The Secret History

Gary Buchanan sets sail on the Eastern Danube from Budapest to Bucharest and discovers intriguing architecture, landscapes and legends

- Gary Buchanan

Peeking inside the former Iron Curtain is like turning back the clock, to reveal Magyar cowboys on the Great Hungarian Plain, and eerie Transylvanian castles evoking images of the legend of Dracula. Add to this unfading tapestry countless Ottoman treasures plus a hefty dose of Art Nouveau and Stalinist architecture.

I join Viking Idun in Budapest shortly before departure, when the Parliament Building is magnificently illuminated against the night sky. The Danube is the second-longest river in Europe after the Volga but from a cruise perspective it is first amongst equals. Traditionally the majority of tourist sailings have focused on the upper Danube, west of Budapest, with fewer ships venturing along the river’s lower reaches east of the Hungarian capital; however, that’s all about to change. Viking is now offering an array of sailings on this less travelled but no less spectacular, stretch of the river.

From the dawn of civilization, the Danube has ranked among the world’s most storied rivers. Over the past two millennia, it has seen the passage of Roman legions, crusading knights and all-conquering Ottomans. Full of eastern promise, the waterway flows through a rich mosaic of brooding medieval forts and pastoral villages. At strategic points along the watercourse cities flaunt others are still shedding their gloomy neo-Stalinist tower-blocks.

Heading south, we reach Kalocsa, Hungary’s capital of paprika. Here an organ recital in the 18th-century Assumption Cathedral provides a perfect overture to our cruise. The tour continues to the Bakod Puszta Equestrian Centre for a display of stunning horsemanship.