Today after saying farewell to Bucharest again we set sail on our river cruise with Amadeus Royal. A sense of disappointment was felt when we entered our cabin to find that the "panoramic" window was only about 12 inches wide and we had to stand on a chair to look outside......should have done the upgrade!! Met our fellow travellers who seem to be a mixture of Australians, British, Italian and a few other nationalities thrown in all of whom we will get to know as the days pass by.

Dinner tonight was excellent so if that is a slice of what to expect over the next 10 nights then I am going to have to do a lot of walking. Our waiter has already got to know our tables of rather rowdy Australians

Some fast facts about the Danube as we prepare to head down river to meet the Black Sea.

The Danube, known by various names in the 10 countries that it passes through, originates in the Black Forest of Germany and flows for approximately 2,857kms before it meets the Black Sea. The river has witnessed the histories of the earliest human settlements, of different cultures, and perhaps most importantly that of the Roman Empire. Even today, the river acts as a link between Western and Eastern Europe and the hundred million people that live near the Danube speak 20 different languages. How's that for diversity?

Just before reaching the sea it forms the second largest and best preserved of Europe's deltas: 2,200 square miles of rivers, canals, marshes, tree-fringed lakes and reed islands.

v The Danube River is the most international river on the planet - its course runs across — or forms a part of the borders of several countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and four capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade.

v Formed over a period of more than 10,000 years, the Danube Delta continues to grow due to the 67 million tons of alluvia deposited every year by the Danube River.

v The Delta is formed around the three main channels of the Danube, named after their respective ports: Chilia (in the north), Sulina (in the middle), and Sfantu Gheorghe (in the south).

v The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve has the third largest biodiversity in the world (over 5,500 flora and fauna species), exceeded only by the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Galapagos Archipelago in Ecuador.

v The Danube Delta is home to over 60% of the world's population of pygmy cormorants (phalacrocorax pygmeus), 50% of red-breasted geese (branta ruficollis) and the largest number of white pelicans (pelecanus onocrotalus) and Dalmatian pelicans (pelecanus crispus) in Europe.

v It also is home to the world's largest reed bed expanse - 625, 000 acres / 240,000 ha.

v Some 15,000 people inhabit the Delta area, living in 28 villages and one city (Sulina).

v The area was first attested by Herodot of Halicarnas (484 - 425 B.C.).

v More than half of the Delta Biosphere Reserve is virtually intact.