Sunday, 28 September. We woke up to heavy fog that dissipated gradually over the morning. There was a 9:30 briefing on changes to our itinerary. The bad news: our boat would not be allowed to sail through any part of Serbia. The good news: arrangements were made for us to transfer to the M/S River Harmony, a slightly smaller boat, at Mohacs, Hungary. The Harmony originally was supposed to sail from Budapest to the Black Sea, but ran into the same problem passing through Serbia as the Adagio. More bad news: after seeing Belgrade as scheduled and spending the night there (not scheduled), the next day we would have a very long bus ride across Serbia. We didn't like it, but what could we do?

At 10:30 there was a talk billed as being about Romanian orphans. The ship's doctor had been very active in trying to help the orphans, and his comments were fascinating. Then the discussion turned to life in Romania under Communism, as recalled by the doctor and three of the tour leaders. (Janet, the fourth tour leader, was from The Netherlands.) It was very interesting, although two of the tour leaders had only been small children when Ceaucescu was toppled in 1989.

The discussion continued on to life after Communism. Romania shares the problem of Western Europe that too few children are being born, so the population is dwindling and aging. In addition, most of Romania's university graduates leave the country to work elsewhere. The economic outlook is dismal because, as one of the young tour guides put it, it isn't possible to manufacture anything in Romania that they can't buy for less manufactured elsewhere. The country's economic future may have to depend on agriculture.

Jane did some aerobic walking on the top deck, and we visited the ship's bridge before lunch. It was such a beautiful day once the fog was gone that we skipped both a tour of the galley and high tea in the lounge. I ran two or three miles on the deck. (It was difficult to judge the distance.)

The riverbanks on both the Romanian and Bulgarian sides were heavily wooded, but mostly flat and featureless. It was a far cry from what we'd seen in the Wachau Valley in Austria or along the rivers of Germany when we lived there. Occasionally we passed a small town where there were boats tied up along the river. Finally about 4:30 there was (barely) enough of an elevation to cause the river to curve sharply north before continuing west again. We passed the fairly large Bulgarian town of Vidim on the port side. There was an old fortress there, but even that was built on relatively flat terrain. A few minutes later we passed the equally flat Romanian town of Calafat on the starboard side. Not long after that, though, low bluffs appeared on the Romanian side for a short time before giving way again to the flat forests.

There was a short port talk at 6:45, followed by dinner at 7:00. The crew put on a show in the lounge at 9:00. It was mostly comedy skits, but quite entertaining. We went on deck when the boat entered Lock #1 of the Iron Gates at 9:30. It was too dark to see very much beyond the lock. 

The next several miles of the Danube are probably the most impressive section covered by our cruise, with steep gorges and sharp bends, as the river passes through the southern slopes of the Carpathian mountains. Unfortunately, we would pass through it during the night.

Monday, 29 September. As we got up at 7:00, the early fog was already clearing. After breakfast, we packed and put our suitcases out in preparation for our disembarkation in Serbia. Then we sat on deck to enjoy the beautiful weather and the much improved scenery. Now that we were on the up-river side of the Iron Locks Dam, the river was much wider. On the Romanian side, there were farms and villages with sizable hills behind them. On the Serbian side (south), there was even an occasional steep cliff along the bank, and we passed the ruins of the Gulubac Fortress (14th century). We arrived at Veliko Gradiste, Serbia, about 10:30, had an early lunch on board at 11:00.

Tipping the boat's personnel was on a collective basis, one envelope to be divided among them. The disrupted schedule meant we had spent much less time on the boat than we otherwise would have, and I'm sure the crew suffered for it. When we finally cleared Serbian customs, we went ashore to our buses about 1:00. By then the sky was becoming overcast.

It was just over 60 miles to Belgrade. Passing through many villages along the way, we reached the Intercontinental Hotel at 2:40. Belgrade sits at the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers, making it an ideal site for successive settlements (Celtic, Roman, Bulgarian, Serbian) at least as far back as the 3rd century B.C. Our hotel was located in New Belgrade, next to the Sava (Congress) Center and across the Sava River from the old city. The river bank was lined with a shanty town of makeshift shacks that our guide attributed to Gypsies.

We didn't bother to unpack since we would be leaving in the morning. At 5:30 we had a briefing on Yugoslavia over the last 15 years. At 6:30, the buses took us to Skadaraska Street, a very quaint old area with cobblestone streets and filled with restaurants. Each of the four groups went to a different restaurant. The blue group went to the new Three Hats Restaurant. Musicians entertained us with everything from O Sole Mio to Serbian folk music. An actress, somewhat past her prime, who regularly makes the rounds of the tourist restaurants stopped by and sang several songs.

Our bus ride back to the hotel turned out to be a very nice tour of Belgrade by night. All the landmarks were lit up, including the several bridges and the Kalemegdan Fortress. It was about 9:00 when we got back to the hotel.

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