Eastern Danube, Day 6: Iron Gates

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Today we set our clocks back one hour as we changed timezones. That’s a good thing, because it helped everyone get up early to watch us enter the largest lock system on the Danube, the Iron Gates, about 6:30 am. We had already gone through Iron Gates II, a sizable single lock, in the middle of the night. Iron Gates I is a double lock, meaning that we entered one lock, and after that one filled, we moved forward immediately into a second lock. The second lock then filled bringing us up to the level of the river upstream.

After passing through the lock system, we were in the Iron Gates Gorge. In sharp contrast to the fairly flat terrain surrounding the river downstream, this section of the Danube has tall, steep sides and was a very strategic location for many centuries. In addition to the natural beauty of the canyon, we passed by a large sculpture of the face of King Decebalus carved into the cliff.

During the afternoon, the AmaVerde arrived at Golubac Fortress, our first stop in Serbia, and docked there. At the west end of the gorge and close to one of the narrowest parts of the Danube, Golubac Fortress was used to collect tolls from vessels passing through in addition to its role defending ownership against attackers.

We walked through the fortress and viewed exhibits of various trebuchets and similar armament before having a little time to explore the fortress. Afterwards, we were treated to samples of local wines, cheeses, olives, and bread before returning to the ship.

During the evening cocktail reception, we were given more bad news: the ship could not continue to Novi Sad as planned. Instead, we would spend an extra day in Belgrade, and a side bus trip to Novi Sad (part of the original itinerary) would be offered on Saturday instead.

After-dinner entertainment was a professional theatrical singer with an amazing voice.

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.