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As morning arrived we found ourselves in the Black Sea Canal. A Romanian project; it is a 64 km canal that was completed in 1984 with the purpose of shortening the route to the Black Sea by 370 km.

The canal took over nine years to construct, by hand, by over 30,000 people. Although there were plans for building this canal since the 19th century, the construction only began in 1949. It became known as the Death Canal in an earlier attempt to build it when, during the communist purges, some 40,000 people, most of them convicts for political reasons in Romanian forced-labour camps, were worked to death on the project between 1949 and 1953 .

Things got busier as we approached the Black Sea Port of Constanta.

On arrival buses were waiting to take us on a tour of the city, with the first stop the spectacular Roman ruins followed by a visit to the major museum. Constanta was affected by the two World Wars, the town being reconstructed each time. Outside the museum we noticed very modern looking buildngs but in need of serious repair.

The tour continued and showed a mixture of classic & modern with dull & gawdy colouring — interesting combinations. Our next stop was the Romanian Orthodox Episcopal Cathedral, having the "Apostles Saints Peter and Paul" as its patrons and then it was out to the beach to stick our toes into the Black Sea. No crowds in November. Next we were left on our own downtown. Three things stood out: the large number of high-end stores, holes in the sidewalks without warnings and parents using children to beg for money. Then, it was back to the ship where we were greated by a lady trying to sell — you guessed it — ships.

That evening, we listened to the ever enjoyable music of our ship musician, Gito and I think, we were the last to call it quits.