Sailing Day ...The Iron Gates

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Day 8-Sailing Day
8/24/10

Ditto on the weather. How long can this last?

Today we sailed all day without stop. There were two river locks, known here as the Iron Gates, that we passed through. This, I guess was the technical highlight of the day. I missed the second as I chose to get a massage. We passed through the lock as I was getting my back rubbed down. I did not see a thing but Jackie said it was interesting as there was a large hydro power plant at the site and the lock bypassed the dam.

The most scenic highlight was area known as Danube’s Gorges. These were impressive. We were also surprised to find their version of Mount Rushmore. I can’t remember who was the face carved into the mountain side but it was a little spooky seeing the eyes over the ridge sneaking a peak at us. In the evening we were treated to a full moon. Wow, it was nice with the reflection off the Danube.

We are meeting many people on Board and during the tours. We are about the fifth youngest people on the cruise. The younger are all members of the same family. It seems that grandmother is making her first cruise since her husband died and she brought the entire family….two daughters, two grandsons, and one son-in-law. They are from Minnesota and have been quite a story on this cruise. The boys are about 12 and 16 and completely spoiled. Their mother is a b…… The grandmother is not much better. The second daughter and her husband are different…they are fun. But enough about that.

Tomorrow we arrive in Belgrade, Serbia…yes, it is the same place as Belgrade, Yugoslavia but, as you know, there is no longer a Yugoslavia. That’s a long and interesting story. I’ll get to that later.

We also are going through a time change tonight. We are now seven hours ahead of Atlanta. Tomorrow we drop back to six hours.

Stay around for more….

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Photos

The Crew
Check the guy in the back with an Auburn hat on. His name was Tom too. It was nice to call War Eagle from time to time with someone who understood.

Junk
Here is all that is left of the Iron Curtain...

The Blue Danube
We had a full moon this night. It was very beautiful especially as it rose in the eastern sky.

Iron Gate
This is the Gate number 2. I missed the number 1 gate.

King ??
This was spooky when I first looked up and saw their Mount Rushmore.

The Blue Danube
I guess you know by now that it really isn't blue! But it is beautiful, especially here.

Comments

[Irene]

The Blue Danube scenery is awesome! Enjoy being the youngest! That doesn't happen all of the time. From your younger neighbor.......

[Jack Harris]

Belgrade
When I was there right after the curtain fell the place was full of beautiful women trying to make a living. Three guys with me on the trip and I had a nice dinner with a couple of beers each. I paid the tab. It came to $11. I would guess it's a bit more expensive now. We saw Tito's grave. Not very impressive. Jack

[Patty]

absolutely breathtaking
This comment is for this blog and the one before...since they came at the same time. It's wonderful that you're getting to visit all of these places. This is not going to leave too many places you HAVEN'T been! Let's see...how about going to Tibet, uh, South Pole, China....well, you get the idea!

[Dianne]

The Danube - beautiful!
The Danube may not look exactly blue, but it is never less beautiful from the shots you took. You and Jackie are the 5th youngest on board?? What a hoot that is... LOL! Knowing you both, I'm sure you have made many, many friends who will last forever. So you got a rub-down on board, eh? And Jackie was top side watching the Iron Gates unlock? Need to know more!

[Iron gates]

Iron gates
Organized content is the best way to display or post an article, thank you for making it easy to digest your post. Iron gates