Wednesday, 29 April
Onboard
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| Good morning Danube |
About breakfast time this morning we finished our overnight journey back from St Gheorghe to Cernavoda which was our starting point. So, so far that's:
- embark in Cernavoda
- overnight sail to St Gheorghe in the Danube Delta
- overnight back to Cernavoda
- on a bus to Constnata on the Black Sea coast
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| Back where we began |
Apparently tonight we head off up-river and stop all these backwards-and-forwards entertainments.
Constanta
Constanta was somewhere I definitely wanted to visit on our river cruise so when we were at the erly planning stages, still choosing which company to go with, Constanta was a deal breaker.
Gary and I chose to do the half-day tour of Constanta and off we went on the bus at 8.45. What I found most interesting on the journey was that all the houses had grape vine arbours in the front yard and the guide said this was a social area for family and friends. Some of the home owners clearly were more committed to grape growing than others with the frames for the vines extending over the roof of the house. Tricky to harvest but I was wondering if having the leafy vines hanging above the tile might have had an added benefit of helping keep the homes cool during summer.
When we arrived in Constanta the bus dropped us in the middle of the old town, in Piata Ovidiu (the square of the poet Ovid), so that we could start our tour with the National History and Archaeological Museum.
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| National History and Archaeological Museum |
The Ancient Greeks settled the port in the 6th century BC calling it Tomis and in 71 BC it was captured by the Romans - and it was the Roman remains I was particularly interested in seeing. It turned out that Constanta has so many Roman artifacts and sites that they are out in the open - ruins, pots, lumps of buildings. It was pretty hard to imagine so much history that they almost appeared not to know what to do with it all.
I would have liked a little more time to loiter in the museum but the tour must go on (and I do feel sorry for the tour guides as herding us around can't be much fun) but I was able to get plenty of photos of my favourite things like the display of glass artifacts. Like almost everybody I spoke to about it afterwards, I had had no idea that glass was in use as early as it was - and the items were lovely though a little hard to photograph.
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| Glass bowl (2nd century) |
This glass bowl apparently bears a Greek inscription so I'm not sure if it dates from the 2nd century BC or AD but it's pretty incredible either way!
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| Statuary |
This piece wasn't the largest or most famous piece in the museum but it was the one I liked the best. Sadly this was a moment when I was in a rush to catch up with the group and I didn't take a photo of the caption. It stood about half a metre high and didn't appear to have much damage. It must have been a awesome thing to find.
Close to the museum was a rather unappealing looking building that covered the Roman mosaic that once graced the upper level of the three-layer dock complex. It was discovered during digging in preparation for a new train station. (The train station was eventually built elsewhere.)
Although the mosaics weren't as colourful as they would have been 1700 years ago (!) there was still enough there to show how complex and pretty they must have been. I took a million or so photos but am limiting myself to just popping a couple in here.
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| Roman mosaic |
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| Roman mosaic - detail |
No surprise here - if there was a cat around I was bound to take a photo (or twenty) of it and here is the Constanta cat photo:
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| Pretty tortie tabby and white girl |
From Roman ruins we strolled around the corner to admire a the Great Mahmudiye mosque (1910):
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| Great Mahmudiye mosque |
and the Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox cathedral (1885):
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| Saints Peter and Paul cathedral |
It was the first time I had used the receivers and earpieces supplied from the ship and they worked very well in allowing us to drift away a little from the guide and still hear the commentary - including warnings that we were moving on to the next location! I liked to think we all looked like secret service men with our earpieces on, but I might be being a little hopeful.
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| Secret service Gary |
We went inside the church - the first Orthodox church I've visited and I was amazed by the decoration. There wasn't a single spare space on the walls or ceiling.
We wandered down to the promenade - past more Roman ruins just casually fenced off. Although the day had started out rather cool and overcast it was bright and sunny by the time we got to the waterfront making for lovely views out to the Black Sea and of the near-derelict Art Nouveau casino in the distance.
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| Gary on the Black Sea coast at Constanta |
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| Jane at the same spot |
Although the ship backed up to the Danube's 'kilometre zero' this for me was the real 'Black Sea' part of the Black Sea to the North Sea journey.
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| Saints Peter and Paul cathedral from the promenade |
As we walked along the promenade to the bus one of the other people on the tour was taking this shot up from through the trees to the Orthodox church. It seemed like a great idea!
Onboard
Back at the ship I remembered to take a few photos around the cabin because I have apparently failed to say enough about the ship.
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| Very comfortable bed |
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| Very comfortable chairs and couch |
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| Spacious bathroom |
Actually, I just can't say enough as it has entirely exceeded my expectations.
Currently Reading: Rick Riordan's Blood of Olympus
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