The black-and-white paddle steamer permanently moored at the lower Faleza is hard to miss. Now operating as a restaurant and small museum, the Dimitrie Sturdza was built in 1914 in Linz and spent most of its working life on the Danube under several flags — Austro-Hungarian, Romanian royal, and later Romanian state.
You can step on board for a drink even without booking a meal. The original wheelhouse, brass fittings and wood panelling survive. It is the most romantic thing in Galați and gives the riverfront a character that the post-war apartment blocks behind it badly lack.