Gateway To Black Sea Day 9
Gateway To Black Sea
Day 09 - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - Cruise to Ruse, Bulgaria; Lecture on the European Union and Eastern Europe; Meet Icon Painter and Orthodox Priest; Dance by Bulgarian Children
We had to set our clocks ahead one hour last night before we went to bed, we are now on Eastern Europe Time. When we woke up in the morning at 7:00 it was cold, rainy, foggy, and dark!!!
The temperature when we went to breakfast at 7:45 was 56° with 100% humidity. We are still sailing south and the cold wind was brisk as we walked our first 8 laps around the top deck. Now we know that 8 laps = 1.5 miles, so we felt good about getting a little movement!
At 10:00 there was a mandatory meeting to discuss the departure procedures that we will use on Saturday to get checked out and off of the ship. There was also a clarification about the final sailing days.
The Captain told us that the water was too shallow to go all the way to the Black Sea on the ship, so we will need to take a bus and then come back to the ship. We are not missing any stops on our itinerary, but a few people were grumbling. There is nothing he can do short of grounding the ship on a sand bar, so we are lucky that they have a Plan B!
Before lunch we walked another 8 laps, enough to have an extra dessert!!! Just as we were finishing eating, we saw Ruse, right around the bend in the river. At 2:30 our “Yellow Dot Group” met Bogdan for an orientation tour of the city.
With a map in hand and general directions, we set off to explore this small city golden in fall splendor! The first thing we noticed was that all the signage is in the Cyrillic alphabet. Not only do we not know how to speak Bulgarian, bur when all of the words are written in the Russian-like alphabet, we were pretty puzzled!
We stopped at Freedom Square and then saw the Court House, Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, and the Opera House. We even went to a grocery store. Ruse is a very welcoming and walkable city.
As we scuffed up the dry leaves, we talked about growing up raking and playing in the leaves. Nothing smells like fall and reminds you of your childhood like the aroma of fallen leaves. The temperature was almost 70° and the humidity was 51% under clear blue skies.
We walked back to the ship at about 5:00 and checked our mail, began sorting through the photos, and writing the journal. I checked our mileage for the day; 14,274 steps or 6.8 miles. Not bad for ½ day of sailing!
When we returned we got ready for dinner, went to the Port Talk, and then had our buffet dinner in the Captain’s Club. There was a full house tonight; the maximum 40 people were there to enjoy the spare ribs.
We enjoyed our day in “Little Vienna”. Tomorrow will be a full day of land tours so we reset the alarm and after finishing the GarciaTrips website, we turned off the lights!
Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner ms River Splendor
Arrive Ruse, Bulgaria 2:00 pm
Vantage Travel: Gateway To The Black Sea River Cruise
Comments
Post a Comment!WOW - you all made several miles on your exercise outings!! When you get home, it will be cool and wonderful!! thank you so much for the daily ativities of your trips and keeping us in the loop. Take care until we talk again.
Fishing in the Fog
River Splendor on the Danube
Pilot House
Enjoying the Sun-Freedom Square
Holy Trinity Eastern Orthodox Church
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