Danube River Cruise Holidays

Who can hear the name Danube without thinking of that most famous of Strauss waltzes: “On the Beautiful Blue Danube”? Beautiful it certainly is, but to be honest, it’s more a brownish yellow than blue, thanks to the lime stirred up from the river bed. The Danube’s romance lies in the medieval castles, baroque churches and rococo palaces it passes on its way through central Europe and the Balkans.

The great waterway begins in southwest Germany at the confluence of the Brege and the Brigach, and flows on through eight other countries—Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine. Its 2,850 km (1,770 miles) make it Europe’s second longest river, after the Volga. Barge traffic starts at the cathedral town of Ulm, larger vessels at Regensburg. Today, completion of the Main–Danube Canal extends navigation from the North Sea to the Black Sea delta, more than 3,200 km (2,000 miles).

The Danube crosses from Germany into Austria at Passau, established as a frontier town by the Romans. It passes through the major port town of Linz to the Habsburgs’ grand imperial city of Vienna. From Slovakia’s proud capital, Bratislava, the river follows the Hungarian border until it turns southward at the dramatic Danube Bend across Hungary’s Great Alföld Plain to golden Budapest. It continues through Serbia and along the Romanian-Bulgarian frontier before turning north again to split into a three-branched delta pouring into the Black Sea.

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