Good book to buy for Rhine Valley to the black Sea

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

What is a good book to read that covers the Rhine Valley to the Black Sea ?

[5326jan]

We did a Black Sea cruise with Princess in Sept 2011 and it was fascinating! I don't have any books to recommend, but if I was going again I would read this: http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Romania-Communism-Failure-Democratic/dp/0814732011

 

We were in Constanta, Romania and it was one of the saddest places I've been. Other contries in the region have made some progress after Communism, but Constanta... not so much. In the region, Constanta and Odessa in particular, there are homeless dogs everywhere. Some organization feeds them and neuters them, but they are completely ignored by people. They don't beg, fight, follow you or in anyway interact, but I think it's because they have never experienced interaction.

 

If you have a choice of going from the Black Sea to Germany instead of the reverse, I would recommend that. We felt like we were going into the darkness of a failed society until we got to Yalta and Turkey where things improved and people were happy. By the time we got to Slovenia, the world was in color again.

 

I don't want to leave the impression that the people in Constanta were bad, we had little interaction, but it was a "feeling" we had. Like there was so much potential, but they didn't know that things could be better or how to accomplish it. JMHO. No offense intended to anyone. :(