Danube

Part 1: coach from ship to departure lounge, Budapest airport.

When we woke up we couldn't see the opposite bank as we cruised towards Budapest.  The mist lifted a bit as we got into the built-up area and we docked without drama as always.  After breakfast we had a four hour bus and walking tour of the city, along with half the population of the Western world it seemed.  Between the crowds, the heavy traffic and a less than appealing guide it could have been better. We had a lazy afternoon , dinner and a spectacular after dinner cruise through the city.

This morning saw us alongside near the old town in the capital of Slovakia.  We took the hour guided walk and saw the usual things, plus a few relics of the Soviet times, like a flyover through the old Jewish quarter that was falling to pieces, rather like the M5 through The Black Country!   Nothing made of stone seems to have survived centuries of war and redevelopment. In the afternoon we had a bus trip out to a village to have coffee and cakes with a Slovakian family.  Most of the ride was through industrial suburbs of Bratislava, a city of 500,000 or 10% of Slovakia.  Not very picturesque as you might expect but interesting. Visiting a 'local' and seeing her garden was not something you'd expect to do on a cruise, so we certainly enjoyed having the opportunity to do so. The lady of the house runs a restaurant which is open every day from breakfast right through dinner. No time off unless her daughter pitches in like she does when a group arrives.

We arrived in Vienna at midnight according to the timetable but we were asleep.  At all events we woke up alongside.  This morning we had a bus tour round the Ringstrasse and a walk through the old town it encloses.  We are moored a 20 minute drive from the centre and came back on board afterwards.  We are currently debating whether to take a shuttle bus back this afternoon.  We are booked for a private chamber concert this evening so we will see more of the city anyway.  Like many of the world's tourist destinations Vienna is too busy - with people like us of course!

Last night we arrived too late to go ashore in Linz and during the evening we set sail so we didn't see much of it.  We woke up in Melk where we visited the large Benedictine monastery for which the place is known.  Actually it's more like a royal palace and was built in the early 18th century. We were bussed up the hill to the abbey and walked back to the boat.  After a misty start the sun got out and it was a glorious afternoon. We then sailed for a couple of hours to the little town of Durnstein.  This boasts a ruined castle where Richard the Lionheart was supposedly imprisoned for three months.  We signed up for the hike up to the castle which was on a rock commanding the town and the river. We made it up and back but it was a hot and weary group that got back to the boat.

The highlight of the evening was the Captain's Gala dinner, for which the smartest 'smart casual' rigs were produced.  Neither the food nor the craic was quite up to the Cuba standard but the evening passed pleasantly enough.  Our waitress may slosh the wine into the glass without much finesse but she does keep it coming. This morning we woke up in Passau where it was very misty until later in the morning. We had a quick breakfast, wrapped up warm and reported for the walking tour at 8:30.  The guide talked mostly about the 2013 floods which reached half way up the first floor of the riverside buildings.  It is the confluence of not one but three rivers so floods seem to be a fact of life - the worst one was in 1501 or thereabouts.  Lots of narrow cobbled streets and an enormous cathedral and a few vaulted mediaeval buildings. When we returned to our boat the mist was clearing, and it became a beautiful, cloudless day. The scenery down the river was lovely, ve...

When we embarked the boat was on the Rhine-Danube canal, which we were still on this morning when we woke up this morning.    Overnight we passed through a number of locks, sometimes to the accompaniment of scraping noises which disturbed us a bit. We are now on the Danube proper, moored against a Viking cruise boat in the middle of Regensburg. We had to go past on the bypass and reverse in because the boat is too big to go under the C12th stone bridge on the original stream.  We had a walking tour of the old town with an interesting guide who spoke faultless English having lived in Ireland for many years.  We bumped into him after wandering on our own after the tour proper and quizzed him on his cv.  

The day started early - 6am to be precise.  We were dressed and out of the hotel in 20 minutes. The route to Terminal 5 took us over the M25 which was already very busy.  We were at the appointed place to be met and greeted by 6:30.   Unfortunately they had no record of us so lots of forms had to be filled in.  Nevertheless we were at the BA check-in by 7am as instructed. Again, nothing doing!  It turned out that we were part of a new block booking so we had to go to the far, and I mean  far, end of the hall to find a person at a desk to deal with us.   From then on it was plain sailing.  We went through security, had breakfast and boarded, took off, landing on time at Munich.  The Emerald group gathered, complete with complementary Emerald rucksacks, and had a leisurely two-hour bus ride to the boat.  On the way we were impressed by the number of solar panels , on barns as well as houses.  For most of the journey speed limits wer...

We each arranged a social event in the Chilterns today, me meeting old (and I mean old, youngest 69, oldest 91) colleagues and Carolyn meeting a friend from the Cuba cruise who lives locally.  We then had a scenic drive through Henley and on to the mayhem of the M4.   I had assumed that the Terminal 5 Holiday Inn was within spitting distance of T5 - not so!  The good news is that we now know where the T5 Meet and Greet car parking is.  The bad news is that it cost us £3:80 to escape.  The hotel is actually a couple of miles from the terminal.