9 July - Iron Gates and Kazan Gorge

Today we had a lovely day staying on board as we cruised along the Danube passing through Kazan Gorge and the Iron Gates that separate Serbia from Romania. The Gorge was dammed by the Yugoslav and Romanian governments in the 1970s and supplies most of their power through hydro-electricity. We passed through spectacular scenery through the gorge also seeing remains of castles that were all but submerged when the gorge was dammed. We passed through the last two locks of our journey which were huge – Iron Gate I and Iron Gate II, when we were lowered 30 metres to the next level of the river.

After lunch, which we had on deck – quite hot – one of our passengers, Donna, gave a presentation on using digital cameras which I very much enjoyed. I picked up a few things I didn't know.

We had dinner with a British/American couple who were quite interesting, both retired. He had worked for Barclays Bank and had been all over the world with his job, now settled in America.

8 July - Kostolac, Serbia

We left Belgrade during breakfast and had a view of the fortress as we cruised away. Hans, our Cruise Manager, gave us a lecture on the European Union which was very interesting. The next two countries we visit, Bulgaria and Romania only joined last year.

At lunch time we docked at Kostolac, still in Serbia and after lunch we had a presentation by a team from the Viminacium Archaeological site before we boarded the buses to see the site. Terry stayed behind as his knee was sore and he wasn't interested in ancient Roman ruins anyway. Our bus drove through the village of Kostolac on the way to the site. The area is dominated by a large power plant which is the main employer for the area. The plant was built in the 1970s with no regard for the heritage value of the area, so much of the main burial areas were simply bulldozed. The rest of the excavated site is very close by and now the government has a more enlightened attitude to its ancient heritage. We saw three excavated sites – Roman baths, part of the army camp, and the burial grounds. Viminacium was larger than Pompeii and was built in the first century and destroyed by the Huns in the fifth century. Unlike other Roman cities, it was never built over and remained largely intact but was subject to pilfering. Many of the bricks were also used for other buildings down the centuries.

As we drove through the village, I saw photographs of people with birth date and death date below the photo and they were posted on the fences outside the houses. Our guide told us that it was a Serbian tradition that when someone dies, this “notice” is put up outside the house for a year.

We returned to the boat and enjoyed dinner with Ari and Lee, the American/Israeli couple and Deeanne and Arnold from South Africa. We had some interesting conversation. Towards the end of our meal a group, Belgrade Old Town Music, played for us and they were great. So another wonderful day of history and culture.

7 July - Belgrade, Serbia

We arrived in Belgrade this morning. I was very pleased to discover that we were in a “hot spot” that was compatible with our computer, so sent off several emails. After breakfast, we had a lecture from a local historian, Slobodan, on the history of Serbia and in particular what happened here in the 1990s. When NATO bombed Belgrade, the bridges were saved because hundreds of the local people formed a “human shield” on the bridge. His views on this conflict and war generally were very interesting.

A short time later when we boarded buses for our tour, we were fortunate to have Slobodan as our guide. He pointed out some of the buildings which had been bombed and were still in ruins, but had been sold to multi-national hotel chains for millions of dollars. We went to the Belgrade fortress that surrounds the city which has seen many conflicts over the centuries because of Serbia's strategic position, including the First World War. It was sobering to learn that 6 million people have died in the area in which we stood, defending the fortress. From the top of the hill on which the fortress stands we had a beautiful view of the Danube River below and across the river on the plains below “the rest of Europe” which further confirmed Belgrade's strategic position.

Our bus then took us to the centre of the city for a short walk and a break for drinks and “comfort stop” at the Majestic Hotel. The cold drink was very welcome on this 38 deg C day. We then reboarded the bus and looked at some of the lovely residential buildings on the high side of the city, some of which were Embassies. We were told that we were not permitted to take photos of Embassies (their request) as cameras had been confiscated in the past. We stopped at St. Sava's Temple Orthodox Church which is still being built. It is beautiful inside with stunning architecture.

Slobodan told us more about Tito and his form of communism which was supported by the West by leaders like Churchill and Truman. Tito stood up to Stalin and survived and then went his own way. Slobodan pointed out the large McDonalds in the city and told us that had been there 35 years (one of the first in Europe), so that demonstrated that Tito was very different to the other communist leaders, in that he supported a form of capitalism and foreign investment of which there were many billions of dollars.

We returned to our boat for lunch and later got a shuttle bus back to the city. We had a short walk around the main shopping precinct and the fortress park before returning to the boat to escape the heat.

We had dinner with a couple, Mary and Bob, who migrated from Northern Ireland to Auckland 50 years ago, aged 20. Mary's father died 25 years ago and since then every year they have holidayed away from the three month New Zealand winter to return to Ireland to see Mary's mother, now aged 94. They combine the maternal visit with a holiday, so they came via Alaska and doing our boat trip before going to Ireland and returning home via Thailand.

After dinner, a local music and dance group, Talija Serbian Folklore Show, entertained us in the lounge. The dancers were very exuberant and had different colourful costumes throughout the show, representing different parts of Serbia, Croatia and Hungary. The musicians were amazing too, a four piece group. The clarinet player and violinist were outstanding. So we really enjoyed the show.

6 July - Vukovar, Croatia

We weren't woken up fortunately and we are now docked at Vukovar in Croatia. After breakfast we boarded a bus for a tour through the town and out in to the countryside. The sights in Vukovar were very confronting and distressing as we saw some of the devastation that was inflicted during the conflict of the 1990s. This is where the war with the Serbs began and the town was besieged for three months with continuous shelling, killing thousands. Ninety percent of the town was ruined and it was very sad to see the bombed out buildings, and walls marked by bullets and shrapnel. Since the war ended, there has been a huge effort to rebuild the town.

Our bus took us on to Osijek and we watched a performance by children in national costume, belonging to the Bizovac Culture and Art Society, founded in 1968 to preserve the costumes and musical culture of the region. Their costumes were beautifully made and elaborately decorated with intricate embroidery. They sang and danced for us and they were very sweet. We then visited the 18^th century fortress nearby, the St Anthony's Church and the town square.

We continued to the village of Bilje for a “home hosted lunch”, a concept I was not familiar with. Through agencies, the cruise boat company books people in private homes to have “guests” from the boat for lunch, so that we can see a local person's home and ask about their lives while being provided with a home-cooked meal. We were divided into groups of about 10 (our group had 11) and we had a lovely lunch provided by a woman named Snježana Bagaric. She told us she and her husband had a “mixed marriage”, she being Orthodox and her husband Catholic. They married three months before the war began and they were holidaying in Germany and didn't return to Croatia until the conflict ended in 1998. In the meantime she had two children. Her husband is a builder and stone mason and she works at home doing the lunches and provided B&B rooms, so she can be home for her children while they are at school. It was a good insight into a local's circumstances.

Our bus returned to the boat again through countryside littered with landmines and ravaged Vukovar streets. Our guide said that on present estimates, the mines won't be cleared until 2040 which is tragic because the land is so fertile and much of it cannot be used because of mines. Accidents are less frequent than they used to be as children are taught from an early age not to play in areas displaying the land mine signs. It is a sad legacy of the terrible war and we saw the signs as we drove along the road.

It was an interesting day but I was greatly affected by seeing the so recent evidence of the terrible war.

We had dinner with two American couples who were very nice and interesting to talk to.

5 July - Budapest, Hungary

After breakfast we boarded buses to take us about 40 mins outside Budapest through the countryside to the Lazar Equestrian Park at Dömönyvölgyi, run by Hungarian champion horsemen, the Lazar Brothers. We had a wonderful horse riding show presented by very skilled horsemen who ride bareback in the old tradition. They were great to watch, the best being a rider who “rode” five horses. He had three horses abreast in front, and he stood on the two horses behind those three with one leg on each horse's back – amazing – and he rode at speed. The horses are taught to sit and lie down on command and to ignore loud noises such as the whip cracking. These skills were important in the old days because the Hungarian plains were flat and when they were pursued by enemies they could command their horses to lie down flat and hide. At the park we had a ride on a wagon, which was a bit uncomfortable for me as I was at the back and the rail was not very high so I was hanging on tight. The park also has a “zoo” of protected Hungarian old animal species, like the curly haired pig, and the hairy cattle dog, as well as goats, and fowls – very interesting. We were disappointed their souvenir shop was closed (with several tourist buses there, seemed a bit dum.)

It was interesting to learn from our guide that Hungary has 90% home ownership. While the communists were in power everything was owned by the state, then with the collapse of communism, the new government encouraged people to purchase the flats they lived in with cheap prices and low mortgages.

Our bus returned to the boat and it immediately set sail for our next destination, Vukovar.

After lunch we had a our safety drill – the alarm goes off and we all head for the sun deck, don life jackets and soon after return to our cabin. Following an afternoon nap, I decided I needed to work off some of the delicious lunch so walked and jogged around the deck for half an hour. I went to the gym for a weigh-in and was pleased to see the digital scales read 61.1 kgs (but is it accurate!!!!????)

Eating is such a pleasure on this boat and you can really indulge yourself if you want to. If you're up early enough (not for me) you can have coffee and pastries at 6.00 am in the patio lounge. Then from 7.00 to 9.00 am is the buffet breakfast in the restaurant. You can have morning tea later in the lounge. Then there is the delicious buffet lunch. From 4.00 to 5.00 pm afternoon tea is served in the lounge. Then dinner is served from 7.00 pm which has a menu from which you can choose from two or three options for each of the four courses. So there is no excuse for starving on this boat. The food is so hard to resist!

For dinner tonight we ate with a couple from Oregon, Ron, a lawyer, and his wife Pamela a school principal. We had a very enjoyable evening with them.

We've been warned that as we cross the border tonight, the Hungarian customs may force us to get out of bed to do a “face check” against our passports. The Captain said it hasn't happened often in the last couple of years, but warned us just in case and to just quietly co-operate if it happens. So here's hoping we don't get woken up tonight!!

4 July - Budapest, Hungary

We arrived in Budapest early this morning with the weather cool, light rain and overcast. After breakfast we had a bus and walking tour of the city seeing its major highlights including the magnificent Parliament building, Heroes’ Square and the Palace at the top of the hill. The city has had many incarnations and was once two separate cities Buda (the hilly side) and Pest (the flat side), separated by the Danube River. We walked around Heroes' Square admiring the statues of Hungary's heroes. We were taken to the Palace and the Castle Hill district (a UNESCO World Heritage site). We saw the lovely St Matthias church and admired the views of the city from the top of the hill at the turrets and ramparts of the Fishermen’s Bastion. There were lovely craft shops selling beautiful Hungarian embroidery and I bought a lovely blouse and a doll.

We returned to the boat for lunch and after that I went on an optional tour with Maureen, the South African lady, while Terry stayed behind to rest. We passed Roman ruins, recently excavated then we were taken to the Caprice Diamond Centre which was disappointing. We thought we would see craftsmen working the jewels but it was just a hard sell (I didn't buy anything). Then we went to the Szentendre Artists' Village which was a bit like Montville with lots of craft shops. It was nice to see. While there, we saw a local army “passing out parade” with brass band which was great to see. Our guide gave us some insights into what life was like for Hungarians now after the collapse of communism. The economy is not doing very well and there is a lot of unemployment but it is gradually improving. The tourism industry is growing and that is helping.

We got the bus back to the boat and had dinner with Pat and Tom, from Deception Bay.