Four countries, three capital cities

We will travel through four countries on our cruise and will visit the capital cities of three of them.

We start in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

Hungarian flag

According to mapsoftheworld.com, this flag was approved as the national flag of the country in 1867. It was officially used to represent Hungary during the First World War when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. During the Second World War, after Germany occupied Hungary, the flag was abolished and was replaced by five different national flags. It was only in 1956 when anti-Soviet sentiments began to surface, that the plain tricolor of red, white, and green was formally adopted as the official flag of Hungary.

Our next stop will be Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic.

Slovakian flag

Adopted on January 1, 1992, the flag of the Slovak Republic includes the country's coat of arms.  The cross symbolizes traditional Christianity, the meaning of the three "mountains" is less clear.  Some claim they represent three mountains (or mountain ranges) called Tatra, Fatra, and Matra, but many historians claim that this is simply a theory and has no historical relevancy.

Our third stop in our tour of Danube capitals is Vienna, the capital of Austria.

Austrian flag

This is one of the world's oldest flags, in use since the 13th century when Duke Friedrich II adopted a red-white-red flag to differentiate Austria from the Roman Empire.  Vienna has been the capital of Austria since the 12th century, when Henry II moved his residence there.

Our final two stops, Passau and Regensburg, are in Germany.  Berlin, the capital, is nearly 400 miles north of the Danube.

Flag of the Federal Republic of Germany