Petes-Pix: Capitals of Eastern Europe

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"Pinotage: Behind the Legends of South Africa's own wine" is available on the ibookstore

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A I Perold's
A Treatise
on Viticulture
A I Perold (1880-1941) was South Africa's first Professor of Viticulture and Oenology. He dedicated himself to improving the quality of grapes for wine, brandy and the table. He studied wine and brandy production in Europe, imported more than 60 varieties to the Cape and bred new ones. Perold said this book “is intended to serve both the student and the practical grape-grower. There are in it technical passages that will appeal more to the student, e.g. the chapters dealing with the biology of the vine, its external and internal morphology, the theory of grafting. My remarks on the practice of viticulture, such as those dealing with the propagation, manuring and pruning of the vine, the production of table grapes for export, will, it is hoped, assist the practical grape-grower as well as the student.” This is a newly typeset reprint, not a photocopy. Text on the 712 pages have been aligned to match the original pagination so any external references to pages in the Treatise will be valid in this edition
Available in paperback and hardback editions. 712 pages

A Year in Paarl
with
A I Perold

Dr Perolds report on his Paarl experiments 1915 - 1916 reprinted with glossary, introduction and brief biography. Fascinating historical document on viticulture for wine and table grapes, wine and brandy making.

22 June 2025

Capitals of Eastern Europe - Day 1

Introduction

Capitals of Eastern Europe was our 19th river cruise and the 15th with Viking. We’d been on Passage to Eastern Europe from Budapest to Bucharest in 2019 and I was most excited about cruising past where that stopped at Giurgiu for Bucharest and continuing down the Danube to Constanta on the Black Sea.

It wasn’t to be. After being lucky 18 times, with our 19th cruise we joined the community whose cruises have been affected by water issues, and we didn’t cruise to Constanta because of low water.

The Danube was very low which meant steep ramps to exit the boat at every stop. At a few stops the ramps were so steep that crew members were stationed to help guests.

We had a port side cabin at the rear of the upper deck on the longship Viking Kadlin.

The cruise visits seven counties- Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania, with visits to five Capitals – Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Belgrade and Bucharest with only the last not being on the river.

There were 180 passengers. The boat’s capacity is 190, so there were 10 people fewer than there could have been thus the boat was 94.7% full. Most of the passengers were from the USA, but there was a greater number than usual from the UK, also guests from Australia, Canada and New Zealand

Viking’s fare included on-board gratuities, Silver Spirit Drinks package and economy flights. Flights from London were with BA. We paid a supplement to upgrade to business class.

Day 1 – Sunday 22 June 2025

Folkestone Harbour

Our flight was scheduled to arrive at Vienna at 16:00. We were met, as usual, by a Viking welcoming team dressed in bright red and swiftly transported to the boat.

We were moored close to a bridge carrying a road to the city centre and close to an entrance to the metro that runs below the street that we’ve used before to get to/from the city centre. Our cabin on the port (left) side faced the bank but the boat wasn’t rafted. There was a pair of other Viking longships behind us, one carrying Chinese guests.

As we had the drinks package we had a pre-dinner glass of Jacquart Champagne, a red with dinner and I sometime had a post-dinner tawny Port. We took turns choosing wines; white at lunch, red with dinner.