Capella, Best of the Balkans

[Kristal Blade]

Myself and my husband are on board Capella now and I’m going to try to drop comments along the way. I will do my best to answer questions but right now my brain is a little foggy as we just woke up.

So, yesterday we left home at 4.30 for our journey to Budapest. Our journey was taxi, train to Paddington, Heathrow Express to the airport, flight to Budapest then coach transfer to the ship. Everything worked smoothly but we were glad to get on board. We were last to set foot on Capella, checking in was a slow process. It was a surprise to have our passports taken from us, but we were told it made things easier for going through all the different countries on this trip. 
We were shown to our room by our room attendant. He gave us a quick “tour” pointing out the safe, fridge, window that opens downwards to turn the seating area into a balcony. It was dark on arrival, it’s dark now and we have another ship right beside us so we’re not trying that out yet!

We missed the safety talk, but it was running on our room tv. We did a high speed unpack (I love my packing cubes - unzip and lay contents into drawers) then headed for dinner.

We sat with a lovely couple from Australia and had a really delicious meal. We were gasping for a glass of wine, it was a little slow to arrive, but once it got to us the supply was continuous. My meal was a stuffed pancake (tasty), fish soup (a bit watery), perch fillet (delicious with a good variety of veg) then fresh fruit platter (very light and refreshing).

We were straight to bed after that and the bed is super comfy, we had a good sleep.

I’m off to find the tea making station now and find out today’s itinerary.

More to follow…..

[Kristal Blade]

[Kristal Blade]

The photo above is a cabin view.

It’s Halloween so I have dressed appropriately.

 

Breakfast was excellent. I found a bottle of chilled Sekt so we each had a taste of that, about 25ml so not enough to get our heads spinning. After breakfast we did an explore of the ship. Found the lounge, the bar and the top deck with the mini hot tub.

Our tour of Budapest starts in about 30 minutes so time to organise umbrellas because there has been a little shower of rain.

 

[Canal archive]

Thanks Kristal enjoy. Liv the socks.

[Kristal Blade]

we have returned from our tour where we went to the Heroes Square and St Stephen’s Basilica. Our guise was very informative and along the way he pointed out all sorts of info including the history of Budapest, famous buildings etc.

Back on board we were greeted with a cooling glass of lemon squash and a wet towel to freshen up.

It stayed dry for the tour and the temperature was ideal for touring. We didn’t the umbrellas or jackets. I was fine in a long sleeved shirt and gilet. Of course the socks kept my feet warm!

[Bill Y]

18 minutes ago, Kristal Blade said:

we have returned from our tour where we went to the Heroes Square and St Stephen’s Basilica. Our guise was very informative and along the way he pointed out all sorts of info including the history of Budapest, famous buildings etc.

Back on board we were greeted with a cooling glass of lemon squash and a wet towel to freshen up.

It stayed dry for the tour and the temperature was ideal for touring. We didn’t the umbrellas or jackets. I was fine in a long sleeved shirt and gilet. Of course the socks kept my feet warm!

Glad that you survived your early start and long day. Don't know if your steward showed you where the hairdryer is hidden? There is a lot of daily information on the TV much more than on the printed itinerary displayed on the reception desk but you probably had the same type of TV on APT. It sounds that your tour of Budapest just went to Pest like ours did, It's worth going to Buda (castle district) if only from the view from Fisherman's Bastion etc.

 

[Kristal Blade]

Hi BillY,

yes, our steward showed us the hairdryer and we might use it… not for our hair but to dry our socks after being caught in torrential rain, thunder and lightning this afternoon! Rather unexpected, but we sheltered in the market and the Whale building. 
We have been to the Fisherman’s Bastion on previous visits but I think we might have that tour at the end of our trip when we return to Budapest. 

In other news… we had to get the receptionist to come and reset our safe. I screwed setting it up 3 times in a row. At lunch we sat with 2 other couples who had had similar trouble. The instructions are terrible and situated on the back of the cupboard door making ready the tiny writing difficult. But all is good now.

 

We are very happy with everything on board. Beef goulash for lunch was delicious. I had to ration myself to a small portion because we have gala dinner tonight.

[ural guy]

This is with Travelmarvel?  I looked up the route, it looks great.  We did BUD-BUC in November 2016 with Vantage, and next October doing a Budapest-Black Sea-Budapest with Riveria.  Lots of history, some very recent, along that stretch of the Danube.

 

Thanks for posting.  Hope you luck into the same nice weather we had for most of our November sailing.

 

We had to give up our passports back in '16.  I think we had one face to face check, can't remember the country.  Your passports is well stamped when you get it back.

Edited October 31, 2023 by ural guy
Added detail

[Kristal Blade]

Hi ural guy,

Yes, we are with Travelmarvel. We have had a very good guide today who told us lots of historical facts about Budapest. 
 

The weather let us down badly this afternoon. We were out in a thunder and lightning storm. But the central market was our shelter. 
 

We are currently checking out the programme for today on our tv screen. Cocktail party at 6.30 then gala dinner. I’m going to wear a dress!

 

We are a tiny bit annoyed that there is no washing line in the shower room. But… we have strung up our washing line, which I brought from home, between the towel rail and the towel hook by the shower. I now have a line of undies drying nicely but we will need to take it down so we aren’t garrotted whenever we go into the shower!

[gnome12]

1 hour ago, Kristal Blade said:

The instructions are terrible and situated on the back of the cupboard door making ready the tiny writing difficult.

I have learned to take a photo of the instructions on my phone, and then work from that.

Edited October 31, 2023 by gnome12

[Roz]

@Kristal Blade, love the socks! 🎃

 

Thank you for taking the time to post while cruising.

 

[reeves35]

7 hours ago, Kristal Blade said:

Hi ural guy,

Yes, we are with Travelmarvel. We have had a very good guide today who told us lots of historical facts about Budapest. 
 

The weather let us down badly this afternoon. We were out in a thunder and lightning storm. But the central market was our shelter. 
 

We are currently checking out the programme for today on our tv screen. Cocktail party at 6.30 then gala dinner. I’m going to wear a dress!

 

We are a tiny bit annoyed that there is no washing line in the shower room. But… we have strung up our washing line, which I brought from home, between the towel rail and the towel hook by the shower. I now have a line of undies drying nicely but we will need to take it down so we aren’t garrotted whenever we go into the shower!

I mentioned in my trip review to bring along your own clothesline with suction cups at either end.  We brought one along with pegs and never had a problem.  Having said that, the laundry service is super cheap and really quick.

 

[Kristal Blade]

6 hours ago, reeves35 said:

I mentioned in my trip review to bring along your own clothesline with suction cups at either end.  We brought one along with pegs and never had a problem.  Having said that, the laundry service is super cheap and really quick.

 

Yes, thank you reeves35, your comment was the reason why I brought a washing line! Our smalls are all dry now, nobody garrotted! 
Last night we had our welcome champagne reception followed by another very tasty dinner and an evening of fun chat round the table.

On sail away lots of us went up on deck to see the beautiful buildings of Budapest illuminated. Forgot my iPad, just took pics on my camera.

From there we headed back to the lounge to warm up. The duo, think they are called Ann & Richard were playing some Hungarian songs then other tunes for dancing. I asked for some Halloween themed songs, I asked for Moon Dance or Spooky. Ann hadn’t heard of Spooky but I think she might look it up.

Today we have woken up to a lovely misty morning. I will be doing morning stretch before breakfast then 8.30 we arrive in Mohacs 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Kristal Blade
Wrong town, predictive text error

[Bill Y]

3 hours ago, Kristal Blade said:

The duo, think they are called Ann & Richard were playing some Hungarian songs then other tunes for dancing. I asked for some Halloween themed songs, I asked for Moon Dance or Spooky. Ann hadn’t heard of Spooky but I think she might look it up.

We enjoyed Ann and Richard, it was amazing the amount of songs in English that they knew, but there was the odd time a name was wrong, we could not remember the man in the song "Oh-la-di, oh-la-da" but we knew it was not Laslo, we googled it and remember it was Desmond. The duo led a "Hike" up to the Fortress Marienberg in Würzburg. We thought that it was just us who had problems with the safe.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Bill Y

[Kristal Blade]

Back from our trip to Pecs, a beautiful sunny day in a very pretty town. Another excellent guide  but as it’s All Saints’ Day most of the shops were shut. It didn’t worry us too much. 
We are having a drink in the lounge now. Pint of beer is €5 and a Diet Coke is 2.20. We were very thirsty and couldn’t wait till lunch to get a freebie!

 

Several passengers needed help with the safe operation!

[ural guy]

We also enjoyed our day in Pecs.  They had a small festival going on, so that was a big plus.

 

When I got back to states, I found out my buddy's mom was from Pecs.  I knew she had managed to escape during the 1956 Hungarian revolution, over the Andua bridge into Austria, and eventually into the US.  My buddy had shared a few pages of notes that his mom wrote about her experience running guns and ammo as a 15 year old girl.  The mom was living with them at the time, so I put all my pictures on a .pdf and printed them, so she and her grandkids could see.  She was a tough lady, married into a Navy family and raised great kids.  End of story.

[Kristal Blade]

After lunch we had a stroll round Mohacs. It was even quieter than Pecs. Only a few cafes open because of the public holiday. But we still found interesting monuments and buildings to photograph.

Back on board we enjoyed happy hour in the bar then had a talk from the cruise director about passport checks over the next few days. I think we enter a new country every day for the next 4 days.

After another delicious dinner there was a quiz in the lounge. The questions were hard so we left them to it and headed back to the cabin to catch up on our sleep!

 

[Kristal Blade]

Vukovar today, an interesting visit with some very sad history. There were signs of the 1991 war on several buildings in spite of most of the town being rebuilt after the civil war.

But we had a beautiful sunny day and our guide was informative and upbeat about the town. We found interesting places to walk after our tour and the museum kept our interest for ages.

 

We have had lunch on board, which is quite a haphazard event. In the dining room there is a buffet with salad items, a chef who dishes out one of the main meal options but there are some items on the menu which need to be ordered from the waiter. Soup has to be ordered and also main menu choices, apart from the one the chef is providing! Sometimes it takes several minutes to get the menu then there is a delay till the waiter returns to take the order. You also don’t know which menu item you can help yourself to so you may wait to order then be told that choice is available from the chef.

 

I think it would help if the menu was displayed at reception or at the door of the restaurant and there was a code to indicate which items were order only. 
 

At our table the people who got their choices from the chef had nearly finished their meals till I had ordered my meal.

 

But, the food is mostly excellent (soup was too salty today) and the waiters and waitresses are always polite and smiling as they gallop round their tables taking orders and delivering food.

 

The photos show the sights of Vukovar town, exhibits in the museum and the museum building. Check out that beautiful blue sky! We are so lucky to be on this trip.

 

[Kristal Blade]

Apologies for the gap in reporting, we had a full and busy day yesterday.

It was very windy in Belgrade, but it was a warm wind. We didn’t need jackets, the gilet was enough.

Our first visit was to St Sava’s church. We were taken by coach and the guide gave us a great running commentary on the buildings around us. Belgrade is having buildings put up by Abu Dhabi investors. The apartment blocks are full of flats too expensive for the locals!

The church was amazing! It is decorated inside with dozens of mosaics of saints and biblical scenes. There is a lot of gold in the patterns, the floor is beautiful marble tiles and we loved it! Our guide told us that Putin had funded the mosaic decoration, but other guides didn’t mention that. I might look that up later.

Next stop was the fortress and we got lovely views over the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers. We were moored on the Sava, hadn’t realised we had veered off the Danube.

We decided to walk back to the ship after the tour so we had a walk round the city centre and went back to some of the government buildings we had seen from the coach. Unfortunately the rain started so we had to scoot back to the ship. It was an easy walk downhill but then we had to descend a long staircase. Definitely better to be going down that than up.

We got back before the lashing rain started, had lunch, the usual slow process. 
Our next event was another coach ride, this time off to a farm in the country.

That was fun. We were told we would get to taste some local specialities. That started with a shot glass of slivovitz, one lady described it as like drinking Deep Heat. It was definitely very warming. We each got a plate of sausage, ham, cheese and pastries. We should have skipped lunch!

After lunch we strolled round the farm, I fed the donkey the 2 apples I had brought from home. The rain was off and we strolled to the local church. All through the time we were at the farm, nearly 2 hours, a band of local musicians kept us entertained. Some passengers skipped this event, but we enjoyed it a lot.

Here is some evidence of our farm visit!

[Kristal Blade]

We have sailed through the gorges today, it was a little cloudy and misty first thing but we could sit outside as we sailed and the temperature wasn’t too low. The captain slowed down as we passed the statue of king Decebal and we got lovely views.

We are just about to embarrass ourselves by trying the movie quiz!

[Kristal Blade]

Today we arrived in Bulgaria to visit Rousse,

we arrived about 9.30 but because of passport checks etc we couldn’t get off till about 12.30. To keep us entertained a bingo game was organised. We escaped that by grabbing a Scrabble board and heading to the bar where all was quiet. We had moored beside Amaverde so no view from our room.

Lunch was at 11.30, we skipped that. We didn’t have breakfast till about 8.40 because I had been to yoga stretch.

We took a stroll round the riverside area then came back to the ship in time to hop on our tour bus. Rousse isn’t very big, but with sunshine and blue skies we enjoyed seeing the sights from the coach then strolling round with the guide. We split off on our own to go back to some of the buildings we had seen from the coach.

We are now back on board, looking forward to afternoon tea so we can have a snack!

[Bill Y]

On 11/5/2023 at 1:34 PM, Kristal Blade said:

Today we arrived in Bulgaria to visit Rousse,

we arrived about 9.30 but because of passport checks etc we couldn’t get off till about 12.30. To keep us entertained a bingo game was organised. We escaped that by grabbing a Scrabble board and heading to the bar where all was quiet. We had moored beside Amaverde so no view from our room.

Lunch was at 11.30, we skipped that. We didn’t have breakfast till about 8.40 because I had been to yoga stretch.

We took a stroll round the riverside area then came back to the ship in time to hop on our tour bus. Rousse isn’t very big, but with sunshine and blue skies we enjoyed seeing the sights from the coach then strolling round with the guide. We split off on our own to go back to some of the buildings we had seen from the coach.

We are now back on board, looking forward to afternoon tea so we can have a snack!

Thanks for the reports. I realise that Bulgaria is not in the Schengen zone but three hours to clear immigration and customs is a bit excessive outside of America. Was there face to face interviews? We went to Bulgaria many years ago to a Black Sea resort and cannot remember any delays. I would not have thought that the profile of river cruisers would have been suspicious. I seem to remember entering Vietnam from Cambodia on the Mekong it took over an hour, such a pity you were confined to a stationary boat for so long.

[Kristal Blade]

Hi BillY,

there were no face to face checks. I wonder if we arrived earlier than expected and the coaches were booked for 1pm so they just had to keep us on board till then.

I think the river cruise demographic are all very innocent. But then we all thought that about Fred Olson passengers till that couple were arrested for drug smuggling a few years ago!

[Kristal Blade]

Today we docked in Giurgiu, which is only 2.7km from Rousse! We go back there tomorrow.

We had opted for the tour of Bucharest plus a village museum. It was described as an ethnographic museum and several passengers didn’t like the sound of that so they went for the alternative; a tour of the Parliament.

Well, I think we got the better deal! Our coach took us to the Parliament, for a photo stop before the museum. We could have spent all day at the museum. It was delightful! Lots of cottages, churches, workshops etc that have been constructed or reconstructed to look like the original. Our guide did an introduction showing us the different styles of buildings and pointed out some from Transylvania. 
There was a lake in the museum grounds, windmills, water mills, pretty painted houses… it was so interesting and well laid out. And we saw a woodpecker up a tree. We haven’t seen much wildlife on this trip so woody was a bonus for us.

From the museum we went to the old town via the embassy district. The guide pointed out various buildings of interest including the arch of triumph, bank buildings, newspaper offices. Too many to remember.

We had free time for lunch and the guide suggested a restaurant which most of us opted for. I had a huge chicken Caesar salad, my husband had chicken and chips. Neither of us finished our meals!

Unsurprisingly we both nodded off on the way back.

Another sunny day on the Danube with the temperature in Bucharest at 22C. No jackets required today, just shirt sleeves. One Australian couple have had to buy T-shirts because they didn’t plan for these temperatures. Neither did we, but we had thinner shirts with us. Sadly no shorts and it was definitely shorts weather today and yesterday.

 

Here are some views from the village and our view of the Parliament.

 

 

[Kristal Blade]

So, today was an epic journey, starting at 8am after a 6am breakfast. I have to admit we didn’t get to breakfast till about 7!

We travelled from Rousse to a couple of Bulgarian towns, we drove through the countryside to Arbanasi to taste rose brandy then continued to Veliko Tournoso. We enjoyed the drive over the Danubian plain, we saw a coyote, but it was a long time on the coach for not much return.

The fortress was a great sight, but the town itself was more of a tourist trap. We forgot the wallet so we bought nothing!

 

we had a lovely dinner tonight then spent the after dinner time dancing in McGearys bar. It was a fun night, but I’m not sure it was appreciated by  Capella as there was music in the lounge which we ignored!

 

Right now we are experiencing a very disgusting smell in the lounge , like sewage. It’s not good to enter the lounge and be welcomed by a nasty niff. The staff are going round with a spray to counteract the smell, but it’s not really beating the smell. McGearys bar is fresh and pleasant so we prefer to dance there. 
 

Here are some of the views from today. A couple were from the coach so a bit wobbly.