The Danube Cycleway Volume 2. Mike Wells
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу The Danube Cycleway Volume 2 - Mike Wells страница 4
Название: The Danube Cycleway Volume 2
Автор: Mike Wells
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Книги о Путешествиях
isbn: 9781783623136
isbn:
Iron curtain and communism
Defeat of the Axis powers in the Second World War led to the lower Danube coming under the control of the victorious Allied powers, specifically Soviet Russia. Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania were all forced to adopt communist systems of government with private property expropriated by the state and farms collectivised. Their economies and military capabilities were integrated with that of the Soviet Union under the terms of the Warsaw Pact. The economic and social consequences of this period are still very much in evidence, particularly in Romania. Large estates of poor quality social housing ring most towns and cities, while dilapidated ruins of Soviet era factories abound. The border between Soviet controlled eastern Europe and western Europe was heavily fortified by the Russians with a line of defences described by Winston Churchill as an Iron Curtain. An uprising against communism in Hungary (1956) was viciously put down by Russian troops.
Yugoslavia, now led by Tito, adopted a less rigid communist system and did so without coming under Russian control.
The 1956 uprising against communism is commemorated by a monument in Budapest (Stage 1)
Yugoslav Civil War
Ever since its creation in 1919, Yugoslavia was always a disparate country. Actions to create a unified nation, such as the adoption of a common language (Serbo-Croat) and integration of ethnic groups were only partially successful. Tensions between Muslim Bosnians, Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs were kept in check during the rule of Tito, but after his death in 1980, the country began to disintegrate. After Slovenia and Croatia seceded from the Yugoslav Federation in 1991, all out civil war started, with the Serb dominated Jugoslav National Army (JNA) being used in an attempt to stop the secession movement. Fighting was particularly intense along the Danube border between Croatia and Serbia, especially around Vukovar (Stage 7). Later the conflict spread to Bosnia and in all these regions military action was accompanied by atrocities against minority civilian populations. Leaders in all three countries have since been arraigned for war crimes.
Most fighting ceased in 1995, but a final twist to the war came in 1998–1999 when Serb forces tried to prevent Kosovo from seceding. This resulted in reprisal bombing of Serbia by NATO air power. Altogether it is estimated that 140,000 people died during the conflict, while a further four million were displaced as refugees, many permanently. Although the war is over, with former Yugoslavia broken-up into seven independent states, tensions still exist between Croat and Serb communities, with damage much in evidence and unexploded ordinance in conflict areas. However, there is no need to be worried as far as this journey is concerned. It follows a safe route through what was the front line between Serbia and Croatia.
Vukovar war cemetery is the site of a mass grave of Croat victims of the Yugoslav Civil War, marked with 938 crosses (Stage 8)
European Union
Following the collapse of communism in 1989, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria were quick in seeking new alliances within Europe. They all joined NATO and between 2004 and 2007 became members of the European Union. Croatia joined the EU in 2013 after difficulties had been settled arising out of the Yugoslav Civil War. Serbia has an application to join the EU pending, while even Moldova and Ukraine are considering applying, but the existence of substantial Russian minorities in both countries makes entry difficult. Hungary signed the Schengen agreement in 2007 allowing barrier free trade and travel within the Schengen zone; while Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria all plan to do so. None of the countries passed through have joined the Eurozone monetary union, but euros are widely accepted and many hotel prices are quoted in the currency. Despite being a member of the EU, Hungary has a strong nationalistic movement that dreams unrealistically of returning the country to the pre-Trianon borders of Greater Hungary.
As history has shown, this is not the first time that the whole of the lower Danube region has been politically unified. The Romans, Ottoman Turks, German Nazis and Soviet Russians all forced unity upon the region. This time unity has been achieved by democratic means!
Shipping on the river
The Danube has been a major trade artery for centuries; indeed, Genoese sailors established a number of riverside settlements in Romania in medieval times. However, the existence of fast flowing narrows such as the Iron Gates gorges made navigation difficult and sometimes dangerous. Two huge dams have tamed this natural obstruction and large barges can sail all the way upstream to Germany where, by continuing on the Rhein–Main–Donau canal, they can reach the Rhine and eventually the North Sea. Navigation was severely disrupted by the Yugoslav Civil War, when a number of bridges were destroyed and blocked the river. These have now all been cleared, but freight traffic has yet to regain pre-war volumes. Tourist boats are a very popular way of seeing the river. These mostly cruise between Passau and Budapest on the middle Danube, but some go all the way from Amsterdam to the Black Sea. Navigation on the river is controlled by an international commission. Distances on the river are marked by regular kilometre boards, which show the distance upstream from a 0km marker at Sulina near to the entrance to the Black Sea in the Danube Delta (Stage 32).
Cruise boats on their way to the Black Sea pass through the Iron Gates gorges (Stage 16)
The Danube Cycleway
The 1717km lower Danube Cycleway passes through four countries. The first 243km are in Hungary, followed by 537km through the former Yugoslav states of Croatia and Serbia. The remainder of the journey, 937km, is across the south of Romania, through the regions of Wallachia and Dobruja.
This route starts in the heart of Hungary’s capital Budapest (Stage 1), before leaving the city via the 48km-long Csepel-sziget island and then following the Danube south across the Great Hungarian plain (Stages 2–5) to reach the border with Croatia. After passing through a region slowly recovering from the Yugoslav Civil War (Stages 6–8), the Danube is crossed into the Serbian region of Vojvodina to visit the cities of Novi Sad and Belgrade (Stages 9–11).
Heading east through Serbia, using cycle tracks along long stretches of Danube flood dyke (Stages 12–14), the barrier formed by the Carpathian mountains is reached at Golubac. The next 150km is the most scenic part of the route as it follows the river through the deep and winding Iron Gates gorges traversing a gap between Carpathian (to the north) and Balkan mountains (to the south) (Stages 14–16). Emerging from the gorge before Drobeta-Turnu Severin, the route enters Romania and turns south following quiet country roads through a remote corner of Wallachia (Stages 17–18) to reach Calafat.
Veliki Kazan (Great Cauldron) is the narrowest part of the Iron Gates gorges (Stage 16)
For over 430km from Calafat to Călăraşi (Stages 19–25) our route follows the Danube road (Strada Dunarii), a road built in the mid-19th century to link riverside towns and villages in newly independent Romania. By now the river is flowing through a wide valley with a flood plain up to 30km across bounded by a river terrace СКАЧАТЬ