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.