Aug 8, 2005 – Iron Gates
This was a whole day spent on the boat. We had plenty of time to look at lovely scenery in the gorge, where the river passes through the Carpathian mountains. In the past, this area was full of rapids, but in the interest of commerce, dams raise the level of the water and slow it down. It is no longer wild, but it is still impressive. The roman ruins were also eye-catching. The iron gates, in my opinion, must refer to the numerous locks through which we needed to pass in order to continue downstream. Locks are something less than picturesque, but it is an experience to watch the process. Other than watching the shore go by, we spent time at three lectures: George Schneider “Byzantine Art” with some amazing pictures; Bill Summers “Habsburgs in Budapest”; and Susan Suleiman “Jewish Writing in Hungary after the Holocaust”. We spent a bunch of time working on the jigsaw puzzle (which was a frustrating one, since the pieces were inadequately differentiated, so could seemingly fit several places), and reading, and walking the deck. I was particularly amused that everyone, bar none, sitting on deck was reading. I thought I caught one woman sun-bathing, but noticed that she had the book on the ground, under the deck chair, and she was reading as well. I guess that’s what you get with these university alumni. It was rather nice to have a quiet day without tight time schedules.
