In May, 2023 we enjoyed a relaxing, scenic, and very educational Eastern Europe river cruise on the Danube River through five countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, and Hungary. All former communist Eastern Bloc countries, each one had a different story of hardships and triumphs following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Our Eastern Europe river cruise was on the very same ship that we had sailed on for our Great Rivers of Europe cruise almost five years earlier, Grand Circle’s M/S Adagio. As usual, we found the food, service and tour guides to be excellent. Our 120 or so fellow travelers were divided into four groups. Our “Blue Group” of 35 people was under the leadership of an outstanding program director, Dragos from Romania.

Among the many highlights of the journey were:

• the the first-hand account of a pro-democracy revolutionary and the opulent Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania;
• the historic and scenic cities of Veliko Tarnovo and Arbanasi, Bulgaria, where human presence has been dated to 5000 years ago;
• traveling through the picturesque gorges of the Iron Gates region of the Danube between Romania and Serbia;
• the museum and tomb of Yugoslavian dictator Tito in Belgrade, and the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, Serbia;
• the Homeland War Memorial Cemetary in Vukovar and a home-hosted luncheon in Aljmas, Croatia; and
• the spectacular beauty of the evening floodlit buildings along the Danube in Budapest, Hungary.

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Photo Galleries

Follow the “Next” links to the trip detail pages to see all of the photo galleries and trip narrative.

Next: Romania

The 12-minute video below gives a good overview of the entire journey. It is best viewed with sound on.