Iron Gates

 Today is going to be a stellar day.  A fortress visit, an on ship Balkan barbecue, an afternoon at sea (can we all it that if we are just cruising down the river?) and the IRON GATES.

We arrive in Golubac Fortress in Serbia early in the morning.  This has got to be the most beautiful fortress I've seen on this trip.  It is located where the Danube narrows into the entrance of the Iron Gates gorge. Back in the olden days, the inhabiants placed a chain across the Danube and you could not pass unless you paid to get by.  

We disembarked and met our guides.  They were all dressed up in soldier costumes from the Medieval days of the fortress.  Our guide was a young man who addressed himself as our captain and for the rest of the tour referred to us as "his soldiers".  He told us the story of how Golubac got it's name:

" a beautiful Serbian girl named Golubana. A local Turkish pasha fell in love with her, but she loved a young Serbian man and rejected all the proposals and expensive gifts from the pasha. Angered, he took her down in a boat .... tied her to the rock above the river and left her there until she died. " Wiki

After the normal generic overview of the fortress, we were allowed to roam around select portions of the fortress.  It was a lovely day and there were so so many narrow steps.  

Looks almost like a fairy tale castle

A catapult

Stairway to ....Nothing?

Our ship.
Everytime we parked, the captain pointed the bow of the ship up river

Our guide pointed out this building and said it was a Serbian five star hotel.
It was actually an old mine entrance.  

Once we were al back on board, the crew put on a lovely 'Balkan Delicacies Barbecue' for us.  It was buffet style and we all ate outside on the top deck.  Lots and lots of food and even more importantly, lots and lots of ice cream.  I sort of felt very pampered, watching the scenery pass by, eating food I didn't have to cook.  

We spent the afternoon cruising.  The weather started turning blustery and then it started to rain.  Everybody went downstairs to watch the mountains go by behind glass.  Not me!!  The best unobstructed views are on top.  Since the cruise line made such a big deal about the Iron Gates, I didn't want to miss anything.  I must admit, I had no idea what the Iron Gates were.  I think I assumed that since we were going through the Iron Gates Gorge, that is what they must be talking about.  Wrong!  The Iron Gates are at the southern end of the Gorge and are locks which drop you down 100 feet.  Anyways, it was pretty glorious being out in the elements - the wind was blowing so hard, rain was pelting down (sideways at times) but I persevered all alone up there.  

We are starting down the gorge and the clouds are gathering

A tea house on the Romanian side of the river

The rock sculpture of Decebalus is a colossal carving of the face of Decebalus (r. AD 87–106), the last king of Dacia, who fought against the Roman emperors Domitian and Trajan to preserve the independence of his country, which corresponds to present-day Romania.......The Dacian king's sculpture is the tallest rock relief in Europe, at 55 m (180 ft) in height and 25 m (82 ft) in width. Wiki(again)

This sculpture was done between 1994-2004.  I was all excited thinking I was seeing something medieval but this is a fairly contemporary sculpture.  It was impressive.

In the Iron Gate locks - there were two sets of locks