Masada is a very ancient flat topped mountain on which Herod once had his Palace. Later in about 70AD there was a revolt against the Romans and the last Jewish zealots escaped to the mountain palace and survived up there by rearing doves and keeping livestock and collecting the rain water. The Roman army set siege to the mountain and 1000s of soldiers were camped all around it. Gradually they built a huge earth ramp up the side of the mountain and stormed the weakest part of the wall. However once they got in they found that all the Jews had committed suicide and only one person was left who pleaded to be left alive to tell the story of his people and amazingly he was allowed to do that. We went up the mountain in ... read more

The drive from the Danube to Bucharest passes through mainly agricultural areas with some poor housing. Nearer the city there are signs of recovery from the Communist era and new houses are being built. In the city itself there are poor dilapidated housing on the outskirts and some palatial houses lining the boulevards and by the parks. We had a tour round the Palace which was built for the leader before Ceausescu but who died before it was finished. Ceausescu and his family moved in when he came to power. It is a lavish building with beautiful Persian carpets sent by the Shah of Iran, ornate French furniture and Flemish tapestries. It is no wonder that the poor people were both amazed and horrified when they broke in at the end of Communism in 1989. Now ... read more

Our ship docked at Golubac in Serbia and we drove down the coast to an archaeological site called Lepenski Vir. This was discovered during the 60s in a farmers field in an area which was subsequently going to be flooded by the building of a dam. The archaeologists had 5 years to excavate and move the village they discovered stone by stone. The buildings were built 9000 years ago and are one of the earliest examples of human beings forming a community rather than moving and hunter gathering. All the buildings were facing a stone mountain which was clearly revered by these people. The floor was made of the clay found locally and had a central fireplace with a hole in the roof. The skeletons which were found showed the people to be short but very ... read more

Vukovar was severely bombed during the war between Croatia and Serbia in the 90's. The whole place was evacuated and people had to leave their houses and go with very few possessions. We saw a mural on the side of a house depicting how they only had a rucksack with everything they could carry. Some of the buildings are still peppered with shrapnel. After the war the whole town was rebuilt. A basic house of bricks was built and basic furniture given. After that it was up to the people to make it nice. There are still a few "government houses" as they are called which are still the basic brick and haven't been finished off. We went to a primary school where the pupils put on a lovely show of singing and puppets and then ... read more

Although we had been to Budapest before we ended up going back to the same places we visited before mainly because we were with different people who hadn't been before. We stayed at the Buda Castle Fashion Hotel ,a nice little friendly place in the old part of Buda. As it was late on our first night we walked out of the hotel and found a lovely little bar with a very friendly lady owner who also gave us meat and cheese to have with our wine. Can't remember the name but it is just down the road from Jamie Oliver's restaurant. The following day we visited St Matthias church which has some beautiful stencilled patterns on the ceilings and walls. The experience was somewhat spoiled by loads of Japanese taking selfies everywhere. After the obligatory ... read more