Viking Rinda: 92 departures towards the Black Sea, through Europe's largest gorge
Measured on 25 August 2026: 40 departures from Vienna to Constanța and 20 from Constanța to Vienna, out of 92 in total.
The Iron Gates
Between Serbia and Romania, the Danube forces a passage through the Carpathians over about 130 kilometres. In places the defile narrows to less than 150 metres, with walls rising more than 300 metres above the water. It is the largest river gorge in Europe, and you cross it in a day, from the deck, without leaving the ship.
Before 1972 that passage was lethal. The river fell through rapids and limestone reefs that swallowed craft for two thousand years; the Romans had cut a road into the cliff to haul ships from the bank, and Trajan's commemorative plaque, the Tabula Traiana, is still visible, moved higher when the water rose.
What the dam drowned
Building the Iron Gates dam, between 1964 and 1972, raised the river by tens of metres. The rapids vanished, and with them an island: Ada Kaleh, four hundred inhabitants, a Turkish population settled there since the eighteenth century, with its mosque, its bazaar and its lanes. The island was evacuated, then submerged. It now lies under some thirty metres of water.
On the Romanian bank, facing the river, a face 40 metres high was carved into the cliff between 1994 and 2004: Decebalus, last king of the Dacians, defeated by Trajan in 106. It is the largest rock relief in Europe, and it is not ancient at all — it was paid for by a Romanian businessman.
The hull: a Longship, 190 berths
135 metres, 190 guests, 53 crew, 95 staterooms: 25 Standard, 22 French Balcony, 39 Veranda, 7 Veranda Suites and 2 Explorer Suites. One crew member for every 3.58 guests, a ratio belonging to the Longship class — it does not hold across the rest of Viking's river fleet, where it falls to 1.71 on the Nile.
Viking Kadlin serves the same axis with 77 departures, and Viking Lif with 66.
Rindr, mother of the vengeance
Odin learns that he will have a son to avenge his son Baldur, and that the son will be born of Rindr. The account of how he obtains her is among the darkest in the corpus, and Saxo Grammaticus does not soften it. The son is called Váli; he avenges Baldur at one day old.
Getting there from Montreal
Vienna requires a connection from Montreal, usually through Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris or Amsterdam. Bucharest, at the Black Sea end, does too. Viking Vilhjalm covers the upper Danube with 189 departures if you prefer the classic stretch.
Booking: what you need to know
Viking's reservations site does not serve Quebec addresses: it redirects to a page stating it is unavailable and suggesting you go through an agent. The check takes 30 seconds and is better done than taken on trust.
On our side, nothing is booked without writing. Our Viking River Cruises advisors send you the exact fare, the inclusions and exclusions item by item, and the applicable conditions. AquaTerra Travels follows Quebec consumer protection rules and participates in the compensation fund for travel agency customers.
