Memory from Constanta

Eckhard sent the picture taken during dinner at a Constanta waterfront restaurant. 

Carl Hannes Leslie Dick and Eckhard 

Balchik-Varna, 30 August

SLeaving Balchik for a 20 nm trip to Varna. Kevin and I had a swim inthe morning on the beach closest to the marina. 

Leaving Balchik 

Golden Sands 

Varna marina 

The terminal building with a top class restaurant on top floor. 

Mangalia-Balchik, 29 August

Here we are nicely tried up at the Mangalia Marina. It is a beautiful morning and the next destination is Balchik in Bulgaria. The Mangalia waterfront offered a few restaurants and quite a few holiday hotels. The holiday season seems to be over. In the harbour a video promotion filming a la pirates of the carribean was taking place. 

Kevin happy to have survived the first day and looking forward to the trip to Balchik. The border control at Mangalia took much longer than expected due to Kevin's Aussie passport. It was such a novelty to the border police so Kevin had to take it away from them with force. 

Carl patiently waiting. 

This guy Vasily had developed a hydrofoil moped propelled by down ward force. After six hops the speed was more than 20 km/h. Way to go!

Vasily on his water aeroplane. 

The Romanian coastline

More coast. Coarse is 180 degree south. 

Rounding the Horn of ....on Bulgarian coast. 

Now about 2 hours to Balchik. Coarse now 270 degrees heading west. 

Balchik marina. The border police where the cranes are. A rabid dog attacked us and Kevin gave it a "voetsekk" and the dog disappeared. Kevin says globally all dogs understand voetsekk. Hehehe

Balchik. Nice little town with excellent marina and waterfront restaurants. 

Constanta - Mangalia 28 August

Weather is perfect, wind is perfect and waves are kind. Time to start the last leg of the planned 2014 adventure.

Last visit to the Marine Shop and all set to go.

Carl takes a last ride with the Bamberg Bike. The panzer holtz planken as well as the bike were  given to the Tomis Marina staff

Goodbye, safe travels.

LelleBelle with Carl and Kevin leaving the Tomis marina. Leslie moves into the Palace Hotel for the night and leaves for Istanbul tomorrow. Waiting like a true sailor's wife for the ship to come in, hopefully by 10th September.

I was given a room with a "partial sea view".This is the view, partially blocked by one of the many unfinished buildings.

Kevin and Carl happy to be in Mangalia. 

Constanta, 27 August

We are waiting for new crew member, Kevin, to arrive some time this afternoon. ETD from Constanta, tomorrow 11 am.

Preparing LelleBelle for the Black Sea. Scrubbing away the dirt collected from the canals and rivers the last three months. Checked the propeller and the hull for any strange bumps. Carl enjoying being in the water. Leslie scrub, scrub, scrubbing the deck in the hot sun.

And so Kevin has arrived all ready and eager to start the trip down the Black Sea coast. Kevin and Carl, friends since about 1982. Might they be getting older? Oh no, as childish as ever!

Kevin and LelleBelle. Last time Kevin saw LelleBelle was on land in Höllviken.

And so it is time to say goodbye to the Bamberg bike. We are leaving it with George in the marina together with the planks. Sad goodbye.

Constanta, 25 August

A glorious warm day in Constanta. A day to take it easy and do the small tasks which have to be done, like filling diesel and doing washing. 

And the planks which have protected us from damage in the locks are no longer necessary. Carl removing his best friends. We have had many comments along the way about our planks. But mostly understanding that they serve a purpose. In  Germany we had to hear "Holzpanser boot"

Took a walk up to the old town of Constanta. This is the archeological museum. The Greeks were the first to settle here some hundred years BC, then the Romans, later the Ottomans, but no Gustav Adolf. 

The mosque in the background which also overlooks our marina. We have only heard the calling to prayer once a day at 5 pm. 

Carl hoping that standing beneath the sign will make him "rik", rich in Swedish.

At the end of the pedestrian street in the old town is this statue of Romulus and Remus. Do not know why this statue is in Constanta, but maybe it has to do with all the lose dogs that wander around the town. We were warned about the dogs and how dangerous they were, but we have not seen so many and none of them have threatened us.

Constanta is a town if contrasts. This kind of building, of which there are many, is only 20  metres away from....

......this newly renovated building. Every third building is renovated or in the process of being renovated, every third building is unfinished and the rest are in a sorry state of disrepair.

Our marina by night. Had a delicious meal opposite Sammamontana, but did not photograph well enough to see the "SammaMONTANa" sign.

Constanta, Tulcea, Mila 23, 26 August

A free day today so we decided to take a bus to a town Tulcea, which is the start of the Donau Delta.

On the bus to Tulcea. Wonder what we have in store for us. Are we going to find a boat to take us into the delta?

On the boat into the Delta and Mila 23. We found a place where they were offering motor boat trips to a place called Mila 23, that is 23 km from the coast.

Even though it only took about 2 hous to reach Mila 23 we agreed that it was a wonderful experience. We saw many birds, mostly egrets, herons, swans, 1 pelicaan lots of others that we can not name. Can understand that it must be wonderful to take a slow boat through the Delta and spend at least 4-5 days there.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant at Mila 23. Fish soup, more fish, red wine, snaps and dessert.

The lunch pavilion. 

Prepared for the trip back to Tulcea. The Mila 23 village is very special. It is mainly inhabitaded by Russian descendants who where expelled from Russia because of their religious views. They are mostly blond. 

Leslie and our guide in the motorboat.

On the bus back to Constanta. 

Leslie in the front seat. The bus to Constansa takes two hours, a mini bus along interesting country side. We got front seats next to the driver on the way to Tulcea. We saw many vineyards, but even more vineyards that were abandoned. The driver told us that most of the vineyards were abandoned because it did not pay to produce wine. It is quite sad to see abandoned vineyards.

More pics from the Delta trip.