BUCHAREST and Turkey 19-5-2015

last day - end of our holiday:

At 8 in the morning I was brought with the shuttle from the RIN AIRPORT hotel,  to the Henri Coanda (OTP) airport at a stone-throw distance in 15 minutes because of the heavy traffic. From Manja I heard that the boat arrived in Oltenitsa at 5, so I could have stayed on board ..... the captain and other crew-members have been a little to carefull !

with THY to ISTANBUL and then to BODRUM airport

and Manja had a late flight with KLM;  she also traveled well.

cuising to BRAILA and land-cruising to BUCHAREST 18-5-2015

Late last night it became clear that I would not catch my plane if I stayed on the boat;
in the program it says : arrival 19-5-2015 at 04:00 in Oltenitsa, but the captain said that this was impossible. It will be between 7 and 8 and thats too late, considering a 1,5 / 2 hour drive to the airport and a flight at 10:00.

So a disappointment and a big change of plans:
Early in the morning while passing GALATI I started packing and after breakfast and arrival in BRAILA, I kissed my old en new friends farewell, and went by taxi to the train-station.

harbour of BRAILA

friend carrying luggage for me

A taxi brought me to the station, through an amazingly nice town; and I bought a ticket to OTOPENI, which is the name of the small town north of Bucharest where the Henri Cuanda airport is.

My train should come at track 3 (tre) and I had a ticket for wagon 4 (quatro) and with a lot of help from my romanian taxi-driver I was able to climb all the steps with my luggage.

The conductor explained me that there was a free microbus (it was not that small!) to the airport and that I would be able to find a taxi overthere (a strech of just a couple of minutes). The conductor helped me out off the train and then there were no steps! jut a slowly downwards winding road (super! never saw such a thing before !)
The train was maybe old or russian made, but the airco was working OK, people had an 220V outlet to charge their telephones and the chairs were comfortable. And the price ? very cheap!

I made a reservation for an airport hotel and the taxi brought me there.
A beautiful 4* hotel with free pool, sauna and internet; and again for not much money.
(tomorrow the shuttle bus will bring me to the airport)

TULCEA cruising through the delta to SULINA at the Black Sea 17-5-2015

              After a beautiful sunrise at 5:30;  we took off around 7 from Tulcea

through the danube canal to Sulina, to get to the 0 KM point.









where we arrived around 11 :
the old lighthouse just outside Sulina.



Then we returned to Sulina and had lunch; in the afternoon I joined an organized walk through the town of Sulina. Sulina is at the moment just a small village, that used to be a busy town where all the seaships arrived, until the canal was made... and big ships could also go to Tulcea and Galati, where roads are available; Sulina can only be reached by boat !

church

museum

Around 19 the boat started returning through the danube canal, to be in Braila tomorrow morning.

TULCEA 16-5-2015

Around 8 we anchored in Tulcea.

In the morning we walked in Tulcea, looked around and did some shopping.

After lunch we went in the danube delta with a smaller boat.

and we as the only of our 4 boat did we see pelicans from quite close.

This night we stayed in Tulcea.

RUMANIA : GIURGIU, BUKAREST & OLTENITSA and cruising in the delta 15-5-2015

Early in the morning we arrived at GIURGIU in Romania.

We left at 9 hours to visit Bukarest, with the famous parliament palace commissioned by former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu  










and the church complex of the Patriach of the Ortodox church of Romania.











 We found our ship back in Oltenitsa and left soon to travel to Tulcea in the night.

DANUBE - DONAU - DUNAV 14-5-2015

Today we cruised the whole on the danube and passed the famous cataracts and locks.

djerdap II

 At the end of the day we passed VIDIN with the new bridge to Romania.

BEOGRAD 13-5-2015

Early in the morning we anchored in Beograd in the river Sava near the Kalemegdan,

opposite from the new Beograd and many restaurant boats.

We went with a tour of Belgrade in the morning, also visiting the Sava church and visited Kalemegdan with beautiful park and castle.

In the afternoon we went with a second tour and visited the monastery of Krusedol, the castle of Petrovarin and the centre of Novi Sad.

                                                    At sundown we left Beograd.