Cruising through Europe on the river Danube

IT’S not really until you experience Central and Eastern Europe up close that you can fully understand the cause and effects of centuries of warfare.

The Balkans, Austria and Germany are all connected by a single river and it was in this region that the First World War began 100 years ago this month.

It created the concept of modern warfare — aerial bombardment, chemical weapons, and tanks in a vicious and doggedly cruel campaign that infected all of Europe. It bred WW11 and the fallout continues to this day.

It’s hard as islanders to comprehend the immediacy of borders in Europe — it’s only when you travel on the great rivers, like the Rhine and the Danube, that you get the connectivity. The Danube flows through 10 European countries, from its source in the Black Forest to the Black sea, where it passes through Romania and Ukraine.

And that says a lot even today — the Ukraine is not an American problem, although they appear to have taken first dibs, but a European problem.

The immediacy of the crisis is brought home when you’re on the ground at the Royal Palace in Budapest, looking at the line of highly polished gas lamps lighting the carriageway approach (with scary battlements and cannon slots too), and you realise this is Russian gas.

The high vantage point shows a busy city below which, while powering an emerging economy, does so fuelled on Russian gas. And this pipeline goes all the way to Chancellor Merkel’s Germany and beyond — to us. Then you realise, this problem is not just ‘theirs’ it’s ours too. There is history dripping from every stone of every building of every town in these great kingdoms and the way to see them is by the river. Again, it could be said that we in Ireland have lost the sense of commerce on our rivers — save for amenity use on the Shannon/Erne waterway, the death of our canals put the focus on roads.

In Europe, day-to-day commerce is still trafficked by water — fast, efficient and accessible, the Danube is the artery for Central and Eastern Europe and the lifeblood of its region.

The river world is a private place. It feels as you gently motor through green valleys, that you’re passing by back yards, getting a real sense of the habitation models, the way people live and interact in their own places.

It’s at one removed, but it’s not intrusive, noisy or busy. This is a calm way to absorb another country.

Or in this case, three countries as we moved by luxury barge through Hungary, Austria and Germany with views of Slovenia and the Czech Republic along the way.

As a big present to oneself, or a retirement flourish, a river cruise is a great way to see all those places you’ve been meaning to see for years.

Admittedly, it’s not cheap at around €2,500, but then, factor in the cost of full bed and board, free booze, highly-qualified guides, three countries over eight days and a wealth of different trips and tours, you have a hard-to-beat combination.

This is my second river cruise. I took a short Christmas tour on the Rhine a few year’s ago and was hooked. Leisurely, calm and very, very comfortable, this time round I went for a longer haul with the eight-day Danube trip.

As a backpacker in my day, I’d seen all the Mediterranean bowl countries and had toured North Africa and part of the Balkans but had never really got a handle on middle to central Europe.

I wanted a decent overview, not a quick weekend break, so the river cruise seemed the best option — and broken down, good value for money too, in that I really had no other outlays, apart from shopping.

The other good point about this method of travel is that while I travelled in a loose group, I had lots of opportunities to flake off on my own doing the nerdy, history things I love.

And the beauty of these cruises is that you can opt in, or opt out of any itinerary — you can also travel safely on your own, in a homely environment, so it’s recommended for singles too.

From my point of view, the really attractive aspect was the flexibility to do my own thing.

Most of the good tours take place nice and early in the morning and say, in a place like Budapest, you get to tour the city and get a feel of the place. Later on in the afternoon, you can take off on your own with a fairly good idea of where you are and visit other sites.

Usually, the boat docks city centre, so you can just alight and start walking. There’s a choice between walking or bus tours, and the guides were terrific — you got history, geography, sociology in a two- to three-hour session and smooth access to busy sites — I can’t recommend this aspect of the trip highly enough.

The on-foot view of a city is so much better than from a coach, with the result that you have an internal map to find your own way round later.

Cruising is on the up and up, but with river cruises, it’s more like a royal barge than the skyscrapers-with-hull that plough around the Med.

The Princess Beatrice (upon which I travelled), prides itself on being a six-star boat — so along with all the tours and history and architecture and culture, you are absolutely cosseted.

Not overweening, fawning stuff (this is a mostly-German-run boat, so it’s European rather than American in attitude), but meticulous and utterly reliable service.

The decor is lush country house — a lot of it not to my taste, but hey, when you have a pillow sommelier you’re talking my kind of class.

The bed was exceptional too — and when you accept that Russian businessman Abramovich probably has as much room in his floating palace as you do on the boat, then the clever compaction of the bathroom begins to grow on you.

Plus, there is something about sailing, even on a wide-bottomed barge on a wide beautiful river. There’s the sense of freedom and escape. Top deck is the place to be when travelling to get the air and the views — some industrial near the cities, and others just wild woodland interspersed with fairytale hamlets and wooden fishing huts.

Highlight of the tour for me was a quick race around Budapest with a friend who lives there — he was making sure I saw all the sights — ending in the funkiest cafe I’ve ever seen. It’s actually a squatted building, with a pub, cinema and coffee hangout over two floors which has the atmosphere of a mad, artistic installation. In the old quarter of town, it was taken over the prevent the old buildings demolition and it’s a sight to behold.

Then, there was the Royal Palace in Vienna where I spent hours happily walking round the rooms of Empress Sissi and Archduke Franz Josef of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Vienna at the turn of the century was the Cool Britannia of its era and Sissi its Princess Di. Looks like she had a bit of an eating disorder too — judging by the size of her gowns, the athletic equipment in her apartments and the diets she followed. She was, however, a bit shrewder than Diana and negotiated a charter of freedom for herself after giving birth to an heir (Rudolf, who later committed suicide along with his mistress — played by Omar Sharif with Julie Christie as the mistress in Mayerling). Sissi galloped around Ireland quite a bit, it’s said — and in pursuit of uniformed officers too, it’s also said.

But of all the royal apartments, the most moving for me was the Emperor’s. Franz Josef spent up to 12 hours a day at work and his apartments (which adjoined his wife’s with a polite, doorbell mechanism for duty, rather than booty calls, I suppose), and he slept in a cot in his dressing room. Next door was the office from which he worked and it’s all rather low key and humble for a man who ran one of the largest empires in the world at the time (apart from the one upon which the sun never sat). It comes across as a lonely, monastic sort of life in a little room amid the splendour of the Palace buildings.

One last story, having a cup of coffee in the nearby cafe (outrageous), I asked for another and the water responded querulously “But you’ve just had one!” “Yes Herr Franz,” says I, in my news-for-the-deaf voice, “and I’d like another one now.” He huffed off, but I got my coffee. Austrians.

And for anyone contemplating this tour, and I’d recommend it highly, try to read The Hare with the Amber Eyes beforehand. It gives an historical and human perspective on Vienna before and after the two wars. Great read.

Also, don’t miss the boat — I did. Do check the times before you get distracted talking with a loquacious Cork woman at a cafe. Cost us the bones of 80 bucks to catch up. But worth it, almost, for the laugh. Only the Irish.

* ‘Szimpla Kert’ is the cafe/cinema in Budapest at Kazinczy Street in the Jewish District.

* A good restaurant/cafe is ‘Ketszerecsen’ on Nagymezo Street — the Broadway of Budapest according to my Cloghduv/Budapest associate.

€2,449 pp All-Inclusive boutique Danube cruise

This six-star river cruise includes seven nights in a riverview stateroom; return airport transfers; all meals, Captain’s Farewell Gala dinner and a fine dining experience with unlimited onboard drinks.

Also included is a full programme of daily excursions, evening onboard entertainment, signature lectures well-equipped gym, Wi-Fi as well as lots of time off to explore on one’s own.

The Enchanting Danube itinerary includes an Epicurean Adventurer Programme with a focus on regional cruise and wines and is a feature of many of Uniworld’s itineraries. In this cruise it included a private organic wine tasting in the Wachau Valley, a saffron workshop with a Wachau saffron grower, an Austrian dessert-making demonstration and special food-and-wine-pairing dinners throughout the cruise.

Uniworld’s new itinerary includes Bordeaux, Vineyards and Chateaux for €1,799pp. Call Uniworld on 01-7753803, log on to Uniworld.ie or visit your local travel agent. Uniworld’s 2015 brochure is out now and good early discounts are available on a range of boutique cruises throughout Europe and more.

Choose your preferred river cruise itinerary before they book out. Call Uniworld on 01-7753803, log on to Uniworld.ie or visit your local travel agent.