Vienna (August 20)

We arrived in Vienna this morning with the weather taking a distinctly cooler turn - jackets were the order of the day!

Since we had been to Vienna once before (43 years ago!) we signed up for an "up-close" subway & walking tour of the city.  Everybody else took the regular bus & walking tour, so we had a guide all to ourselves!  His background was art and architecture history, so we got a heavy dose of that.  We started at the Vienna Opera:

Right nearby is the famous cafe that claims (disputed) to be the home of the yummy Sacher Torte.  They are also famous for rude and slow service, so we didn't stop in.  We got our sampling of Sacher Torte on the ship that night.

We then spent a long time wandering through the Hofburg, the magnificent (and seemingly endless) place of the Hapsburg monarchy that ruled Austria (and much of the rest of central Europe) for over 600 years.

  Nearby is one of the many bizarre monuments to plague and death in Vienna.  This one was erected in the late 1600's after a severe outbreak of the Bubonic Plague.   If you go into the crypt of Stephen's you will see many other remains of plague victims, all carefully sorted by anatomy, femurs in one room, skulls in another.

 Finally, we ended up at St Stephens Cathedral in the center of the old city.  It is a huge, and very Gothic and gloomy church with very intricate carvings all over.  Like many great European cathedrals, it's more of a tourist destination than a place of worship, and crowds of tourists wander through it noisily.

That evening we went back into Vienna (the ship was located on one of the branches of the Danube about 2 miles from the city center) to a concert by a string quartet at St Anna's a small church on a side street.  The interior was beautifully decorated in baroque paintings and the acoustics (and performance) wonderful.  Afterwards we wandered up and down the main shopping street scouting for souvenirs.
 

Ken and Tre's Danube Adventure - 2013

This blog describes Ken & Theresa Wright's 7-day river cruise on Viking along the Danube River from Budapest to Nurenburg, with a 3-day extension to Prague.

We left Norfolk on Saturday, August 17 in early afternoon, and arrived in Budapest on Sunday Aug 18 around midday.  The Budapest airport was about the same size as Norfolk's, only drabber, and we spent about an hour waiting for our bags to show, due to "technical difficulties".  Then we met our Viking host and climbed into a tour bus for the ride to the ship.  From the sights along the way, Budapest was nothing remarkable.

The ship (in reality more of a luxury barge pushed by an attached tug) was docked right in the center of the city.  Our cabin was the last one on the starboard (right) side, so we were right in front of the engine but it wasn't noisy at all.

Our ship, the MS Vienna

 We were docked right next to the "Chain Bridge", (I'll spare you the Hungarian name since I couldn't pronounce it - Hungarian is supposed to be a difficult language not closely related to other European ones) famous for being the only bridge across the Danube in Budapest for about 100 years.  Prior to this, during floods or freezing weather, the two towns on either side, Buda and Pest, were completely isolated, so they had separate identities.

The Chain Bridge

It was hot that day, and obviously had been hot and dry there for a while, since everything was brown.  Tre crashed.while Ken took a short walk around before crashing.  The views up and down the river were stunning.

View of Castle Hill on the Buda (west) side

The National Parliament building (under renovation) on the Pest (east) side

The next day (Aug 19) we disembarked early for a 4 hour bus and walking tour of Budapest.  We drove up to an overlook (the Citadel) with great views.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to the old castle, since this was a national holiday and it was blocked off for the festival.  But here's a drive-by:

We also drove over to the City Park area and walked around Heroes Square at the Millenium Monument, celebrating the 1000 year anniversary of Hungary (896-1896).  The statues are of famous Hungarian rulers, starting with St Stephan, who Christianized the country.

The Millenium Monument

Statues of the Magyar chieftains who invaded the area

There are also numerous thermal baths in the area, which people have used since at least the Roman times.  Didn't get a chance to try them, though!

And of course we had our obligatory stop at the city market for souvenir opportunities:

City market.  Our guide is the one with the stick!

While we were doing this, the boat had departed up river so it could stay on schedule.  We took an hour bus ride from the city up river to meet it, passing areas of Communist-era apartment buildings.

Along the way we also passed some Roman ruins.  The Romans were pretty much everywhere along this trip, except Nuremburg and Prague, since the Danube formed the northern border of the empire for hundreds of years, being fairly easily defended, and they built forts and towns all along the river.

Roman ruins near Budapest

That afternoon we cruised up the Danube, encountering many pleasant sights.

Unidentified town on the Slovakian side of the river

Ezstergom.  This an ancient capital of Hungary and the seat of the Catholic church there

About 10 PM we came to our first lock on the river - the first of about 15 or 20 we eventually navigated.  It was fascinating to watch the process and see the water level rise so quickly once the doors were closed.

August 20 - Vienna