Posts Tagged With: Tours

Our Time in Bucharest, Romania

Posted on June 20, 2026 by 2btravel

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction
Flight Review: LOT Polish Airlines 797-9 Business Class, ORD-WAW
Lodging Review: Hampton by Hilton Krakow
Our Time in Krakow, Poland
Flixbus from Krakow to Budapest
Lodging Review: Corinthia Budapest Hotel
Our Time in Budapest, Hungary
Our Time in Kalocsa, Hungary
Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia
Our Time in Belgrade, Serbia
Our Time in Golubac, Serbia
Our Time in Vidin, Bulgaria
Our Time in Ruse, Bulgaria
Our Time in Bucharest, Romania
Lodging Review: JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel
Flight Review: SWISS Airlines 777-300 ZRH-ORD

With Bulgaria and Romania being separated by the Danube, our ship didn’t have far to reposition during our last evening on board. We simply crossed the river and docked at the town of Giurgiu, Romania. The following morning we packed up our suitcases and the Viking crew took care of all of our bags while we boarded motor coaches for the drive inland to Bucharest, our final stop. Depending on traffic, it’s roughly a 70 to 90-minute drive to the country’s capital.

Romanian National Opera House

Our first stop was the home of both the Romanian National Opera and Ballet companies. The Romanian National Opera was founded in 1877 and in 1953 this building was created as their permanent home. The first opera to be performed was Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. On the next night, the first ballet performance of the company, Coppélia, took place at the same theater.

Photo credit: opera-online.com

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Categories: Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, River Cruise, Romania, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Bucaresti, Bucharest, City Tour, Europe, Historical Site, River Cruise, Romania, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Leave a comment

Our Time in Golubac, Serbia

Posted on June 17, 2026 by 2btravel

The overcast skies that put a (literal) damper on our visit to Belgrade were nowhere to be seen when we awoke the following morning in Golubac, Serbia. The pronunciation of the city name was not intuitive to me as it is pronounced GOH-loo-bats. Naturally I wanted the final syllable to sound like “ack” but the Serbians choose to pronounce it differently!

Golubac Fortress

When we exited the boat, we only had to glance to our left to see our first stop for the day. The magnificent Golubac Fortress sits right on the Danube and is just everything you want a medieval fortress to be. Tall, seemingly impregnable walls, crenelated towers, built into the side of a rocky hill, you name it, it’s there, just a few hundred yards from where our ship docked.

Built in the 14th century by the Medieval Serbian state on the site of a former Roman settlement it saw action in numerous battles as various nations sought ownership. Over the years it has belonged to the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Turks, the Bulgarians, the Hungarians (again), the Serbs (again), and the Austrians before being turned over to the Serbian king in 1867. Continue reading →

Categories: Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, Serbia, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Captain Miša, Castle, Danube, Djerdap, Fortress, Golubac, Iron Gate, Kapetan Mišin, King Decebalus, Mraconia Monastery, Serbia, Tours, Trip Report, Viking, Viking Ullur, Đerdap | Leave a comment

Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia

Posted on June 15, 2026 by 2btravel

While we’d been to Croatia before, it was always on the country’s west coast. Twice we’d visited Dubrovnik and the surrounding area and on our last Mediterranean cruise we’d had an unscheduled stop in Zadar. Our port on this date was Vukovar (VOO-koh-var) which is in the far eastern part of the country. We’d also visit Osijek (OH-see-yeck) which was not terribly far away on the Drava River. Our included morning tour saw our boat’s passengers divided into four groups. Two groups visited local residents first while the other two groups visited a local church and then the groups swapped activities.

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Categories: Croatia, Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, River Cruise, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Croatia, Europe, Homeland War, Osijek, River Cruise, Tours, Trip Report, Viking, Viking Ullur, Vukovar, Yugoslavian War | Leave a comment

Our Time in Kalocsa, Hungary

Posted on June 13, 2026 by 2btravel

After our first night aboard the Viking Ullr we docked in Kalocsa, Hungary which is only about 1.5 hours south of Budapest by car but of course we were floating leisurely down the Danube. We boarded a motorcoach and for about 20 minutes we wound our way through farmland and the town of Kalocsa, which has a population of about 16,000 people. We then turned by this sign for the Bakodpuszta Horse Farm. Continue reading →

Categories: Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, Hungary, River Cruise, Tours, Viking | Tags: Cathedral, Cowboys, Csikos, Europe, Horses, Hungary, Kalocsa, River Cruise, Tour, Tours, Viking | Leave a comment

Our Time in Venice, Italy

Posted on January 5, 2024 by 2btravel

Trip Report: Athens and a Mediterranean Cruise
Lounge Reviews: The Club CLT and Centurion Lounge Charlotte Airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A340-600 Charlotte-Munich
Lodging Review: Academias Hotel, Autograph Collection, Athens
Our Time in Athens, Part I (Acropolis and Museum)
Our Time in Athens, Part II (Roman Agora, Hadrian’s Library, Ancient Agora)
Our Time in Athens, Part III (Kerameikos, Temple of Zeus, Panathenaic Stadium)
Our Time in Athens, Part IV (Restaurants and Observations)
Ship Review: Viking Neptune
Our Time in Ancient Olympia (Katakalon, Greece)
Our Time in Corfu, Greece
Our Time in Kotor, Montenegro
Our Time in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Our Time in Zadar, Croatia
Our Time in Venice, Italy
Flight Review: Iberia A330-300 Madrid-Chicago

As is usual on Viking cruises, they try to sell you on another cruise while you’re on the current one, offering special incentives to do so. My friends and I have a system for selecting our international vacations: whoever has a birthday ending in a 5 or 0 gets to pick the destination. That covers six out of every 10 years, so it works for us. 2025 is my choice and I’d had my eye on Viking’s Passage to Eastern Europe river cruise which runs between Budapest, Hungary and Bucharest, Romania. When we checked with the on-board travel consultant we learned that we could book this cruise for just $25 down and it didn’t have to be paid off until six months before the sailing. That was huge for me as normally the cruises have to be paid off in 2-3 months. So we went ahead and booked this cruise for $25 and that gave us 18 months to pay. When we added in our past-traveler discounts and our on-board booking discounts, that took another $600 off the price. Plus we got shipboard credit for our current cruise and additional shipboard credit for the one we’d just booked. Want to join us? Click on the link at the top of the page for more info.

Since we’d had an overnight port of call in Venice on our previous Mediterranean cruise back in 2008, our original plan was to skip the included tour and just wander around ourselves. That was something we’d really enjoyed doing the first time around. But now we had shipboard credit to spend. We could have stuck to the plan and used the credits to cover crew tips and some small purchases but where’s the fun in that? Instead we used it to book The Island and the Abbey tour, which took us to the island of Murano and then to the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore as we’d not visited either of time in our previous time in the area. Continue reading →

Categories: Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, Italy, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Viking | Tags: Cruise, Europe, Italy, Murano, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Venice, Viking | Leave a comment

Our Time in Zadar, Croatia

Posted on January 4, 2024 by 2btravel

A Curveball

Our only major curveball of the trip happened on Thursday, when we were due to stop in Split, Croatia, a place I’d heard quite a bit about but had never visited. But that plan changed with an announcement on Wednesday evening.

Our final port of call was Venice, or more accurately, Chioggia, which is still part of the greater Venice Lagoon. For many years Venice has been prone to flooding due in part to the fact that many of the buildings are constructed on “land” that is supported by pilings and those pilings have naturally settled into the seabed as the centuries progressed. To combat this a project called MOSE (or in English, Moses – because it parts the sea) was implemented which installed rows of mobile sea gates on the floor of the lagoon. This prevents flooding during high tides and any time the sea level becomes a danger to the city.

Due to an impending acqua alta high tide and compounded by recent rains in the area, the MOSE barriers were going to be raised earlier than planned. If we stopped in Split, the ship would not have time to reach the lagoon before the barriers rose.

At this point I was expecting that we’d just sail straight for Venice though if I’d thought about it I’d have realized there might be issues like if there was a dock available for us, etc. But two days instead of one in Venice wouldn’t be all bad. But Viking had something else in mind. We sailed past Split and instead docked in Zadar, Croatia, which is about an hour-and-a-half (by car) further north on the Croatian coast.

We’d signed up for the included walking tour of Split and paid for an excursion to Ancient Salona & Medieval Trogir but, of course, those were now no longer options. Instead we used the credit from the optional tour for one called Picturesque Zadar Hinterland that was only offered in the morning. Unfortunately it returned us to the ship too late for the only afternoon included walking tour so we just did a quick spin in the Old Town by ourselves.

Picturesque Zadar Hinterland

Novigrad

Our first stop was a scenic overlook of the town of Novigrad where we could clearly see the remains of the castle that once stood atop the hill.

Novigrad as viewed from the Overlook

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Categories: Croatia, Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Viking | Tags: Croatia, Novigrad, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Viking, Zadar | Leave a comment

Our Time in Dubrovnik, Croatia

Posted on January 3, 2024 by 2btravel

On our prior Mediterranean cruise in 2008 we’d also had a stop in Dubrovnik so this was our second visit. My friend enjoys gardens and such so we’d signed up for the included city tour in the morning and the afternoon tour called A Renaissance Garden & Views. Apparently not many people signed up for either the morning or afternoon session of this optional tour because they combined us into a single morning tour and swapped out our city tour tickets for one in the afternoon.

A Renaissance Garden and Views Tour

Slano

We drove about 45 minutes northwest from the port, on a road bordering the Adriatic, until we reached the small town of Slano. Here the terrain slopes down from the hills above to the sea.

Beginning in the 14th century this area became a significant commercial port with two shipyards, salt warehouses and markets for salt, livestock and grain. The name “Slano” means “salt”.

It’s hard to get lost in Slano

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Categories: Croatia, Cruises, Europe, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Viking | Tags: Croatia, Europe, Ocean Cruise, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Viking | Leave a comment

Our Time in Kotor, Montenegro

Posted on January 2, 2024 by 2btravel

On the Tuesday of our cruise we checked off a new country, Montenegro. The country’s name comes from the Venetians mangling the Serbian words “Crna Gora” for “black mountain”. The mountain in question is Mount Lovćen which was covered in dense evergreen forests. Over the centuries this area has been controlled by the Illyrians, the Slavs, the Serbs, the Venetians, the Ottomans, an independent country, occupied by Austria-Hungary during WWI, part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia then after WWII one of the republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, then the smaller Federal Republic of Yugoslavia along with Serbia and finally regaining its independence in 2006. Continue reading →

Categories: Europe, Historical Site, Montenegro, Tours, Trip Report | Tags: Europe, Historical Site, Montenegro, Tours, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Our Time in Ancient Olympia (Katakalon, Greece)

Posted on December 29, 2023 by 2btravel

Our ship departed Athens at 6 PM on Saturday evening and it took us the rest of the night and all of Sunday morning to reach our first port of call, Katakolon, Greece as we had to sail around the Greek peninsula.

The included tour at this port was called Ancient Olympia and there were optional tours that included not only Ancient Olympia but a visit to the Magna Grecia olive estate, another where you can learn Greek folk dancing and a Flavors of the Greek Countryside tour. We stuck with the included tour but because we were in the cheaper staterooms we had to settle for the last tour of the day, which didn’t leave until 2:15 PM.

Port of Katakolo(n)

That wasn’t all bad. In Katakolon, the dock is not far at all from a tourist area with several restaurants and loads of souvenir shops. So after our ship docked at 12:30 PM we had time to go into this area and get our souvenirs purchased before the tour. I find it interesting that Viking refers to the port as Katakolon when all the local signage (and even Wikipedia) refer to the port name without the final N. From what I can see online the names appear to refer to the same place, it just seems odd!

Town of Katakolon as viewed from our ship

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Categories: Europe, Greece, Historical Site, River Cruise, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site | Tags: Ancient Olympia, Europe, Greece, Historical Site, Olympics, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site | 2 Comments

Our Time in Les Andelys and Le Pecq

Posted on March 28, 2023 by 2btravel

Return to International Travel – Introduction
Review: SWISS A340-300 ORD-ZRH and Marhaba Lounge ZRH
Lodging Review: Sina Villa Medici, Florence, Italy
Our Time In Florence, Part 1
Our Time In Florence, Part 2
Lodging Review: Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris, France
Our Time In Paris, Part 1 (Louvre, Sainte-Chappelle, Arc, Eiffel Tower)
Our Time In Paris, Part 2 (Versailles)
Our Time In Paris, Part 3 (Catacombs, Musee d’Orsay)
Viking Kari and an Afternoon in Montmartre
Our Time in La Roche-Guyon and Vernon/Giverny
Our Time on the Normandy Beaches
Our Time in Les Andelys and Le Pecq
Lodging Review: Renaissance Republique, Paris, France
Review: Air France A350 CDG-ORD

Les Andelys

Our next port of call was the town of Les Andelys. This quaint town was founded in the 6th century and its church has parts that date to the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. I recall touring it but apparently did not take photographs. I would have enjoyed touring the town more but with my knee situation I slowly walked with the group to the chateau.

Château Gaillard was the primary attraction for this stop. It was a medieval castle and its ruins now overlook the town.

Chateau from the town

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Categories: Attraction Review, Cruises, Europe, France, Historical Site, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Attraction Review, France, Historical Site, Napoleon, River Cruise, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Leave a comment

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Posts Tagged With: Tours

Our Time in Bucharest, Romania

Romanian National Opera House

Our Time in Golubac, Serbia

Golubac Fortress

Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia

Continue reading →

Our Time in Kalocsa, Hungary

Our Time in Venice, Italy

Our Time in Zadar, Croatia

A Curveball

Picturesque Zadar Hinterland

Novigrad

Our Time in Dubrovnik, Croatia

A Renaissance Garden and Views Tour

Slano

Our Time in Kotor, Montenegro

Our Time in Ancient Olympia (Katakalon, Greece)

Our Time in Les Andelys and Le Pecq

Les Andelys

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