The Danube, second longest river in Europe, bids adieu to a demon December—a month during which it tried to disappear. Drought ravaged river levels in Serbia, Bosnia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, retarding trade.
On the Serbia-Hungary border, nearly 80 cargo ships become stranded. Passersby at the tributary Sava River can see unexploded bombs, dropped during WWII, poking through the surface of the water. The euro pantomimes the rivers. Johann Strauss (d. 1899), composer of the beloved waltz, On the Beautiful Blue Danube, turns over in grief, sadder even than other dead men.