Viking Danube River Cruise of Eastern Europe
(The Balkan peninsula), April 15-26, 2024

This map of the Danube River gives an idea of how it weaves through the countries from Bucharest, Romania (on the right) to Budapest Hungary (on the left -- our trip). We followed the river south into Bulgaria, then west into Serbia, through Croatia into Hungary. You may have trouble finding Croatia - it is the very narrow light green country on the map above that almost completely surrounds Bosnia and Herzegovina (one country, formerly part of Yugoslavia.)

On Wednesday we had a bus tour of Bucharest. They are very proud of the way they have rebuilt all the government buildings. This huge facility is the palace of the parliament, proudly built after the wars without international help. It has over 3,300 rooms, and is second only to the pentagon in size of government buildings. We won't discuss whether they went overboard with the huge modern building.

Across the Plaza Constitutional is this additional government building. The Plaza is the focal point for civic celebrations.

Not everything has been rebuilt after the wars and soviet occupation - this looks like it could again be a very nice house after the plywood was removed from doors and windows, and whatever else is required. Houses like this, handyman specials, are fairly common in all the countries on this trip.

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This Cretulescu Palace was built in 1904 for the Cretulescu family. He was a former prime minister of Romania.

This isn't historic, but I was intrigued by the decoration on this honey delivery truck.

We visited a museum that had collected historic buildings from around the country, and rebuilt them on display here. This is, in fact, a Romanian Orthodox church...

which was open to the public. As in such churches, the altar is behind the doors, and only the clergy goes in the holy places during the celebration of the liturgy. The Orthodox have a slightly different calendar than we do in the west, so they were just anticipating Easter, while we are in the post Easter season.

Hundreds of years ago, people were not as tall as I am now.

Some of the buildings are partially underground. Summer temperatures often reach 120-130F.

This windmill was moved here, but obviously needs a little more work to become functional.

To keep wildlife out, the storage buildings are often elevated; this one has walls woven of branches.

Small shrines such as this were common in the communities.

Leaving the museum with historic buildings, the architecture becomes quite impressive

The CEC Palace started as a small church, then a monastery, then the "Deposit House" which was the headquarters of the first national bank of Romania. It was one of the key symbols of "the Little Paris" as Bucharest was once known. The building survived major earthquakes in 1940 and 1977, the Soviet bombing in 1941 and the Anglo-American bombing in 1944.

Revolution Square, in Central Bucharest

The Royal Palace. With the communist occupation, it became the national museum of art, and when the royal family returned, they used a different palace.

Bucharest has been subject to numerous earthquakes. Buildings which have not been inspected and refurbished are marked with round red warning signs. Someone may rent or buy these spaces at a much lower price, at their own risk. Our guide pointed out the structure of where the balcony attached to the building, which seemed especially weak.

This is the Stavropoleos Monastery, an 18th Century Orthodox church....

noted for it's religious artwork and ceiling and wall frescoes.

As usual in orthodox churches, the altar is behind doors, only open when the priest enters during the liturgy.

We had some time to wander on our own, but if you need a free rest room this is a place you can go. (snicker snicker). Be sure to find the place you can wash your hands. (Yes it took some looking, and imagination - the decor of the whole cafe was excess plumbing and mechanical things.) Yes these are three sinks. Note some of the pipes on the right do not go anywhere. I don't remember where the water came out for the sinks.

This is the men's room. Oh, there they are. Much more obvious than the sinks.

And finally, this unusual Brancovenesc brick church. I later encountered a Google page that noted this unique Saint Anthony Church is the oldest church in Bucharest.