AmaWaterways navigates the Lower Danube on their seven-day Gems of Southwest Europe voyage.Ama Waterways
It sounds, and seems, like a place too grand and wild to be real. A land better suited for the silver screen. A lost corner of Middle Earth, perhaps, or a perfect lair for a Bond villain. But we’re sailing right along a border – Serbia on one bank, Romania on the other.
As we proceed up the Danube, the banks on both sides rise dramatically. We’ll soon arrive at the Iron Gates. The meeting of mountain ranges, nations and worlds. But here’s the thing: Before yesterday, I’d never once heard of the place.
That’s pretty common in this far less discovered corner of the continent – sometimes called the “other Europe.” This summer, the Eiffel Tower will teem with tourists. They’ll fill the Alps and they’ll overcrowd the canals of Venice and the super-heated streets of Rome. Far fewer will think about venturing to Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.
On board the AmaBella, a river ship with 81 staterooms, for a seven-day voyage, that’s exactly why I’m here. We will navigate past ancient fortresses, mysterious rock visages, spectacular cities and some seriously underrated food and wine. Places that remain off the common traveller’s radar (a shame!), and spots that, at times, can be a little difficult to pronounce.
For example: Giurgiu (Jerr-joo), the Romanian town south of Bucharest where I board the ship. We cruise along the big, looping bends of the Danube to Vidin (vid-een), a small city in the northwest corner of Bulgaria. Walking right into the heart of town, it feels like a place frozen in time, a wonderland for anyone nostalgic for Cold War times.
The riverside is lined with socialist realist statues. Nearby, a big Instagram-friendly sign spells out the town name in Cyrillic, and the city centre is filled with boxy buildings left over by brutalist communist architects.
A walking tour takes me much further back in time, through the Baba Vida Fortress. Legend has it that the daughter of a Bulgarian noble rejected all suitors and, in the 10th century, simply built a castle for herself. Set right next to the river, its walls held against invaders from both the east and west – Byzantines and Hungarians and Ottomans, among them.
The riverside is lined with socialist realist statues. Decebalus was the last Dacian king.Miroslav Petrasko/Ama Waterways
But I’m not really here for the history. Boarding a coach and rolling out into the green countryside, a guide in a bright, Brezhnev-era powder-blue pantsuit narrates the drive, as we pass over an old, now-dry moat, then wind through verdant fields, and arrive at the vineyards. Our guide talks about the importance of wine to the culture here – including, she says, many songs about drinking glasses of red with beautiful Bulgarian women.
It’s a surprise to me. After all, I’ve never seen the Bulgaria section of the liquor store, over there beside Italy and France. But at Los Dos Alamos Winery, owner Petko Mechev confirms that they grow both well-known varietals (merlot, cabernet sauvignon) as well as typically Bulgarian ones, like pamid. One of the world’s oldest varietals, this crisp red-yielding grape was first planted here thousands of year ago by the ancient Thracians.
He notes that the area is filled with small winemakers, many of whom cultivate and create just for their own consumption. “It is a part of our identity as Bulgarians,” Mechev says. “You make your own – simply because it is your own.” During Ottoman times, winemaking served as a private resistance against their foreign rulers. During the communist era, it was a point of pride to still create good bottles and blends in an age when mass production, five-year plans and poor management destroyed the quality of most consumer goods.
I try a number of his wines, some right out of the cask, paired with a local take on feta cheese. The afternoon includes a sauvignon blanc (the alluvial soils on the bank of the Danube give it a mineral-forward taste), and gamza, which, I’m told, came here from the Adriatic with the Romans in the third century. It is bright and balanced, with hints of cherries and raspberries – certainly a sip that would make any winemaker proud.
Back on board, the Iron Gates loom ahead. As night falls, the sides of the river rise up into intimidating cliffs. The ship includes a large hot tub on the rooftop deck. So when I hear we’re about to pass through the largest set of locks, I pull on my swimsuit and head up there, a non-Bulgarian whiskey in hand.
Here, the mighty Danube is squeezed through a very narrow gorge, the almost-vertical rock walls rising as high as 500 metres. On one side, the rugged Carpathian Mountains, on the other, the Balkans. It’s also an international boundary, between Serbia and Romania. And once, two empires met here – eastern and western worlds, Ottoman and Habsburg. And this is also one of the oldest settled parts of Europe, with archeological sites that date back as far as 13,000 years.
The river narrows to about 150 metres across. Before they built massive hydroelectric dams here, roiling rapids raged. Now the river has been tamed, but the passage is no less dramatic. As steam rises all around me, so do the walls and towers of the lock, built on a Herculean scale, the huge basin dropping our ship lower and lower.
I awake the next morning staring at a big, bearded face – that of Decebalus, the last Dacian king. Still in my robe, I sit on my state room’s balcony and sip a cup of coffee as I stare into his eyes, somehow still fierce, and intimidating, despite the fact that they’re carved into stone. They stare back with the intensity required to defeat the redoubtable forces of the Roman Empire – which he did around 87 AD.
The Romanian national hero’s image was carved into a large rock outcrop in the Kazan gorge, near the city of Orsova, in 1994. It took a decade, and more than a dozen sculptors to complete. Stretching higher than a 15-storey building, this remains the tallest rock relief in Europe. And the closest thing you’ll find to Mount Rushmore, on this side of the Atlantic.
The AmaBella continues its circuitous route north. We make a stop at the atmospheric Golubac Fortress, once the “rampart of Europe,” on the front lines of many battles. Its interior is filled with cool, medieval swords and maces, perfect to swing around for a great photo. (Yes, you really can handle these – although it’s clear the swords probably haven’t been sharpened since the Middle Ages!) Later, we dock in Belgrade, a city whose name conjures grey, gloomy images. But I quickly find out, that’s not the case at all.
A tour takes me to the National Theatre, whose design is based on the famed La Scala in Milan, as well as Hotel Moskva, once a stop on the Orient Express. Its Art Nouveau style feels straight out of a Wes Anderson film, and the hotel has hosted various celebrities, from Leon Trotsky to Brad Pitt. The city tour finishes at a sunny, park-like hilltop fortress with sweeping views over two rivers.
Afterward, back downtown, I discover a small rakia bar. The friendly bartender takes me through a personalized tasting of this national fruit brandy, which he calls liquid sunshine, as he pours samples and walks me through the double-distillation process.
Plums, apricots or apples usually form the base – all fruits that have long grown easily here. It is sweet and robust and pleasantly warming. He tells me this drink is a big part of Serbian life, from cradle to grave. Newborn children are celebrated with rakia. And you mourn the loss of loved ones, he says, with tears in your rakia.
Too soon, the voyage is over, but it ends in grand style, sailing under the many bridges of Budapest. One of Europe’s most dramatic cities, domes and spires climb up to a castle on the Buda side, while the level streets of Pest bustle with commerce.
The next leg of the journey will take me to the Upper Danube, and more familiar ports-of-call in Austria and Germany. But I’d be just as happy if we could turn the AmaBella around and explore even more of the “other Europe.”
The base fare of US$2,999 includes big, multi-course meals and most wines and liquors, as well as daily tours.Miroslav Petrasko/Ama Waterways
If you go
Stay: Bucharest and Budapest serve as the bookends of this seven-day voyage. In Bucharest, stay at the Intercontinental Athenee Palace, a recently renovated Art Nouveau hotel that sits right on Revolution Square.
In Budapest, the Four Seasons Gresham Palace is one of the finest hotels in the world, overlooking the Danube and the famous Chain Bridge. A recent overhaul of the lobby has added the opulent Muzsa, a bar that celebrates the city’s golden age.
Sail: AmaWaterways navigates the Lower Danube on their seven-day Gems of Southwest Europe voyage. The base fare of US$2,999 includes big, multicourse meals and most wines and liquors, as well as daily tours.
The writer was a guest of AmaWaterways. It did not review or approve the story before publication.