Vidin is a port town on the southern bank of the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria. Vidin's main landmark, the Baba Vida fortress, was built in the period from the 10th to the 14th century. In the middle ages, Vidin used to be an important Bulgarian city. Of course, I missed all this while looking for a cold local beer. The beer was good but I missed the historical tour. The beer only cost 2 Bulgarian Lev, not to be confused with the Romanian Lei of which I still have plenty of, or about $1.50. That would have been 150 Lei but the countries don’t take the others currency. Money changers make a good business in these countries but be advised, nobody, but nobody wants Romanian Lei. Mine are now part of my coin collection.
The Iron Gate is a gorge on the Danube River. The Iron Gate is considered the gateway to Transylvania. The riverbed rocks and the associated rapids made the gorge valley an infamous passage. This gorge forms part of the boundary between Romania and Serbia. To enter this region your riverboat must be raised to level of the river behind the Romanian-Yugoslavian lock. We accomplished this at about two in the morning. I woke up to loud crashing noises and reached for my camera. The only pictures I got were those inside the lock before I fell back to sleep. The construction of the joint Romanian-Yugoslavian dam that would finally tame the river commenced in 1964 and was completed in 1974. The construction of these dams gave the valley of the Danube below Belgrade a long reservoir, and additionally caused a 100 foot rise in the water level of the river.
Back on the ship we head for the small Serbian village of Kostolac, the site of the Roman Camp, Viminatium. The seventh Roman legion was stationed here in the first century AD. But before that it’s time for another dinner watching the sunset over the Danube.
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