Danube

June 2, 2011

Regensburg was awesome.  It is a well preserved medieval city. In addition to hosting a gothic church and scenic streets, it is also the birth place of Johnny Depp’s hat from the Alice in Wonderland movie.  That alone was worth the stop but even sansthe hat, it was definitely a cool place.

Unfortunately, I was ready to shop. The cruise director told us all the cool things we could by there – and as tempting as a yodeling bear was, I  no long have nieces and nephews young enough to carry out my revenge on my siblings and my great niece is too young to appreciate the yodeling.  After all, she is still getting used to the x-box.

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City of Three Rivers

June 1st, 2011

Arrived at Passau where we took a tour of the town called Dreiflüssestadt (City on Three Rivers), located where the Danube, Ilz and Inn Rivers converge.  There was a 17th-century Cathedral (St. Stephan’s Cathedral)l, where I attended an organ concert from the World’s largest cathedral organ.

The organ currently has 17,774 pipes and 233 registers and was really something to see not to mention hear.

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May 31st, 2011

We arrived in Melk just after lunch, home of a Benedictine monastery that was founded in 1089.  The monastery that exists today was built in the 18th century.  It is an active monastery and school and receives a lot of its funding through tourism.

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May 31, 2011

With the great weather, the ship planned our lunch on the upper deck – a taste of Austria. I am not sure what all of it was, but I pretty much tried everything sausage, cheeses, potato salad, schnitzel, pretzels and strudel. It was all good and went down well with the local beer.  Ironically, my favorite item was potato salad and I somehow managed not to get a picture of it. I guess I will have to go back and get it again someday!

May 31st, 2011

The boat sailed through the night.  I have been on river cruises before and remember having a hard time sleeping if the boat was sailing.  Especially through locks.  I haven’t had this issue on Viking.  We passed through a dozen locks the past couple of nights and I haven’t heard a thing.

It was nice to get up, have a leisurely breakfast without any morning tours. i spent the morning viewing life along the Danube.  There are plenty of small villages and in each village, there was a recently constructed maypole which continues to be a tradition in these parts. Occasionally, there was an abandoned castle.  What a great way to spend the morning.

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May 30, 2011

One day in Vienna is not enough. The city is visually stunning and there was plenty to see but with my limited time, I was not able to see hardly anything.  Vienna is definitely on my future places to spend some time.  We weren’t at this stop for very long and I heard some people complaining that we should have skipped some of the previous stops and spent more time at this one.

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May 29, 2011

I started the morning with a tour or Budapest.  Most of the places we visited I had already seen on the Hop On and Off tour but there were new nuggets of information.  More importantly, the sun was shining and it made for good pictures.

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May 28th, 2011

Woke up and went to breakfast right as they opened at 6:45 AM.  I t got myself organized, checked out of the hotel so I could spend the day touring.  I would later check into the boat.  It is definitely spring here in Budapest which means yesterday was high 70’s and sunny, today was cloudy and a high of 60.  I was a bit relieved – I brought more warm clothing than I did shorts.  I was worried I was going to burn through my shorts in a couple of days and then not have anything to wear.  It cooled down immensely.

I thought I was a pro at packing and although I am pretty good, I realized that it doesn’t matter what I pack if I don’t think about hat I should take when I leave the hotel.  Late in the morning it started to rain.  It was a downpour to be honest, where was my umbrella and rain ponchos?  In my suitcase that was being transferred to the boat.  I am so glad I packed those items so I could not use them when I needed them the most! Continue reading →

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May 25 and 26, 2011

After years of travel, I realized that there are some things that it doesn’t matter what country I am or what flight I am on, some things are universal.  First and foremost, economy class sucks.  I have yet to find on an airline where it doesn’t and on an international flights, it still sucks, just for a longer time.  Making it worst, there are always a few people who think for some reason they don’t belong in economy class and expects everyone around them to accommodate their needs.

I noticed my ticket said, “1 carry-on”  in both English and German. I thought it was a domestic rule but I guess it isn’t.  Most people are good about this, however, there are always a few that don’t even try and have four or five bags.  The women in front of me each had at least four bags – then they complained they didn’t have enough overhead space.  I wondered if they even knew if checking baggage was an option. Continue reading →