Viking From Budapest to Bucharest

Viking Lif, sailing down river Danube from Budapest to Bucharest. 11 days starting 3 June with two days in Parisi  Udvar hotel in Budapest, seven nights on the boat and one night in Radisson Blu, Bucharest.

View from cabin in Budapest

The Danube was swollen and the boat we'd been scheduled to board, Embla, had been unable to pass under a bridge upstream on Budapest so they'd swapped the passengers onto the Lif.

Parisi Udvar entrance and restaurant

Parisi Udvar ceiling

Parisi  Udvar had opened only two weeks before we got there after a massive renovation. The entrance hall is magnificent, the rooms are spacious and well equipped but the restaurant was luxury priced for inexperienced, slow, inefficient non-luxury service.

Driving 10 horses, standing on last 2

The cruise was, as usual, excellent, though the included trips mostly featured castles and churches. The Bakodpuszta horse farm (Kalocsa, Hungary) was the best with a welcome glass of wine and a snack on arrival, and amazing display of horsemanship,  a drink at the finish and a ride in a horse drawn cart.

Croatia flag on Osijek fortress

Stork and nest, Osijek, Croatia

Serbian flag

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Just opened, Golubac Castle at entrance to Iron Gates, Serbia

This sign was at the entrance to and in Golubac Castle and I saw a snake swimming in the river under the castle, but the guide said the snakes were harmless and the sign were to discourage anyone from leaving the paths.

Sailing through the Iron Gates

The 'Iron Gates' is the gorge the Danube flows through with cliffs or iron rich stone. The local guides said that they attract lightning leaving nearby habitations safe. A dam has raised the water level flooding  roman and mediaeval remains

Dacian King Decebalus on Romanian side

These statues were in a waterfront park, near the boat mooring in Vidin, Bulgaria.

Useful sign in Viking lunch restaurant in Bucharest, Romania

BA meal LHR > Budapest

BA meal Bucharest>LHR

Great Strait Raft Run

Congrats to Dan and Team Clowniau for winning the Entertainment Trophy at the Menai Great Strait Raft Run. 

Clowniau Raft

They came 18th taking 01:25:21 to complete the course. They are planning on a bigger, better raft next year.

CWW AGM and Krug

Again to London, this time the offices of Moet Hennessey close to Victoria Station for the Circle of Wine Writers AGM.

CWW Chairman Colin Hampden-White

Afterwards we were generously poured a 2006 Krug Grand Cuvee.

Although non-vintage (or perhaps more correctly multi-vintage) the six-digit code on the rear label entered at the Krug site give all the details. This wine coded 413073 says this bottle aged at least 7 years after receiving its cork in  2013.

This bottle belongs to the 162ème Édition, a blend of 142 wines 11 different years. The youngest dates back to 2006 and the oldest to 1990. it was blended in 2006 from 44% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and 21% Meunier.

And it was delicious.

LIWF

To Olympia for LIWF, staying Monday night at Simply Rooms & Suites with dinner at Popes Eye

Dinner with Caroline at Oslo Court

Dinner with Caroline at Oslo Court   

Walk

Pleasant walk through farm land to an old pond where we've picked plump blackberries in the past, and maybe again at the right time.

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GOM at Pre Wood Arms

7 May meeting of Verulam U3A Grumpy Old Men, organised by Gerry, in the private room at Pre Wood Arms

Clockwise from empty chair at front:

• Ron Pugh
• Mike Booth
• Martin Mylott
• Gerry Maguire
• John Allen
• Rick Hanson
• Peter Noden
• Andy Thomas
• Peter May
• Fred Mulberry