Recap

We are back in the States and the software has returned to English.

A long held opinion that I reached years ago is that one needs to spend at least a couple of weeks in a place to start to understand it. This trip bore that out. While the time on the boat was great to get a snapshot of a dozen places, it was only that. And since we were looking to relax and watch the world slide by, A snapshot was perfect.

The end of the trip was a couple of days each in Vienna, Budapest and Prague. Because Vienna is huge we never really got a chance to experience it. We did enjoy what we did but we were left with the feeling that we missed more than we saw.

Budapest wasn't as overwhelming and our experiences seemed to be more representative of the city. That lead us to like it better in comparison.

We got the impression that Prague was the smallest of the three and we grew to figure it out a little bit. At least part of that was because we met more people that spoke some amount of English.

By the way, I ate like a king. I ate everything I wanted and as much as I wanted and I lost 7 pounds. I should write a book and call it "European River Cruise Diet".

Praha

This working in my fourth (?) language is getting old. The software keeps updating to the language of the country were we are located but not to the only language I know.

Prague has been hectic to say the least. Five hour tours of a few of the significant historical spots, getting lost, found and lost again can fill a day. Saturday night did a "Beer & tapas" tour. I used to call it a pub crawl but this was a couples event so the named changed. It was fun. The photo is one of four bars we visited.

Europe has turned the public restroom into a cash cow. There are few of them and they cost between fifty cents and a dollar. It seems there is always a line and little is spent on cleanliness. Interesting too is that the hot water faucet, thankfully still on the left, turns clockwise for on while the cold faucet turns counterclockwise.

Off to the airport in a few minutes.

Off to Prague

Today is a travel day. We are packed and waiting for the bus.

OMG

Talk about a magnificent entry. As we sailed into Budapest the early morning fog lifted and the sight was unbelievable. The most grand Parliament Building on the Pest side and church spire after church spire on the Budapest side. Absolutely gorgeous! So much so that I forgot to take a picture.

Good news. The background language of Blogger isn't German anymore. Bad news is that it is Hungarian.

Near the end

Today is our last day in Vienna and our last day in Austria. We have only a night time cruise to Budapest for the finale of the river cruising portion of the trip. Surprisingly we have only spent a couple of afternoons on the sun deck. The first couple of days were chilly and overcast and a few days in the middle were over a section of the Main River and the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal when it was closed because of the low bridges.

Thankfully the portions the Rhine River and then later the Danube River that were most photogenic and dotted with castles and vineyards and quaint villages were passed in good weather and perfect conditions.

Austrian people like to think of themselves as unlike Germans. And that may be true for some things but not for all things. For instance I am used to numbering those infrastructure items like telephone poles and electrical transformers but Austrians also number the trees and the garbage cans.

The Viennese City Council met with a group of taggers and worked out an agreement that the taggers could do what they wanted on the miles of concrete walls beside the Danube Canal if they wouldn't tag elsewhere. It is infinitely humorous to me that they could be so naive as to believe that taggers could actually enter into an agreement and that they would respect it. The taggers have spray painted all the walls along the canal and everywhere else too.

When the ship was heading upstream it was easy to dock as we just pulled up beside the berth and tied off. Now that we are heading with the current, the ship does a little dance to swing around prior to tying off facing into the flow. Then we do the same dance in reverse before sailing away.

I am shocked at the percentage of Europeans that smoke. I don't know if the cigarette packages don't carry a warning or if those warnings aren't believed or what but there are lots of smokers.

Liza heaven, Bob hell

Vienna, Austria is like every other big city except it has some older buildings. Okay maybe it has a lot of older buildings. I enjoyed the walking tour even if the dates and the saints and such have all started to run together. The tour was concluded next to St Stephens Cathedral. For a half mile or more uphill from the cathedral are a seemingly endless collection of high end stores of every ilk. Liza's heaven. Bob's hell.

Underwhelming until

The guided tour of the Abbey at Melk was borderline boring. And then the tour ended in the library. I honestly don't remember the number of volumes or the age of the oldest. I could Google it but that isn't the important part. It was a visually stunning room. From floor to ceiling in that room with unusually high ceilings each of the fours walls was covered in beautifully bound books. It was worth the price of admission.

And it only got better. From there we went into the church. It was as breathtaking as a space could be. Even though the fortress was given to the monks in 1089, I don't think the church was built until the 18th century. I just cannot imagine a peasant of that time entering that space and not falling to his knees. If that didn't convince you that there was a God, nothing could. It is so grand and so ornate and so impressive I was in awe. If the library was worth the price of admission I am at a loss for words to describe the church.

The Abbey also had a wonderful little park. The walk down the hill and through the quaint little town of Melk was worth the time and energy.