AmaWaterways Danube River Cruise Excursion to Pecs, Hungary during a river cruise that will travel from Budapest, Hungary to Istanbul, Turkey with stops at Vukovar, Croatia; Novi Sad and Belgrade, Serbia; Vidin, Bulgaria; Bucharest, Romania, Veliko Tarnovo and Plovdiv, Bulgaria. AmaWaterways is currently operating 15 luxury river cruise ships all over Europe, in Russia between Moscow and St. Petersburg, along the Mekong River from Vietnam to Cambodia and on the Chobe River in Africa in conjunction with land safari programs. Pécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county. Pécs is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pécs. The city Sopianae was founded by Romans at the beginning of the 2nd century, in an area peopled by Celts and Pannoni tribes. By the 4th century it became the capital of Valeria province and a significant early Christian center. The early Christian necropolis is from this era which became an UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 2000. Its episcopate was founded in 1009 by Steven I, and the first university in Hungary was founded in Pécs in 1367 by Louis I the Great. (The largest university still resides in Pécs with about 34,000 students). Pécs was formed into one of the cultural and arts center of the country by bishop Janus Pannonius, the great, Hungarian, humanist poet.[3] Pécs has a rich heritage from the age of a 150 year long Ottoman occupation, like the mosque of Pasha Qasim the Victorious on Széchenyi square. Pécs always was a multicultural city where many cultural layers are encrusted melting different values of the history of two thousand years. Hungarians, Croatians and Swabians still live in peace together in economic and cultural polarity. In 1998 Pécs was given the UNESCO prize Cities for peace for maintaining the cultures of the minorities, and also for its tolerant and helping attitude toward refugees of the Balkan Wars.[4] In 2007 Pécs was third, in 2008 it was second Livable city (The LivCom Awards) in the category of cities between 75-200 thousand inhabitants.[6] In 2010 Pécs was selected to be the European Capital of Culture sharing the title together with Essen and Istanbul. The city's motto is: "The Borderless City". After receiving the title major renewal started in the city. Renewed public places, streets, squares and neighbourhoods, new cultural centers, a concert hall, a new library and center and a cultural quarter were designed. AmaWaterways is celebrating its 10th Anniversary by looking back on an award winning 2011 which saw their fleet expanded to 15 of the most luxurious river cruise ships in the industry. In 2012 they will add the AmaCerto, with a host of amazing new design features, and the Zambezi Queen, which will ply the waters of the Chobe River in the Chobe National Park during AmaWaterways African Safaris and Wildlife River Cruises. While adding new ships every year, AmaWaterways is always retrofitting existing ships with the latest amenities, upgrades and inventions. With a commitment to bring the best in river cruise vacations, AmaWaterways' has always and will always lead the way in unparalleled on-board services that are constantly fine-tuned for the highest customer satisfaction. These factors, combined with a slate of new itineraries and specialty programs such as extremely popular Wine River Cruises, which were launched in 2010, had made AmaWaterways the front runner in this burgeoning new segment of the travel business. Over the years AmaWaterways garnered a number of Magellan Awards from Travel Weekly, picked up an Award of Excellence form Luxury Travel Advisor, a Cruise Passenger Readers Choice Award in Australia for Best River Ship and was recognized for its Twitter account that put AmaWaterways on the list of "The Top 25 Online Cruise Vacation Influencers" by Influencers in Travel. For more info about river cruising with AmaWaterways in Europe, Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Africa go to www.AmaWatewaysPR.com.

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