Читать книгу The Danube Cycleway Volume 2. From Budapest to the Black Sea онлайн

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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).