Days 5, 6, and most of 7 (December 21, 22, & 23)
Where I Ended Up With An Accidental “Day At Sea” (But Still Had Strudel), We Froze In Bratislava, And Saw A Snippet Of Vienna
Day 5 (December 21) – last day in Budapest
Originally 4 of us were booked for the 8:00 a.m. Budapest city tour. Andy was booked on a castle hike excursion. When Susie, Janet, and I thought about it, we realized the Viking excursion was almost the same as the tuk-tuk tour we took the other day. So we decided to skip it to avoid having to get up at oh-dark-thirty. Plus, Susie and Janet had the thermal bath excursion scheduled for the afternoon, and we were all booked for the included 2 hour walking tour to the Christmas Market at 5:30 in the evening.
This was all fine. It was a nice relaxing day.
To make a long story short: when Andy and I were all bundled up and ready to go to the 5:30 Christmas Market tour, we found out that there were many, many steps involved, making it impossible for me to go. Would have been nice to know that.
So Day 5 for me wound up being an accidental day “at sea” (at river?). Not the end of the world, just a little annoying.
Janet and Susie enjoyed the baths.
Here are some highlight photos of excursions I did not go on (from Andy):
The good news is that Mario, our Program Director, brought me back a cheese strudel that I would have gotten if I’d gone on the excursion. Sorry, no photo. It’s already long gone.
Day 6 December 22 Bratislava
Unfortunately for us and Bratislava, we had a weird time slot. We docked at 2:00 p.m. with all-aboard for 11:00 p.m. Considering the sun starts to set at 3:30, we had all of an hour of daylight.
The weather was already threatening when we started our walk into the old part of Bratislava – it was very cold and felt like rain.
Also unfortunately, none of us really remember much of what the tour guide said.
- Bratislava is old
- It’s had many names (it still does)
- Earlier generations spoke multiple languages because Slovakia has been shuffled around assorted empires
- There are some Jews left in the city, but not many (we couldn’t find the big menorah she talked about).
There was this guy:
We stopped by a church to listen to a Christmas organ concert. Somehow in our minds, we were picturing a huge pipe organ with magnificent sound. It was a small church with a small organ. I was on the wrong side of the sanctuary to get a photo of the organ.
The organist and singers performed for about 20 minutes maybe? Their CDs were available for sale for 10 Euros or $15 (the exchange rate Euro –> USD is not 50%). It was pleasant enough, but somehow not what we were expecting.
When we came out of the church, it started to rain – at first just a drizzle. We started our walk around the Christmas market.
As we walked around the market, it started snow/raining harder. Even with my umbrella, I was getting pretty wet.
It was raining hard enough that we just toddled as fast as we could back to the ship. Andy did go back out in the rain to do some (successful!) shopping. I’m sure Bratislava has a lot more to offer than 2 hours in the cold, rain, and dark.
In the evening on board ship after dinner, we watched a performance of a local (male) chorus singing Christmas carols – from traditional Slovak to modern/familiar tunes.
December 23 Vienna (part 1)
We still have a Mozart/Strauss concert this evening, but I figure I can tack that on to the next blog.
We were on the bus by 9:00 a.m. We were in the “Leisurely” group, which meant that we missed St Stephen’s cathedral. G0d willing we’ll be back in Vienna on our next cruise in May, so we started a list of things we know we need to see.
It was gloomy and cold, but at least it wasn’t raining!
We drove around “the ring” road that circles the inner city. Many impressive buildings, many of them built by Franz Josef, who ruled as emperor for 68 years (out done only by Queen Elizabeth II). A couple of his fun innovations: reusable coffins (bodies were put into a coffin, taken to a cemetery, then the body dumped out the bottom into a mass grave), which is why nobody really knows where Mozart is buried; and all plays had to have a happy ending – re-written as needed.
Truly impressive buildings:
We walked through the courtyard of the Hofburg Palace, originally the seat of the monarch, and still used as a seat of government.
We passed by the stables of the Lipizzaner stallions. A couple of them stuck their heads out to say hello!
Many impressive statues as well.
Our tour guid gave us a brief intro to Hitler’s early life, and showed us the balcony where he announced the completion of the Anshluss. An unsettling feeling, if there ever was one.
The statuary in Vienna is amazing. This is Maria Theresa, the last empress of Bavaria. She had 16 children, 10 lived to adulthood, all of them in arranged marriages for political purposes. I’m sure some of her children married some of Queen Victoria’s children.
Unfortunately, we didn’t take any photos of the market as we wandered around.
Originally we thought we might take the shuttle bus back, thinking there’s probably a shuttle every hour or so. So we walked back to a big square that had a souvenir shop where we could get the requisite items. It was about 12:20.
And then we looked at the shuttle schedule and saw that the next shuttle wasn’t until 2:45! Oh no, that was too much time to be wandering around in the cold.
In a mad dash, we “zipped” back to the bus that was literally pulling out as we caught up to it – luckily, Janet asked them to stop, and we were spotted by Mario and our tour guide. Phew! Leave it to the Austrians to be so prompt – it was exactly 12:30!
We came back to the ship and had lunch. We’ll be having an early dinner so we can attend the Mozart/Strauss concert at 7:30.
Good thing we have plans to be back in Vienna in May 2025. This was barely a glimpse!
Tomorrow is Krems/Melk. The issue of the 65 steps up to the abbey has not yet been resolved.
Maryland Meshugas 