Beyond Budapest

Come along with me as we sail the Danube to countries and places that we had never been before...

Once we sailed away  from Budapest on our Viking Capitals of Eastern Europe cruise our first stop was a town called

Pécs, Hungary.  A beautiful town with so much history - 

Ancient roman ruins...

A beautiful town square...

With a violinist !

This mosque from the 16th century during the Ottoman control of the area is now a Catholic Church  - the wall murals are original and now the baptismal font is in the place where the Koran used to be...

Fascinating to see the top of this building!

Next stop was Croatia where we had a home visit - greeted with delicious homemade slivovitz - plum brandy!

Buše are ancient, pagan rooted creatures/costumes that are intended to chase away Winter and bring on Spring!

Our host talked about the Croatian/Serbian War in the 1990's and watching for mines as he played outside as a child.

Homemade apple cake to go with the slivovitz!

Remnants of the war...and then a goodbye to the village.

Back on board we had good food, good wine, and traditional Croatian music.

We sailed on to Novi Sad, Serbia 

After the Jewish population was deported to concentration camps the building was not used, but now is a cultural center for concerts.

A beautiful old building...we had a concert of Jewish music and then a solo violinist played the theme from Schindler's List.  

Very moving and beyond sad.

Such a sad place - 

Then we sailed away at night to Belgrade, Serbia

Beautiful city where the Danube and Sava rivers converge...so much history and always wars with the Turks.

Of course, I found the Belgrade Public Library and when I went in to take a look met Sandra - a wonderful Serbian librarian.  The Serbian alphabet has 30 letters...it was fun to see the library.

Damage from the bombing by Nato in 1999 to stop the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.   So much history, so much hate.

New Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava

The doors have prayers written in every language.

So beautiful - and so many devout people there.

Then back on board for dinner and traditional Serbian folk dancing!

A visit to a small village along the Danube in Serbia - another beautiful old church and a great concert.

A school visit - students start learning English in First Grade so they are very fluent.  And..even in Serbia, the kids were doing 6/7!

Sailing down the Danube through the area called the Iron Gate

Rock carvings so impressive

A sign post from Roman times

Through another lock...fascinating.

And that night a traditional Serbian dinner - with Serbian beer for John!

Thanks for coming along on this trip down the Danube...but we are not finished.  There is more to see in my next post - until then I hope you are having a marvelous May!  Please leave a comment below because I love hearing from you.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all!