Day 15 Friday November 3

This will be my last post. We had a day in Budapest and fly out tomorrow, Saturday. Our morning was a city tour of Pesh, followed by a bit of time at the Castle district on the Buda side of the river. Up at this site was the beautiful 13th century Matthias Church. After lunch we spent a leisurely afternoon walking the city streets and a local market much like Pike's place in Seattle. Tonight we are suppose to be treated to the night lights of the city. Goodbye and good night to all.

Day 16 Thursday November 2

Spent our last morning in Vienna touring the Schonbrunn palace. Beautiful day for the inside tour and a stroll through the gardens. After lunch....sailing the Danube towards Budapest. Along the cruise we took in one more castle at Hainsburg, the last city in Austria.  Then we continued along the river to spend just a few minutes in Slovakia. We passed the capitol, Bratislava as we finished an afternoon tea. Tonight was the Captains Farewell dinner. The picture of Dennis.. he is shaking hands with a "living statue" that is posing in a picture frame.

Day 15 Wednesday, November 1

A day in Vienna. Woke up to sunshine. Yeah. Yes....once again a tour . This time on a bus first and then a walking tour. On the bus we drove around the "old" city. On the walk, we viewed the St. Stephens cathedral inside and out and the huge palace. Later we visited the crown jewels museum,and the Mozart house. The museum with the jewels was amazing. Enjoyed a luscious hot chocolate in the afternoon.

Day 14 Tuesday October 31

Spent a good portion of the day on the river. We both took some extra naps after yesterday's adventure. We were still exhausted and have both been fighting colds. We cruised along the Danube (which isn't blue by the way). Went through a pretty stretch with quaint towns and cathedrals . The afternoon consisted of a great guest lecturer about Viennese music followed by a private concert in town. A small group of musicians performed a delightful concert of Mozart, Strauss and Brahms. Added were 2 opera singers and 2 ballet dancers. Then home (the boat) to a late dinner. A rather quiet day, but a good start to Vienna.

Day 13 Monday October 30

I could share 2 posts for today. Post one, our trip to Passau. Post two, our broken ship story. I am opting for post one and we will just have to share our broken ship story in person. A short note.. We went through at least 6 different options of how we were going to proceed as the day progressed.
Okay. We were bussed to Passau in the morning. Went on our usual walking historical tour with our cheery guide and ended at the St. Stephen's cathedral. Here we were treated to an organ concert played on the largest pipe organ in a cathedral ( not a church) in the world. It had 5 organs played by one console with close to 18,000 pipes. Spent the cold afternoon shopping and in the afternoon, a coffee house to get warm. Returning to our buses in order to return to the boat, we encountered another delay and we set out for dinner on our own. ( They had provided us with euros for lunch earlier and now for dinner) We finally made it back on our boat and in our rooms by 10:30. I was exhausted. Passau was a lovely place to hsang out though.

Day 12 Sunday October 29

Don't let the sun in the pictures below fool you. During the morning sail, it was cold, raining sidewise and very windy. The weather report said the rain would stop by the afternoon. It seemed doubtful, but indeed the sun came out and the drops ended. However the cold brisk wind remained. After lunch we arrived in Regensburg, a delightful place. It has some of the oldest restored buildings including some from the days of the Romans. During the war they  incurred little damage. Because it was Sunday, few shops were open, but again we enjoyed a historical , very cold, walk through town which included a church, the town hall and the oldest sausage kitchen in Europe. The picture of the cars in the garage. Our tour guide lives in Regensburg.  In her 4 apt.unit there is a rare garage which holds 4 cars. Upper deck and lower.

Day 11 Saturday October 28

After a long cruise, we ended up in Nuremberg today. We took a historical walking tour including the castle. ( We decided not to do the WW2 tour. ) We enjoyed some local ( finger size) sausages at a local cafe with pretzels. Yummmm. You were seated like at a Mo's. (seated with whomever had an open seat.) The old part of Nuremberg was 80% destroyed in 1945. Through the Marshall plan the buildings have been restored. Amazing. We really enjoyed one of the churches where inside they had pictures of the process along with thoughts/prayers for forgiveness, healing, etc. from the war. The pictures below are of the castle, the city and the food. The picture of Dennis by the statue....is a person dressed as a statue.