Amawaterways gems of southeast Europe 4/30 on AMAMagna with Romania extension

[CastleCritic]

Just as a way of introduction/level setting this is my 6th river cruise, 5th in Europe(all with amawaterways), and 3rd I have done solo.  I did the northern leg of the Danube in 2109 and booked this trip about a week later…for October 2020…then for October 2021…ama needed the ship for a charter but moved me to the return (Romania start) a week later with a room upgrade…then British airways canceled my flight and Romania developed the worst covid outbreak in the world and didn’t have enough hospital beds for itself much less cruise passengers who happened to test positive trying to fly home…so I changed to a Rhine/main cruise. 
 

 But finally I’m here, on the big party boat the amamagna!
 

Starting out I knew something would go wrong and I only had 90 minutes scheduled for connection in London. Woke up Saturday to the inbound plane being 2 hours late getting into Charlotte but that ended up being just fine. We got to London about 20 minutes early and had no ground related issues (I’ve seen horror stories). But that’s when the fun started.  First getting through connection security only 1/3 of the lanes were opened. And for passengers who got there already on an airplane, few of them seemed to know how to get through. A modern airport security point. Then the got to the “holding area” which said they wouldn’t even identify the gate until 50min before the flight. Well, this is board ended up changing to “please wait” up until 15 min before the flight was supposed to leave at which point we were directed to a gate where the story was the plane was waiting on its gate from a Cathay Pacific flight who promised to push back in 3 min for 45 min. Needless to say we left an hour later but made up about half of it in the 2 hour flight to Budapest. 
 

The  Hungarian border security took about 45min…. At which point I discovered that the book ama sent over had the wrong directions to meet up with the arranged transfer (it said to go to the other terminal to their desk where I ran into a rather confused and unhelpful driver who had been sent to pick up someone else). Backtracking to where I started I met up with the right guy and got a solo van ride to the ship. 

And what a ship it is.  The day turned around immediately. 

The amamagna is twice as wide as the normal Rhine/Danube ships and they really didn’t spare much expense. 
 

Was onboard quickly and my luggage delivered to the room. After which was the standard first day routine. Take a nap, go to the safety briefing then eat dinner and end the day. At dinner ate with the cruise director (Jasmine from Serbia) and our Dutch captain.  Ama gave me a rather nice room upgrade so my stay will be enjoyable. This is a VERY quiet ship. 
 

Writing this from our first excursion in Pécs and will have more later on a good first cruising day. 

[CastleCritic]

Some quick exposition. There are about 145 people on the ship out of a capacity of 195. About 40 of them are going with me to the Brasov/Bucharest extension and I’m sure a number are going to turkey on that option. 
 

there is at least one fairly young child on the cruise, I’d say about 8. And there is a subgroup of Asian guests who have a leader as an interpreter for excursions (I gather they do all speak English to some degree, enough to function at meals etc.) the average age I’d say is a bit younger than the past 55-60 maybe with quite a few of us under 50. (I’m barely there 49 in a month). 
 

The cruise started in Budapest and goes south on the Danube to girgiu Romania before splitting  for two land excursions, on to Romania and another to Istanbul. This is a the last half continuation of a 14 day option to do most of the ama served danube that started in vilshofen a week ago (pretty sure someone here was on the first half and departed)

Edited May 1, 2023 by CastleCritic

[RobInMN]

We got off AmaMagna April 9th (and did a 4 day post). It's taken a couple weeks to get caught up on work and everything else so only recently sat down to write up our first review ever. Look for it to be posted hopefully tonight. 

Have a great time!!

 

[CastleCritic]

Cruise day1, we departed Budapest at midnight...supposedly...I have no proof of that as I woke up at 3am and thought we were still docked until my brain processed that yes those lines coming past my window was ship wake.....ships quiet.

 

As stated before they didnt spare much expense on this ship, its kind of sad that covid derailed any thoughts they may have have at building more of them in the short term.

as with all the AMA ships she has an open sun deck, except that this one has both a squash ball court, and not only a pool but also a hot tub with a nearby bar

 

 

 

There is also an open area on the stern behind the fitness center where you can sit out of the wind and just watch the world go by

 

One of the things Ive always thought was neat was that AMA has a digital board on the ships showing where the fleet is while they weren't docked with us, looks like we weren't alone in Budapest

 

Our destination today was Mohacs Hungary

 

 

 

this was the launching off point for a few possibilities

Local bike tour, 

Wine tasting

Bus to Pecs and then a walking tour

 

I did Pecs, which is a neat little to midsize town.

 

If you are reading this, you may get to the point of saying ABC (another bloody church...or castle) by the end but that tends to be the focus of a lot of the tours in my experience.

 

 

 

Our tour guide took us down into the crypt where she demonstrated its acoustics by singing (and quite well) an Aria for us..

 

And a second church/cathedral

You can see the ottoman inspiration here, this was also a mosque at one point.

 

We also toured a small Jewish synagogue, I cant recall that being on the tour much in the past 

Apparently only about 30 members currently.

Again the tour guid4 sang for us (the lady on the left in the above picture) in Hebrew before ending the organized tour

 

Few more pictures on the walk back to the buses

 

 

 

 

And then the picture that summarizes the difference in how we think about prices in the US (and most European countries) vs some others, the prices are in Hungarian Florens (abbreviated HUF) and trades at about 350 to the euro/dollar

 

 

Thats all for today. We leave for Vukovar and then into Croatia tommorrow. But before I go, someone asked on an old thread if AMA could leave wine or champagne in the room on arrival, Ive always had a bottle of something, on this cruise I was upgraded to a really good room and have both a Riesling and Chanti...no idea if this is something anyone would consider "good" I dont have a taste for wines but here they are

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by CastleCritic

[letteanne]

Lovr touring with you. Great pics.. 

[letteanne]

Should be love, 

[CastleCritic]

Cruise day 2 good evening from Novi Sad Serbia,

 

Woke up this morning  in Vulkovar Croatia, and went for a good breakfast (the AmaMagna has 4 restaurants though only 2 are open for breakfast and lunch) and discovered for the first time on this trip we had company rafting to us, the Crosi Victor Hugo

 

 

Also discovered that I should have looked out my window because apparently on this part of the river the fashion is to use old ships as a landing platform, this one appeared to have an additional use as a working bar.

As far as I could go, you cant even see the Victor Hugo, but she's there!

 

 

If you've been to (or I guess lived in...) Germany or France or some of the other countries, there is always some part of the story about how WWII affected the city, but in Vulkovar, the 1991 Yugoslavian civil war pretty much is the story, the city was pretty much destroyed (a view into Ukraine 20 year from now Im guessing)

 

 

Apparently they attribute over 600 hits to this water tower alone. There is a story that every night if the Croatian flag had been damaged in the days fighting that there were teenagers tasked with climbing it and replacing the flag.

 

Sadly as I said the town was destroyed and as too often happens, some atrocities happens (on both sides according to the wikipedia article.

 

The end of the tour was Eltz Manor/Castle, now the city museum which was an eclectic collection of early BC artifacts, Croatian culture, and the story of the war and the cities destruction.

 

 

From here we were bused to meet the ship (which went ahead of us) to Ilok where...somehow the passengers from the Victor Hugo all arrived in one long bus convoy with ours and she was again rafted on the far side of the AmaMagna along with a converted cargo ship landing platform.  This made for a somewhat crowded boarding and Chagrinned AmaMagna security manager (you have to scan your room key getting on and off the ship...and 1/3 of the people walking past him weren't on our ship).

 

From here the story is basically waiting on border security, first Croatian to stamp everyone out of the EU (the ship collected our passports on boarding, lunch, and a few hours sailing and. then arriving in Novi Sad and waiting on the Serbian police to pick up and take all the passports away in inspect and stamp them before returning them to us with instructions to always carry them while we are in Serbia (apparently papers please is still a thing here).

 

On the way discovered we weren't the biggest thing on the river

 

 

And definitely not the strangest...I guess this works

 

 

And upon arriving in Novi Sad, look who was waiting for us..

 

 

but this time each ship had its own dock

 

 

Excursion choices were

city tour

hike up to Petrovardin fortress (a more motorized option of this is about to start as Im typing this)

Bike tour

 

I tend to go to bed early while Im in Europe and I like castles/fortresses so I did that

 

 

 

 

Very nice views from up top

 

 

 

A highlight of the tour was through the old defensive works/tunnels, apparently there are/were about 16KM of these, and the fortress was never taken by force 

 

 

Then it was time to head back to the bus for a short ride across the river.

 

 

Until tomorrow and Belgrade...have a good day

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

Thank you for taking us along. Petrovaradin Fortress, those photos reminded me of Ehrenbreitstein Fortress above Koblenz. They used to call that one Gibraltar on the Rhine, guess what Wikipedia says about Petrovaradin? Have just looked it up - Gibraltar on the Danube!

 

Fürst Metternich is a Sekt - sparkling wine - from Germany and not bad for that kind of alcohol. There are higher priced ones of one would assume higher quality so I am little surprised Amawaterways went for this one.

 

notamermaid

 

[CastleCritic]

Its super defensible for sure, all those holes you see on the left of the picture are slots for someone to point a rifle at anyone approaching, and sections of the tunnels (which is 4 levels deep) are designed to funnel anyone who did make it in into a field of fire.  And there were provisions for cannons as well as minefields on the approach.

 

Apparently its also a hotspot in the Sumer for a major music festival...which was advertised on the wall I didnt show in the first picture,  The guide even could point out where the stages would be "here is the death metal stage" (right outside the exit from the tunnels and a former minefield..,

 

also interesting reuse of a bridge support.....

 

[Canal archive]

Beautiful sky scapes and interesting sights and stories.

[CastleCritic]

Cruise day 3 

Belgrade Serbia all day.
 

I like big boats and I can not lie..

 

 

Woke up to a cloudy and slightly chilly day on the ...not the Danube at the moment but the Sava river, which is where the cruise ships all dock.

 

Morning Roll call was The Prinzessin Isabella (Phoenix Reisen) and our new friends on the Victor Hugo.  

 

 

Two tours on offer this morning, a hike straight to the fortress (normally I would jump on this but the fortress was also the first stop on...)

 

city tour by bus and foot

 

As mentioned this started at Belgrade Fortress, I didnt get any great shots of this from the outside but did get a few decent ones from inside. (and the below was from the bike ride that will be mentioned later so I couldn't pick my spot) this is part of a rather large park system now

 

 

 

 

 

 

slightly "scandalous" statue when it was installed about 100 years ago due to its ....naturalistic nature.

 

 

From there we continued the bus tour, passing the Parliament, apparently they have a local saying "the horses dance outside but the jackasses are inside"...I think many of us can relate

 

 

Next was the largest Orthodox Church by volume in europe

 

 

 

 

....which has absolutely no historical significance and opened in 2003 after being started in the relative recent time of 1935.

 

Next it was on to the the Nikola Tesla museum which is small but still fairly interesting with a few live demonstrations of his inventions given by a museum guide

 

 

 

 

no the people on the right aren't waving glow sticks, this is part of our Taiwanese subgroup demonstrating that there is electricity in the air from that arc of electricity those are florescent light bulbs.

 

Then it was back to the ship for lunch where the Victor Hugo had abandoned us but we were joined by one of the Excellence fleet the excellence Empress, though she departed sometime before I looked again after lunch.

 

 

 

The afternoon choices were a tour of a brandy distillery and tasting, or a bike tour of the opposite side of the river from where we are docked.  I dont drink (I dont find any of it tastes good) and always have looked at the bike tours so I did that.  In addition the ship had hourly buses to the city center and back if you wanted to just walk around and eat in the city.

 

9 of us plus the local guide and the ships wellness host (some of these have been really popular there were two different groups in Novi Sad yesterday).

 

8 mile ride around some of the older parts of town and down mostly the Danube side. Its a little odd to hear the Serbs describe sites that were bombed by NATO in the 90s...most just plainly say it though the bike guide did put a little of a "we didn't like that and neither did the UN" bend on it.

 

 

 

Thats all for today, writing this up while sitting on the Bow as its finally gotten a little warmer and the sun is making an attempt.  Tomorrow is the iron gates, not sure when I will have internet to update again (my cell phone has 4 bars but apparently isnt allowed to use that network for data)  but that s the next writeup.

 

 

For some reason the board wants you to see the below again, Ive removed them three times....

 

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by CastleCritic

[RobInMN]

33 minutes ago, CastleCritic said:

For some reason the board wants you to see the below again, Ive removed them three times....

 

 

I had the same issue with a couple pictures in my thread. Not only do you have to delete them from the text, but you must also delete them from the list of attachments. Any picture not specifically used in the text body appears to just be added to the end of the text.

Next time I'll have to try doing a live review. I appreciate the additional details you are able to add in a day by day format.

[CastleCritic]

Ahh that makes sense though I think those  pics were all used. 
 

it sort of helps if I ever want to refer to this later to have my thought’s written out 

 

last picture from Belgrade I took of the building near the ship. I think it came out well for a quick snap.

 

Also I thought your thread was excellent. I think we have similar interests and tastes in food….

Edited May 3, 2023 by CastleCritic

[CastleCritic]

Cruise Day 4

 

Hello from the Iron gates either in Serbia or Romania depending on what side of the center of the river we are on at the moment.

 

We woke up to a little more cloud and rain that I would have liked but it wasn't a washout

 

We were docked at Golubac Fortress in Serbia,

 

 

 

Which was of course the excursion of the day and we did and did a bit of a touring in the fortress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately for the less adventuresome/hearty a lot of the buildings do have roofs

 

 

The Serbians have done a pretty good job restoring it, not that long ago there was a highway literally running through the middle of it, you can still see where some of the trucks got a little too close to the entrance walls..  This was a LITTLE too rushed for my tastes (which are for castles....) as they also wanted to work in a tasting of local goat/cow cheeses, wines and a local spicy spread...all were good.

But I managed to get through all the towers/rooms that were open to us, even if I didnt get to read pretty much any of the history. There was a lot more than can be see if A. the weather is good (I confirmed this with the guide, slippy narrow high paths dont mix well with clumsy tourists and rain) and B.....you buy a ticket for it...this place has a tiered admission depending how adventuresome you want to be.

 

That was the only planned activity of the day, so after a visit from the local border authorities we were stamped out of Serbia and on our way.  As castles are my favorite thing I took a LOT of pictures as we sailed away, I think this is the one that came out the best.  Fortunately it stopped raining entirely by this point.

 

(though this one from earlier is also pretty good IMO)

 

 

 

The rest of the day was literally sailing down the Danube towards Bulgaria through the Iron gates.

 

 

The big feature here is the statue of Decebalus, a ruler in modern Romania circa 100AD

 

 

and a nearby Roman tablet...the group who fought and ultimately defeated Decebalus

 

 

Then it was to and though a lock? no thats not an interesting thing on a Danube cruise? would you believe this is the first one we've been through and there is another in a few hours...and thats it.  The imaginatively named Iron Gates I and Iron Gates II.  Though the noteworthy bit is that they arent a single lift/drop like most European locks, they have an upper and lower chamber

 

 

here we are going under the intermediary wall between them.

 

The guys in the left are part of a film crew who had permission to be places the rest of us arent, and seemed to have a specific interesting in the time were were around Decebalus today including a drone? (there was definitely a drone flying around us at that point) so who knows maybe Ill be. in an AMA promotion video or some video...

 

Hope you had a good day, Tomorrow is Bulgaria and another fortress.

 

 

 

Edited May 4, 2023 by CastleCritic

[CastleCritic]

Cruise day 5? lets call it 5...

Vidin Bulgaria

 

Woke up this morning in Vidin docked again to our new favorite docking method, the old cargo ship

 

 

 

 

What what do we have here, the Viking Horde appears

 

 

This is Viking Lofn, And it looks like they're getting ready to..enjoy a nice lunch on their outdoor patio? that looks like a nice way to do it.  Amamagna does have a bow restaurant but it only serves a "light" lunch" and is much smaller and is usually full enclosed (I think the windows can come down) .  First time we've run across a Viking cruise all week and not sure where they were but didn't see any of their groups in town.

 

To excursions on hand today

1. go make pastries

2. walk around Vidin and see a Fort.

 

Yep there's a fortress so thats what we do,  One thing I did notice was the number of stray dogs in Vidin

 

 

the guide apparently sees this one regularly and says she joins tours regularly,  saw another one happily wagging its tail right at the dock.. Some of the others looked less happy to see humans (I chased one out of its secluded sleeping spot getting a better fort picture later) but they all at least looked healthy and well fed if not well groomed.  Funniest thing I saw all day was one bark at an elderly lady walking home with her groceries...grandma wasn't taking any crap from the dog and won the discussion.

 

So on with the walk, we saw a few monuments

 

 

 

An orthodox church

 

 

As well as a mosque (not much to look at or take pictures of) and a synagogue that was in the middle of being renovated after years of misuse.

 

Historically near the fortress there was a display of ancient stonework some dating back to the 2nd and third century of roman, Hebrew and Romanian/Bulgarian times

 

 

 

 

And finally the fortress itself

 

 

A lot of pictures in the books show this with a moat but...I dont get it there are electric lights at the base...not sure they would even want a weeks rain to actually be able to fill it up.

 

 

 

 

 

That was pretty much it, then back to the ship to start our last sailing day, tomorrow we are in Girgiu where we will end the cruise but we have another full day of excursions and then I stick with it for 4 nights more in Romania on land

 

Good evening from the very southern Danube

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by CastleCritic

[RobInMN]

5 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

One thing I did notice was the number of stray dogs in Vidin

the guide apparently sees this one regularly and says she joins tours regularly,

Ah yes! the dogs! It was funny. As we got our groups & guides organized, this dog came almost running up to the group. It quickly became clear that this was a regular occurrence. He (she?) would get petted for a while, then run forward, explore, and come back to the group. He'd do this constantly, and he knew exactly where we were going next. He'd always wander forward in our route, never off to the side. If he could speak, I'm sure he could have practically given the tour.😅

I'm a little surprised that our guide never cautioned anyone about petting or even touching the stray dogs. Does not seem like a smart thing to do, not only from a safety perspective, but diseases as well.

[CastleCritic]

7 hours ago, RobInMN said:

Ah yes! the dogs! It was funny. As we got our groups & guides organized, this dog came almost running up to the group. It quickly became clear that this was a regular occurrence. He (she?) would get petted for a while, then run forward, explore, and come back to the group. He'd do this constantly, and he knew exactly where we were going next. He'd always wander forward in our route, never off to the side. If he could speak, I'm sure he could have practically given the tour.😅

I'm a little surprised that our guide never cautioned anyone about petting or even touching the stray dogs. Does not seem like a smart thing to do, not only from a safety perspective, but diseases as well.

No one pet the dogs. This was the one at the port. Every time someone came over the boarding bridge. He would stand up and look at them. After awhile his tail stopped wagging when he did it. I’m not a dog person but was thinking about it but yeah. Just the look of this guy. They aren’t clean. 

[Canal archive]

This is a challenge in some European countries, both of my daughters have rescue dogs one from England and one from Spain both now well entrenched members of our family our English is a Cocker Spaniel now completely settled and the Queen of all she surveys. Our Spanish lady is actually an English Pointer just about the most elegant hound I have ever seen at first she was not a happy dog she now thinks she rules the world but is happy to play silly devils with her besti the Spaniel. 

[CastleCritic]

Cruise day 6 (the last) May 6, 2023

 

Good evening from Giurgiu Romania.

 

We started the day in Rouse Bulgaria, across the Danube

 

 

We had a new visitor the William Wordsworth, a Riviera cruise ship

 

The excursion options for the day were

Full day excursion to Bucharest, where we're headed in a few days anyway

Walking tour of Rouse itself and then a trip to see churches literally hewn into the stone

Full day excursion further into Bulgaria

 

I did the Bulgaria option and so onto the buses we went.  My bus had both "active" and "gentle walking" groups which did some things separate, and some together (though this meant leaving the least able to enjoy a longer lunch)

 

Few "from the bus" pictures

 

 

 

 

After a brief rest stop we arrived at Veliko Tărnovo to explore its fortress

 

The "gentle" group just stopped long enough to take pictures of it

 

 

 

Most of our groups went to the lowest level

 

 

And ours hiked all the way to the old church on the top

 

 

Which also afforded a good view of the city below

 

 

 

Inside the church today are more modern styles of art but still interesting

 

 

Near the church are the ruins of the old royal palace

 

 

 

From there we hiked back down (the stray here wasnt interested in drinking water from one of our groups hand).

 

From there we picked up our "gentle walking" group from their shopping street destination and headed onwards.  This weekend is a holiday in Bulgaria and there is a livestock keepers event going on at a monastery between where we were, and where we needed to be.  After getting through traffic we arrived in the village of Arbanassi.  AMAwaterways had arranged a traditional Bulgarian lunch for us which consisted of a salad, soup, and a chicken based stew (it looked a lot like some Indian dishes but was much more mild) and a yogurt with honey and nuts for desert.  I don't do salads and again found the yogurt not to my liking but everything else was good, I could have stood for more of the chicken in the stew (though dinner on the ship also ended up being chicken...I like chicken).

 

From there the tour went to two very small and very old orthodox churches, where at the first we had a local quartet (the male lead for which was an opera singer) sing for us.  The acoustics on that space really worked for that.

 

 

 

This one was advertised as "looks like a barn from the outside, and the sistine chapel from the inside"

 

 

 

 

 

From there, sadly the excursions for the river portion of this trip ended, we traveled back to the ship by bus, where we had an interesting new guest (The Wordsworth departing just before we got there)

 

 

This rather viking looking ship is the Albertina from "SE tours",she was waiting for...Im not sure, they may have been rafted to the Wordsworth...in any case we apparently denied them rafting as we were scheduled to depart ourselves which is what happened in the end, we got our bus group back onboard, pulled off the dock, they docked in our place, we rafted to them for a few minutes to load the remainder of the arriving buses and then departed for Girgiu....a terrible long trip that I documented on the following distance chart

 

 

There they are at their dock in Bulgaria, we are tied to ours in Girgiu Romania on the other side of the river.

 

nearby ...this cant be normal....

 

 

And thus completely concludes the river portion of this trip (boo) but it doesnt mean I have to go home (YAY) we leave at 8:30 for Brasov and the start of 4 nights more in Romania, another group leaves at 5:30(!) for Istanbul.

 

A few final items and thoughts.  

 

The young child I saw at the safety briefing is the daughter of the hotel manager, and her mother is on board.  She is one of the most well behaved ~8 year olds Ive even seen (Ive seen her mostly around reception and his desk "helping" as best she can, today was her birthday as well as I believe another guests) and already (she is either Hungarian or Romanian) speaks an amount of English.  )

 

This ship is truly great, I do have some concerns that at full capacity the dining room is too small (144 seats on a ship with a capacity of 196) they are counting on people to eat at the other 3 restaurants (the chefs table a high concept 7 course meal that all AMA ships have, the Al fresco on the bow with a  good view but only about 20 seats which is light food and a set Mediterranean menu for summer and "Jimmy's" seating about 60 which always serves what the main dining room does but on trays at large tables, instead of smaller portions on fine china. I didn't even look into there until tonight and it wasn't operating...not sure if they just didn't have enough people sign up for today.  As a big eater (normally I just order more food and they bring it promptly) the idea appeals to me, but being alone the use diminishes slightly I don't tend to make THAT many new friends on a cruise.  This was never a problem on this cruise, most days we had open tables in fact.

 

AMA has done well with the excursions on this cruise, there is usually something for everyone and often a few good options, sometimes they try to cram too much into a short time (Golubacs fortress I didnt even have time to read any of the signs in the fortress, and we strained to even get to all the open areas before being steered towards the "tasting room" with a tight departure time already).

 

Most of the cruising was overnight, in fact other than tonight we've spend the entire night every night this cruise underway.  In fact they had to bring 2 "pilots" onboard due to regulations requiring 2 certified Danube captains at night.  Which I dont entirely get since the Danube down here is wide, and doesnt see much traffic.  The ships in my daily posts are EVERY cruise ship Ive seen since Budapest save one (the Vista Star which arrived to take our place I think yesterday's as we were leaving) .  Im on 2nd deck in a suite (thanks AMA for the upgrade) I cant tell the ship is moving ...ever..not once ....no sound, no motion.  Room service has been good, they bring me free soft drinks every day and did my laundry last night (both are suite perks.  For the first time on an AMA ship I saw people in the pool (actually the hot tub) and I can definitely see it getting use in the coming weeks as the weather gets warmer.

 

Speaking of weather other than morning drizzle at Golubacs...we had better than usual weather for spring time trips...which was nice to see... I may get punished for the good luck on that in the extension..we will see.

 

Heard at lunch that someone who stared in Vilshofen 2 weeks ago was "here's a church'ed out" which I get but...thats kind of often the most "showy" thing in most towns and is the stable of every cruise.

 

ANYWAY on to Transylvania tomorrow morning. As always have a good evening.

Edited May 6, 2023 by CastleCritic

[Canal archive]

Really interesting review Castlecritic thank you. The Australians are frequently heard to mutter ABC when another church or castle is mentioned the first word is - another - use your own imagination for the middle word.

[CastleCritic]

Disembarking day/transfer day/land extension day 1. May 7 2023

 

Good evening from Brasov Romania.

 

We woke up this morning and waved goodbye to the AMAManga and her crew.

Dispersal of AMA's fleet this morning

This is something I appreciate about AMA, I have NO IDEA what was wrong with the paint on the wheelhouse but he was painting it.

 

We have a few over 40 people making the trip to Transylvania and then Bucharest (including the hotel managers daughter and wife as it turns out, dad had to stay with the ship.

 

So we started out and drove through Bucharest, we will be back so I didn't take any pictures but the guide had a lot to say on the way (the guide was another AMA cruise director and it seems like we are keeping our buses and their drivers as well).

 

We stopped at a shopping center for a rest break

If you ever wanted to know what a Romanian mall looks like...I think the right word is Familiar.

 

From there we made our way into the Carpathian Mountains...fortunately as it was Sunday all the traffic was headed the other way, back to Bucharest (and boy was it...multiple hour traffic jams on a single lane road), so it was easy sailing for us.  No national cultural event to fight against.

 

 

Our destination was Sinaia.  A small town in the Carpathian mounts that is home to our tour destination, Peles Castle...which I will get to.  We had lunch there, I had some chicken schnitzel, it was decent, but a bit dry I probably should have gone for something else, I was just trying to go "safe".

 

 

Did a little walking on the main strip and then met the bus to continue to Peles.  This is where my karma from yesterday bit me, remember when I said the weather had been good? Yeah....the weather as shown in the first picture was sunny, I was sitting in the sun all during lunch, but as soon as we started to leave it clouded up and started raining...though not hard....ensuring yet again my pictures arent as good as I would have liked.

 

 

 

 

Peles Castle is more palace, and was the home of the first Romanian king Carol I (born German) and despite the firsts, were talking 1881... And this was the palace he built, again in Europe terms..practically new, and it had electricity and central heating on construction.

 

The interior is very impressive, though it shows a bit initially the signs of a new monarch as the first room completed is nothing more than painted plaster...

 

But the second completed near the end of construction is pure wood

 

 

He had a collection of weapons, over 4,000

 

 

This case alone is valued at over $6M.

I have many many pictures of the interior of the palace and they are all impressive

Surrounding the palace is the infrastructure to support the monarchy, the house of the architect, the guards etc

 

there is even a second "castle" Pelisor castle for effectively the "crown prince" (a Nephew of Carol, his only child a girl died young).

 

From there it was back down the mountain on the bus complete with icons of the patron saints of drivers who have to drive tour buses around mountain hairpins present on the drivers visor

 

And into Brasov for the night.

GOOD NEWS (sorry if you don't get the reference)

 

thats all for today tomorrow is Transylvania exploring I believe before we pay Vlad himself a visit at the castle the day after on the way into Bucharest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by CastleCritic

[CastleCritic]

Extension day 2, Brasov Romania May 8, 2023

 

 

Good evening again from Brasov, we have our second day here before relocating again to Bucharest by way of Brann tomorrow.

 

Not quite the same view as the other intro pictures sadly

 

 

Our first destination today was Sighisora, a citadel town that is the actual birthplace of Vlad Tepes/Vlad III/Vlad the impaler...and boy are all the merchants keying on that.(sadly I have found the souvenir stands fairly lacking the entire trip, still haven't found anything intersting.)

 

This was a 2 hour drive and actually went by several other fortresses on the way, even some of the churches in the area are fortified

 

 

 

 

Before arriving in the target destination itself 

 

(ignore the slightly blur, this had to be taken from the dirty back window of a moving bus)

 

 

 

 

 

A very colorful town.

 

 

The man himself(ok a statue of...)

 

 

 

 

And you know if you give me something to climb(sadly the clock tower was closed today)...Im climbing it even when told the view from up there isn't all that great.(the church  at the top was ALSO closed today)

 

At least today was the boomerang of yesterday (and then back again) it started out cloudy and rained a bit on the way but the sun came out just after we finished lunch (I had something called grandmas special chicken stew...it looked a bit like a curry but didnt have the spice of one..a bit bland something Im finding as a trend so far, see if I can find something with more flavor the next 2+ days).

 

 

Allowing for some good pictures of the clock tower.

From there it was back to Brasov for a walking tour, and unfortunately we found the rain we left behind.

 

Few other sites from in town below

 

 

This is the "black church" (we didnt go inside)

 

 

the local synagogue (61 Jews in town they said)

 

and I think Ive seen this idea before.....

 

 

And there is even another fortress in town, wish I had time to find out if it was climbable.

 

Thats it for today, again tomorrow we have about 4 and a half hours on the bus broken up by stopping in Bran to see the castle of the same name and then arriving at Bucharest for another 2 nights.

 

Have a wonderful day

 

[CastleCritic]

Intermediary transfer/land excursion day 3 May 9 2023

 

Good evening from Bucharest Romania.

 

We woke up this morning and said goodbye to the Kronwell hotel and Brasov (think Im going to do a separate review for the hotel this later, I have....thoughts....).  Also no idea what a Lifestyle hotel was supposed to be.

 

 

We started our short (for this trip...and day) drive to the town of Bran and ultimately the castle of the same name.

 

On the way we again discovered other fortresses up on the hills.  I know Ive seen more intact (or restored) fortresses by far on this trip than any in the past...though almost all from a distance. And no I didnt insert the name its really on the side of the hill right under it...no idea what the name of the fortress is....

 

Before arriving at Bran Castle.

 

This is a surprisingly small castle and really despite all the hype....has nothing to do with Dracula/Vlad the Impaler, he was the ruler in Walachia, Transylvania was actually an 'enemy' territory, there is a legend he was imprisoned there for a few days (and signs to that affect) but modern researchers think it was more likely he was taken elsewhere, most likely Budapest.  Its most well known history is actually relatively recently, after Transylvania was given to Romania after WWI it was one of the residences of the last few monarchs, or...one of the residences, some of them likes the more luxurious Peles Castle we saw a few days ago.

 

Few shots from the inside below, again, by almost any standard the interior is pretty austere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the tour, the goal was to get a good exterior shot and then eat lunch (a rather well prepared pork chop)

 

 

 

And then we had a fairly long (about 4 and half hours after gridlock traffic) to Bucharest back the way we came a few days prior (passing the real school where the Netflix "Wednesday" was filmed (sadly the pictures of this are really bad)

 

 

This included  a stop to photograph the Parliament building (this is tomorrows excursion for me so there will be a LOT more pictures of this then).

 

On the way...you would think we made a wrong turn and ended up in Paris, but..check the flag on top

 

Thats all for today, will have a bit more tomorrow on the organized activities in Bucharest on the last (fun) day of the trip.

 

 

 

 

[CastleCritic]

Supplemental post, review and thoughts on the Kronwell Hotel Brasov

 

This was our hotel for the Brasov/Transylvania section of the ground extension, we stayed there for 2 nights. This is fairly new construction hotel.

 

Street view, as I said above I have NO IDEA what a lifestyle hotel is, but there were quite a few meeting type rooms. 

 

However the location wasnt the best...

 

they built it right next to the main train station in town.  Now this doesn't remotely compete with a massive European cities main central station, but it is a regional hub meaning from 3am to midnight, about every 15min there is something going through.  And honking.  This is not the US train horn mind you(and they tend to hit it for about as long as you do when you want someone to notice the light turned green), but if a car outside your window honks for traffic every 15min it would have the same effect,.  Now its possible I had one of the most effected rooms, but look at the first picture I posted there isn't a SINGLE room facing the road side, they all either face in the same direction down the solar panels or directly at the station.  I will say no one else said anything about it, and with ear plugs from the plane ride, I made it through just fine.

 

We were warned before we arrived that the place was "quirky" the toilet was square...and I honestly wonder how easily a child or someone that size could even use it.

 

(no I didn't take a toilet picture this isn't a poop-post)

 

The light controls were dizzying, the bathroom is on the left side (the room is to my left, the bathroom is behind me and to my right is a closet) the right side are the main room lights and in the middle are the lights over the desk.   And a lot of them have a motion detector, first night Im writing my post for this thread and the lights all turned themselves off.

 

This also extended to the hall way, ever open a door and think you found a closet where you thought the hall was? This also has a motion detector set to the seconds, I literally summoned an elevator in the dark once.  Apparently one of the ladies in our group managed to get locked in a dark public restroom at the breakfast area (which was for some reason on the third floor in a conference space, not in the main dining room) due to something similar.

 

Now let's get to the shower.

first thing DO NOT ANSWER THE SHOWER HANDLE

 

Second, this is the front view..as in from the bed side of the room, no thats not the door, thats back side of the shower...a clear glass panel (and yes that wooden panel does slide closed) cruise director said she walked right into it once....

 

 

Or from the other side, notice the water on the floor, this is a good 15min after I finished showering...in fact this morning the area behind the door was STILL wet.  During a shower it would basically be about 1/8th inch deep the entire time. And no thats not a rubbery surface, I honestly think that if my mother had come with me she might have injured herself slipping on it, and there was no where to put a shower stool (plus you still have to get off it while the floor is wet).  I wondered why there was a "pull in case of emergency" string hanging from the ceiling...now I know.  Also there is no light in there, the only light comes in from the front (which is why its open) or the main bathroom.

 

The bed...was fine...the restaurant in the hotel...was slow but ...fine.  The hotel had a rule for no delivery and there was NOTHING close by either, it was about a 10min cab or uber to the city center where yesterdays excursion was our about 3/4 mile to anything else of note(its dirt cheap in Romania, about $3)

 

Given a choice I wouldn't stay here again.  Im sure AMA has to consider the limited options in the area to find a hotel that meets their standards, and I dont know how the other 4-5 star hotels in the area rate, but this is a good example of "modern" over "this works"

[ural guy]

Thanks for writing this up, a very enjoyable read.  We cruised this route in 2016 and took the train up to Brasov post cruise, so you brought back some fond memories.  

 

We were docked a few ships down from the Magna in November in Passau.  They were getting ready for Christmas, the ship looked very festive.