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.
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!
Saturday 30 August 2025: Koblenz and Rhine River – Roger
It was around 8am when we docked alongside another Viking boat in Koblenz, after once again enjoying breakfast in our room. My sister Rachael arranged to meet us there; she is currently living in Frankfurt. We found her waiting for us not long after leaving the boat, having crossed through the other boat to leave of course.
We wandered through the streets of this pretty little town, with lots of statues and well displayed shop windows, catching up with the family etc. After a while we came across a clock that pokes its tongue out every 15-minutes, and rolls its eyes every second. We thought the tongue poking was on the half-hour so just as we walked away the tongue came out. A little more wandering and we eventually found the fountain with the little boy that spits. I think today he got tired of splitting as nothing seemed to be happening while we had a short stop there.
After a coffee, we wandered to the gondola which was close to where the boat was moored. An announcement last night had told us under no circumstances to take the gondola across the river as we wouldn’t have time. We bought a ticket anyway, jumped on the gondola and did the return trip across the river in about 20-minutes, which gave us great views of not only of the fort on the other side of the river, but also back across the city and to the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine rivers. A large statue of Kaiser Wilhelm stands guard over this point. We were back in plenty of time to say goodbye to Rachael and catch the boat as it carried on upriver.
Not long after leaving Koblenz we entered the valley of castles. Apparently Germany has around 25-30,000 castles which is about twice as many as the USA has McDonald’s. Over the next 70km we saw some 21 castles, along with a number of toll or tax collecting buildings that were built back in the day for the local governor to collect taxes or tolls from passing boats. It’s not surprising that nothing has changed over the last few thousand years. Somebody always needs to collect tax to pay for something. Getting along at about 14 km/h into the current, the sun was setting behind the hills as we left the valley of the castles. The land flattened out with trees on each side of the river.
Most of the journey can only really be described by photos, but there is one place that deserves a specific mention and it’s called Klaub. This is where the famous German general. Gebhard Leberecht von , built a pontoon and took his army across the Rhine and gave Napoleon a hiding. He later joined the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo to finish the job. There is a good museum there about him I visited some years ago. We also of couse passed by the famous Lorelei rocks and the Lorelei statue.
Some of the castles along the way had walls with towers along them that were defences for the local villages back in the day. At some stage they were all overrun and in a lot of cases destroyed. Most have been rebuilt at some stage.
We had spent most of the afternoon sitting on the top deck but now at 18:50 hrs we have had to head downstairs so the crew can lower everything up top so we can fit under some low bridges before we reach the locks that will take us to the Main River. The bridge will be lowered hydraulically.
It was about 9pm when we hit the first of the many locks we will pass through, taking us from the Rhine into the Main river.
Sunday 31 August 2025: Main River and Miltenberg – Sylvia
We were woken several times during the night as the ship banged against the side of a lock. There are 35 locks on this section of the Main River through to Bamberg, where we will join the Main-Danube canal. We will pass through several of these today on the way to Miltenberg. Each can fit two boats length-wise and is not much wider than the ships so there is often a wee nudge as we go through.
No matter how many times I do this, I still appreciate the engineering and enjoy watching the gates open and close and the water rise or lower (in our case rise) to enable smooth passage. These locks are all required due to the hydro stations along the river that have changed the natural course of the flow.
It was nice to have a leisurely morning on board today. The Main River is significantly narrower than the Rhine and meanders its way through the German countryside. In many places there are just trees along the banks, with small riverside homes, some with beautiful gardens, dotted about. Every now and then we passed someone fishing. And of course I enjoyed the diversity of the bird-life.
Later in the morning we sailed past several small towns, all with huge areas of caravan parks. Many people seem to have set up almost permanent looking caravan areas, some even with fences around their spot. Around lunchtime we sailed through Miltenberg and eventually docked at about 2:30pm at the small town of Freudenberg. We were to be bussed back to Miltenberg, ostensibly something to do with wanting to be closer to Wurzburg so we can arrive on time tomorrow. Cynically I think it may have something to do with docking fees in Miltenberg.
Still, we had about 45 minutes to wander around Freudenberg before the buses departed. It is a pretty town but nothing special. It was good to get off the ship and stretch our legs, especially with the top deck now being closed. There was an interesting monument depicting the heights of various floods through the centuries
Eventually we boarded the bus for the ~15-minute drive to Miltenberg. It was an easy drive through lush, green farmland. Nearly every farm seems to have a hunting stand of some sort on it.
It was very busy in town with an Oktoberfest event on. We had decided not to join the ship walking tour but explore on our own. First stop was the Staffelbrunserbrunnen, a delightfully whimsical fountain. It owes its name to the town’s water-fetching practices of old. Water carriers would collect water from the Staffelbrunnen, a well accessed by a series of steps (staffel). Over time the word morphed somewhat playfully into Staffelbrunsen, with brunsen meaning to urinate. The town embraced this with humour and commissioned the fountain accordingly…
We then headed down Haupstrasse but found the going particularly slow as there was a peace protest underway. Apparently Germany has recently announced a decision to increase their armed forces and the protest seemed to be against that. Nonetheless we made our way down the road admiring the many beautifully restored and maintained half-timbered buildings. The town dates back to the 12th century and has a somewhat chequered history. It was partially destroyed by fire in the 1500’s, and was impacted by the 30-year war in the 1600’s. It largely escaped damage during WWII helping to maintain its medieval character.
We admired the Rathaus (town hall) with its fountain area outside, and continued down the road to the Wurzburger Tor, one of several towers in the city that formed part of the old town walls. We then turned and headed back the way we had come.
Our next stop with the Hotel Zum Reisen. This magnificently restored building is one of the oldest, continuously operating hotels in the world, dating back to at least 1411. It was bought in 2001 by the local brewing company Faust Brauhaus. Over the years it has hosted many famous guests, including Elvis Presley. We had to stop in so Roger could try one of the famous Faust ales.
We then continued up the street to Schnatterloch, the old market place square. I think this is one of the most picturesque spots in the town. From there we headed up the hill to the Miltenberg Castle. We were unfortunately too late to go inside but it afforded fantastic views over the town. On the way down the steps we came across a very attractive ‘painted snail’.
Heading further along the road, we passed the Faust brauhaus and many other lovely buildings before coming to the remains of the Schwerzfegertor, ruins from the original town walls. By this stage it was time to head back to our starting point, with just time to stop for an ice-cream before catching the bus back to the boat for another quiet evening on board.
Monday 1 September: Wurzburg – Roger
We were woken to the boat bumping its way through another lock and this time stayed awake. There had been many bumps in the night and I’m sure many more that we didn’t notice. Breakfast was again delivered to the room and after breakfast the boat stopped for a while so people going on a bus excursion could depart. They hopped on the buses and went on their way; they will join us again later in the day.
Because this river is almost a series of lakes, it’s very smooth and calm and the drop at a lock where there is a power station is usually between three and four metres, which means the locks are relatively close together.
As we headed up the river we passed many towns and villages. The interesting thing here is that every village and town has one or more manufacturing plants, which seem to support the local community, and vice versa I’m sure, with labour etc. I have noticed this quite a lot when driving around southern Europe in the past.
We joined Greg and Susie for lunch during which the boat went through yet another lock. There are only inches to spare on each side of the boat – nowadays we would say millimetres.
It was around 1 o’clock when we got to Wurzberg, About 45 minutes later we were picked up by bus and driven about 7-minutes to what was once the Prince Bishop’s palace. Wurzburg has ~130,000 residents of which ~30,000 are students. The area is well known for its vineyards and the making of white wine.
It’s a bit of a long story and goes back several centuries, starting in 1186 when the church ruled a lot of this part of the world. Bishops, to give themselves more power, became a Prince Bishop so they were not only in charge of the church but were also in charge of the people from a political perspective. In Wurzburg, the Prince Bishop built a palace (Residenz) up on the hill. Over the years he pissed the locals off in one way or another, one of which being killing people for being witches. The peasants rose up in mutiny several times so the palace was converted into a fort. In those days in these towns, as I mentioned earlier, the church basically controlled everything.
At some point one of the Prince Bishops must have got tired of the fort on the hill and around about 1400 built a new Residenz in the town. It was here that the bus dropped us off and the guide, who was full of knowledge led us inside. This place stayed the Residenz until the early 1800s, when along time Napoleon, who took the place over and kicked the Prince Bishop out.
The guide led us up the stairs and explained the impressive fresco on the dome above the stairs, which apparently is one of the largest in the world. There was a model at the bottom of the stairs explaining how it was constructed – basically the ceiling is held up with a timber structure, which even survived the bombing in World War II, but has since been replaced with steel. 90% of the city was wiped out during the fire bombing in 1945, including both wings of this building. The guide explained the fresco in detail, but basically there’s a bit of a story about the four continents (The Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe).
From there we were lead to another large room, which was a ballroom and a guard room area with beautiful chandeliers imported from Venice, along with impressive stucco works around the walls and ceiling.
We then moved into the Bishop’s reception room with its pink coloured marble pillars, which were actually made of stucco because it was more expensive than marble at the time. This room also had big frescos on the ceiling and all sorts of ornaments covered in gold. When I visit these places I always think of how the peasants must have suffered to pay for this while the priests lived in absolute luxury.
We were then let loose, so to speak, and wandered through the rest of the building, which, to put it mildly, is completely over the top, with the amount of gold glitter and silver glitter and other expensive items around the place. The interesting thing about this place is that during World War II in 1945, allied bombs destroyed most of the city and both wings of this building. Only the central building with the main stairway and the grand dome survived. At the end of the war it was rebuilt by the Americans and there was even a little display giving the details of the American officer who took part in this reconstruction. There are many rooms lined with gold and others with silver. Most rooms have a large round stove in them for heating. All the art and chandeliers from the building had been stored in the wine cellar, which is under the car park, prior to the bombing and was protected. These days the cellars apparently hold something like 600,000 litres of wine. We didn’t get to go down and try any out.
We headed out the back to the gardens, which were absolutely outstanding. It is a credit to this town that they can afford to maintain these gardens at such high standard, but I’m sure the revenue from tourists contributes largely to this.
Here we teamed up with Greg and Susie again, wandering into the town and checking out the cathedral, which was of a different style to the ones we had seen so far on this trip. (Romanesque rather than Baroque)
We wandered through the town, across the old bridge and up the hill to the Marienburg Fort, the original Residenz. The intention was to check out the museum here and have a look around the building but being Monday, as is often the case in Europe, the museum was closed, so we took a walk around the outside of this large fort, much of which is under restoration. According to the security guard there is about 10 more years of work to go before it will be completely finished. There is the odd slate roof that has been completed and looks really good with the new slate on it. We wandered pretty much right round the outside of the fort and found a path down through the vineyards that led us into the back of an old church we had seen from the top of the hill.
We strolled back into town, then back to the boat, having had an interesting afternoon. It was just after 1800 when the boat pulled away from the wall and continued our up river journey.
Tuesday 2 September: Bamburg – Sylvia
We had another leisurely morning on board. There are no gym facilities but my lovely trainer, Shannon, sent me a body weight/bands workout and I have been doing this in the room most days. Roger patiently supports by acting as an anchor for the bands at various times. Afterwards we joined Susie and Greg for lunch. The boat had parked up at Zein am Main at about 11:30am. Just after 1pm we disembarked and boarded buses for the ~30 minute drive to Bamberg. The Lif meandered her way there to meet us while we were out sightseeing. Being on these buses reminds me how much I dislike group tours and I am very glad that we had organised our own activities in most ports.
Once we arrived in Bamberg we headed off on our own. (Susie and Greg had booked one of the optional tours to visit the Margravial Opera House.) Bamberg is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was first founded in the 9th century and has an interesting and varied history. While it was bombed during WWII it was much less severely damaged than some other cities so retains a huge amount of its medieval charm. With a current population of ~70,000, the city hosts numerous tourists. It was built on seven hills, each crowned with a church.
After stopping briefly to buy a light backpack, where Roger was given a bottle of beer with a suspicious label – although he was assured it didn’t contain anything illicit – we wandered along the cobblestoned streets, admiring the lovely architecture, up to our first stop at the Bamberg Cathedral. This was first finished in 1012 but destroyed by fire in 1081. It was rebuilt by 1111 and has been in its current form since the 13th century. There were some interesting recycled glass statues outside the church.
Right opposite the cathedral is the New Residenz, similar to the one we visited in Wurzburg yesterday. We did not go inside this one but did take a stroll through the lovely rose gardens. I had remembered these from my previous visit here some years ago but it must have been earlier in the season as, while the flowers were pretty today, they were certainly not as spectacular as I remember.
Next to the cathedral was the old courthouse, set in a remarkable medieval courtyard. Roger had remembered that Bamberg used to be considered the centre of the earth back when the world was still believed to be flat. He was determined to find the plaque commemorating this, even though it seemed to be in the middle of a construction site. This didn’t stop him trying to wander through the barrier 🤦♀️. The construction workers soon put him right and he was only able to take a photograph of where the plaque is, although we couldn’t access it.
We headed up another hill to the Michaelsberg monastery. This impressive building is currently under restoration but we wandered around the grounds and admired the views back over the city.
Continuing further uphill we headed for Altenburg, a small castle that overlooks Bamberg. Earliest records of the castle date back to 1109, but it was only used for defence until it was acquired by the Prince Bishop of Bamburg and became the bishop’s residence from 1305 to 1553. It is one of the smaller castles we have visited but is well-maintained. We climbed the tower for incredible views over Bamberg and the surrounding countryside.
We then headed back down towards the centre of town, stopping at Our Lady’s Parish Church, which has a very ornate interior with frescoed ceiling and gilded altar area.
Our next stop was the Alte Rathaus, or old town hall, which was built on a bridge in the middle of the Regnitz River to join two sides of the city together. It is a magnificent building with a half-timbered front and beautifully frescoed sides. It is situated in a very picturesque part of the city.
We stopped at a nearby cafe so Roger could sample the famous local rauchsbier, or smoked beer. He wasn’t a huge fan. It was good to take a more leisurely pace to explore the old town area after having walked a good distance up and down hills all afternoon. There are many interesting sites along the river with some beautiful half-timbered houses, the old slaughterhouse, and an interesting half face sculpture among the highlights.
Having been told during the briefing last night that the bus pick up, to take us to where the Lif was now moored at Bamberg Port, would be by the half face sculpture at 6pm, we started to get a bit concerned that we weren’t seeing any of the other passengers around. A quick call to the boat advised that in fact the pick up point had been changed to outside the Concert Hall, one km away. We had about 14 minutes to get there so picked up our pace and made it with 2 minutes to spare.
Back on board we sailed from the Main River into the Main-Danube canal. At 171 km in length and completed in 1992, this canal links the Main and Danube rivers and runs between Bamberg and Kilheim, via Nuremberg. We noticed an immediate change with the locks being much deeper. There are 16 locks in total on this canal, to manage the 406m elevation change that enables continuous navigation.
Tuesday 26 August 2025: Amsterdam – Roger
It was 4.30 am when we piled out of bed to shower, dress and be downstairs – well down the lift really – to check out of the Mondrian Hotel. It was 5.15am when the driver of the black Audi A6 drove us to the airport. We headed in through the platinum boarding area. No queue, no fuss. Within 10 minutes we were seated in the dining room in the First Class lounge and ordering breakfast, surrounded by SAMs and SAWs (stand around men/women), There were nearly more of them than there were customers.
Breakfast over, we caught the remote train to the D and C gate area and still had a few hundred meters to walk as the airport is huge. We were quickly seated on the plane, in the same seats as we had on the way to Qatar. I thought I would try a John Wick movie having met Keanu Reeves at an airport in the 90s – he seemed like a nice bloke. Unless you’re into crash, bash and bad guys can’t shoot, I don’t recommend it.
Landing in Amsterdam 6 hours 40 minutes later we queued up at immigration just like everyone else. The officer gave Sylvia a polite telling off for not having enough spare pages in her passport, despite the fact she had three double pages free.
A Mercedes from the Waldorf Hotel picked us up for the 20-minute drive to the hotel, the driver complaining about traffic planners and greenies, who want everyone but them to ride a bicycle. The check in process at the hotel was very personable. We were seated in front of the desk and offered refreshments while passports were checked and paperwork completed.
After we were checked in and escorted to our room we took a leg-stretching stroll around some local streets, or should I say canals. At 5pm we headed to the aptly named Vault Bar on the lower level of the hotel. The building used to be a bank and the bar is in the old vault area, complete with original safe-deposit boxes. There we met Anne, who I had originally met with her friend Mila in 2016. Mila, was on holiday just now with her husband and 12 month-old baby. Long-time friends Greg and Susie, who we are joining us on the river boat, also joined us for a drink. They had done a self-guided bike tour of the city today.
Arriving back at our room there were some rather tasty yellow clogs on a tray in front of some flowers, which I didn’t taste.
Wednesday 27 August: Amsterdam, Boarding the Viking Lif – Sylvia
We had a lovely, leisurely breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The Waldorf Astoria in Amsterdam is one of my favourite hotels. The service is impeccable and it makes for a very peaceful retreat in the busy city.
After breakfast we headed off to do a little shopping. Those of you who read last year’s blogs on our Mediterranean cruise may remember that Roger quite likes Decathlon here in Europe. We jumped on the metro for an easy trip out to the Northern part of Amsterdam, arriving just before the store opened at 10am. 30 minutes or so later, we headed back to the hotel laden down with purchases. The metro is clean, efficient and easy to use.
We checked out of the hotel at midday and caught an Uber to the Amsterdam Passenger Terminal. We couldn’t find the entry to the port anywhere. The automatic sliding doors just wouldn’t open. Roger tried opening them manually and was met with a rather grumpy man who had absolutely no interest in helping us find our way. Eventually a nice man sitting at a cafe a bit down the road pointed us in the right direction and we boarded the Viking Lif. As is often the case, she was moored alongside her sister ship the Viking Einar.
The Viking Lif is one of many long boats in the Viking fleet. With a maximum passenger load of about 200 she is pretty compact but seems to work. The check in was quick and easy and we were shown to our suite at the aft of the boat. There are two of these suites on each of the long boats and for our trip Greg and Suzy have one, and we have the other. The suite is beautifully appointed and comfortable with a small balcony on two sides and plenty of storage space. We headed to the dining room, where we joined Greg and Susie for a simple buffet lunch.
As the boat didn’t depart Amsterdam until 11:45pm, Roger and I decided to do something completely different and embrace our inner children by visiting the Upside Down Amsterdam museum. This is an interactive place that encourages a bit of crazy silliness as you explore a number of different rooms. I think it is really designed for instagram users. We had a few giggles as we tried out some of the different exhibits. You will see from the photos below that I may have embraced my inner child a little more than Roger. (The ball pit was particularly fun, although I was a bit concerned about whether I’d be able to get out or not…)
We headed back to the boat passing again through Amsterdam Central, a bustling metro, train and bus station with numerous shops and an intriguing mirrored ceiling.
Back on board we joined Greg and Susie in their cabin for a drink while we watched the safety video before retiring for the evening.
This ship will be our home for the next 21 days as we make our way via the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers through to Bucharest.
Thursday 28 August: Kinderdjik – Roger
It was still dark when the boat pulled into the Kinderdjik jetty, where today we would explore the windmills. We headed down for breakfast with Greg and Susie, after which we tagged off the boat and headed down a small walkway to the area of the windmills, first looking across at the old pumping station, which was reflecting almost perfectly in the still water. We crossed a bridge, passing a brass monument to a baby and a cat that had floated away in a large storm that resulted in the creation of the windmills in this area. Both the child and the cat were recovered and survived, or so the story goes.
We wandered down a sealed path, stopping first at the windmill museum, which at this time of the day was closed. We crossed back over the bridge and watched as a boat came up the canal. The bridge lifted up in the middle, the boat went through and the bridge came back down again.
Wandering further up the sealed path we came across a different shaped windmill with a square box on top instead of the normal round dome. This is the second of the two museums among the nineteen windmills in this area. The rest are lived in as private homes. As we approached, some diggers came along but instead of having buckets on them they had baskets with clippers on them. They were used to clear the weed from the canals with the weeds then trucked away. Maintenance is something that’s taken very seriously around here; the lesson being learned from the 1400s when the dikes and sea walls were not well maintained and thousands of people and animals lost their lives in a major storm, which is where the story about the baby and the cat in the bassinet came from.
As we arrived at the windmill there was a lady fitting the last sail, which is basically a canvas cloth that runs down the length of the lattice-type woodwork. She carefully hooked the sail rope around the hooks with a flick but had to climb up to do the last few, saying that nowadays this was a bit against health and safety. Looks like health and safety have gotten hold of us all over the world. Having fixed the last sail she went round and let the brake off and the windmill started windmilling, the end of the large blades going round at quite considerable speed even though there was very little wind. This particular mill had had the blades modified with some stainless steel ends on them to pick up the wind a little more effectively.
Adjacent to the windmill was a little cook shop as one was not allowed to cook inside the windmill. Another building has now been turned into a shop. Moored alongside on the river were a couple of barge boats, which apparently families of six or seven people used to live on back on the day. There is very little room inside and an incredibly low ceiling.
The 19 windmills here were constructed around 1740 and designed to lift the water out of this area which is ~2m below sea level. Each windmill acts as a pump. A group of windmills, pumped the water up about a meter, then the next group another meter until it reached about 30cm above sea level when it reached the dike or seawall and was able to flow out sea. Engineering and ingenuity in constructing these things is quite incredible. Basically there is a shaft that comes off the windmill through to a wooden gear, which then turns a vertical shaft, at the bottom of which is another wooden gear, which then turns a turbine, which lifts the water and pumps it up. The top part of all these windmills rotates and there are concrete posts into the ground with chains on them where the person can wind the windmill round to the best direction to pick up the most wind. When the wind is too severe the sails were taken down and the mill shut down to prevent damage.
Further down the road, back towards where we started, the other windmill museum was open and we headed in, along with about 100 other people, most of them wearing earphones and being led by a person with a lollipop and a microphone. Here we were able to climb right up into the windmill and have a really good look at how it all worked. This one was a more traditional shape, made of bricks and looking a bit like a giant vase sloping in as it went up with the windmill bit stuck on top. Inside there were numerous small rooms which, housed the family back in the day.
Leaving there, we headed to the pump house, which we had passed on the way in. This, when originally built in 1868, had steam-powered pumps with a large furnace to heat the steam and a lot of men with wheelbarrows and shovels keeping the temperature up. When the water level was very high the steam engine could not power the pump wheels on both sides so one side was shut down until the water was lower. In 1924 this was replaced by electric pumps. The building is now a museum with lots of interesting artefacts relating to the windmills, including a blacksmith shop with all the original tools. The pump house was decommissioned in 1996 and there is now a very large pumping station nearby that does well in one building what all these windmills used to do.
Back on board we headed to the lounge. As we sat drinking a coffee this 135m boat with about 190 passengers pushed off sideways parallel to the jetty, which means it must have a very efficient propulsion system including bow thrusters and propellers on pods at the back.
We continued up river passing lots of industrial areas. One building had a super yacht parked outside. At 90m long she is apparently for sale for 130 million euros if anybody wants a new boat. We had a leisurely afternoon watching the scenery pass by. It was quite a contrast as along the riverbanks cows and other stock often hung out on the beach and then you would be moving through another large industrial area and there were often some nice houses or estates at the riverbank.
There has been a constant stream of barges and boats going both ways on the river. The cost of freighting goods this way is about 16% of what it costs by road. About 200 million tonnes of freight crosses the Dutch/German border this way annually.
It’s just after 9 pm as I write this and we are now on the Rhine river having crossed into Germany about two hours ago. We should be arriving in Cologne early morning.
Friday 29 August: Cologne – Sylvia
One of the perks of being in a suite is the option of having breakfast in our room. We decided to give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised when our order arrived piping hot and right on time. I can see this may become our go-to option. Much more relaxing than standing in line waiting for an omelette order.
At about 8am we docked briefly at Monheim. As we are travelling up river and therefore a bit slower, Viking arranged to drop us off at Monheim, where we caught a coach for the 40-minute drive to the centre of Cologne. This gives us much more time to explore. The Viking Lif eventually arrived in Cologne shortly after midday. Once we arrived in Cologne we avoided all the other passengers, who were joining their organised tours and headed off on our own to explore the city.
First stop was the Cologne cathedral. This impressive building is the tallest twin-spired church in the world and the third tallest church of any kind, Construction began in 1248 but was stopped in 1580, unfinished. Construction began again around 1814 but was not properly funded until the 1840’s. The building was not fully complete until 1880. Although hit by 14 bombs during WWII it remained standing, in a city that was almost completely flattened. It was later repaired and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1996.
Even though a mass was underway when we arrived we were allowed to enter the building to see the impressive architecture and stunning stained glass windows.
We then decided to climb the ~553 steps to the top of one of the towers, stopping at one point to admire the huge bells. The views from the top were pretty spectacular, albeit through wire netting. As we descended we were very happy to have arrived early as there were many more people starting to make the ascent.
We wandered through the old town, admiring the impressive city hall building, which is 61 meters tall and covered with 124 sculptures. It is Germany’s oldest city hall with construction starting sometime in the mid 1100’s.
Next stop was the Great Saint Martin Church, an impressive Romanesque Catholic Church that was erected between 1150 and 1250. We opted not to go inside. Nearby is an area of the old city known as the Fisherman’s Market. It no longer operates as a fish market but the colourful houses are recognisable as one of Cologne’s landmarks. It makes for some pretty good photographs.
We headed to the Schokoladen (Chocolate) Museum, which stands in the old Customs office right on the river. This museum, which was opened at the end of October 1993, was the dream of Hans Imhoff and showcases the diversity of the 5000-year cultural history of chocolate and includes a working chocolate factory. We spent a good hour exploring the exhibits and sampling some chocolate. Having worked in the industry I was impressed by how comprehensive the exhibits were. There was a huge variety of both static and interactive displays that were very informative. At the end of the factory is a large chocolate fountain and a woman there was dipping wafers in the chocolate for us to enjoy.
After finishing our explorations of the museum we stopped in the cafe for lunch. The display of cakes and confections was pretty enticing but we opted first for a healthier, and very delicious salad. Afterwards Roger enjoyed a trio of chocolate ice-creams (milk, white and dark), while I indulged in a pretty spectacular brownie. Greg had the chocolate-coated strawberries.
After lunch Greg and Susie headed back to the boat to join their pre-arranged afternoon cycling tour of the city. Roger and I wandered back towards the cathedral and strolled across the Hohenzollern bridge to the other side of the river. At over 400m long this bridge was built between 1907 and 1911. The only bridge not destroyed by allied bombing, it was blown up by the Germans at the end of WWII to make it difficult for the Allies to cross the Rhine. It was rebuilt for rail traffic in 1948. Today it is a six-track railway bridge with a path for pedestrians and cyclists, experiencing 1,500 train crossings per day. Since 2008 thousands of love locks have been added to the bridge. There are estimated to be between 50,000 and 200,000 locks added to the bridge with a combined weight of ~45 tonnes, but this is not deemed as a risk for the bridge so it is one of the few bridges in Europe where it is still legal for locks to be added.
On the other side of the river we took a lift up the Cologne Triangle building to the viewing platform at the top, which offers great views over the city.
We then wandered back across the bridge and along the riverside to where the Viking Lif was moored, enjoying a bit of quiet R&R for the rest of the afternoon. Tonight we will sail to Koblenz.
Saturday 23 August 2025 – Roger
We boarded the Qatar Boeing 777 around 1pm for the 17 hour flight to Doha. We have passed through Qatar many times over the past few years, since Emirates fully pissed Sylvia off through really bad customer service and we switched to Qatar. The airline has some backward-facing centre aisle seats that fold down into a double bed, with which we normally book. Trying to stay awake for the whole flight to fit in with local time on arrival was a bit of an effort. A few movies (Inheritance and Drop were quite good) and a few walks around the plane, including a chat with the captain, a nice Indian bloke who had been flying for only 10-years, 5 on 777s, helped to pass the time.
We landed in Doha at around 21.30 local time processing really quickly through the Al Maha lounge that platinum members get to use. A Philippino driver picked us up in the hotel’s Audi A8 for the ~forty-five minute drive to the Mondrian hotel in the western district of Doha.
Everything is big here, with several lanes on the motorways lit up by lamps on poles resembling palm fronds. Many buildings are also well lit up in various colours like in Hong Kong, Vegas and Ashgabat. The hotel is quite opulent with large shapes including lamp shades in the foyer and restaurant.
Sunday 24 August 2025 – Roger
After a reasonable nights sleep, we headed down for breakfast just before 0800 and were the first to arrive. Lots of different staff took turns to cross to our table to see if there was anything else we needed.
We took an Uber over to the Souk Waqif markets on the east side of town, passing a large group of camel-mounted police along the way. Wearing long pants, as is the custom here, my phone must have slipped from my pocket in the Uber. The Pakistani driver saw this as a good opportunity to make an extra buck and charged 150 locals (~50USD) to bring it back.
The markets are huge, really clean, well laid out and somehow remarkably cool in spite of the open passageways. The people are nice to as they don’t hustle and try to get us to buy stuff. We wandered around and eventually found the falcon area where we looked at a few falcon shops. They are obviously a pretty big deal here as they even have a falcon hospital.
After checking out the camel yard we headed over to the National History museum. This is in a rather well crafted building made up of what look like a series of discs. Before heading into the museum and, after recovering my phone, we went to the museum cafe where a robotic trolly delivered our coffee, politely thanking us as it wheeled itself away.
There are around 800,000 people living in this small 11,500 sq kilometre country, of which about 330,000 are locals and the rest imports doing a lot of the work. With an interesting history of wars etc. over the last few hundred years, and owned at different stages by both the Ottoman and British empires, it became a British protectorate in 1917 and eventually gained independence in 1971. The country was mainly sustained by the pearl trade until 1949 when the first oil shipments started heading to Britain and Europe. It first started desalinating water in the early 50’s, transporting it to houses to supply the locals as well water became hard to find.
The museum is well worth a visit with a really well presented history of Qatar interspaced with lots of movies of different events projected onto the high walls. There is a rug on display with over 1 million pearls sewn into it. Well that’s what the text said I can’t say I stopped to count them. Little dishes that were used to grade pearls, and pearls of various sizes were on display ans well as some rather large pearl earrings that belonged to Elizabeth Taylor. There are also diamond and pearl tiaras and other jewellery worn by royalty.
There is a big section on oil, the black gold that helps put 16% of all households in the millionaire category.
From 2017 to 2021 the country was blockaded by the Arab League countries, ostensibly for its support of terrorism, but it survived and came out the other end stronger.
There is a model of the city that lights up year by year showing how small Doha was in 1949 to the size it is now at ~187 Sq kilometres.
Next stop was the Katara cultural centre with a mosque, theatres, art centres, a large amphitheatre, street art, pigeon towers and lots of other impressive buildings, all built near the beach. With all the modern buildings it’s quite strange to see traditional boats (dhows) floating in the bay nearby.
After a stroll through the local, very upmarket, mall, and with the temperature now at 43 degrees C, we headed back to the hotel to wait out the hottest time of the day. It topped out at 44 degrees not long after we got back from a walk in the mall behind the hotel. Arriving back at the hotel we found the room made up and the bed strewn with rose petals… Someone must think we are on our honeymoon…
Late afternoon we were picked up by the guide for our Dhow trip. After picking up a few others we arrived at the eastern side of the bay where a number of dhows were moored. Mounting this craft, which was well past being old, we pushed back and chugged across the port to the Westside, watching the sun go down and the skyscrapers begin to light up. We moved to the top deck, which had a knee-high ‘do not lean on me’ fence around it. Three young woman were also up there from Saudi Arabia, enjoying a holiday at the local water park. After a slow tour of the harbour, Sylvia and I wandered down to the large pearl sitting in its plastic shell to celebrate the earlier pearl industry before heading back to the hotel for dinner and an early night.
Monday 25 August – Sylvia
We were up bright and early again, not yet fully adjusted to the time zone. After another delicious breakfast, we met our driver for the day, Nasi. Having pretty much explored the city of Doha yesterday, we had arranged a full day tour of the North and West of Qatar. We headed north out of Doha past Lusail, a modern city that was developed as part of the preparations for the FIFA World Cup in 2022. As with the rest of Doha the skyline is impressive with very few traditional rectangular buildings – most take on different and interesting shapes.
As we drove north on the impressive 5-lanes each way highway, we passed massive homes sitting out in the desert, surrounded by high fences. There was lots of street art, even on motorway overpasses. We passed several large stadia, all with different architecture. One looked like a giant tent, another, a lotus and another like an oyster shell. The country side is incredibly flat – just dry sandy desert as far as the eye can see.
We stoped briefly at Al Khor, the second largest city in Qatar, where 1432 sailors work at the port. The harbour was crowded with dhows and large pots for catching crabs etc. were scattered around. I was struck by the pedestrian road signs showing pictures of people wearing traditional robes. Unfortunately it was quite difficult to get good photographs from the car.
Everything is very clean and tidy. Every guide has spoken proudly of the fact that Qatar has zero crime and zero tax, with excellent free health care and education. I guess this is one of the benefits of wealth.
Our next stop was Purple Island, a large area of mangroves. We wandered along the wide boardwalk. By this time (about 10am) it was already 42 degrees and we were grateful for the small shade shelters scattered along the way. I was quite surprised by the amount of wildlife thriving even in the crazy conditions here. Lots of small fish, crabs and birds.
As we continued north we could see lots of large fenced farm areas and huge animal sheds. I cannot imagine what it must be like farming in these conditions. We also continued to see large walled enclaves, owned by varias Qatari royalty.
Our next stop was Jumail, the ruins of the first village in Qatar. It was originally home to pearl divers but has been abandoned since the 1970s and is now in ruins. At 45 degrees the heat permeated through the soles of our shoes.
A little further on we came to Al Zubarah Fort. This was built in 1938 on the hill above the Al Zubarah UNESCO site. Around 200 years ago this was a bustling trading and pearl-fishing village with a population of about 6000, but is now in ruins. It is now an active archaeological site. The town experienced periods of boom and destruction with invasions from various parties over the years, interspersed with periods of prosperity. It was finally deserted in about 1895.
The fort is now a very interesting museum with displays in the various rooms depicting the history of the site and information about the pearl diving industry. Pearl diving was quite a dangerous affair with many perils awaiting the brave divers (Ghais). Each diver would make 50-60 dives in a day yielding up to 20 oysters each dive. They could reach depths of 15-20 metres with the descent taking 90 seconds. They then stayed down another minute or so to harvest oysters before being pulled to the surface by a rope. Each diver provided their own rope as it was their life on the line. They must have had incredible breath-holding capability. There are stories of divers being stung by rays or other creatures and returning to deck hallucinating.
Once on shore the oysters would be left in the sun to rot so they would be easier to open. The crew would open the shells with a curved knife and would find one pearl for about every 5000 oysters opened. It is no surprise to me that the cultured pearl industry has replaced this practice.
As we climbed the towers to look at the view I was impressed by how effective the traditional cooling methods were. Despite the intense heat outside, small holes in the walls channel the breeze in, lowering the inside temperature significantly. It never quite reached a comfortable level for me but was definitely considerably more bearable.
A now-dry well in the corner of the courtyard was originally dug by hand. This was another challenging feat with only a thin layer of fresh water available… too shallow, no water; too deep and the water was salty. None of the wells in the area now have potable water.
After visiting the fort, we headed south and then west, passing a large camel racing area. This area contains numerous race tracks for the camels, which race over distances of 4-10 kms at an average speed of 30kph, reaching sprinting speeds of 40kph. Since 2005, for safety, they are raced riderless and controlled remotely. There is a large area across the road from the track containing houses and camel farms and the area is surrounded by businesses that support the industry, veterinarians and agri-feed etc. Camel racing only happens in the winter, given the excessive summer temperatures. It must be incredible to watch.
Nasi stopped at a petrol station and bought us each a can of strawberry Fanta. I must have been very thirsty, even though he had been regularly giving us bottles of water, because I actually drank the foul, incredibly sweet stuff. Not something I am in any hurry to ever repeat. It was a nice thought I guess.
Our next stop was Zakreet, an area of wooded rock formations looming out of the desert. These limestone shapes were formed as the wind and water eroded the surrounding areas. A little further on is the east-west monument, an art installation by Richard Serra, erected in 2014. Apparently they show the height of the land in the area before erosion. I am sure there are other more esoteric meanings to this and other art installations in the country but as my art teacher remarked in my fourth form school report “Sylvia is a little out of sympathy with this subject”.
Nasi then drove us to Zakreet beach, currently empty but apparently in winter, full of people swimming and kayaking. It seems very strange to think that people go to the beach and play outdoors in the winter and stay inside in the summer! Here he stopped under a shade umbrella and asked me to write a review for the trip on Trip Advisor. I complied but it did feel a little strange.
While on the tour we had arranged to also visit the desert area in the south of the country. After stopping for a quick lunch in a local restaurant (delicious kofta in pita bread), we headed south, skirting the city of Doha. We passed large areas of irrigated fields, looking strangely green in the otherwise arid landscape. Large settlements of sometimes brightly-coloured apartments are dotted about. We also drove past the Turkish Air Force base. We could just make out the tails of their jets in the hangars in the distance. A couple (Roger thinks they are Russian made) even flew overhead was we drove past.
I was amazed by the electricity infrastructure right through the country. The power is apparently diesel generated and there are huge pylons running the length of the country, making quite a statement in their red and white colouring. It wasn’t long before we came across a vast area of oil refineries with their huge flame-topped chimneys and gnarled building forms looking like something out of a science fiction movie.
We eventually arrived at the desert with its huge rows of 4×4’s and dune buggies for hire and large areas of cabin-style accommodation. Apparently in the winter people flock here and stay in cabins or tents. Our tour apparently included a camel ride but we have both done those before and were in no hurry to do it again, especially in the heat here. So after reducing the tyre pressure to 15, we headed off into the dunes. There are obviously many of these trips made every day with plenty of tire tracks marring the environment. We kept heading south up and down dunes. A few other vehicles were racing up and down the dunes as well, making quite a spectacle.
We eventually arrived at the ‘Inland Sea’ an area in the gulf, surrounded by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran. After a quick photo stop, we turned and headed back to the hotel, stopping briefly at the end of the dunes to reinflate the tyres. It had been a very interesting day and we learned a huge amount about the country and its history. We were both pretty tired, even though we had sat for most of the day. I was impressed with Nasi’s energy even after driving.
Back at the hotel we headed to the ornately decorated and aptly named “Smoke and Mirrors’ where Roger enjoyed a cigar and a couple of wines before we headed back to our room for an early night.
We leave for Amsterdam early tomorrow morning. I am very glad we visited Qatar but feel no need to visit again. If I ever did, I would definitely choose to come in their winter.
Saturday 2 August 2025
Steve and his wife, Karen, picked me up at 0515 and drove us to the Auckland Airport. Steve and I caught the 0640 flight to Queenstown. Arriving just after 0830 we walked to the nearby car park and picked up my truck, then headed south down the east side of Lake Wakatipu to the sleepy town of Kingston.
This is home to the Kingston Flyer, which originally started as a freight and passenger line in 1878 to bring supplies for the gold fields 140klm from Invercargill to Kingston. From Kingston, they were shipped by steam boat to Queenstown. Now a tourist train, it only runs in the summer between here and Fairlight, a 1.5 hour return journey, in 1920 carriages.
The Earnslaw ferry (a steam boat) was made in Dunedin, disassembled, then brought to Kingston by rail, reassembled, and then it puffed its way to Queenstown in 1910. It still puffs its way around the lake today, in spite of the moaning few complaining about its carbon footprint.
After a cup of tea and a muffin at the local store-come-cafe, we headed south passing through Garston, Athol, Lowther and Mossburn before turning north and heading up alongside the Ōreti River to Walter’s Peak station. This is another piece of New Zealand’s pristine landscape with sheep and cattle roaming this vast plain between two mountain ridges, which were probably carved out by a glacier millions of years ago. There are huts along the way and an unusual number of DOC (Department of Conservation) dunnies, as it is part of the Cape Reinga to Bluff biking journey, which Steve did 3 years ago. Arriving at Queenstown, they caught the Earnslaw to Walter Peak station, then biked from there to Bluff.
There is a stone house along the way, which was built in the 1800’s. A few river fords brought us to Lake Wakatipu, and after a short drive along the lake edge we arrived at the station, which has now become a tourist resort. We headed to the restaurant for some lunch to be told that lunch is only served when the ferry comes in and is part of the package. We could wait until 14:30, pay $99.00 each and have lunch with them. We declined that and the nice Chilean waitress made us a coffee, which we enjoyed on the deck overlooking the lake.
On the return journey we detoured up a side road to the Mavora Lakes. These are 3 lakes that are almost joined together, surrounded on 3 sided by native bush. On the east side there are large open areas with lots more DOC dunnies.
We pushed on up the road through a lockable barrier that was open onto a track with some rather large potholes. We turned back after a few hundred meters as we didn’t want to be trapped in there for the night.
We headed back down the valley, through Mossburn, on to Lumsden, then down through Balfour to Riversdale, where we visited the local and only pub. There, the very friendly lady behind the bar (originally from Belgium) organised us a room for the night. There wasn’t much happening at the pub tonight with the odd local coming in for a drink and some for a meal as Steve and watched on while enjoying our own drink and a meal.
Sunday 3 August 2025
Breakfast was a help yourself to the kitchen supplies of bread and cereal. Eventually finding our way out of the hotel through a door that wasn’t padlocked, we started the truck. While the windows defrosted in the -2 degree temperature we went for a wander down the Main Street to the war memorial, which displayed the names of over 20 people from this area killed during WWI. It is not until one stops and reads the names on the memorials in small towns around NZ that one realises the impact the two world wars have had on our communities. Lest we Forget.
Windows defrosted, we headed northeast to Waikaka. The farmland is pristine, probably some of the tidiest and best kept of the low country farms of NZ. Parts of the road had tall flax growing along the berms. There has been a big change since we lived here in the early 1960s, with many, originally sheep, farms being converted to dairy. Huge sheds now house the cows in the winter, whereas back then the woolly Romney sheep were out in the open.
We headed through Waikaka into the Wendon Valley, where we had lived on a 3000 acre farm called Ribbonwood in 1960 while my father was the manager. The owner, a roading contractor who had put the road through from Queenstown to Glenorchy had some of his machines parked there. These included a large grader and a couple of TD 25 bulldozers. After being there just over a year the contractor went broke, the farm was sold and we had to move on.
Next we drove east over the rolling hills to Kelso in West Otago. Here we had lived on a farm our father managed for over five years a couple of miles up the road from the town of Kelso. Once again a lot of the farms have gone from sheep to dairy. The town of Kelso back then had a number of shops, a stock agent, scout hall, garage, community hall, and school. In 1978 and 80 there were 2 huge floods, all inundating the town and now the area has reverted to farmland. The remains of the school pool, a war memorial and a flood monument are all that remains. The rail line also ran through here up to Heriot, originally put in in 1884 to service the farms in the area. This was also closed after the floods.
We headed up the wooded hills behind Kelso, where a lookout tower still stands unused. These were built around NZ from the 1920s onwards. They were manned with a person who spent the day looking for fires in the nearby dusky forest and blue mountains. This one was still manned in the 1960s when we lived nearby. We popped into the nearby town of Tapanui, which evolved from the Conical Hills Sawmill in the 1860s.
We headed east again through Heriot to Raes Junction, once famous for its pub, which is now a private residence. Arriving at Lawrence we headed up to Gabriel’s gully where gold was discovered in May 1860 by Gabriel Reid. In the hills at the top of the gully 872 kilometres of water races were dug by hand to channel water for the sluicing of gold. We walked the track up the hill, which revealed dams and holes in the rock for storing gunpowder and the odd shack people lived in. A huge long-gone structure was built in the gully to channel water to the sluicing nozzle.
We headed part way through Lawrence, turning off and heading northeast over the hills to Lake Mahinerangi. In the mid 70s I had lead a group of soldiers around this in a 24-hour race. On the Waipori River, this was also a gold-mining area in the 1800s. In 1907 a dam was completed here to provide power to Dunedin. Later, in 1931, a second dam was built further downstream.
After crossing the causeway we headed east to a place called Hindon, where an old railway/road bridge crosses the Taieri River on the road to Lamb Hill and Silver Peaks Station.
In around 1956 we lived at Mt John station, over the hill from Silver Peaks station. Mt John had no road access or electricity when we first lived there. We used to get off the steam train that ran from Dunedin to Cromwell back then and walk or ride a horse up a cutting in the hillside. Only once while we lived there did a vehicle make it to the house. A fencer called Graham brought his Land Rover down the railway line from Hindon, and, quite a few sticks of gelignite later, they blasted out parts of the track to get the vehicle up to the house. I hadn’t been back here since we left and moved to Kurehaka Station near Maheno where I started school.
Arriving at Silver Peaks station we were met by the manager Hayden and his wife Sam. After explaining what we wanted to do they said when you come back tomorrow park in the paddock behind the house and follow the track down to the gully and up over the ridge. That done we headed into Mosgiel and had a great meal at The Black Sheep restaurant before checking into a local motel.
Monday 4 August 2025
After a good breakfast at a Mosgiel cafe we headed back to Silver Peaks being a bit careful as it was minus a few degrees, meaning a bit of black ice on the winding roads. Parking the truck off the track in the paddock behind the house we headed off along the track, which headed down into the gully. The track is in good order. We could have driven it; walking is good.
As we headed down the track the sun began to brighten up the hill on the other side. Reaching the fast flowing creek at the bottom we removed our shoes before crossing. Shoes back on we headed up the track on the other side. This gully is called Christmas creek, which I often head my mother talk about.
Reaching the saddle, we saw Hayden pushing a mob of sheep towards the open gates we had just passed through. We headed down the track 100-meters or so and ran into Elly and dogs from Lamb Hill, where she and her husband manage the station. We watched as the sheep were skilfully driven through the gates before setting off down the hill to find the old house.
Approaching some rather old and ugly pine trees we spotted the roof of the house. Following the track it led around to the southwest side of the house and eventually we entered what was once the yard behind a couple of out-buildings. One I think was shearer’s quarters, another maybe a workshop. Both buildings now had walls missing, the nearby hen house was also worse for wear.
The house too, had walls and parts of the floor missing. It had certainly deteriorated since we left there nearly 70 years ago. I am not sure when it was last lived in. Electricity was installed not long before we left. A single line brought the current up the valley. I remember my mother saying that at 5pm the fan heater would slow to an almost stop when everyone on the line was cooking.
We slowly made our way up the track to the top of the hill, where we found a comfortable spot in the sun to sit and eat our lunch. As we were setting off again Hayden came down the hill on the side-by-side, mopping up a few sheep that had gotten separated from the main mob, which had crossed Christmas Creek and were heading up the other side on the track towards the house. Arriving at the creek we ran into Elly and another chap called Hayden who does casual mustering in the area.
Hayden turned up with the side-by-side and gave us a lift access the creek and part way up the hill. We dismounted and carried on up the track as the musterers pushed the sheep along behind and in front of us. There were about 1500 ewes in the mob being taken for scanning so the ones not in lamb could be removed from the mob.
Hayden was saying they used to run about 3000 sheep here but now the scrub growing back as the system won’t allow it to be burned off any more. This has made it a prime habitat for pigs, which kill and eat the lambs. In spite of shooting over 400 pigs this year it is becoming uneconomic to run sheep so cattle are being brought in to replace them.
Back at the truck after our 12km up and down stroll, we crossed back over the Hindon bridge and called into the old Hindon Railway Station, where some of the old buildings have been restored. Back in the day when the train stopped there, the cups of tea were poured ready to drink as the train whistled up the tea from down the line.
We headed to Middlemarch, where we checked into the local hotel. We were enjoying a few drinks and a meal when we were joined by a guy called Beak, who asked “where are you guys from?” “Auckland” replied Steve. “ “I wouldn’t say that too loudly around here” Beak quipped, then “ I’ll just grab my drink and join you guys.” Beak knew everyone and everything in the area. Consuming several jugs of beer, he kept us well entertained late into the evening.
Tuesday 5 August 2025
It was -8 degrees when I went out to start the truck and leave it running to de-ice the windows. After a coffee we headed off to check out the McCraes flat gold mine. There is a viewing area overlooking the mine site where one can watch the large trucks coming and going. In the hut there is also a TV with videos showing and explaining all aspects of the mine working. Employing 600 people and having produced 5 million ounces of gold over the last 34 years it’s a great asset to New Zealand.
Next we headed to Oamaru, stopping at Palmerston for a late breakfast. In Oamaru we stopped to visit Steve’s friends Michael and Leanne, who apart from brewing beer are into war games, having a large gaming table suspended on pulleys from the roof in their lounge. Michael spends hours painting all the model soldiers they use for the battle.
Heading out the southwest side of Oamaru we passed through Five Forks and through to the picturesque and somewhat rugged Dansey’s pass. The road is often one lane with very tight corners. Reaching the top one has a great view out over the Maniototo.
We had hoped to stay at the Dansey’s Pass Hotel but the lights were out and it was closed. I had stayed there a few times before. It’s very nice with an open fire in the lounge and old mining relics nearby. Both previous times I had stayed there it was for sale. Just now it only opens Wednesday to Sunday.
We headed to Nasbey but there too the hotels were closed. Eventually we found a bed at the Ranfurly Hotel. Here the owners, a retired farming couple, were good hosts and I enjoyed a good homemade meatloaf dinner in the bar. Steve ordered the schnitzel but reckoned the meatloaf looked better.
Wednesday 6 August 2025
We had intended to go and visit the Hayes Engineering Museum but it was closed for the winter. Instead we headed for the Thompson Gorge track, which Sylvia and I had driven over from the other side a few months ago. There is a new gold mining site being developed there. Arriving at the beginning of the track there was a big road closed for repairs sign.
Not far down the road we found a sign to the Cambrian Historic gold mining town. We headed there finding a unique little settlement with old cart implements and other historic stuff around the place, including the original school building, well restored with photos of the school’s early days in 1885. It closed in 1954.
Hugging the back roads we drove southwest until we hit the main road to Alexandra. Turning off to Clyde before Alexandra we headed up the side of Lake Dunston, crossing over at Cromwell and driving through the Kawarau Gorge to Arrowtown, where I dropped Steve off before heading home. This is the third or fourth road trip we have done together in New Zealand. There are still so many places and sights to see around this amazing country of ours.
We spent last weekend in Christchurch and I took the opportunity to visit The Giant’s House in Akaroa. This incredible place is the work of artist Josie, who fell in love with the site many years ago and has since restored the house and gardens and made hundreds of whimsical mosaic sculptures in the garden. I (Sylvia) visited with my son, his friend, my nephew his son and daughter. You could spend hours wandering around the sculptures and still not see all the detail and whimsy. It is easy to see why this place has been recognised as a Garden of International Significance since 2018.
