Passage To Eastern Europe Viking River Cruise
Day 6: Wednesday, November 02, 2022 - Bucharest, Romania
The day's statistics:
- Weather: low 60s
- Steps: 10,780 Linda; 12,091 Steve
Our breakfast was the buffet at the hotel again. There was a decided increase in the number of people eating
breakfast this morning compared to the previous couple of mornings.
We ate at a corner table up one level, and shared it with Louise and Ty from the UK. As we assumed, we learned
that they were partaking in the same cruise we were, just sans the extension. So most of the extra breakfast
eaters were [probably] cruisers.
After our breakfast, we returned to the room to brush - Linda packed our toothbrushes in her handbag again - relax
for a little, and grab our jackets and the camera.
Before heading to the ship, we had excursions to do!
We boarded the bus and headed out at 9:00. Today's guide was Stefan.
I was able to get another shot of the NATO monument, hopefully showing more of the flags.
Here are some other sights from the bus.
Our first stop was at a parking lot across the street from the parliament building.
Before turning the lens on the building, I spied this tiny little car (it reminds me of the
tiny car we saw in Passau).
The street opposite parliament.
The parliament building.
This is the second largest government building - only behind the Pentagon - in the world. It is earthquake resistant,
capable of withstanding two atomic bomb strikes, has an underground railway station, and extends seven stories
underground.
And a selfie (yes, it was a little breezy).
Some other government buildings.
It was a brief five minute stop for photos. Back on the bus and onto our next destination.
While we determined where we need to sit to assure we can get good shots - not near a curtain - there was a spot
of ice / frost / moisture where we were and it obscured some of the images a little.
We started to travel down the road in the picture above. In the median are a number of fountains (sans water at this
time): 42 fountains in all, one for each county in Romainia, and the large fountain at the end for Bucharest.
Part of a front of a church, and a statue. And a number of pigeons on a wire. Maybe they are waiting until
they have to go to the bathroom, and will use the statue...
Some more sights.
This is one of the Embasseys - the Russian one, I believe.
There was an anti-Putin demonstration in front of it not too long ago.
There is a statue of Icarus, a memorial to the World War I and II heros of the air.
There are a couple large parks on the north side of the city (a couple pictures don't do it justice).
In one section of one of the parks - this one named Herastrau Park - is what is called the "Village Museum".
At one time, an experiment was undertaken and a collection of Romanian homes - family, livestock, and all - were
brought together. It turns out that though the concept may have been a good one, the implementation of it - not so
much, as it was determined to be a bit of mistake to bring country village residents into the heart of a city.
This was the first museum of its kind.
We originally thought that was just the name of the museum, like "Andy Warhol Museum", or the "Metropolitan Museum
of Art". But it turns out that the museum had a village on display. It was either late in the season and or
early in the day, but not all the buildings were open to go inside, but we could look in some windows.
The building that houses the ticket office and gift shop was having its roof worked on. It has to be redone every
three to five years due to the materials used.
Before we set out to view the homes, we took a selfie.
There were houses and a few other buildings, such as churches and mills; and some other things about.
This is an Orthodox church from Timişeni, in Gorj County. The bell tower doubled as an archer's tower.
The door was locked, but I was able to capture the last image through the window.
This is a half-buried house from the plains of Drăghiceni, in Olt county, dating to the beginning of
the 19th century. It was half burind in the plains for two reasons, 1) to provide warmth and cooling due to
the surrounding earth; and 2) to hide it from invaders and after the war, families returned to find their
homes still intact.
This shows what, for the most part, a distillery looked like. It was adjacent to the museum cafe.
A mule powered grain mill.
A mule powered wine press. Priorities, right?!!?
Our guide brought us to one end of the park - the other end of the park was at least as far from the entrance
as this end was (it was a prtty big park) - and gave us about 45 minutes to tour on our own before we had to
be back at the bus.
One of the churches that we were able to get inside of.
Linda on the porch of one of the houses.
An old, but delapidated ferris wheel like thing.
Another house. We went inside this one.
A windmill, from Sarichioi in Tulcea county, made in the early 19th century for grinding grain to make flour.
Not like the windmills in Kinderdijk,
but the control arm on this one does similarly change the direction of the blades.
A colorfully appointed house from Jurilovca in Tulcea county, was originally from the Black Sea shore, and
includes an outdoor bread oven, a number of rooms, and some artwork.
A half buried house from Castranova in Doij county, similar to the alf buried house shown above.
A church from Dragomireşti in Maramureş county, built in 1722. There was some period clothing on
display as well.
Some more flowers in bloom, most of these in front of the church pictured in teh first set of photos.
Two shots of roses, one in bloom and one bud - but the focus is switched between the two.
Our time was starting to run out - like I said, it was a big park and we didn't even see half of it - so we
grabbed some last shots of what we could before departing. This is both a benefit and a drawback of this sort
of excursion - everything is provided (traavel, entry, a guide), but sometimes one may not be able to spend
as much time somewhere as they may like.
A couple pictures of pathways.
Another building and some other sights after entering the church just above, as well as a rather large oak tree
near the enterance.
A house from Moişeni in Satu Mare county, was build in 1780. The property includes a storehouse and stable,
the main house, and a guardian cross (stitched. hey, it was really tall, OK?!!?).
There s a lake behind the village museum, and it has an island in it, and the island has running paths too.
A couple shots down paths less traveled by us.
We boarded the bus.
On our way to our next stop, we saw a couple more city sights.
In the middle of the traffic circle near the Nazi Propoganda building - now the Spark building, a media facility -
is the Three Wings of Freedom, one of the momuments that the NATO marker is based on.
Bucharest was the first city to be lit by gas, and the streets were originally "paved" with wood.
And additional sights.
We briefly got off the bus to see Revolutionary Square, and the memorial that we were told was "a spike
through the heart of communism." Now it is referred to by the locals as the potato on a spike (sorry this
wasn't a little better - like taking another picture after we got off the bus).
On the walls at the base of the monument are all the names of those that died during the uprising.
At this stop we also saw the Carol Univeristy, with a statue to King Carol who reigned for 48 years.
Across from the univeristy was the art museum.
We boarded the bus and continued on.
More sights.
The original facade was retained, and a modern building erected on top of it. This is the police headquarters
building.
The oldest opera house, the Odeon, in Bucharest, with a memorial of some sort in front (we didn't get any info on that).
This time we got off the bus for a while. We were left in front of the House of Encomony. It was originally
the CEC Bank building, the oldest bank in Bucharest.
This was across the street from the National History of Romania building. The bulding houses the original crown
made of steel from the Ottoman Canon in 1878. I don't have a picture of the whole thing as it was a big building
and we were pretty close to it. But I did get a couple to highlight the architecture.
We crossed the street and met at the map.
Then we started down the alley / street / whatever this is considered.
The first brewery of Romania.
Some architecture.
We arrived at the Mănăstirea Stavropoleos.
This Orthodox church is made of three primary sections: Pronous, long and narrow; Nous, short but very wide; and
altar, square-ish. The building looks like a cross from above. The altar has three doors, the left and right are
used to enter and exit, and the middle door accesses the Bible - but is only opened once a year at Easter.
In the Pronous, the figures at waist high line are mortals, whereas the figures higher have halos.
Some shots inside, and of the courtyard.
We finished our brief time at this church and moved on.
A bank.
Not for the AC units, but the figures / sculpture.
More architecture.
This is the National Bank of Romania.
In front of it, there were some ruins uncovered. So they were left intact and covered for viewing.
Autofocus wasn't working, and there was a LOT of moisture on the underside of the plexiglass so I really wasn't
able to get a good shot. It was hard to see in person, no less in a picture.
A market street with outdoor restaurant seating.
An original building from the original fortification wall that protected the city.
We arrived at the restaurant early, so we had some free time - about 45 minutes - on our own before eating.
Stefan accidentally left his jacket way back at the orthodox chucrh. Linda suggested he leave his lollipop
(the wooden stick with the Viking logo on top to make seeing the guide easier) with me so he can run faster.
I carried it, but it failed to convey and special powers on me.
Across from the restaurant is theeastern Orthodox Royal Church, the oldest church in Bucharest, built in 1554.
We had a little time before lunch to go inside too.
Behind the church was a small building with a table in it and a couple icons, and a covered structure that held
prayer candles. Also, on the grounds was an old church bell, and some headstones.
There were some flowers in bloom too.
There was a kitten napping under a bush as well.
After visiting the church we stepped inside some shops, and even had a little time to walk back to the canal (on the
other side of the green fence) which was on the other side of the block we were already on. This should be a
university.
Before long it was lunch time.
Our lunch was at Hanu' Lui Manuc.
Before going in to eat - it was still a little early - we sat on a bench in front of the restaurant. There was a
couple there, from Houston, that was just finishing their trip with an extension in Bucharest. They were actually
wrapping up an anniversary one-month long treck.
Right at the entrance to the restaurant was a section of sidewalk "paved" with wood - this section was retained
while the entire rest of the sidewalk was redone in coblestone. The wood grain in visible in the larger squares.
Their menu on display by the entrance, though we ate lunch and it was a fixed meal.
The building was originallyfrom 1808, and the Peace Treaty was signed inside in 1912.
There was seating, indoor and outdoor, for a lot - a LOT - of people. There was so much room that a Ford - for
whatever reason - was on display, and I don't think they even had to take out any tables to accomodate it.
We sat in a section inside upstairs. There were three Viking groups seated at once, totallying about 130, and
we didn't even fill half of the space we were in.
We sat at a table of eight that included Julia, Mickie, Mary Elise, Linda, and two others, plus us.
We drank beer (Linda) and wine (me, and Linda after her beer was gone).
Our lunch started with rolls and spreads that included bean paste, eggplant, and veggie.
Then we had a veggie and carrot cream soup.
The entree was a beef stew with roasted potatoes.
And dessert was apple strudel with coffee.
There was some live entertainment during our lunch too. They performed three songs and dances including,
at the end, a conga line sort of dance that fellow travelers participated in (not all recorded).
After lunch was over, we walked to the other side of the block so we could board the bus.
This certainly wasn't the olny Starbucks we passed, but I just thought I'd get this one because it had some
nice outdoor seating.
We boarded the bus and continued our drive through the city.
Now I know why there was a small gap in my pictures...
We had a technical stop. Linda and I shared a Starbucks Frappaccino in a bottle. We boarded the bus again, and
continued on our way.
Romania has a lot of farmland.
En route we learned that Romania has more than half of the black bear population of Europe.
Also, over the last three days we heard three guides tell us stories about Vlad. Probably 80% or more was the same
amongst all three. There was some minor contradiction between the details, but generally all was consistant.
We finally arrived at the ship at 5:42. The term "ship" will be used interchangeably with "boat" because,
though the vessel is rather long, Viking calls it a longboat. So there's that...
Our stateroom. It is on the smaller size, especially compared to the hotels, but we don't spend too much
time in the room so it isn't that bad. The luggage stores under the bed.
We unpacked, and headed to the lounge.
During our 6:15 briefing, we heard the port talk, and crew introductions (the program director
was Adrian, a Romanian; maitre d' was Alexandra; hotel manager was Igor, a Serbian; executive chef was Ronald; and
the lounge pianist was George).
If you aren't familiar with Viking cruises or haven't read our previous VRC chronicles, there is a "port talk" each
night before dinner.
Our next day we were going to be in Bulgaria. To get there, we had to sail across the river. Would using the thrusters to
move sideways across the river be considered sailing?!!? That's where we were heading: immediately across the river.
We also learned that, at one time in the not too distant past, Bulgarian rose oil was $4,000 per liter (or about $15,000
a gallon).
We sat with Heather and her mom Dottie.
Time for our first ship's dinner.
Our servers - because we sat in the same group of five or so tables - were Imre and Gede.
We sat with Heather and Dottie, and Judy and Pam from CT.
For those unfamiliar with the meals, there is a full menu. For the dinner menu, the left side contains the
"Classics: Always Available" section; the right has, at the top, a "Regional Specialties Tasting Menu" and the rest
includes the other daily items that change... daily.
Linda had the Salata de Vinete, Mediterranean chicken breast, and Alba ca zapada - "Snow White".
I had the Three Onion soup, Mediterranean chicken breast, and Lime cake.
After dinner and chatting with our fellow travelers, we returned to our cabin.
I tried to get a picture of the moon shining on the Danube River, with Bulgaria on the other side.
Those lights on the other side are our first stop on the ship. We had to turn in our passports to the Guest Services
desk so they could get all the travelers cleared at once. We would leave our passports with them until Serbia. More
on that when we get to... Serbia.