Eastern Danube, Day 5: Vidin, Bulgaria

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Today we again have a morning somewhat at leisure, so Kenna and I ventured back into town in search of yogurt. We always like to check out a grocery store in countries we visit, and this was a good opportunity as we had heard a great deal about Bulgarian yogurt. Bulgaria has a unique yogurt culture it uses, and it is supposed to be very good. The grocery store is downstairs in the mall containing the souvenir shop we visited yesterday. While shopping for yogurt, we encountered several others from our ship on the same mission, so we were able to compare notes.

After returning to the ship and having lunch, we headed out for an afternoon tour to an ethnographic museum and a winery. The ethnographic museum had examples of traditional costumes, local porcelain, and armaments used in various conflicts. Our guide explained that the porcelain, in particular, was very precious during the Communist period in Bulgaria. People would save for years just to purchase a single piece.

A short bus ride took us to the Dos Alamos winery just outside town. Dos Alamos isn’t a very Bulgarian name, but signifies two poplars that were apparently on the property. We drank samples of their wine while the owner gave an introduction to his winery and some of the local traditions (festivals, etc.) surrounding their wine production. We sampled four of their wines, which Kenna and I enjoyed although we prefer more robust red wines.

After returning from the tour, we watched a short dance performance by some local youth (including our 19 year-old tour guide). We then got some bad news: because of very low water levels in the Danube, we would not be able to visit the Croatian city on our tour, Vukovar, and Mohács, Hungary, the last stop before Budapest. Instead, we would stop at Novi Sad, Serbia, and do some touring there. The following day we would need to take a bus to Budapest where we would stay in a hotel for the last night of our tour. Of course we were all disappointed but knew the water levels were outside everyone’s control.

We also passed a river cruise ship that had gone aground and from which all of the guests had to be evacuated by police boat. We later learned that the affected ship was the Viking Ullur, which had tried to approach Vidin to get supplies but was unable to do so. We were thankful for the skill of our Captain and that our ship didn’t experience the same thing.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to the Eastern Danube. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.