Romania

Our long-awaited journey to Eastern Europe began, as we boarded a rather large Lufthansa 747 in Toronto for a long flight to Frankfurt, Germany....followed by a short layover and a short flight further east to Bucharest, Romania. Very impressed on most fronts with Lufthansa, pretty top-notch at least as far as our echelon of airlines are concerned.

A poorly organized airport transfer finally got us to our hotel, the Radisson Blu in the Old Town area. From there, the Viking welcome staff took care of us. We willed ourselves to stay up after the overnight flight and the six-hour time change, and spent the afternoon walking the Old Town, including dinner and beverages at the historic Caru'cu Bere beer hall.

So began our love affair with a part of the world so touched by World War II, followed by decades of communism regime. In terms of tourism, Eastern Europe was just beginning to awake, affording a level of authenticity not seen in more "polished" areas of the continent.

The next day, we enjoyed a Viking tour of the city ("Paris of the East") and her sights, including a large outdoor museum full of buildings from various parts of Romania and time periods in their history. Unfortunately, local version of the Arc de Triomphe was undergoing renovation....which makes for a pretty lame photo op!

We also saw the massive Parliamentary Palace, built to excess by dictator Nicolae Ceausescu as his people were starving. Construction lasted from 1984 to 1997, and resulted in the second largest building in the world, after the Pentagon. The rest, as they say, is history - his long reign ended as Ceausescu and his wife were caught fleeing the Romanian Revolution in 1989, and were tried for genocide and other crimes against the public he served. Both were shot by firing squad and then hung.

We enjoyed a second meal at Caru'cu bere, this time with the tour group. With bellies full, we enjoyed a leisurely drive south through patchwork canola fields, to the port town of Giurgiu on the Danube River. The longship Viking Aegir was waiting, moored and ready to cruise 188 eager souls upriver and into the heart of this fascinating region. With the Black Sea at our backs, we settled into our stateroom and were greeted by Captain Stevie (Istvan) and the dedicated Aegir crew, as the river cruise began in earnest.

My, what a large aircraft you have...

Bucharest International Airport

Signs, signs, everywhere signs.....but it's not polite to point

Bucharest traffic circle

Caru'cu bere - iconic beer hall from 1879

The wait staff were all in great shape!

Central University Library

Romanian lei - currency of the realm!

Historical Romanian dwellings

Go Viking!

Parliamentary Palace - second largest building in the world

Bank of Romania

Vlad Tepes - aka Dracula!

The longship Viking Aegir - our floating home for the next week

Stateroom 114 - at least the view was above water!