From the Danube to the Danube
I walk into the station hall. Behind me the door closes with the help of the counter-weight: a filled plastic bottle on a piece of string. The yellowish brown paint on the walls is peeling off. One old man is sitting on one of the brown benches staring at his hands. I come for the electronic departure board. It is silent. However, the traditional schedule next to it confirms: there should be an international train from Vidin to Craiavo at 13.00.
The station in Vidin
The station in Vidin has one platform which is separated from the others with high bars. The entrance is locked but behind it is a train, a rather new, graffiti covered Diesel multiple unit bearing the insignia of Romanian railway CFR. The gate is locked, but as always, I am far too early.
One of the shelters people provide for stray cats in the station of Vidin
I sit down on a bench and look around. Next to me, on the floor, a little house people provide here for the many stray cats. Behind me a banana plant has started a hopeful life next to the tracks. Most of the people seem to be waiting for the train to Sofia at the platform on this side of the bars. There are the gypsies again who were on the train to here yesterday. Nobody with a backpack or a roller case. No foreigners like in Bucuresti for the only other train connecting Romania and Bulgaria via Ruse.
The train from Sofia has arrived
Eventually a guy in a kind of uniform appears at the gate. He is just standing there. I grab my gear and walk up to him. Indeed, he collects my passport, and then, with the promise to give it back after it has been checked in the system, the gate opens magically. He must have some kind of remote control in his pocket.
Behind bars: the train from Vidin to Craiova
The platforms on this station are new. I open the door to the train but to bridge the gap between the platform and the lower floor of the train is a challenge. I get in, the door closes, the air-condition works full power but it seems to be hotter inside than outside. No windows to open here.
A couple of stations along the route from Vidin to Craiova
Meanwhile a second passenger has arrived. He waits outside on the platform. Old jeans around prominent belly, sleeve-less t-shirt, balding head, a plastic bag. From which he produces a bottle of raki and takes a good sip. Then he searches in his pockets and finds a dirty stub of a filter less cigarette which he puts in a mouth with more gaps than teeth. He tries to light the stub but it is too short. He looks at it and then throws it into the gap between train and platform. Instead he takes another sip from the raki bottle.
Draw-well
A neatly looking Romanian customs officer arrives to hand back my passport. Then the sweating conductor gets on the train and the station master waves it off. We are three, plus the conductor and a young driver.
One of the highlights of this train line is crossing the Danube on the new Europa bridge. I was very much looking forward to it. I gazed out of the window, saw the motorway with all the trucks coming from the bridge. Then I saw grain fields. The train stopped. Golenti, the first stop in Romania. I had fallen asleep. I have missed the bridge.
Stop without village
The departure from Golenti is delayed. Driver and conductor run hectically up and down the train. “engine problems” the sweaty conductor tells me. After a delay of 20 minutes they manage to get the train, a modern German product, running again. The stopover time for the connecting train in Craiova is 19 minutes.
Barely visible: a truck with beehives
The train does not run much faster than a fast cyclist. A view across the shoulder of the driver on the tracks shows why. There is more weeds than sleepers. It is no surprise that there are no heavy freight trains on this line.
Sunflower fields
The landscape is basically flat. Big fields of sunflowers which seem to point their blossoms in uniform away from the train. Next to the sunflowers containers with bee hives. There are few trees, usually at one of the stops. Frequently the shadow is used by a shepherd and his flock. A line where stations do not have a name. The train stops and there is nothing. No platform, no village, just a dirt road. Other stations are ruined. Then they come with a ruined toilet building and a draw well.
Country road
After one hour the first other travelers get in. A grandfather, parents and a daughter. They sit down close to me. The grandfather starts a loud monologue to entertain his granddaughter. The granddaughter prefer to play some irritant game with a lot of noise on her mobile device. I grab my stuff and move to the other end of the train. The view is worse: part of the windows there are covered in graffiti. And this part in the front of the train is much hotter.
The first additional passengers arrive
After almost 4 hours the railcar arrives in Craiova. I wanted to continue to Baile Herculane but the connecting train should have departed half an hour ago. I have checked the availability of hotels in Craiova. It seems to be an interesting town but hotels are either far away from the station or from the old part of town. It is so hot that I don't feel like walking with my backpack or even go sightseeing.
The hot and graffiti covered part of the train, left first class
People at the platform are waiting for a train. I look at the train announcement board and it shows a train with a delay of 60 minutes. It is the one I wanted to take to Baile Herculane. I walk into the station, go to the ticket counter and get a reservation for that delayed train from Craiova to my destination.
Fallen telegraph pole\
When I get back to the platform the delay has increased to 75 min, then to 85 and eventually to 90. That means that I will arrive in Baile Herculane after 9 pm. The center with the nice hotels is 3.5 km from the station. It will get late.
The train from Vidin in the station of Craiova
Most of the station in Craiova is modern. There are three decent platforms and an underpass. But that it is obviously not enough. Local trains stop beyond the regular platforms along a makeshift platform. People have to cross the tracks but there is no step down. A train arrives from Bucuresti at the makeshift platfrom. There are a number of people with lots of luggage, or should I better call it cargo. Under a lot of shouting a gypsi family gets out with all their belongings, which is a folded foam mattress, bundles of Harry Potter type witches’ brooms and a couple of plastic bags. Not that they could use the brooms. They are all far too heavy. They throw everything on the low platform while others load their cargo on the train. Most notably a wheelbarrow.
Train from Bucuresti arriving on the makeshift platform
The cargo now has to be shifted from the makeshift platform across track 3 to the ordinary platform, then down the underpass. Meanwhile my interregio train has been announced on that same platform 3 and the headlights a visible at the entrance to the station.
The gypsies mover their belongings
It slowly creeps towards us while the recent arrivals still shift their cargo and the gypsies their brooms across the track. I hold my breath. No warning cries, no sound from the engine. A rather immobile heavy woman hands another last bag across the track just before the train pulls up to the platform. The gypsies also have succeeded to move their belongings.
Delayed IC from Bucuresti to Timisaora creeps into the searing station in Craiova
I look for my seat in carriage 1. It is in a compartment. It is very hot inside. The window is locked. I share the compartment with a girl who immediately starts memorizing something from her notes and a guy in my age. We all sweat profusely. There is no air-condition. Fortunately there is an open window in the aisle. However, for the moment the aisle is blocked by the gypsies. They have stored their household next to the entrance and have started an extended discussion with the conductor. Meanwhile the mother and her fat son try to beg some money from me.
The belongings of the gypsies
From what I understand from their loud discussions is that the conductor wants to see a ticket which the gypsies don’t have. And they do not want to pay. At the next station the conductor kicks all of them out. The entire carriage is relieved. Maybe they can carry on their travels on their brooms.
The gypsies get off
Now the open window is free for me and for the remainder of the 2 hour trip I stand next to it. I have decided to change my destination. I will get off at Dorbeta Turnu Severin. That is one hour less of traveling and hotel and old part of town are rather close to the station.
Countryside between Craiova and Drobeta Turnu Severin
The countryside is delightful. Little villages with the well-known vegetable gardens. The farmers are busy harvesting their grain. Straw is collected on high stacks. In the green meadows horses rest from their work. Even across the rattling noise of the train you can hear the birds. There is a sweat summer countryside smell in the air. Slowly the sweat on my body tries up.
The Danube can actually be seen here in the distance
There are little industrial ruins in this area and practically no new constructions. The machinery of the farmers is small and old. The train line is not welded and from the window in the first carriage you hear the 6 axles of the heavy engine bounce on the joints in the tracks. Every level crossing seems to emit a different sound, from faint bells to loud sirens. Some of the stations are passed at the speed of a pedestrian. It is the first time I actually see a broken sleeper under an active track.
Arrival in Turnu Severin
Suddenly I discover the wide, shiny band of the Danube down below in the plain. The train begins a very slow descend. With a delay of two hours we reach Turnu Severin.
Monument for built between 1928-1933 as a tribute to the Romanian soldiers who fell on duty in the First World War, behind is Hotel Continental.
For a long time the Danube was the border between the Romans and the barbars to the north. Emperor Trajan (ruled 98-117 AD) was not satisfied with the situation since he wanted to have access to the Dacian gold mines (they are still there and preserved as a UNESCO monument). He started the first Dacian war in 101-102 AD. At first the Dacian leader Dezebal gave in. However, the peace did not last long. When Trajan started a second campaign in 105 AD he ordered to build a bridge to facilitate the movement of troops across the river. The bridge was designed by Emperor Trajan's architect Apollodorus of Damascus. In Rome, he also built Trajan's Forum, Markets and temple and the column of Trajan which not only celebrates the victory in the Dacian wars but also documents the bridge in one of the reliefs. But Apollodorus also designed the Alconétar Bridge over the Tagus in Spain, the triumphal arches of Trajan at Benevento and Ancona and his trophy near Adamclisi in Romania.
Model of Trajan's bridge
With 1135 m the bridge was the longest ever built in antiquity. 20 masonry pillars were sunk into the river. On the pillars rested wooden arches of 38 m wide. The bridge was 15 m wide and 19 m high. It only functioned for about 165 years. Eventually the wooden arches were destroyed in a fire and the Romans were not repairing the bridge to prevent easy access of the Barbarians to their territory. It needed almost 2000 years until the next bridge across the Danube was built in Romania in 1953. There is still none to Serbia.
Remaining pillar of Trajan's bridge on the Romanian side
It is already 8.30 pm but it is still very hot when I make my way from the station to the hotel which is on the high bank of the river. It is another of the big hotel blocks they liked to built in the socialist times. Next is the war memorial of the town. The block is surrounded by a vast expanse of mostly broken tiles. Next to the entrance a number of tables were mostly men drink beer and watch soccer on a screen they have put there for that purpose. Again I arrive at the reception covered in sweat. The girl checks me in and when I ask for a room with river view she gives me a free upgrade. In many words she describes the attractiveness of the town and its many sights. I am more interested in the restaurant. Fortunately they have one and even after my late arrival it is still open. Me and a woman arriving on the same train are the only guests. Unfortunately the terrace on the river side of the hotel is closed, probably because it is too much work for the waiter. I have a look but they have built the terrace in a way that there is no river view like from my room anyway. And it is much more pleasant in the air conditioned interior. The dinner is excellent.
The Danube at sunset from the hotel window. The building in front is the fire brigade
The sunset view of the river from my room is brilliant. There are surprisingly few ships going up and down. For the first time on this trip I can actually sleep with the window open. There is no noise coming from the river side and one of the windows actually has a mosquito net.
The center of Drobeta Turnu Severin is the result of a very recent urban development plan. In 1836 it was decided to built a basically new city on the higher grounds of the banks above the Danube. The town was laid out in a rigorous grid structure. Only two diagonal little squares interrupt the scheme.
Palace of Culture and fountain in the center
The few rebuilding projects taken place in the Ceausescu era were limited to the central park which is much less of a park than the area along the steep banks above the river. Most of the town preserves the original buildings of the 19th and early 20th century with lots of floral ornaments, little turrets and almost Venetian looking loggias with roofs resting on heavy columns.
It is highly pleasant to walk up and down the regular pattern of streets and enjoy the old architecture. Whereby the sightseeing again involves looking up whereby walking strictly requires to look down at the pavement to see where you put your feet since the sidewalks are patchy, there are gaps between or loose tiles, steel armaments stick out of concrete sewage covers and there are frequent steps up or down which can be easily overlooked. Again I get stuck with one of my feet at the edge of a loose tile and falling is only prevented because my elbow gets caught at the iron cover of a window sill.
The regular grid old town is crowned by the Water Castle (Castelul de Apă), a water tower built in 1914 which could easily acquire a prominent role in a new edition of a Harry Potter movie. Maybe featuring witches leaving the pointed windows in the roof of the tower on the brooms supplied by the gypsies.
The center of activity in town are a couple of market halls. The historic Radu Negru hall houses a cheap Chinese department store. But there also is a big market hall where farmer sell there produce, in particular the delicious tomatoes.
The remainders of the Roman bridge are at the eastern end of town. 2 of the 20 pillars of Trajan’s bridge are still visible, 1 in Romania and 1 in Serbia. In 1982, 12 others were mapped by archaeologists under the floods of the Danube. They are not visible any more since the water level meanwhile has increased.
The foundations of the antique fortress of Drobeta
On both sides of the bridge the access was protected by Roman forts. The one on the Romanian side was extensively excavated. While the outside walls originating from a structure built under Constantine stayed more or less the same inside additional buildings were added. There is not much more to see than the rebuilt foundations and a couple of columns. However, it can be well imagined that this was a big and busy place where timid soldiers looked to the north expecting the arrival of yet another wave of Barbarians. The fort was still used and rebuilt under the Byzantine emperor Justianian I who had succeeded to extend his empire to much of the borders of the Roman empire before.
The former amphitheater and the bridge for access of cruiseschip passengers
Outside the fort a Roman amphitheater was only discovered as recent as 2010. Only foundations are left but probably the upper structure was built from wood.
The museum of the iron gate
Next to the excavation site of the Roman remains of Drobeta is the museum of the Iron gate. It tells everything of history and natural history of the area. They also display an immense model of Trajan’s bridge. In the basement the museum even houses an aquarium. Various basins display different types of sturgeons, the fish the Danube is famous for.
Grumpy sturgeon
To make the archaeological site and the museum more accessible they have built a luxurious glass and steel bridge with an elevator across the railway tracks to a pier at the river. I guess it is meant to attract all these river cruises going up and down the Danube. While I look out at the river one of these huge boats slowly makes its way upstream, thereby sticking to the Serbian river bank. I have the museum and all its guards for myself.
Pier in the Danube
When the Byzantine empire began its long decline the area became the border between the Bulgarian empire, the Hungarians, the Wallachian Voivods and soon also the Turks. At a certain point even the order of the Johannites were stationed here. A new medieval castle was built in 1233. It formed the capital of the Banat of Severin, the rulers of Wallachia. Severin Fortress became the most important strategic redoubt on the Danube.
Severin Fortress
In 1524 Suleiman the Magnificient conquered and destroyed the fortress. The region more or less stayed under Ottoman rule until 1829. The retreat of the Ottomans was the first step for the formation of the Romanian kingdom.
Flower seller at the market
In the city center the elderly sit in the shady park and spin their yarns. Some homeless has reserved one of the benches by spreading out his mattress, pillow and sleeping bag. The Danube, 800 m wide at Turnu Severin, flows towards the black sea as unimpressed as ever before.
Bench reserved for a homeless
Sources:
Patrick Leigh Fermor, Zwischen Wäldern und Wasser, German translation, Fischer 2008
Decoration at one of the mansions in Drobeta Turnu Severin
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