Sunday 10/15
Hi Family,
First, apologies for repeating two pictures that I sent by text message last night to the rest of the family, but since my sister Betty would not have received those, I have included them with this first email from our Danube River trip.
For Betty sake, let me say that the sunset picture is the view out our window in the intercontinental hotel, and the picture of Ron with Food is the picture of our dinner at a restaurant across the street from the hotel featuring food from Tuscany. Ron had a delicious dish of "black spaghetti" with king sized prawns , a little zucchini, and a garlic cream sauce. I enjoyed a coconut milk glazed chicken breast with tagliatelle, truffles, and sweet potato. Yum!
This morning after an amazing breakfast with the biggest buffet I have ever seen anywhere, we walked across what is called the "chain" bridge to the Buda side of the Danube we then took the funiculus up the hill to Buda castle, which is now an art museum. Next to the castle is the residence of the president and Prime Minister of the country, where the changing of the guard took place at noon.
After giving Ron a chance to have a brief rest in our hotel room, we are now in the lobby awaiting our group Walking tour of some parts of the city close to the hotel. We will have our first stop at Saint Stephen's basilica, followed by a tour of the opera house, a coffee shop start with a taste testing of Hungarian pastries, and then a tour of Andrassy Street, a pedestrian street lined with 19 century mansions and quaint shops. After that we will be coming back to the hotel and finding another wonderful stop for dinner.
Bye for now,
Bea and Ron
Monday 10 /16
Hello again Family,
Sending a small collection of photos from our previous day in Budapest. We enjoyed leisurely walks along the Danube and spent a significant amount of time in the two-story city market (fresh foods, meats, cheeses, etc. on the first floor, with hundreds of local craftsmen's wares on display in the circular balcony that makes up the second floor.)
After a stroll along Vasi Street (a mile-long pedestrian thoroughfare famous for its shopping), we also enjoyed an incredibly luxurious coffee hour -- with decadently delicious Hungarian pastries -- at the Gerbeaud Coffee House, begun in 1858 and still owned and operated by the same family that owned it in the 19th century. (They did have to "buy it back" after communist occupation.)
Unfortunately, the water level in the Danube was too low yesterday for the river cruise to dock in the city of Budapest, so our embarkation had to take place about 60 miles to the west in the town of Komarom (also on the Danube River, of course). Got ourselves settled, had the usual safety session to find out our "muster stations", and ended the day with a magnificent first dinner aboard the Viking Aegir.
We decided not to take the round-trip bus journey back into the city today but just to stay here and enjoy some "down time" on the boat with perhaps a walk into the little country town where we are docked. A very relaxing day ahead!
Love to each of you,
Bea
Wednesday 10/18
Dear Family,
Today's few photos are from the capital of the Slovak republic, Bratislava.
We enjoyed a morning trip on the Danube after leaving our port near Budapest at 3 AM. The trip took us through several locks, and Ron was awake for one of them. (I missed them all!)
The attached photos are all from the capital city of Slovakia. We didn't ask anyone to take a picture of the two of us today, but should be able to ask someone to do that tomorrow in Vienna.
We are especially looking forward to meeting Carole (Reinhart) & Manfred Stoppacher tomorrow. They are going to pick us up at our last stop on the morning excursion and take us to lunch at Mnozil (named after a highly entertaining brass group that we heard in London at the Royal Albert Hall a few years ago.) What a treat to have residents of Vienna -- and friends of the Holz family-- meet us and show us their beautiful city!
Ron joins me in sending our love to you all,
Bea
Thursday 10/19
Hello again, Family!
Today's pictures of Vienna are very limited because most of our touring time for the "leisurely" group (that is, those with mobility issues) was done by bus. Pictures through a bus window are never as good as those taken on level ground!
Our overview of Vienna ended at Saint Stephen's Cathedral, which we did have the pleasure of touring prior to meeting our friends, Carole (Reinhart) and Mannfred Stoppacher. After seeing where Carole taught at the university, we enjoyed a delicious lunch with them in a very quiet restaurant where we enjoyed a good long conversation time, after which they took us to a delightful place called the House of Music. (One picture of Carole and Mannfred shows them on a staircase where the white and black keys actually play notes. We all had fun with that!)
It's a bit impossible to encapsulate the House of Music experience, but there were rooms devoted to the famous musicians associated with Vienna, (lots of scores, paintings, letters, and various other historical information on exhibit for each composer,) then other rooms devoted to educational interaction devices to teach various aspects of the science of sound and how instruments work, and even a room where you can practice conducting the Vienna Philharmonic (sort of!) You choose one of six or eight scores exhibited digitally on the music stand in front of you, then, after an introduction from the "real" maestro, you pick up the baton yourself and the orchestra (on a large screen in front of you) "follows" as you speed up, slow down, or increase in volume with the width of your conducting motions. All either educational or very entertaining!
Tomorrow we will see some of the scenic Wachau valley as we cruise toward the city of Krems, Austria. Just two more days in Austria followed by two in Germany and then we will be on our way home.
Love to you all,
Bea
Sunday 10/22
Hello again, Family!
Our final day of the cruise has ended and we are about to "hit the sack" before a 4:20 AM wake up call. I've been having trouble sending this email all day, so I have decided to try sending the text first and sending the pictures in a second email
Today's pictures include us in front of our ship as we disembarked to meet our walking tour guide this morning. The second picture is from about the same vantage point but showing the other side of the Danube; in other words, the view from our state room balcony.
This town is much smaller than most of those we have visited and is very clean and charming. I think I enjoyed it almost more than any other location because we were able to dock within walking distance of everything.
The entire tour this morning was on cobblestone streets with steep inclines and steep descents. Along the way, I wanted to take a picture of one of the businesses to show some of the lovely fall foliage, so picture number three is a good example.
Picture number four shows the Town Hall where we had a rest while the tour guide talked a lot about the city's history. That rest was very much needed, because from there we went to the top of the steepest of streets in order to see the cathedral. There was a lot of major renovation going on, but what we did see was magnificent. Picture five is a glimpse of one small portion of the interior. In addition to enjoying our walk inside, we joined the end of one of the morning masses for their worship. A special treat was a postlude for two trumpets and organ--Handel's Concerto in B flat.
The cathedral houses the largest organ in Europe. It has 19,974 pipes, 255 registers, five manuals, and lots of other things for which I cannot remember the details. We did not expect to hear the organ played, so getting there before mass ended was an unexpected treat.
Our tour ended at the Cathedral, and by the time we got down the many steep streets, we were both very tired and ready for lunch. It was a special lunch in that this was the first day they could fully open the aquavit deck. By that I mean that they were able to open the floor-to-ceiling glass walls that span the entire width of the ship, allowing passengers to eat outside on a dining deck. Sunshine and warm weather finally permitted that option on this last day of the cruise.
After lunch, Ron took a welcome nap while I went back into town to do some shopping. Picture number six shows the pink tower that separates the cathedral area from the market area at the top of the city's steepest incline. Once you go through the gate at the bottom of the pink tower, there is a fabulous shopping district with row after row of delightful, quaint shops of every description. (I spent most of the rest of our euros buying sweaters for each of us to bring home.)
The last two pictures were taken at a park where the Inn river meets the blue Danube. We took a selfie while seated in the park for a little rest from that late-afternoon walk, and there is also a photo of a sign showing an aerial view of where the two rivers meet at that lovely park. Note how the rivers are a different color. (This reminded us of Pittsburgh where the Allegheny meets the Monongahela.)
Thanks to everyone who sent messages and assured us of their prayers for the safety of our travels!
Love to each of you,
Ron and Bea
Friday 10/20
Wachau Valley cruising began with the town of Dornstein, including a lovely church with a blue and white tower in honor of the Madonna, and the ruins of the castle of Richard the Lionhearted (which is a little hard to see in a small photo, but it's at the very top of the hill in the second picture). We also passed miles and miles of terraced vineyards along the Danube's steep riverbanks. (I can't imagine how they tend the grapes on these slopes!) The cruise director did a great running commentary with wonderful historical background information as we cruised this lovely area, and the sun eventually cooperated by slowly appearing from behind the clouds by mid-afternoon.
In between points of interest, the head chef came out to the main lounge to do an apple-streudel-making demonstration. (My diet has been woefully neglected this week, but the menus have been superb!) While everyone was gathered around to enjoy apple strudels, we took that opportunity to ask someone to take our picture together. I get so busy taking pictures with my phone that I frequently forget to include both of us together in our vacation pictures!
These few pictures don't do justice to the beauty of this part of the world, but we do feel honored each time we can travel to a new location, make new friends, and expand our horizons!
Love to each of you!
Bea and Ron
Saturday 10/21
Hello again, Family!
Our few pictures for today start with two from last evening. The first is one of the river boat entering a lock after dinner -- one of several locks that were part of this trip. I have to limit the number of photos I can send because some of the email services have size limitations, but we have pictures of the sides of the boat being no more than about an inch from the huge concrete walls of the lock. (As we stood outside on our balcony, we were no more than a thumbnail from the wall!)
Picture number two was my fabulous gift from the pastry chef at last evening's "Austrian dinner", which featured huge buffets of food from all of the countries we are visiting. The chef did a magnificent gluten-free cake for those of us who eat gluten-free, and it was a treat!
The third picture was a view from the balcony when we got up this morning, and the fourth was the "tschoo-tschoo" train which was today's mode of transportation for those with mobility issues. (Yesterday's bus tour and today's "train" tour limited the number and quality of our pictures, as it is really difficult to get good pictures when you're moving all the time!)
Picture number five was taken inside the Baroque church we visited, and the final photo is one I took of Ron just before we reboarded. In the background is the Bruckner concert hall. (Our boat is moored at the bottom of the slope on which it is built.)
Right now we are drinking tea and eating some cookies while we relax in the lounge with its floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Danube. Very relaxing!
Just one more day of cruising, so our final email from this trip will come tomorrow from Passau Germany.
We love you!
Bea and Ron
