Grand and Glorious Curmudgeon

The weather in Vienna is cold, windy and overcast/raining. This made the morning trip to see Vienna problematic. We started off with a bus tour of Old Vienna. Since Vienna was the seat of the Hapsburg Dynasty, it ruled for centuries up until the end of WWI when it was dismembered under the League of Nations.

In the second half of the nineteenth century the old city walls were torn down and the Ringstrasse was built and a broad wide circle of streets around the old central core of Vienna. It was originally constructed in the thirteenth-century using the ransom of Richard the Lionhearted who was captured near Vienna. It was later strengthened and featured in the Siege of Vienna.

With the Ringstrasse, came many of the huge buildings erected by the Hapsburgs, both government buildings and private residences. See Kate’s pictures for many of them.

We decamped from the bus and walked a few blocks up the street to St Stephens Cathedral. We ducked inside (see cold, rainy, windy comment above) only to find the end of Palm Sunday Mass. There was a huge crown of tourists in the back.

We walked along the street, stopping at a couple of souvenir shops, since it was Sunday all of the other stores were closed since Austria is nominally a Catholic country. We rode the bus back to the piers and retired to warm up and take a nap.

This afternoon there will be a lecture in the lounge about Vienna, and a look forward to tomorrows stop, Melk.

After that dinner will be served and we can relax until we get underway about 23:30. I’m not sure how successful it will be, but I plan to try to call in to the family call. It should be (assuming iPhone has figured out the time) about 01:30am tomorrow morning.

So, we got underway a little after 6:00pm and over dinner we left the outskirts of Budapest and got into the dark countryside. About 6:30am we hit our first lock. It turns out that over the entire trip we will go through about 67 locks in total.

Entering the first lock. It took about 30-45 minutes to complete the cycle. During about 5 days, as we make our way from the Danube to the Main River, we will go through about 50 locks. There are some low bridges, so the Sun Deck is actually closed, and they drop all the handrails and awnings so we will fit under them. After the lock, the river was even broader with a fair chop from the strong head wind. See the photo below:

Notice the significant chop, with the spray wetting the deck (and the starlink-mini on the deck). There are some islands in the distance.

The included feature of Budapest was a bus tour of Pest followed by a stop at the Buda “castle”. Since Kate was taking a ton of pictures, I will just provide commentary and let you go to Kate’s google page (https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFQh7Ypfb1WZgcDx7) for actual pictures.

Hungary, until after WWI, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was started when the Magyars, pushed out of modern Russia by other tribes, settled in what is now Hungary in 895-6. They peaked under the Austro-Hungarian Empire during their anniversary circa 1896. There was a huge building boom where they laid out broad avenues through Pest with great houses being built. Even though a majority of the grand buildings were damaged/destroyed during the war, most of them have been lovingly rebuilt since.

Given that it was cold & rainy and I only had an unlined thin jacket, both Kate and I sprung for dark blue Helly Hansen jackets (sold onboard) and they were well worth the nosebleed prices.

We loaded up the busses at 8:30am and headed out for a tout of Pest. The streets are well laid out (compared to Prague. We drove around the old Jewish quarter and down Andrássy út (Andrássy Avenue), known as the “Champs-Élysées of Budapest”.

After the tour of Pest, the busses drove us up to the Buda hills, to the Buda Castle. We debarked and walked around the area. There is actually a community, stores, etc. up on the hill. We got a tour of the Cathedral up on the hill. During the 150 years of Ottoman occupation the church was converted to a mosque and then re-consecrated to a church. We had about an hour and a half after the church, so we wandered around and Kate bought some paprika at the grocery store.

After the castle, we rode the bus back to the ship, arriving in time for lunch. We get underway this afternoon, about 6: 00pm.We will transit overnight to Vienna.

As we got into Hungary the traffic seemed to increase, and we would pass long lines of trucks stuck in the right lane, often stopped. We would eventually pass the beginning of the line, and each truck would accelerate back up to speed and we would continue. Several times both lanes would stop, and we would sit for 20 or 30 minutes until the traffic would start up again.

The bottom line was it was almost 4:oopm, or 8 hours since leaving that we finally started to pull into Budapest. Budapest is a combined city, with the old Buda on the east side of the Danube River, often higher and hillier that the west side. Pest (pronounced “Pesht”, is on the flatter west side of the river and was settled later. After they built the bridges (7 in total) the towns were combined into Budapest.

Speaking of bridges, while Prague was virtually untouched by the ‘late unpleasantness of the 1940’s’, Budapest was devastated. About 60% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed and the Germans dropped all of the bridges to try to slow down the Russians advancing from the West across Pest. The bridges and many of the building were lovingly restored after the war however.

Here we are about to cross the Danube into Pest. It was rainy and dour, but the city is much more open than the narrow streets of Prague.

Passing under one of the restored bridges.

A view across the river to the Buda “Castle” There was an actual castle until the Turks reduced it in 1541. The high-water point for Ottoman conquest was the Siege of Vienna in 1529 and 1683. The Turks ruled Buda and Pest for 145 years. It was rebuilt as a grand mansion, although you can see some of the walls around the base.

This is the Victory Statue erected after WWII.

This was the first bridge built over the Danube, the Chain Bridge. You can see another river cruise boat heading upriver. See Kate’s pictures for a night view of the bridge all lit up. We got checked in to our room (214) and collected our stuff and went up to the lounge to wait for the mandatory safety briefing.

This was a very civilized Emergency Drill and Safety Briefing. All the passengers fit into the Lounge, and the crew went over everything while we settled in with drinks, etc.

After briefing it was time for dinner. There was just one sitting with tables for six. They have a selection of steak, chicken, etc. but they have a featured selection what the chef recommends. I opted for that and had Fish Soup (thin tomato based but very good), Hungarian Goulash (of course but it was very good, much better that the lunch version) and a sponge cake and walnut ice cream.

Now it’s about 6:20am and breakfast is at 7:00 so I will close this out. Today is our second day in Budapest, we leave at 5:30pm to head upriver to Vienna.

So, we got up early and were waiting in the lobby at 7:00am for the trip to the bus. There were 4 of us to transport to the other hotel to board the bus. By about 8:00am we were underway for the 6-7 hour trip to Budapest. Of course, we immediately ran into rush hour traffic. Once we got clear of Prague, we headed down M1 towards Brno.

Most of the freeways in central Europe are two narrow lanes, freeways like the above are exceptions in major cities. It is somewhat helped by limiting trucks to the right lane, but of course that leads to huge truck backups in that lane.

Halfway through the Czech Republic we climbed to 2,000 feet altitude and we had a bit of snow, but the roads stayed clear. Once we drove through Slovakia, we got into Hungary where we stopped for lunch. I had a bowl of genuine Hungarian Goiulash.

It was about the same as Czech goulash I had the night before. It’s now after 2300 so I will leave this here and continue the rest of our arrival in Budapest tomorrow.

We went out for dinner this afternoon. I saw several places along the way that offered Goulash in a Bread Bowl”. Since I was a fan of clam chowder in a bread bowl from Cannon Beach, OR and also beef stew in a bread bowl at Johhny J’s in Casper I had to try the trifecta.

The bread bowl was brown bread which makes sense in the context. The goulash was very hot, but once it cooled slightly was quite tasty and the bread was very good. Of course, now I’ll have to compare it to actual Hungarian Goulash in Budapest tomorrow.

I was a little stiff waking up in the morning, we did a fair amount walking yesterday – by Kate’s smartwatch 7.4 miles. Again, we had a leisurely breakfast about 8:15am and headed back across the Charles bridge and down to the town square.

This was interesting because it is an atypical way to show a halo. Rather than circular, it’s more of a helicopter-ish view. We continued on to Town Square. but we had to wait a little until the Easter Fair and Municipal Ticket Office opened. The tickets for the lift up the tower were half-price before noon, and we got a subsequent discount for the hop-on/hop-off bus pass. The elevator up the medieval tower was shiny new and modern.

The round completely glass elevator is descending. We rode up and the view from the top was amazing.

A slightly out of focus view towards the mini-Eiffel tower created after the one in France, but as our tour guide proudly noted, 3 meters higher than the original (due to the hill it sits on).

The view to the far ridge with a TV tower on it, probably a great view for next time. After we rode back down se strolled back towards the river to pick up the Hop-on/Hop-off bus for a ride around the city.

We passed a car that apparently was severely overparked. Apparently, there is no active over-parking enforcement. I want to mention the sidewalks. Like the streets, they are cobblestone, but with small dark grey and white blocks about 2-inches square.

These sidewalks are all over the city, there is very little poured cement, just endless varied patterns of grey and white brick. As we were walking down to the ships last night, I saw several spots, a foot or so square, where the stones had come up and I snagged one.

We hopped on the trolley and rode all around the city while listening to the commentary on an app in the iPhone. It was interesting and easy on the feet. Fortunately, there was a stop just 2 blocks from the hotel, so we avoided the hike back across the Charles Bridge. Tomorrow, we get up early for the van/bus ride to Budapest, about 6 hours or so. (Link here)

After a nap, about 3:15pm we headed back out on foot. We walked back across the Charles Bridge and turned right along the bank and followed the river for about a mile down to the boat docks.

This sculpture was along the way. I didn’t see any description, but I think it’s clearly contrasting the rusted orthodoxy of the communist system with the vibrant capitalist economy.

Here’s the late afternoon start of our cruise before Kate moved back to face forward.

Here we are approaching the Charles bridge from the water. You can see the statues along the bridge. We crossed under the bridge and turned around and sailed back down river. It turns out the Vltava River connects to the Elbe River north of Prague and then continues up to Hamburg.

After the cruise we walked back but took a side trip back to the store next to the Old New Synagogue so Kate could buy a Prague Golem. We then walked back across the Charles Bridge and got some dinner.

We had dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel. It was founded in 1787, two years before the Constitution was ratified.

I had an Aperol Spritz for Jan & Mike. We had traditional Czech meals, Kate had Pork Neck and Dumplings, and I had Boar goulash with potato pancakes. They were both very good. and even at a high-end restaurant was about $70. It was just a couple of blocks back to the hotel. It was a pretty tiring day, but I think we really got a feel for Prague.

Kate has also established a Google Link for more photos at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFQh7Ypfb1WZgcDx7

Prague (or Praha in Czech) is one of the coolest cities I have ever been in. It was virtually untouched by WWII, other than an unfortunate bombing that was probably someone trying to bomb Dresden one night.

After a great breakfast (included with hotel) we had a walking tour from 9:00-1:00pm. They transported the four customers plus guide up to the castle on top of the hill behind the Augustine Hotel. The “castle” is actually a sprawling group of buildings, gardens, etc. covering 45 hectares (whatever metric BS that is).

Ok, we have this huge gothic cathedral tucked into an inner courtyard of the castle. It is dedicated to St Vitus, nice Sicilian boy from the 200’sAD. His relics moved around and were presented to Wenceslaus I, in 925AD by King Henry I of Germany. They were installed in a rotunda on the site of the cathedral. Finally, St Adalbert was born a good Bohemian son and went on to be Bishop of Prague but eventually was martyred in Prussia in while converting the proto-Prussians. (It is always the Germans).

Anyway, the present Cathedral was started in 1344 and proceeded apace until 1399 when work was stalled and proceeded in fits and starts until a revival in 1844. It was finally consecrated on 12 May 1929 just in time for the 1,000th anniversary of Good King Wenceslaus’s death. (he got a posthumous promotion to King from Duke). Note that 1929 was in the post-WWI period where Czechoslovakia was a real country.

After the castle, we were driven down to the Old Town section of Prague. We wandered through the streets, past the oldest Synagogue in Europe completed in 1270. In continuous use (except for the unpleasantness from 1939-1945).

We wandered over to the main square where they had set up Easter Market booths and spent about half an hour browsing and got some famous “chimney cakes” which are supposedly popular in Budapest.

We arrived just before noon for the exhibition of the Prague Astronomical Clock, of course the oldest astronomical clock in the world, from 1410. It was impressive, but there was quite the crowd in front of it. After the clock we wended our way through many of the back streets to the Charles Bridge.

The bridge (started 1357) is an amazing structure.

One of the Statues

After crossing the bridge, it was just several blocks back to the Augustinian Hotel arriving about 1:00pm. I will post this now and write part 2, the river cruise next.

(Revised and edited). Either I jinxed it by bragging about it, but Frankfurt is where karma goes to die. We landed, and taxied and taxied, but Denver is like that. Except when we were done the wheeled up a set of boarding stairs and we deplaned into what looked like a maintenance yard and all boarded busses for the ride to the terminal. Now I haven’t deplaned and walked in since the early years in Casper or flying Pilgrim Airlines into Groton. I really expected for Frankfurt to be better.

The bus took 20 minutes driving all around the airport to unload us near Gate C1. We knew that our flight would leave from A35; but wait there’s more. As we trooped thru terminal, we were herded into a set machines designed to read your passport, collect a photo and read your fingerprints to establish a firm bio-signature of you. Except it didn’t work very well. Kate’s machine read her passport and took a picture but choked. Mine had trouble even reading the passport. Since they failed so we all got herded through corridors over to a set of mazes feeding into booths with police officers doing regular screening and collecting fingerprints. We spent two and a half hours weaving back and forth like old school Disney lines. Now we had a 4-hour layover, but other passengers were freaking out. And this was still in terminal A. I counted that there were 14 booths with 4 of them occupied. They opened two more after our first hour in line. When we got to the boot the police had the usual questions, purpose of visit, how long we were staying (in the EU), etc.

Also, this fun event had taken us outside the containment area, so we all got rescreened and came back in at the end of terminal C. This only took about 15 minutes, so with all that done we followed the signs through terminal B, up and down to a long tunnel to Terminal A. We finally made it to the Lufthansa Longue where we’re waiting for closer to the boarding time. We boarded about 45-minutes late due to late arrival of our older Airbus-345 (think 737-ish).

One interesting thing was that to create a first-class section, the blocked off the middle seats of each 6-row section with a tray table like section bolted to the seat arms. On the 90-minute flight they did a full lunch and drink service. I discovered that I don’t particularly like hummus (I think it comes from the Akkadian word for “failed at the hunt”.) and I settled for water to drink. I did have a double gin & tonic on the big flight but by this time I was tired, numb and was basically done for the day. I regret to say I am no alcoholic, I will have to pass the baton to Jan.

When we exited the plane (at a regular gate) we got our luggage and walked out and found the Viking guide who has us step aside with the other guests while he collected passengers.

The driver he paired us up with was man about my age who spoke a reasonably fair version of English who was very ebullient and gave us a tour of the city as we drove to the hotel. Prague is a very historic city that apparently avoided much of unintended renovations associated with WW-II. It has huge 3-5 story ancient buildings that are still used. We even talked about the Prague Spring, which he and I both still remember.

The Augustinian Hotel (click the link, really) was named after the Augustinian Monastery that still operates out of part of the hotel. The before and after parts of the tour let you select luxury or more pedestrian hotels. I think by the time I booked it only the luxury selection was available. On reconsideration, I think I’m glad I booked the Augustinian, like with airfare at this age of my life, if it’s worth going, it’s worth going first-class. We are here for three-days, leaving on Thursday morning for the 6–8 hour bus ride to Budapest. There will be a couple of hour-long breaks for lunch, etc. We have a 4-hour walking tour of Prague scheduled for this morning, we’ll see how we do on it and maybe schedule other events, dinners, etc. later.

In Amsterdam we also have three days after the cruise. Right now, we are scheduled for the Van Gogh Museum and a walking tour. I also want to stop by the Nieuw Kirk sometime.

We’re due down at the Front Desk for our walking tour.