Budapest, Day Two

Yesterday I walked all around the hotel.  Many many shops, but they are all designer shops (Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, and scores of others) so I didn't go into any of them.

The Harley store was 2-1/2 blocks away, so I got over there and bought more shirts and other Harley paraphernalia.  We wanted shirts that said Budapest.  There were a whole bunch of Americans in there asking for shirts that said Budapest.

Then Marshall and I walked up and down the shopping district.  There was a Starbucks at one end (you know I love my Starbucks...) and the Starbucks took Euros, Forints or US Dollars, so I didn't have to worry about exchanging any money. 

We got back to the room and tried our best to watch TV, but it was beyond our abilities to figure out how to use the TV.  (We didn't have any luck getting on the internet, either). And we were honestly so darn tired that we took a nap that lasted all night!

This morning we went down for breakfast and then over to Starbucks.  We figured out the TV and the hotel helped us get on the internet.  In about an hour we leave for our 3-hour tour of both sides of the city.

Here are some representative photos so far:

Budapest bridge at night

Across the street from the hotel.

Fair across from hotel.

 

Tomorrow morning we leave for the airport and on our way back home.  May post pictures tonight of our tour today around Budapest (now that we have command of the internet once again!!)

 

 

 

 

Budapest, Day One

We docked in Budapest at 8:30 this morning.  The entire boat left the ship for a tour of the city.  Marshall and I stayed here because we have two more days here and plenty of time to explore with a taxi driver.

Last night Marshall was in pain again so we missed the Captain's farewell dinner.  One of the cabin stewards brought us a tray of food, bless her heart.  This morning he felt better and we are keeping the Advil coming so we stay ahead of that pain.

I needed another suitcase to bring back my purchases so I talked to the ship's concierge and just two blocks away is a shopping district.  So I spent an hour or so shopping.  The currency here is Forints and 300 forints equal 1 US Dollar.  My suitcase cost 46,000 forints.  It felt weird signing that credit card receipt.

The little shopping district was adorable so I am including photos.  Also, at every stop we make another ship shows up with big red lips on the front.  That ship is behind us today right off of our verandah.  Cute.

I am now packing.  We leave the ship tomorrow at 9AM to go to our hotel.  We hope to find another Harley dealer here.

Shopping district

Shopping District

Shopping district

This is one of the views from our ship.  I have no idea what this building is but it is HUGE.

Lips boat.

Vienna, Austria

Today there were several tours, but we have kind of been discouraged from trying to take the tours because Marshall just can't walk very fast or very far without resting.  So we got up this morning and Marshall said, "I wonder if there's a Harley dealer in Vienna". We got on the internet and found the address for Fischer Harley and we asked the ship's concierge to arrange a car for us.

We got a wonderful taxi driver who first took us for an hour's drive through Vienna and pointed out buildings of interest.  The city is just filled with ancient castles and other buildings that are hundreds of years old sitting next to modern buildings that are recently built.  The driver was so informative.  We took a lot of pictures.

Then he took us to the Harley dealer and we spent 30 minutes picking out t-shirts for us and for grandkids.  We arrived back at the ship at the same time as one of the tour buses and as people got off the bus and saw my Harley shopping bags, we were the center of attention.  It was amazing the people who would have rather gone to the Harley store than the tour they were just on.  So a bunch of our fellow passengers ran to the concierge and arranged their own car to go to the Harley dealer before we sail later today.  Cool!

Tonight is the Captain's Farewell Dinner and tomorrow we will be in Budapest.

Vienna

Vienna



Vienna

Fischer Harley Davidson, Vienna, Austria

Melk, Bavaria

Last night Marshall was in a lot of pain, so he took an Advil+oxycodone combination and went to bed.  This morning he felt better so we assume he just overdid it yesterday.

We docked in Melk, Bavaria this morning and I took the tour of the Melk Abbey and then walked back to the ship through the tiny town.

We left Melk at noon and began the most scenic part of the entire cruise – castle ruins along the Danube.  This is kind of what we expected the entire cruise would be like.

But today was exciting.  All of the passengers were on the Terrace taking pictures of castle after castle, as well as colorful towns.  But a few hours of that and we were back to cruising down the Danube looking at lush greenery. 

Anyway, we docked in Vienna this evening.  Most of the passengers left the ship to attend a Mozart concert in Vienna, but we decided we would just have dinner and get rest so we can be up early tomorrow to explore Vienna.  We are going to see if we can hire a driver to take us around for a few hours and point out the sights.

The Program Director on this cruise is a piece of work.  There are several other people on board who are “handicapped” like Marshall and she clearly would prefer that handicapped people sit in a corner and leave her alone.  We’ve spent a bit of time with a couple from Scotland.  The wife, Yvonne, is a cancer survivor and now has some sort of problem with her legs that makes walking difficult.  She uses a cane, like Marshall, and she also brought her own wheelchair.  Her husband is an energetic fellow and handles pushing her around during the tours.

When we were in Regensburg the Program Director told Phil that he and Yvonne were holding up the group and they should consider not going on any more tours.  When it comes to Marshall, she just says, “You shouldn’t attempt” this tour or that tour.  She called our room this evening to ask why we weren’t at the gangplank ready to leave for the Mozart concert because the group was ready to leave.  I told her we weren’t going to the concert.  She said, “Then why did you sign up for it.”  I told her we didn’t.  She insisted we did.  Then she must have looked closer at her list and realized she was mistaken.  Did she apologize?  Of course not.

Anyway, enough of that,  Thank goodness we don’t have to deal with her very much.  We have heard quite a few complaints about her.

Looking forward to Vienna tomorrow…

 

The view of the town of Melk from the top of the Abbey.

On the terrace this afternoon -- the sun finally came out.  Briefly.

One of the castle ruins along the river.  This is where Richard the Lionheart was held captive during the Crusades.  I commented, "Oh, like in Robin Hood!". And our shipmate said, "Yes, but this one is real."

 

Passau, Bavaria

We are now on the Danube River and we are seeing all of the picturesque and beautiful towns and structures that the advertising promised.  It is beautiful.

An interesting fact about the Viking Cruise: there are so many of these Viking Cruise ships on the Danube that there is no room for them to dock at the various cities.  So they tie themselves together.  The first ship to arrive gets the dock, Ship No. 2 gets tied to Ship No. 1, and Ship No. 3 (which was our ship today at Passau) gets tied to Ship No. 2.

So when the passengers from our ship disembarked today for their various tours and sightseeing ventures, we had to make our way through our ship up to the top deck, cross the gangplank to Ship No. 2, walk through Ship No. 2, cross the gangplank to Ship No. 1, walk through Ship No. 1 and then take the gangplank to the shore.  And when we returned to the ship we had to do all of that in reverse.

To make it even more interesting, if Ship No. 1 or 2 has to leave earlier than the other two ships, sometimes when we come back to our ship we see only two ships tied together instead of the three that were there when we left and it can cause a moment of panic (smile).

The highlight of Passau is St. Steven’s Cathedral which is a church that had burned down in the year 1662 and was rebuilt in what they call the baroque style.  This cathedral houses the largest pipe organ in the world, with 19,974 organ pipes.  Marshall particularly likes old churches – and he felt good today – so we decided to make our way to see the church on our own.

It was overcast and raining and it was uphill on cobblestone streets all the way to the church (about a ¾ mile walk).  He did wonderfully.  Halfway there we stopped at a delightful coffee shop for a latte and a short rest.

The church was everything we expected and we spent 30 to 40 minutes taking it all in.  The organ was spectacular.

Then we went to lunch at a café near the church and had a half pint of Hackleberg Urhell beer and when we were finished the waitress called us a cab to take us back to the ship.

Because we are getting close to Vienna, tonight’s dinner was a sampling of the kinds of food we would get in Vienna.  It was delicious.  There were also two musicians in traditional dress – one with accordion -- playing polka music.  This was an unexpected nostalgia trip for me.  I grew up in a German town in Illinois and this was the kind of music that was played at all functions (weddings, reunions, etc.), so I was taken back to memories of my mom and dad and my first boyfriend (who was German).  It was a great evening. 

Playing the Chicken Dance.  The guy on the left did a cute little butt wiggle that I just couldn't capture.

Town of Passau

Heading to St. Steven's Cathedral in Passau

St. Steven's is through this tunnel

Pipe organ at St. Steven's Cathedral

Reboarding the ship at Passau

 

Regensburg, Bavaria

Marshall woke up with a few back pains this morning, so he didn't attempt to go into town.

I have learned that even though I thought we have been progressing down the Danube River, for the past three days we have simply been navigating the canal and the 21 locks we had to go through.  Today we finally reached the Danube and we hope that the scenery will get more interesting.

I joined the walking tour of Regensburg, one of the oldest cities in Europe, with lots of medieval buildings.  This is the town that contains the oldest restaurant and bar in the world.  In English it is called The Sausage Kitchen.

The walking tour was very crowded because the town is small and every boat that was docked here had 8 or 9 tours of 20 or 30 people each.  It was much like being on a Chicago street during rush hour, so a lot of the quaint qualities were lost.

The streets were rough cobblestone (mostly laid by the Romans) and VERY narrow.  And although it appears that the bicycle is the vehicle of choice, there were still plenty of cars and when a car came down a street that we were walking on, we had to literally squeeze ourselves to the walls of buildings to avoid the cars!

We saw a medieval cathedral (that was being renovated), an 800-year-old stone bridge (that was being renovated) and a medieval city hall (that was being renovated).  At the end of the tour I went to the Swarovski store to buy souvenirs.  They had cuckoo clocks (which you would expect in Bavaria) and beer steins (which you would expect in Germany in general), so lots of things to buy.  I now need a new suitcase which I will try to get tomorrow in Passau, the last city in Bavaria that we will visit prior to entering Austria.

Then I went to The Sausage Kitchen to get Marshall some of their famed sausages.  It is billed as the oldest restaurant in the world, but what that means is that a stone wall of this restaurant withstood the years and the restaurant was kind of rebuilt around those stones.  It was a popular place to get these sausages, but Marshall was not impressed (smile).  He thinks the sausage in the good old USA is much better.

Tonight we were at a dinner table with a couple from Scotland and another couple from England and it was a totally enjoyable evening.

Here are some representative photos from today:

Our ship -- showing the balconies on the staterooms

Medieval cathedral

This is the building where Napolean recovered after being injured.  He used Regensburg (and this building) as his headquarters until he was well enough to leave.  The plaque on the front of the building has NAPOLEAN on it.

This is one of the streets in Regensburg and all of these people are part of the various tours.  This line went very far to the front and very far to the back.  It was fun to see the city but fighting the tour crowds made the tour less pleasant.

Nuremberg Tour

Today was the bus tour of Nuremberg.  We were driven through the city and many buildings were pointed out.  Then we stopped at Hitler's Rally Grounds at Zeppelin Field.  It was fascinating to stand in the spot where such awful history took place.

The sun was brilliantly bright today so it was very difficult for me to get a good picture.  This is the best I could do.  Hitler's "podium" is kind of dead center in the picture.  Our guide is in the process of telling us a story.  He said that he brings tours to this area every day and quite often he will see young people up on the podium raising their arm in the Nazi salute, which he thought was in very poor taste.  Then one day he took a better look and realized that what these young people were doing was taking "selfies"!  He is demonstrating that in this photo.

After Zeppelin Field we were dropped off at Market Square to do some shopping.  They made sure Marshall was comfortable (he is sitting close to a McDonald's talking with a guy he met from Michigan...both waiting for their wives).

 

 

The boat sailed shortly after we got back on board and we started going through a series of locks.  Here is a photo of Marshall relaxing on our verandah while watching the locks open and close.

 

Tonight is the welcome dinner.  And right now I have no idea what tomorrow's plans are.  I think we will be in Regensburg and supposedly that town contains the oldest restaurant and bar in the world.