Black & Blue

At nearly 1800 miles in length and second only to the Volga as Europe’s longest river the ‘Blue’ Danube flows from the Black Forest to the Black Sea passing through nine countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine. This great river inextricably links the heritage of both the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires and a wide variety of nations, cultures and languages are revealed. This voyage is an excellent way to monitor and understand the progress of these countries since the ending of the ‘Cold War’ and consequent introduction of several of them into the European Community – changing from the restrictive regimes of Eastern Europe to the fast-developing countries of ‘New Europe’.

The waters of the Danube form at the Black Sea and are the largest and best preserved of Europe’s deltas. Home to many plant families and bird species, it is a wetlands preserve and UNESCO World Heritage site with channels and canals widening into tree-fringed lakes, reed islands, desert dunes and numerous lakes, marshes and oak forests. Highlights include visits to Bucharest, the Romanian capital known as ‘Little Paris’ in the 1930s, Belgrade in Serbia, known as the ‘White Castle’ or ‘White City’, and the Iron Gates, a gorge dividing the Carpathian and Balkan Mountains. Rousse is a Bulgarian river port with Renaissance architecture. Bratislava, the Slovak capital, was part of the Habsburg Empire and once the Hungarian capital when the Ottomans occupied Budapest. The latter is revealed as perhaps the most dramatic city lying directly on the Danube which divides the unspoilt town houses and bastions of Buda from more cosmopolitan Pest. The Baroque splendour of Melk Abbey and Vienna, especially the glowing yellow colours of Schönbrunn Palace, echo the more faded colours and styles of the former ‘Iron Curtain’ countries to the east, which were indeed part of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy.