The Dance Of The Danube

Following the course of Europe’s second longest river through Budapest and Wachau Valley offers a glimpse of history and period architecture.

- Rekha Sarin

Come summer and the urge to take a respite from blistering subtropical heat is strong. It’s an opportune time to look at Europe, with destinations that bask in benign tempera-tures with long daylight hours that give way to mildly cool evenings. Reason enough to inspire us to make a tryst with the Danube, following the river along the Hungarian capital, Budapest, and onwards to Wachau Valley in neighbouring Lower Austria.

Our itinerary was consonant with the pages of history as this river—the second longest in Europe—has witnessed a period when the kingdoms of Austria and Hungary were united under the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. Ruled by the House of Hapsburg, the Austria-Hungarian Empire endured right until World War I, a time when Austrian composer Johann Strauss II wrote the famous An der schönenblauen Donau, The Blue Danube Waltz, the strains of which have continued to haunt music lovers over the ages. The Danube, though, is not exactly blue. More often than not, its waters are in shades of green, at times even muddy—and it creates scenic splendour wherever it flows. In Budapest, the river embraces the city on both sides, the capital being the outcome of two independent cities, Buda and Pest, which united with the Roman settlement of Obuda in 1873. Of all the bridges across the river, the most splendid is the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, designed by English engineer William Tierney Clark in 1849.

Besides the obvious charms of the river, Budapest on its own is a jewel of a city, resplendent with sumptuous period architecture. I find myself looking skywards in several photographs of the trip. I simply could not stop admiring the craftsmanship that expresses itself in myriad forms, whether it is the embellished exteriors of churches, palaces and buildings or the high-vaulted ceilings and domes.