Cruising the Danube

 We finally joined the cruise in Vienna, Austria.  This picture was taken right after the taxi dropped us off at the port.  Our ship is the furthest one away.  You literally walk through the other ships to get to yours from the dock.  I was so tired it seemed like a million miles away.  The crew was expecting us and took our luggage and showed us to our room. Everyone was so nice and welcoming.

Appetizer

One of the perks for not being able to go all the way down the river because of low waters was free drinks.  They made a non-alcoholic cocktail each night.  We had it the first night, but were just too full after dinner to want it the rest of the time.

Bratislava, Slovakia

In our room

All along the river were these little huts.  We figured out that they were vacation cabins.  Most had fishing nets.  They were so tiny.

We went through several locks.  We floated very close to the cement walls.

We didn't bring many clothes.  Each night Ken would wash his clothes and hang them out.  They would usually be dry by morning, and I would wash mine in the morning and hang them out. We brought clothespins and hung them over the rails.  We lost a couple of clothespins to the river, but no clothes!

This tower had a fancy and very expensive restaurant at the top.

Appetizer

This is Michael.  We told the waiter that we enjoyed a dish and he brought the chef to meet us.  He was a friendly guy.

Each morning it took awhile to get all of the bikes off of the ship for the bikers to ride.  So we would be in port usually until about 10.  Ken would use that time to go out and bird near the river.  One day a deer came this close to him!

The sun deck

Beautiful sunset

This picture shows how close the boat is to the cement wall of the locke.

The bikes were stored on the back of the boat on the top deck.  It took the crew a long time to get them all down each morning.  Some nights they would leave them down on the dock by the boat.  One of the three crew members would stay up all night and guard them.

Krems, Austria

Another delicious fish dish

Our private 5-course lunch.  There were only a few people on the ship during the day: three who had been injured in bike accidents, and sometimes people who chose not to ride that day.  We had a choice of whether to have the lunch.  We always signed up for the lunch.  This day we were the only ones.  I think the largest group was four one day.  It was awesome.

A Viking cruise ship

I had fish every day.  Sometimes twice a day: lunch and dinner.  It was prepared many delicious ways.

Ken hiked up the mountain to see the grape arbors and the view of the town and river below.

So beautiful.

Approaching Melk, Austria

The cathedral in town

Creative.  The dock anchors were in the shape of a ship.

The Austrian navy came out and did maneuvers right by our ship.  They stopped, pivoted, and even leveled their guns at us.  Eek!

This was a delicious dessert.

Our private dinner.  5-course meal with a wonderful waiter taking care of us.

Grein, Austria

Such a beautiful, perfect evening

Entering another locke

Delicious fish

Baked Alaska parade

Passau, Germany

We arrived back in Passau.  That is where the cruise originated. We got off the ship and went to a hotel.

While we waited for our hotel room to open, Ken walked to the train station to buy our bus and train tickets to get back to Freising the next day.

He saw this on the wall of a building.  It shows how high the flood waters got in different years.

This was the view out our hotel window.

The next morning, we took a taxi to the bus station where we boarded a bus. I was very nervous about this day as I knew the transfers would be difficult. We were on the bus for a little over an hour.  Ken had had to figure out what tickets to buy and everything was in German.  No one spoke English.  So we weren't sure what we were doing.  A young man named Jake was seated behind us.  He spoke excellent English.  He explained that we would get off the bus, then have only a few minutes to get to our train that would take us to Freising.  The bus was late arriving, giving us only four minutes to get to the train.  He waited for us as we collected our luggage and then showed us the train and then led us there.  I was slow.  But he patiently waited and got us there in time.  We had to go down stairs, then up a flight of stairs with all of the luggage.  When we got on the train, he disappeared.  We were so grateful for Jake.  We had prayed and asked our family to pray that I would be able to do it.  I truly felt angels helping on all of those steps.

We took a taxi to the very same Marriot hotel we had stayed a week in at the start of the trip.  We had dinner that night in the restaurant and reconnected with the waiter who had been so kind to me throughout our ordeal earlier.  

So, it definitely was not the trip we had planned, but there were bright spots and kind people.  Really, a river cruise is a lovely way to see the riverside towns and villages along the way.  Though I wasn't able to tour as we planned, I got to enjoy a relaxing cruise and see a lot. And I got to read a lot.  I took eight books in my tiny suitcase.  I read 7 1/2 of them, plus listened to three audiobooks.

We went to the Munich airport the next day and flew home.  We were delayed by weather in Munich, causing us to miss our connecting flight in Denver.  The airline put us in a hotel and gave us food and transportation vouchers.  We caught the early flight out the next morning.  It felt wonderful to be home!

There will be one more post of this trip.  On our second day on the ship, they provided a bus excursion to Budapest, Hungary.  I was not up for going, but Ken went.  I will post pictures he took there.