Last night we booked a small group tour to an area of the country that we had been looking forward to seeing by bike. This is the "Iron Gates Gorges" in a national park.

So we were picked up at our hotel by a small van and with 4 other guests, the driver and the hostess, we set off for a full day adventure.

After about 2 hours, we arrived at the Golubac Fortress, a medieval fortification built at the entrance to the Gorge, where the Danube river goes from being 5 km wide to a very narrow area bordered by the Carpathian Mountain cliffs. The landscape is spectacularly steep and rocky.

This fortress dates back to the 12th century and has an interesting past. Its claim to fame is that it has never fallen despite many change of hands and battles that have taken place. The restoration of the Fortress was completed about 3 years ago and up to that point the riverside road went right through the fortress ruins. Today there is a tunnel going around the fortress.

After a few pictures from various lookout points, we were back in the bus and heading to Lepinski Vir, a small village on the banks of the Danube in the Gorge area. In 1965, this ancient Mesolithic village was discovered. This settlement, dating from between 7000BC and 5000BC, is one of the oldest urban sites in Europe. The village remains were moved 30m up the bank to protect it from the water and a large protective shelter was built over it. The museum and film gave an interesting view of the findings.

Then, we were driven another 15 minutes into the park to a local restaurant. But this was no ordinary restaurant. This place is high up on a hill, overlooking the Danube and the owners have turned their property into a beautiful area, serving homemade Serbian food and sitting outside on picnic tables.

With lunch over, we headed back to the City. Everyone on the bus had a little sleep.

We were happy that we had chosen to explore this area like this. The guide was very good as she gave us alot of information, told some legendary stories and was very hospitable.

Once we were back in our hotel, we took a walk to the city fortress and park, only a few metres from our hotel. A lovely and very large park with a nice look-out area of the city and river.