Saturday, October 13, 2012
Oliver and I took Marina and Skipper to the kennel for a very tearful goodby (only on my part!). Then we drove to Chicago and stayed at the Four Points Sheraton right at O'Hare. It's a nice hotel and I felt better knowing I was so close to my flight! We ate in the hotel dining room and just as we were having cocktails, the fire alarm went off! The waiter assured us that there was no fire-happens every day, he said, so we went ahead with dinner and eventually the fire department showed up-with 4 pieces of equipment-and turned it off. We had a peaceful night after that!
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Sharon texted me at about 11AM to say that she and Paul and Joe and Rose were at the airport, so we took the hotel shuttle over. After checking and clearing a VERY llong security line, we had a big lunch at Chili's (watching the guy parachute from WAAAAY up in space), and went to our gate to await boarding. About 20 minutes before we were to board, they came to the gate and told us to go down into the tunnel connecting the concourses, as there was a reported tornado on the ground! Picture THOUSANDS of people, many with luggage, trying to walk down the concourse and the escalators, all at the same time! I wish I had taken a picture-it was really amazing. The only smart person we saw was the guy who brought his beer down with him! When they gave the all clear, the thousands and thousands of us walked back UP the excalators and made our way back to the gate. We boarded, sat at the gate for a while and finally backed off and taxied about 100 feet. After sitting for 30 minutes, our pilot told us that we were TWENTY-SIXTH in line for takeoff! Lufthansa was really quite pleasant about the delay, though, and let us use our cell phones and the bathrooms, and served water and juice. After about 45 minutes, they suddenly said we were leaving in 15 minutes and just a couple of minutes later they said we were next for takeoff. So, we left about 90 minutes late, and as we had a 3 hour layover in Frankfurt, we were not concerned. We took off about 5:15PM CDT and got to Frankfurt at 7:30AM their time so it wasn't really conducive to sleeping. We ate, drank, watched Spiderman, read and just generally killed time til we landed.
Monday, October 15, 2012
We wound our way through the Frankfurt airport, which opened a new concourse on october 10, supposedly to cut down on connection time but unfortunately our flight landed at B7 and we were departing from A42 so we had a LONG walk. First we had to clear immigration control which only took a minute but then we had to hike across the airport and go through ANOTHER VERY long security line. Byt the time we got to the gate, we had just a 45 minute wait to board our flight for Prague. That was a short 45 minute flight and we were met by the AmaWaterways people at the airport and taken to the Hotel Intercontinental. What a beautiful hotel in a stunningly beautiful city! We decided that we would just keep on moving, although we had been up for more than 24 hours withoout sleep, so we met Harry and Ava, old friends of Joe and Rose who live in Vienna, and off we went for a little walk around town. The Intercontinental is in a part of the city called the Old Town and the buildings are old and beautiful. Wwe walked down to the Charles Bridge (named for Charles IV) crossing the Vltava River, which is a very old stone bridge, pedestrian only, lined with old statues (not really-copies were made in 1923 and the originals put in a museum), with lots of vendors and musicians. We were constantly amazed at the talent of the street musicians here! It was cloudy and chilly and we were SO tired but Harry found a nice cozy restaurant for us! Our plan was to have cocktails and then come back later for dinner but we quixckly realized that once we sat down, we were NOT up for another walk so we had drinks, appetizers, and then dinner. Afterwards we walked a bit more, into the fantastic Old Market Square before we just totally ran out of steam! We got back to the hotel and fell into bed.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
It's amazing what 8 hours of sleep can do! We woke feeling very refreshed and met the gang for breakfast before setting out with the tour that the cruise line arranged. (The breakfast, which was complimentary every morning, was outstanding!!) We had a funny and talented guide named Frank, who had majored in history in college and he was so interesting and knowledgeable. We saw all of the parts of Prague-Old Town, New Town, Lesser Town, the Jewish Quarter and the magnificent Hradcany Castle, said to be one of the largest in the world. We walked down a very steep hill form the castle and back across the Charles Bridge. When Frank left us in Old Market Square, he gave us a restaurant suggestion and we had a wonderful lunch. Joe and Rose spent the rets of the day with Harry and Ava, and Paul and Sharon, Oliver and I did some more exploring before finding a restaurant in Old Market Square for dinner. The Intercontinental has a restaurant and bar on the top floor, so we went up for a drink and to enjoy the magnificent view of Prague at night. Just a really perfect day.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
When Oliver went to put on his shoes last night-he only brought a pair of walking shoes and a brand new pair of deck shoes, one of his deck shoes was covered with oil from a plug-in air freshener that was in our room! I took it down to the concierge and this morning they told us it couldn't be salvaged. They agreed to give us a credit on our bill for the $60 he had spent so our first outing this morning was to find new shoes. I had seen a Timberland store somewhere and we thought we would go there but after getting REALLY lost and asking for directions numerous times, we ran across a shoe store and went in. Amazingly, he was able to buy a brand new pair of Plops (yes, PLOPS!!) for only $399!!!! We thought this was quite a deal--especially considering that $1 equals about 20 Czech crowns! We're not really sure how long his $20 Plops will last but we think if they will get him through dinner on the boat for a week, we can throw them out. We found a street where the Taste of the Czech Republic was happening so we wandered around looking at the unusual foods for awhile and Paul and Oliver enjoyed some of the great Czech beer-they REALLY like the beer here! We had lunch at a restaurant on a boat on the river and then walked to the Charles Bridge to explore a bit more. The weather was so nice-sunny warm after a couple of cloudy days. we ran into J&R with their friends and chatted for awhile before heading back for a quick stop at the hotel. Harry and Ava left to return to Vienna and the 6 of us had drinks at the hotel bar before going out to dinner. The cruise line recommended a couple of restaurants. The first one couldn't take us but we went to Barock (yes-we didn't much like the name) and the food was really quite good. We went back to the hotel roof top to take some pictures and turned in early.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
We had to have our luggage ready at 6:30AM so it was a VERY early morning for us. We had breakfast and then boarded a bus in a cloudy, foggy morning, headed for Vilshofen, Germany, where we would find the AmaCerto. We rode for 2 hours and then stopped at a rst area, where we all went to the bathroom at McDonald's!! Just in case we were homesick, I guess. After another 2 hours, we were in Regensburg, Germany. The sun ahd come out and it was really nice for our walking tour. We had a great guide who was interesting and funny and we enjoyed this town, which has been here since the 7th century. We learned so much German history and we walked across the Stome Bridge, considered a masterpiece of medieval construction. Back on the bus, we headed for Vilshofen, only to find construction on the highway. Our bus driver made a detour and we arrived at our boat just a little bit late. Our crew welcomed us and we had a beer while waiting for our luggage to be delivered to our room and getting an overview of the cruise from Rachel (our cruise director who has been with us since day one in Prague) and the Captain and other members of the crew. A quick trip to our rooms and off the boat to a big tent where we enjoyed Oktoberfest, hosted byt the Mayor of Vilshofen. We had beer and pretzels, met "Miss Vilshofen" or something like that, and some dancing by some guys in leather shorts! Then back to the boat for our first dinner. We were really impressed by the excellent meal we had! Appetizers of crab and scallops and the guys had steaks of some kind while Sharon and I had an awesome risotto. Dessert was 2 kinds of mousse with wonderful sauces. We drank lots of wine and after dinner ook a short stroll on the sun deck before turning in.
Friday, October 19, 2012
We had planned to sleep in a little this morning but Rachel informed us that we had the opportunity to visit a local monastery and hear their wonderful organ so we had breakfast at 8 and started off walking at 9. The supposedly short walk was a bit longer than expected and up hill but worht the effort. The Benedictine Monastery was beautiful and one of the Brothers played the organ and it was outstanding. A short visit to their Museum of African artifacts and then a walk down to town and FINALLY a bank where we could get euros. Back to the boat for our 11:45 sailing to Passau, Germany, just a short ride up the Danube. They offered a brunch (we only had the beer) and then we went up to the sun deck to watch our first locking. Of course, since all of us are boaters, we found the locking to be pretty much just like all the locks we have done, only smaleer than many! We locked down about 30 feet and then were on our way, while we enjoyed a German lunch. After arriving in Passau, we took a walking tour of this "City of Three Rivers"-just like Pittsburgh except a few hundred years older! The 3 rivers are the Danube, the Ilz and the Inn. We visited St. Stephan's Cathedral, which has one of the largest pipe organs in the world, with 17,774 pipes! Interestingly, Passau has a sister city in the US--Hackensack, New Jersey! After the tour we came back to the boat and I spent an hour doing my blog (which of course was all erased later!). The it was off to cocktails and dinner. we sailed at 11PM for Linz, Austria.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
We had another wonderful dinner last night! The food on this boat is incredible-yummy and beautifully presented and Bo-our waiter who is from Romania but worked at Grandfather Mountain i North Carolina for a summer-and Reka, who keeps our wine glasses filled at all times, are so nice to us. After dinner there was a trio of 2 violins and a guitar from Vienna who entertained and they were awesome. After they were done, our piano player Mathias delivered on his promise to play some Rolling Stones and the lounge was rocking until we left at 11:00PM. What a fun night! We set sail at midnight and I watched from our bed until I fell asleep, only to wake up at 7AM jsut as were locking down in our 4th lock of the night. It got VERY dark and I was tempted to go back to sleep but dragged myself into the shower, to meet Paul and Sharon for breakfast at 8. Then we met our local tour guide Helmut for a walking tour of Linz, which is the third largest city in Austria and very industrial, with a large steel company and a chemical factory, but very clean. We had an interesting tour of the old part of the city before returning to the AmaCerto for a quick cup of coffee and then boarded our buses for our afternoon tours. J&R and P&S went to Salzburg, but both Oliver and I had been there so we went to Cesky Krumlov, which is a UNESCO protected city that was founded in the 13th century. First the Rosenbergs lived in the castle (for about 300 years) then the Eggenbergs and most recently the Schwarzenbergs. The castle is the second biggest one in the Czech Republic, after the castle in Prague. Now, as an aside for our friends in America-the Schwarzenbergs lived in the castle until the 1940s when the Communists threw them out in order to "redistribute the wealth". they lost their property to the state and never regained it. If you think you wouold like to live in this kind of environment, you should really come here and talk to the people. they will tell you all about just how great it is to have the government take over all your decision making abilities and how wonderful it is to have government insurance--except that you MUST pay for the insurance and then if you live in, say Prague Zoone 8, you can ONLY see a doctor in zone 8, and dental care is so expensive that one of our waiters went to New York to have his wisdom teeth removed. Our tour guide from Prague to Vilshofen was so outpsoken about how terrible it is to live under socialism-although her grandfather was one of the founders of the Czech Communist party. She is working very hard to teach her children that there is no such thing as a free lunch!! By the way, the latest Schwarzenberg is running for President of the Czech Republic. The first election in which the people actually get to vote is next year and everyone tells us that there are too many people who want the government to give them everything and the actual workers are very afraid that the Communist party will win the election. You have only to look at these people to understand what is at risk in the USA in just a couple of weeks. (As I re-write this now, I could just cry from frustration that SO many people here just DO NOT GET IT). We may well look back at this time in a decade or so and regret not taking action while we could. Anyway-back to the fuun side of our day. After traveling through amazingly beautiful countryside, we arrived back at the boat at 6:30PM, in time for a quick change beforee going to dinner at 7. Tonight here was foie gras and lamb on the menu-truly spectacular. With help from Reka, we were jut too tired to watch tonight's entertainment. We have a tour at 9:15AM in Melk, at a Benedictine Monastery, then the ship sails and we have an afternoon tour in Dernstien, then dinner and an evening tour at a wine tasting in Krems. Trust me-this trip is NOT for the faint of heart! But it is SOOOO special. More tomorrow.
Sunday, October 21 and Monday, October 22, 2012
First of all, I am not able to upload any pictures so when we get home, I will post at least a few pics of each of our stops. Between the 2 of us, we have taken hunderds! Secondly, do NOT take a river cruise if your idea of a vacation consists of just sitiing around and resting! We have been on the go every minute and finally this afternooon have decided to take some time to catch our breath-and update the blog.
Yesterday morning we arrived in Melk, Austria and after having breakfast, we took a short bus ride to the Benedcitine Monastery there, which is over 1000 years old!! It is still a working monastery and 30 monks live there. They also runa school with 750 students. We took a tour of the Melk Abbey and it is just magnificent. We have seen so many churches and cathedrals but this was the most beautiful ever. we had a tour guide who spoke perfect English-she had been a student at the Abbey but said she really learned from watching TV. there is a library with many thousands of manuscripts and books that were written many centuries ago. We walked back to the AmaCerto from the Abbey, ahd lunch and then went up to the sundeck for the aftrenoon cruise through the Wachau Valley to the little town of Krems.
The Wachau Valley is the most beautiful part of the Danube with many vineyards perched high on the holls and picturesque little towens, with the occasional castle thrown in for good measure. They also specialize in growing apricots and in a tasty little concoction called Marillenschnapps, or apricot brandy. It was a cloudy and chilly day but the crew handed out blankets and we wrapped ourselves up and enjoyed the view! We arrived in Melk, a small town of about 25,000 which is a UNESCO Worl Heritage town. We took a short bus ride back down the Danube to the medieval town of Dernstein. The town has 300 residents and even though it was Sunday, they were happy to have tourists, so many of the shops were open and we had a chocolate and Marillenschnapps tatsing! The most famous site is the remains of Kuenringer Castle, where King Richard the Lionheart was held prisoner 1192-1193. Supposedly he was finally released after a ransom of more than 20 tons of silver was paid! We thought this was one of the high points (figuratively AND literally) of the trip. We came back to the boat and did another quick change to go to dinner. It was annother amazing meal-we have yet to be disappointed in anything they have served us. After dinner there was a bus ride to a wine tasting, but we decided to skip that since once again Reka had kept our glasses filled all through dinner. Every night they pour wines from the local area and wr have enjoyed them all. Mathias kept us well entertained in the lounge and as always, Oliver made sure all the ladies got to dance! Supposedly, we departed for Vienna at 3AM but none of us were aware of our sailing!
This morning my first sight was once again the bottom of a deep lock! We always lock through right before coming to our next stop and today we reached Vienna. Not surprisingly, it was quite foggy but the fog began to lift as we arrived. After breakfast, we boarded a bus for the short ride into Vienna. With over 1.7 million people, Vienna is the capital of Austria and also one of it's Federal states. The center is known as the 1st District and it is the very oldest part of the city. St. Stephan's Cathedral is in the very middle and surrounding the whole district is the Ringstrasse. We saw the Museum of Fine Arts and History, the Parliament building and the famous Vienna Opera House. As we were standing in front of City Hall, a motorcade arrived and we learned the Presdient of Khazikstan was visiting. We had some free time to walk around and visit a few shops before we returned to the boat. After lunch, there were a couple of tours as well as a shuttle back to the city center but we decided to forego those, as well as tonight's concert. While Vienna is a beautiful city, it is so big and different from the quaint little villages we are now used to, and we are resting up before our visit to Bratislava tomorrow. Joe and Rose went off with Harry and we hope he remembers to bring them back to the boat by asiling time in the morning! And if I don't write in this blog every day, I doubt that any of us will remember a thing by the time we get home! Now, I will go up on the sundeck and see if Oliver is actually reading or if he has fallen asleep. More later.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
We have just returned from a tour of the wheelhouse with Captain Jan and found that eerything pretty much works the same way as on our boats-except this one is 500 feet long!! But the radar, GPS chart, radio, etc. all work the same so I think the guys can take over if necessary. Because of the low bridges, the wheelhouse itself lowers hydraulically and the Captain said sometimes he has to open the hatch and drive with his head sticking out and then duck! Just like on the western end of the Erie Canal!
Yesterday afternoon, the weather improved and it was sunny and much warmer. Oliver did take a little nap and then we all walked WAAAAY down the walkway in the port before coctails and dinner. Most everybody went to the concert in Vienna but we decided to forego that trip and instead had an after dinner drink and went to bed early.
This morning we set sail at about 8AM and arrived in Bratislava around noon. After lunch we had a wlaking tour and then the 6 of us stopped for a beer before coming back to the ship. There is not much to Bratislava and once again our guide was VERY vocal about life under communism. Now we are getting ready for some local entertainment coming aborad, followed by the Captain's cocktail party and dinner. We sail for Budapest at 9PM.
Wednesday, october 24, 2012
This will be my last entry until we get home. It;s about 4:30PM here in Budapest (9:30AM at home) and I have finished packing and we're getting ready for the evening. There is local entertainment prior to dinner and tonight we are eating in Erlebnis, the small specialty restaurant on the ship. After dinner, the Captain will take our boat out onto the river for a cruise to see the lights of Budapest. We must have our luggage in the hall by 5:30AM and we leave for the airport at 6:30AM. It will be a LOOOOONG day tomorrow!
The entertainment last night was just wonderful. Five very pretty ladies, 2 who played the violin, one the cello, one the piano and one the flute. They played show tunes-a medley from the James Bond series, a little Grease and a few others. They were funny and they also sang-we just loved it! They have had great local entertainment at almost every stop. After the music, we met in Joe and Rose's cabin to help them drink some wine that friend Harry had brought them. Then we went to the lounge for the introduction of the crew followed by another amazing meal. It was quite late by the time we got to bed and we sailed all night, arriving in Budapest around 9AM. This is a lovely city, the capital of Hungary and by far the biggest city-2 million of the 10 million Hungarians live here. We are docked (rafted off another ship!) on the Pest side and our tour this morning took us through Pest to heroe's Square, through the beautiful park and down the grand boulevard, Andrassy Boulevard. Then we crossed the Danube to the Buda side-it is very hilly compared to flat Pest and we visited the Royal Palace and took some amazing pictures. We returned to the Pest side and visited the Great Market Hall. Now this is truly an amazing place-the whole first floor which is huge is filled with fresh vegetables and fruits and HUNDREDS of types of paprika, in cute little gift packages and great big packages. The second floor was filled with Hungarian products and Rose bought a very pretty scarf. We returned to the ship for lunch-Hungarian cabbage soup and goulash-what else!! We spent some time talking to our wonderful waietr Bo and our wine steward Reka. They've taken such good care of us!
My next entry should be full of pictures. Don't say you weren't warned!!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Just a quick note before we fall into bed! We got home at 6PM tonight, some 22 hours after we woke up in Budapest this morning! The trip went well-no tornados this time, although fog in Dusseldorf delayed our flight from Budapest but we still had plenty of time for connecting flight. Got to O'Hare right on time, through Immigration and Customs, the Sheraton shuttle pulled up just as we walked outside and took us to our car and we made good time in spite of some heavy rain. We are sure glad to be home. Can't pick up our little fur babies until 3PM tomorrow as they are having their teeth cleaned in the morning.
The cruise along the river in Budapest last night was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen! We have some pictures, which likely won't do it justice, but I'll post anyway. It was just breathtaking and the best possible way to finish our fantastic vacation. We couldn't have asked for a better time, a better place and certainly no better cruising mates!!
Thanks for following our adventures and I'll get some pictures up sooon.