July 30 – Vidin, Bulgaria

This morning we spent some time cruising the river.

Then we made our stop in Vidin, Bulgaria.  This port town has been occupied by the Celts, Romans, the Byzantines, Ottomans, Hungarians, and the Germans during World War II.

Our ship docked in Vidin.

Our shore excursions took us through many parts of the town.  Most of the architecture is from the Communist Period and so was rather bland and depressing looking but we quickly made it into the countryside where we saw many corn fields...

and sunflower fields.  

Plus just some plain old pretty countryside and pretty buildings.

Our primary destination today is Belogradshik...

where we saw a bridal couple getting photos taken.

It was a small hike up to the old fortress…

and the nearby sandstone rock formations.  The formations and the views were awesome.

From the top you could see the Danube River in the far distance...really, it is the very far distance in the left part of the picture.  

Then we headed out to the Bada Vida Fortress. Much of the surrounding walls appeared to be in good repair.  Very little of the fortress interior was toured.  

However, we did see a short historical pageant that had been commissioned by AmaWaterways and is shown exclusively to AmaWaters guests.

On the way back to the boat we saw a pair of storks on a chimney, quite close to the road.

During the pageant it kept threatening to rain but other than a few drops it never materialized.  However, It rained again late afternoon after we got back to the boat.  We are beginning to see a pattern here.

After dinner we had a marvelous show put on by local school children.  The group performed a number of traditional Bulgarian dances accompanied by a small group of musicians.  The dancers perform in competitions around the country and are one of the most award winning groups.  The dancing is energetic and energizing and everyone enjoyed it.  

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Watch video of dancing.
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The last dance was a line dance in which they invited (pulled in) Ama guests to participate.  Mary managed to get selected and had a great time.