News and Views From my kids accomplishments, to my heretical perspective of the world

Everything is starting to run together. Lots of medieval towns, castles, cathedrals. Each is interesting in its own way, but I can’t really show that here in any way that anyone would care about. Even passing through locks is getting to be old hat. We must have done at least 5 just this afternoon. I still like to watch, if it’s convenient, but I don’t go out of my way any more.

We visited Salzburg, and saw the house where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born.

We visited Nuremburg and saw where Hitler held big rallies, and also where the Nazi trials were held after the war.

Probably our favorite little village so far was today’s Wertheim. It is a very quaint little town that was completely untouched during World War 2 (unlike almost every other German town of any size) and still looked much like it did in the 1800s. There was a US army base just outside of town for 40 years, until 1992, and apparently the soldiers made a good impression and the feelings here are positive towards Americans. Our guide today told us that her sister used to clean the apartment of an American soldier and ended up cleaning his house permanently in California, and bearing his children too, of course.

This house was built with a narrow footprint to reduce taxes which were based on amount of land. But upstairs they had more room. According to our guide, anyway.

We reach Amsterdam on Friday, then stay 3 nights in a hotel. Sounds like a very interesting city.

We’ve done ocean cruises before, and even a couple of river cruises, but this is our first Viking river cruise. Here are come comments.

There are only 190 passengers on this ship, compared to 3000 – 5000 or more on the big ocean cruise ships. That makes a big difference, and depending on your taste you might prefer one or the other.

If you really enjoy the shows on the big cruise ships, then this might not be for you. There is a little entertainment every night, but it is not up to the level of the big cruises. There are talks, though, and they have been pretty good, explaining how the river locks work, or the history of Austria, etc.

Everyone eats dinner at the same time; there is seating for the full 190 people in the dining room. There are no assigned tables, and we’ve had dinner with different people each night. That can be good or bad. Most of the time we’ve enjoyed our dinner table companions, but we’ve met one or two who think everyone at the table wants to listen to only them, and the one-sided conversation can be tiring. But you learn to avoid those people for the next meal.

The food has been excellent, with usually a red meat dish, a fish dish and a vegetarian dish each night. There is usually something typical of the region we happen to be passing through, and a local dessert too. No complaints about the food.

The cabins seem to be a little smaller than ocean cruise cabins, or so we heard from the other guests. We decided to splurge, considering that we would be locked up together for 2 weeks, and we got a mini-suite. It has 2 rooms; a bedroom and a living room, and the bathroom is also larger. Some of the other guests have commented that two people can’t pass each other by the foot of the bed, so they sound really cramped. We justified the suite by noting that the October prices made the suite about as cheap as a veranda room would normally be in high season. We have really enjoyed the extra room and recommend it.

One thing that really stands out on this cruise is the age of the guests. I would guess that the average age is about 65, and the youngest guests might be as old as 50. There are certainly many guests in their mid-70s and I’m sure some in their 80s. That means that queues to load the bus, etc., move pretty slowly. Sometimes at dinner I feel I am with people my age, and sometimes I feel like I’m eating in my mother’s assisted living dining room. But everyone has been nice, even the conversation dominators, so it’s not bad. At least there are no kids running up and down the halls.

The included tours have been really good and that’s all we’ve done at most stops. The tour guides have been excellent. They all speak really good English and know their subject. The only downside is that most of the guests on the ship also settle for the included tours, and even though they break us up into 3 or 4 buses and groups, each with a guide, they are still really large groups. We all have listening devices so it’s easy to hear the guide, so it’s really not a problem. When we have taken an optional tour, at times there were only 15 or so guests, and that was more fun. But the included tours were pretty good anyway.

In summary, the main difference seems to be the size of the ship. I like seeing the same people every day and getting to know them by name. I am not too excited by the entertainment on the big ships, but Gisele misses it. And I don’t get as much exercise climbing one flight of stairs to go to dinner as I would on a big ship where it might be 6 or 8 floors. But all in all I think it’s a great experience and most of the guests we’ve talked to agree.

After Budapest, the next stop was Vienna, Austria. Vienna is the capital and largest city in Austria, with about 1/4 of the country’s population.

We opted for the walking tour “Vienna Close Up” rather than the included bus tour. We rode the subway into central Vienna and then spent about 3 hours walking around with a guide. It was nice.

Here is the largest cathedral in Austria. Too ornate for my taste.

Here is a sign for the ballet that is playing right now in the main opera house.

This was part of a holocaust memorial. Look closely and you can see an old jewish man with a long beard, sprawled out scrubbing the floor. The barbed wire was added later because people passing by thought it was just a bench to sit on.

And here is Gisele sitting on our balcony watching the Austrian countryside pass by.

The next day (today) we visited Melk Abby, a very large abby, in fact a UNESCO World Heritage site. The abby has been around since about the year 1100, but the current building was constructed in the 1700s and renovated in the past few years.

Next stop: An excursion into Salzburg.

Ten hours from Phoenix to London on British Airways, then two and a half hours to Budapest. We arrived about 6:30 in the evening, but it was around 8:00 before we made it to the ship and settled into our room.

The next day we took a tour of the city, which is really two cities, Buda and Pest (pronounced “Pesht”) across the river from each other. Pest is flat and where most of the modern development is occurring, while Buda is very hilly and older.

Lots of history. Local history has it that the Hungarians went to Asia for a while, and then came back in 896 to resettle the area. They have a long history of being conquered, first by the Huns and the Mongols, then the Ottoman Empire, the Austrians, the Nazis and finally the Russians. The Russians were at first welcomed as liberators at the end of World War II when they drove the Nazis out, but they later turned out to be even worse.

But now they are free and independent.

The country reminds me of other European cities, lots of old memorials and cathedrals, mixed with modern western life of cars, apartments and smart phones. They are part of the European Union, but still use their own currency. Meeting a Hungarian on the street, I wouldn’t be able to tell him from a German or French until he started talking. Their language is quite unique, unrelated to any other known language. Historically it was believed to be closest to Finnish, but I hear that that link is now out of favor.

We left Budapest last evening about 5:30, travelled all night, and are still sailing north and west towards Vienna. I’m surprised that almost all the scenery is of trees lining the banks of the river. I had assumed that all of Europe was settled with farms and towns, but there are apparently a lot of forested areas left.

Here are a couple of pictures on the river, the blue green Danube.

Zooom in to see the car on the barge. Kind of like Donna towing a car behind her RV. And notice all the trees on the bank. It’s been like that most of the way.

The second of 65 locks we will pass through on this trip.