Mirabelle

Walk around Highfield yielded 1.68Kg of Mirabelles which made two jars of jam, a four portion crumble and two-portions of stewed Mirabelles.

Zombies Mural

 

Seen at Pioneers Youth Club

Kings Lynn

 

After a warm filled sausage roll from the nearby Shell garage, consumed in our room with tea, we walked along the Ouse to Kings Lynn. It took much longer than we thought and as we walked, rain clouds behind were catching up fast. We got into Kings Lynn, had a brief walk along the water front and got a table at Cobbles Tea Room at 12:00. 

The rain started and fell heavily for an hour. We left and walked through town, past the Guild Hall of the Holy and Undivided Trinity

To find a taxi by the railway station to take us back to the hotel. WE collected our car and headed home.

Castle Rising

 To Castle Rising

First sight was of a roof above massive earth ramparts.

Access was across a dry earth moat.

and through a gatehouse.

The keep is the only other standing building,

and it could be entered.

Then to the Premier Inn at Kings Lynn . We had a walk alongside the Ouse then a Prosecco followed by haddock, chips and The Ned savvie at Brewers Fayre at the hotel car park.

Capitals of Eastern Europe - Day 17 - Bucharest>Home

  

Day 17 – Tuesday 7 July 2025 – Bucharest>Home

 Room checkout was 12:00 and our flight departure was 18:15. We had a cooked hotel breakfast and planned on getting snacks in the airport lounge and a dinner when we got home. Viking like to get us to the airport three hours before departure, even though checkin at Bucharest doesn’t usually open until two hours before.

On our way to airport

The coach containing passengers for London and Amsterdam left at 14:30 and arrived at the airport at 15:15. But on the coach the BA app showed a flight delay of two hours. We waited at the checkin desk with our baggage, but two hours before scheduled departure the desk remained unstaffed.

Eventually staff arrived and slowly got ready. They knew the flight was delayed and so there was no urgency, but we’d been standing in line for 90 minutes and had reasons to deposit our bags, if only to sit down. 

When we were checked in we were given a snack voucher that could be used at a sandwich takeaway after security. We got a filled baguette each, and progressed through a slow passport check to the small business lounge where we had our baguettes and waited for our flight.

O2 Dome on Heathrow approach

Champagne and a hot meal on the plane revived spirits some.

We arrived home past midnight Romanian time and went to bed.

Summary

The cruise was fine until its premature end. I really wanted to cruise to Constanta. Viking did the best in the circumstances, but the supplied meals did not match on board meals. The Programme Director’s announcement of an included winery visit was incorrect and misled many people, including us, to a long coach journey.

The cruise, food, wine and staff were good. Joan would have preferred more daytime cruising.

On the second day someone decided to run on the sundeck track from 05:00-06:00. Two or three times every minute for an hour heavy steps thudded across our ceiling. Several passengers complained to the Programme Director during the day and were told that if it happened again to call reception. Next morning the thuds sounded again at 05:00. Someone called reception and it soon stopped. Near the end of the cruise another runner started early, and was quickly stopped.

 Click to go to back to Day 1 

Capitals of Eastern Europe - Day 16 - Constanta

 

Day 16 – Monday 7 July 2025 – Constanta

We’d thought long and hard about it and decided to go on the long coach trip to Constanta, primarily because on the boat the Programme Director said it would include the winery visit. It didn’t. A post trip reading of the description of the Constanta excursion and the winery visit that would have been available if the boat was moored in Constanta, shows that – presumably because of time limitations – we got something different.

During the coach journey everyone's mobile phones all played a load noise and showed a heat alert warning us – among other things – not to travel. This happened several time during the day. The alert was in English.

We started with a walking tour of the old town when we arrived in Constanta that ended with a walk along the waterfront promenade.

We were then given 10 minutes  ‘free time’ increased to 15 minutes, and people dashed for a coffee. I was disappointed not to go to the sandy beach and paddle in the Black Sea, but there was not enough ‘free time’ .

The coaches then drove for 30 minutes to Murfatlar Winery, https://www.murfatlarwines.com/ which we saw in the distance, but we drove past the winery, through vineyards to a purpose built function dining hall.

 Musicians greeted us, and as we entered we had a traditional welcome of bread and salt.  The building was round and table seating 8 or 10 placed like spokes against the outer walls. The musicians followed inside and set up in the middle and kept playing.

 The tables were set with platters of cheese, nuts and dates. Each person had 5 wine glasses, and we were poured a measure of:

• ‘Zestrea’ Muscat Ottonel  - sweet white wine
• ‘3 Hectare’ Chardonnay 2024 – very oaky white wine
• ‘Aerosoli’ 2024 – pink blend of Feteasca  Neagra & Pinot Noir
• Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 – bland red wine
• ‘3 Hectare’ Feteasca Neagra 2023 – a Romanian speciality and the only interesting wine.

 The restaurant manager told us what the wines were and which cheeses they matched with, but otherwise his wine talk couldn’t be trusted.

Lunch was poor, starting with a water clear soup with a few microscopic bits of vegetable and two grey meatballs. Main course wasn’t hot, some lumps of chicken in a thin pink sauce and a big lump of lukewarm mashed potatoes. Dessert was a pastry with sweet cheese inside. But the toilet was fine, and I managed to get another bottle of Feteasca Neagra from the manager.

I was unsatisfied with the touted Winery Tour and said so to the Viking representative at the hotel. But post cruise reading the online description I realise this wasn’t the normal advertised winery tour.

The journey back took three and a quarter hours, depositing us back at the Marriott at twenty minute before dinner at 19:00

Dinner that evening was on Viking, served in Champions Sports Bar which was closed to the public. A couple of youths circulated with wine glasses and a bottle of white and a bottle of red wine, but they seemed loath to pour. The meal was served as a buffet and I was dismayed by the way some guests piled up mountains of food on their plates. I found it unpleasant and so I went next door to the steak house, paid for the meal and wine and didn’t regret it.

A delicious USDA Fillet steak, crispy potato wedges and a couple of glasses of Feteasca Neagra in peace and calm with an attentive waiter.  I wasn’t the only Viking guest who’d decided to leave the melee to eat in the steakhouse.

https://www.jwsteakhousebucharest.com/

 Click to go to Day 17

Capitals of Eastern Europe - Day 15 - Bucharest

Day 15 – Sunday 6 July 2025 – Bucharest

The hotel breakfast buffet was all encompassing, and they had both omelette and fried egg chefs.

There were four optional tours, but after our long coach ride yesterday and the long one to Constanta on Monday no included excursions were scheduled. We took our Kindles to a nearby park and came back for a light  lunch in the hotel’s Italian restaurant Cucina https://www.cucinabucharest.com/.

Cucina menu

It is not normally open Sunday lunchtimes but because there were passengers from two Viking boats at the hotel they’d decided to open for lunch.

As the steakhouse wasn’t open Sunday night we booked a dinner table, and had an enjoyable evening meal. I had grilled baby chicken in Cacciatore Sauce with roasted potato wedges. And we had a bottle of Domaine Muntean, Zana Zanelor, Feteasca Neagra.

  Click to go to Day 16