Posts Tagged With: Viking

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

Continue reading →

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 Vidin, Bulgaria

Posted on June 18, 2026 by 2btravel

We awoke to another beautiful day docked in the town of Vidin, Bulgaria. Our excursions on this day would lead us to a couple of fortresses, the Belogradchik Rocks & Fortress in the morning and the Baba Vida Fortress in the afternoon. The second half of the afternoon tour was a wine tasting that my friend enjoyed but, since I don’t drink alcohol, did nothing for me. I don’t have photos of that because we basically just sat in a large room where the other trip participants sampled the wine.

Belogradchik Rocks and Fortress

As you can see, this reconstructed fortress is truly imposing. The earliest version of a fort here was during the Roman empire when it was used primarily for surveillance. The designers incorporated much of the huge rocks into the design so that fortified walls only had to be constructed in a few places. There are three separate yards, each connected by gates, inside the walls.

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Categories: Bulgaria, Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Baba Vida, Belogradchik, Bulgaria, Europe, Fortress, River Cruise, Tour, Trip Report, Vidin, 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 Belgrade, Serbia

Posted on June 16, 2026 by 2btravel

We had a rainy day in Belgrade but fortunately the rain either stopped completely or let up quite a bit during most portions of our city tour.

Kalemegdan Park

Our first stop was Kalemegdan Park. It’s the largest park in the city and was once the town field within Belgrade Fortress. It’s situated on a cliff that overlooks the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers. As we made our way to and through the fortress we came across this statue call the Monument to the Gratitude of France. It celebrates the cooperation of Serbia and France at the end of World War I and in its aftermath. Continue reading →

Categories: Cruises, Europe, River Cruise, Serbia, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Belgrade, City Tour, Fortress, Nemcek, River Cruise, Serbia, Tour, Viking, Viking Ullur, Violin | 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.

Continue reading →

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

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction

Posted on June 1, 2026 by 2btravel

I’m kicking off year 12 of this blog with my next trip report and this one includes some eastern European countries I’d never visited.

This year’s trip centered around a river cruise on the eastern part of the Danube. We’d previously cruised the western part of the river back in 2016. That trip left from Erlangen, Germany (just outside of Nuremburg) and ended in Budapest, Hungary. This trip departed from Budapest and ended in Bucharest, Romania.

As the cruise/tour was only 10 days, we decided to go to Krakow, Poland for a few days ahead of the cruise to visit yet another country we’d not been to.

Transportation

I flew from Memphis to Chicago to meet up with my friend who lives in the area. I used cash for a round-trip positioning flight on American Airlines. From there we flew LOT Polish Airlines to Warsaw and connected to Krakow. The government shutdown in October meant our flight out of Chicago was delayed causing us to miss our connection. Fortunately we were accommodated on the next flight to Krakow and even ended up in exit row seats. I used 70K Air Canada Aeroplan miles + $78.03 for my business class seat which would have sold for about $3064, giving me a fantastic value of about 4.38 cents per point. My friend used 40K Aeroplan miles + $78.03 for her seat in economy. While her ticket “only” worked out to about 1.4 cents per point, it still saved her over $500 out of pocket. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cruises, Europe, Hampton by Hilton, Hilton, Hungary, JW Marriott, LOT Polish, Marriott, Other Hotels, Poland, River Cruise, Romania, Serbia, Star Alliance, SWISS, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Award Travel, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hampton Inn, Hilton, Hungary, JW Marriott, LOT Polish, Marriott, Poland, River Cruise, Romania, Serbia, SWISS, Trip Report, Viking, Viking Ullur | 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

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Posts Tagged With: Viking

Our Time in Bucharest, Romania

Romanian National Opera House

Our Time in Vidin, Bulgaria

Belogradchik Rocks and Fortress

Our Time in Golubac, Serbia

Golubac Fortress

Our Time in Belgrade, Serbia

Kalemegdan Park

Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia

Continue reading →

Our Time in Kalocsa, Hungary

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction

Transportation

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

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