialty here in Budapest, and quite delicious. I saved half to take back to the boat for Roger.
From the market I walked across the green Liberty bridge, wandered back along the Danube river, climbed up part of Gellert Hill to have a look at some statues, then back across the Chain Bridge and back to the Lif.
About half the passengers that have been with us since Amsterdam disembarked today and were replaced by new passengers for the next part of the trip to Bucharest. From here on I will be in entirely new territory and am looking forward to some new experiences. Roger has visited all the countries we will pass through but very few of the specific towns we will visit so will be new for him too.
Wednesday 3 September 2005: Nuremberg – Roger
After a light breakfast, it was just after 8am when we jumped into a taxi to take us to the Nuremberg Castle. Arriving there before it opened at 9am, there were few people around and we spent the time looking around the outside of the buildings and the castle gardens, admiring the massive amount of work that must have gone into building the castle alone.
Nuremberg was a walled city and the 4 km long walls still stand today. Construction of these walls started in the 10th century and finished in the 15th century, some 500-years later. More alterations were done as time went on and different designers had different ideas on how to defend the city. It is hard to understand how many man-hours and wheelbarrows of soil would have gone into building up these walls, digging out the moat and putting it all together. It makes you wonder how did they pay for it all and was slave labour used, or was the economy that good at the time that they could just afford to build these things? I’ve never quite worked that out after all the places I’ve looked at over the years.
After a look around the castle area we wandered down to the town square where a gold statue stands in the middle of several churches or cathedrals and other nice buildings. About nineteen percent of the buildings here were destroyed during the war but there’s still restoration work going on in some buildings as there has been in every town we’ve been to so far. Tourism certainly plays a large part in the restoration of many of these old buildings and sights.
Sylvia had marked out a route on her phone map last night so we knew where we were going and how fast we had to go, which was quite fast as we only had four hours here, including getting to and from where the boat was moored, about a 20-minute drive from the city. I thought it was a bit poor on the part of Viking because I could’ve easily spent the whole day here.
Next we boarded the local metro, which took us out to the Palace of Justice, which is where the Nuremberg trials were held in Courtroom 600. The top floor of the building is now a museum where it takes you through a timeline of what took place at that time, including the trials that happened after the main Nuremberg trials that went on for many years.
Over many years we have both seen many documentaries on the second world war and in particular the Nuremberg trials but it was really good to actually come to the building and get a feel for where it really took place. Although courtroom 600 now has chandeliers instead of downlights and part of it is taken up with the seating area for tourists like us, the rest of it is pretty much original so we got a good sense of what the place was like at the time. They still have viewing windows up on the second floor where a press gallery sat throughout the trial. During the trial the external windows were blacked out, hence the downlights, which have now been replaced by the chandeliers that were up prior to the trials.
Too soon, time was up and we were on another train and then a bus across to the Nazi Documentation centre. The Germans were very good at keeping records and this huge building is where they were stored. A lot of it is under renovation at the moment. There was a well-laid out timeline, taking us through the rise of the Nazi party, their philosophy and principles. It also indicated how they went about the propaganda to convince the people that this was the right way to do it.
We had to race through this area as time was running short. Across the other side of a lake from this building is the Zeppelin Centre, where Hitler held huge parades that we have all seen in movies and on TV in the past. This was a bit of a must see, given I really wanted to get a feel for how big it was. A quick stroll around the lake got us there with only a few minutes to spare. At 312×285 meters and with seating for 200,000 it is one of the world’s largest stadiums. Most of it is overgrown now, but the main stadium, where Hitler and his mad men would have stood, is pretty much still intact. Unfortunately we had only time for a quick look before we had to catch an Uber and get back to the boat, arriving just in time as they were about to pull up the gangway.
Very soon we were chugging back along the canal. We were in the dining room enjoying lunch when we came to the first lock. At over 300m long, with massive gates in each end, it went quite dark in the dining room as we pulled in, before being elevated over 24m to the level of the next part of the canal and sailing on.
It was the year 700 AD when some bright spark came up with the idea to build the canal but it only got started. Rain put it on hold. In the 1800s a canal was built for King Ludwick I between Bamberg and Kelheim. In 1921 a company was formed by the German government and the state of Bavaria to build the larger Main-Danube Canal that we are sailing on today. Construction started in 1960 and was completed in 1992, creating the 3,500-km (2,200-mile) waterway from the North Sea to the Black Sea. It is simply a massive piece of engineering with roads going underneath it and power generated on it. This all contributes in a big way to Bavaria being the richest state in Germany and possibly Europe.
Later on we passed through the deepest lock we will come to – at 27m. When we sail into these locks, the sight of just how high the lock is, is quite overwhelming. The gate opens, we sail through into the lock, which is just big enough for the boat to fit through, the gate closes and the water is gravity fed in through a series of reservoirs situated beside the lock, which raise the boat up to the height of the next canal. Then the gate in the front drops down and you sail off as if nothing has ever happened. It is a piece of brilliant engineering.
We also passed by a monument to the Great Divide. At 406m above sea level, this will be the highest point we reach on the journey. From here we will start dropping down towards Austria.
Thursday 4 September 2025: Regensburg – Sylvia
We arrived in Regensburg early and were parked up by the dock well-before our scheduled disembarkation time. We are now on the Danube river and sailing downstream, having passed the highest point in our journey yesterday evening. It was lovely to have a slightly more leisurely start to the day. We wandered off the boat just before 9am and strolled smugly past all the passengers huddling in their groups, lollipop wielding guides at the ready. Regensburg is a lovely, but small town and easily walkable. We walked along the banks of the river admiring the views into town. An old steamship of sorts was moored along the way.
We meandered through the lovely narrow streets, passing the Porta Praetoria, the only partially preserved Roman gate north of the Alps. It dates back to 179AD, when it was the gate to the Castra Regina Legionary camp. It was exposed again in 1885.
We made our way to the old town hall, which was busy today. Every time we passed there was a wedding underway. It sits on a very picturesque square.
We wandered along Goliathstrasse to the impressive fresco of David and Goliath, which takes up most of the face of one of the buildings on the street.
As we were making our way through the narrow city streets to find somewhere for Roger to have a coffee, we got a message from Greg and Susie, who were bugging out of their walking tour and were keen to catch up. We met at a lovely coffee house and all indulged in some rather delicious cake.
We entered the main cathedral, another gothic edifice, this one covered with sculpted gargoyles and other creatures. Originally built in about 700 AD it has suffered several devastating fires. The current Gothic-style building was completed in 1320 and contains numerous spectacular stained glass windows.
We kept exploring the pretty small streets, before heading to the river and crossing over the old stone bridge, which dates from the 12th century. Statdamhof is the town on the other side of the bridge (still part of Regensburg). It boasts numerous pastel coloured buildings with lots of cafes etc. We were about to turn around and head back when Roger and Greg spotted a damsel in distress – a young woman with a flat tire. They leapt into action – perhaps the happiest I’ve seen them the whole trip, and soon the spare was on the car and she was off again,
We wandered back across the bridge to the Wurstkuchl (Sausage kitchen), which has stood on this site next to the Old Stone Bridge for over 500 years. We shared a plate of 10 sausages and 4 pretzels, along with some sauerkraut. Delicious!
I had read about a huge palace in Regensburg and we decided to visit. St Emmeram’s palace is the stately home of the Thurn und Taxis family. The building was once a monastery but became the family residence in 1812. The family developed the postal service in Europe in 1490. They were awarded noble status in 1608 and became imperial princes in 1695. The family still use this immense palace as their residence today. We could only visit the palace as part of a guided tour, departing at 2:30pm.
In 1993 the Bavarian government purchased more than 2,200 works of art from the holdings of Thurn und Taxis and these are now displayed in the former stables of St Emmerman’s Palace. We visited this museum in the interim. It houses an impressive array of treasures, including a diamond studded men’s coat, some impressive porcelain and a fantastic array of carriages.
At 2:30pm we joined several others and set off on the 90-minute guided tour. The tour was conducted in German and we were provided with audio guides. The audio guide was interesting and informative but it was really frustrating to have to wait around and listen to the guide going on in German, clearly giving a lot more information than what we were receiving. Still it was worth it to visit the place. Words can’t adequately describe it and we were not allowed to take photos. This is a shame as the rooms were truly magnificent. I was struck in particular by the stunning bed, with swan sculptures in one of the rooms. The tour finished in the beautiful chapel, where members of the family are buried.
By this time we were all pretty tired, having been on our feet most of the day. We stopped at a lovely strudel shop for more cake! And then wandered back through town and along the river to where the Lif was docked. Apparently the water levels in the river between here and Passau have been dropping and we may have some slow patches overnight.
We had a lovely day in Regensburg and it is a beautiful town. It is a shame though that we only had 4 hours in Nuremberg and a whole day here. In an ideal world I would have reversed that and had a whole day yesterday in Nuremberg.
Friday 5 September 2025: Passau – Roger
It was around 5am when I was woken by a loud thud as the boat bumped into the lock, or into the other boat that was in the lock. I got up to have a look out the back to find out we were in a large lock, big enough to take two boats side-by-side. That was the end of sleep for me.
A couple of hours later we tied up next to the town of Passau. From here various groups went off on their excursions, including one to Salzburg and another to a nice looking castle in the hill somewhere that they had to fly to. We had opted to hang around town and also planned to go for a bike ride, as one side of the river is in Germany and the other side in Austria.
Leaving the boat we strolled into town to find another historic city with the normal old quaint and solid buildings. We came across the town hall just back from the Danube River, with flood markings on it going back to the 1500s. It appears that they’re pretty used to flooding here and obviously just pack everything up, move upstairs, then move back down when the flood is over and clean up and carry on.
We wandered past the art street and into the catholic cathedral, done quite differently than most of the churches we’ve seen along the way. It was white and bright with lots of frescos on the ceiling and walls and hundreds of cherubims crawling all over the walls. Above the altar were a number of statues illustrating a number of thugs beating up Saint Stephen back in the day. Not quite sure why they needed to display that up there, but I suppose they have their reasons.
Behind the church is a large building, which was the residence for the bishop. Once again religion seemed to rule this town, just like others around Europe in the day. There is a lot of restoration going on on the church as there is on a number of buildings.
We visited the local glass museum. Boy did it have glass – five floors of it. Every vase, dish, pot, statue and anything else you could make of glass was on display. It was actually quite overwhelming. I understand my sister came here a few years ago. She is really into antiques and such things and spent nearly the whole day here. I didn’t realise how many different shapes could be made out of glass until visiting this place.
Just before 12 we met up with Greg and Susie, going back to the cathedral to sit and listen to the pipe organ play. I’ve heard this a few times before in my life and realise I’m never really going to get into it but Susie quite enjoyed it.
Just down the road we found a nice restaurant called Anton’s, where we dined on a very nice weiner schnitzel (Sylvia and I), a healthy-looking chicken salad (Susie), and sausages along with some rather tasty horseradish (Greg).
It had rained on and off most of the morning so Sylvia and I binned the bike ride idea (we had planned to go on our own) while Greg and Susie headed back to the boat to meet up with a group to go on a pre-arranged bike excursion. Sylvia and I headed across the river and up to the old fort on the hill. This dates back several hundred years and had quite an interesting museum with lots of old weapons, tools and various other things on display, including instruments of torture, armour, canons, clothing, pottery and more.
From one of the walls in the fort we could see all three rivers converging, as this town is where the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers meet. The Inn is glacier-fed and a greenish-grey colour while the Danube is fed from the Bavarian forests and is much more blue-green so one can see the different colours meet.
After the fort I headed back to the boat and Sylvia went off to look at another church with a long covered stairway, where apparently you’re supposed to stop and pray on every step. I’m not sure that she actually did that but the church is called the Pilgrimage Church Mariahilf. It is across the Inn river in Austria. We were told to take our passports just in case we got stopped but she decided that wasn’t necessary.
It was later than I got a call from her as she had gone for a tea and cake at a cafe back in Passau. Unfortunately when she went to pay, they only took cash, and of course she didn’t have any on her. So off I went to the rescue.
Back on board I joined Greg and Susie for the German specialty dinner on board. Because of the dinner the staff were dressed in German garb and Dessy, our lovely cabin steward even turned up to clean our room in her dirndl.
Saturday 6 September 2025: Melk and Krems – Sylvia
We woke this morning well and truly in Austria. I had gotten quite used to the juddering of the boat going through the locks but this morning we had more of a sideways rolling motion – I still haven’t figured out what it was. The Danube river is much wider than The Rhine or the canals we have been on. The lock structures are very impressive.
Just after 8am, we docked at Melk, and at 8:30 wandered the 400m or so to where the buses were waiting to take us to the Melk Abbey. Benedictine monks have been living and working in the abbey since 1089. It is certainly an impressive piece of architecture at about 400m long. It was originally the residence of the Austrian royals and was later gifted to the monks. The gate towers date back over 1000 years with the rest having been rebuilt. There are still 22 monks working and living on the premises, which also houses an administrative building and a school. There are about 5000 people here each day including 900 students, some employees, and of course, tourists.
We met our tour guide inside the main courtyard. She led us into the building and shared some of the history. No photography was allowed inside the building but that didn’t stop Roger, or to be fair, several others. We wandered through the guest rooms which didn’t have any furniture. Apparently the noble visitors preferred to bring their own furniture when they came. The parquet floors were particularly stunning.
There were numerous relics and works of arts in the rooms, which serve as a type of museum. I was particularly taken with a tiny prayer book. The monks have to pray 7 times per day and before the days of iPhones and Google, would have carried a little book like this when they were away from the abbey.
The grand dining room was particularly impressive with its gilded statues and faux marble walls. The baroque period is well known for the illusions it creates. The statues are covered with gold leaf to look like gold, the marble is in fact painted stucco. Most impressive of all were the ceilings, which were skilfully painted to look like they were domed, even though they were in fact flat.
We visited the library, which houses over 130,000 books, many dating back to the 16th century. It is incredibly ornate, with little doors built into the bookshelves so the monks could read by the windows – no candles allowed in the library.
Tour over, we had time to visit inside the abbey church. This ornate building is absolutely covered in frescos, statues and gold. It really is quite overwhelming. Apparently there are 789 angels represented inside the church – I didn’t count them all.
We then wandered up to the observation deck with fantastic views over the grounds and the small town of Melk, out to the Danube river.
The gardens were also lovely although not the most impressive gardens I have ever visited. On our way back to the bus we stopped for coffee or tea and delicious fresh apricot dumplings (sorry – forgot to take a photo).
Back on the Lif, we continued our journey downstream through the picturesque Wachau valley, passing many small towns and villages, all with interesting histories. These hills, like those along the Rhine are covered in grape vines. At one point we passed under a low bridge and the shades over the chairs and the bridge house were all lowered.
Schonbuhel Castle
Gottweig Abbey
Loiben
Durnstein
Giant Nose Statue at the St Lorenz Ferry station.
Weissenkirchen
St Michael’s Church – There is a legend about seven hares that turned to stone on the roof during a stormy winter,
St Michael’s Church
Willendorf – Note the replica of the Venus of Willendorf. This small female figure stands just under 11cm high and dates back to the Paleolithic period. At the time she was the oldest statue of a human ever found and now stands in the Natural History museum in Vienna.
Later in the afternoon we docked at the small town of Krems. Roger elected to stay on board and I went for a bit of a wander through the pretty little town. It was pretty sleepy on this Saturday afternoon so I stretched my legs a bit and climbed up the hill behind the town for some lovely views back over the river. The whole area is covered in vineyards. Another lovely day!
