Danube Cruise!

My younger sister Mikele and her husband Bob had so much fun on their Viking Rhine River cruise a few years ago, that they urged me to join them on a similar trip on the Danube in April this year. At the time - over a year ago - I was concerned about taking time away from work, but after I retired last summer, that became a non-issue. It was cold and rainy most days we were there, but we still enjoyed the trip quite a lot, especially the exemplary meals and other services provided by Viking. I took a lot of photos and posted them on my Facebook wall during the trip, but here are just a few selected pics, for my non-Facebook friends, along with a narrative of some of the things I remember from the trip.

Viking River Cruises booked my Lufthansa flights from Denver to Frankfurt to Budapest through United Airlines, which complicated things. I wasn't able to check in online, because neither United nor Lufthansa could find my reservation on the second flight, from Frankfurt to Budapest. I resolved to get to Denver airport a little early, to improve my chances of having my seat assignment and baggage check-in go smoothly, and I was glad I did, as the person checking me in, also had difficulty finding my reservation, but it was all resolved, eventually, and I headed confidently to the gate, with two boarding passes in hand. While I was waiting for my flight, I transferred the Denver-Frankfurt flight-planned route from my FlightAware app to my ForeFlight app. It was fun, to see what they usually show as a big loopy route, up over Greenland, as the straight-line route that it really is, when viewed from directly above in ForeFlight.

The flight to Frankfurt left fifty minutes late, which gave me very little time to make my connection to Budapest, as they had only allowed me an hour and fifteen minutes between flights. I tried as best I could to hustle through the Frankfurt airport, but with the delayed arrival, a long wait at the passport entry line, having to exit and re-enter security, then rush down several flights of stairs, and hurry from gate 1 to gate 68, the Budapest flight had left long before I got to the gate. The Lufthansa customer service office was back at gate 12, so I hustled back there, and they tried to get me on another flight that day, but it wasn't looking good, especially because they couldn't find my reservation in the system for 20 minutes. The agent kept complaining to the lady next to her, that having Viking book the ticket through United had made it more complicated. They finally found me a seat to Budapest on a flight four hours later, which gave me plenty of time to hang out at my new gate, call Viking to let them know my new flight number, and ponder my fate. It seemed touch and go, whether the ship was still going to be there, at my new arrival time. I tried not to worry, since there was not much I could do about it. My revised Budapest flight was also delayed a little, but eventually got me there. I was met by a Viking employee in a bright red parka, who helped get me to the shuttle point outside, and rode with me to the ship, which was moored by the Chain Bridge on the Pest side of the Danube. I learned that Budapest is really two cities, Buda and Pest, on opposite sides of the river. Long story, there.

I was so happy to find my ship, The Viking Var, still at the dock, and to hurry down the gangway and check in, just as it was beginning to get dark. I barely had time to drop my bag in my cabin, get to my seat at the dinner table with Mikele and Bob, and snap this mug shot of us, with the Parliament building in the background, before they cast off, the ship pulled away from the dock, and they began serving a delicious dinner. I suspect they were waiting for me, or else I was really close to being left behind. Mikele said she was following me with the Find My Friends app, and keeping the Manager up to date, on my progress through Budapest, and that was probably why they were willing to wait, knowing I was getting close. We had a pleasant, very pretty evening cruise, up and down the Danube river, with the lights of Budapest all around, as we were eating our dinner. Then we wandered the upper decks of the ship, discovering different angles on the view of the surroundings.

This is Heroes Square, in Pest. We were assigned the most delightful tour guide, for our bus/walking tour of Budapest. She was very knowledgeable, humorous, and opinionated. She had so many clever one-liners that livened up the day. Each one was supported by a long story about events that occurred in the history of Budapest and/or Hungary. Two that I remember, are "Politicians are concerned about the next election. Statesmen are concerned about the next generation." and "A Communist promise, is not a promise." She described the very small apartment that she and her family had shared for the past 30 years, talked about how fortunate she was, to get her son into an "elite" school in Buda. She was careful to emphasize that elite means they demand the kids pay attention and participate. So many other things she told us...

She took us to see a magnificent church on the Buda side, I think it was the Matthias Church. So many amazing cathedrals in Europe. This one of course had its own amazing story. I'm a big fan of stained glass, so that's where I was looking, most of the time.

The area surrounding the church had its own amazing and beautiful structures and statues. Because it was up on the hill, I was able to grab this mug shot of us, with our ship, the Viking Var, the long low white ship, on the river in the background. Looking at all the rooftops in the picture, I'm reminded that there is so much history to learn about this area, not unlike so many areas in Europe. The Roman Empire had a huge influence. I think she said that the Romans developed and protected their area on the Pest side of the Danube, and left the Buda side to what they thought of as the savage local population. Notice how flat the Pest side is across the river, and that we are at a much higher elevation. Our guide mentioned that the Danube is on the boundary between two tectonic plates, and the west one pushed up to form the hills on the Buda side.

I enjoyed our tour of the bridge, but the captain was clearly uncomfortable in a group, and left us with a lot of unanswered questions. I didn't make the effort on this cruise, to find a time when I might be able to start a one-on-one conversation and possibly drop in for an informal visit. One cool thing we learned, was that the bridge is mounted on hydraulics, so they can lower the entire enclosure, when approaching a low structure over the river, like the many highway or railroad bridges we passed under.

We saw so much beautiful scenery along the river, and moving along upstream on the river provided so much pleasant time watching the water and shorelines go by. We also had so many opportunities to see amazing clouds and shafts of sunlight.

We passed through our first lock on the second night. This is a hydromechanical facility that allows the water, and the ship floating on it, to change altitude without moving horizontally very much. Not unlike a lot of people, I've always been fascinated with the mechanics of transportation, and locks are right up there, on my high-interest list. We passed through 25 locks on this cruise, and were continually being raised up, until the very last one, just before Nuremberg, where they lowered us down, and it became clear we had passed over the high point in the interconnecting Rhine-Main-Danube canal between the North Sea / Atlantic Ocean, and the Black Sea.


The TV on the wall in my cabin had a channel to watch a camera in the front of the ship. I didn't use it much during the day, since I'd rather just be out there. But I left it on for way too long every night, before I fell asleep, as I was fascinated, watching the lights go by overhead, every time we went beneath a bridge, usually as we were passing through a city, sometimes cruising under several bridges in just a few minutes.
The low-light camera only showed black-and-white at night, but that was good enough for me. Some of the bridges were so low, that the captain had to take advantage of the ship's ability to lower its upper structures, to fit underneath them as we passed by. Passengers weren't allowed up on the Sun deck, when this was happening, because we would've had to lay down, to avoid getting hit by a passing bridge structure.

My cabin was on the second deck, just above the waterline, and came with a delightful veranda with a couple of chairs. With such easy access to the outside, it was so difficult to fall asleep, if there was anything going on out there. I saw all different kinds of water birds, ships passing by, people walking their dogs, pretty shorelines with lots of foliage, beaches, rocks, castles, towns, and a few bigger cities. In this pic, we're passing under a well lighted bridge.

We went on a walking tour through Vienna, passing through so many interesting places, such as the Spanish Stables, where the Lipizzaner stallions are trained, the homes of various famous people in history, and clean and beautiful courtyards and square, interesting animated clocks, and so much more. This slightly rounded panorama I assembled from six photos, shows St Stephen's cathedral in the center of a large square. There's a long story behind the construction of this cathedral, as there is for every church in Europe, I'm sure, and many of them have "they didn't finish because they ran out of money" and "they finished this part hundreds of years later" somewhere in the narrative.

We took a short planned break from the walking tour near St Stephen's, to enjoy some pastries at a very popular bakery and cafe nearby. I think it was called Aida. They had such a huge selection of tasty confections, and some very tasty coffee drinks. One needs to remember to carry individual Euro coins with them, as many of the restrooms we saw were guarded by a turnstile that required the 1 Euro coin, and me only carrying paper Euros. We saw so many clean streets and bathrooms, that it seemed like a reasonable cost of doing the necessary business, as it were.

The afternoon tour was to the Schonbrunn Palace, which is apparently a big part of the history of Vienna. We heard so many stories about Emperor Leopold and the family. I found the tour so interesting, and at the time I felt like I was learning a lot, but I eventually got overwhelmed by it all, and I confess I cannot remember much now.

Here's an evening view from the Sun deck of our ship, at our mooring in Vienna, before dinner. They cast off during dinner, and headed the ship upriver to Krems, Austria.

Our shore excursion in Krems was to Stift Gottweig, a monastery of canons founded by the bishop of Passau. This monastery supplements its income by selling various products from its apricot orchard, most notably bottles of apricot nectar that are really delicious! Mikele bought one, and it didn't make it much longer than our next day, as we all enjoyed glasses of apricot nectar with breakfast.

One of the most beautiful things at Stift Gottweig, was this ceiling fresco painting over the imperial staircase, by Paul Troger in 1739, which is considered a masterpiece of architecture in Austria. It represents the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI as Apollo. There are many stories told in these figures!

Another gorgeous view of magnificent architecture along the shore of the Danube, as we motored by, on our way to Passau, Austria. There so many similar things to see along the river.

We signed up for a walking tour of Passau, Austria. This city is at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube is joined by the Inn river from the South, and by the Ilz river from the North.

Being where they are, and three rivers coming together, Passau has seen way more flooding than anyone would ever think they could endure. This picture of our congenial and knowledgeable guide, also includes a tiny mark straight above her head, between the two rectangular windows on the second floor. The mark identifies itself as the high water mark during a flood in July of 1954. She said, "No one lives on the first floor any more."

No trip to Europe would be complete, without some mention of the beautiful cobblestone streets, that are still seen all over every city and town. There were many different styles, but I found this one the most interesting.

We were treated to a very short organ concert in St Stephan's cathedral in Passau. The interior decorations, were so ornate and beautiful. The organ, she said, has the most magnificent tones, and "of course there is nothing like it in America."

Bob and I decided to try to get to the top of a local hill in Passau, and investigate a local fortress Veste Oberhaus, before our ship was due to leave in the afternoon for Regensburg, Germany. Here is a view of our ship through one of the holes in the wall around the fortress.

We signed up for the Jewish walking tour of Regensburg, Germany. So much of Europe has such deep history, and of course the Romans factor deeply into that. In the center of this picture, you might be able to see how they integrated one corner of the old wall that enclosed the original Roman settlement that became Regensburg, into the newer structures.

One of the things our guide mentioned, was that after the Jews were "allowed" (forced) to leave Regensburg (they were killed in other cities) in the early 1500s, the remaining residents took possession of all their property. They even raided the Jewish cemeteries, and used the gravestones in their buildings, perhaps as a mark of triumph? If you're looking closely, you can still spot the gravestones integrated into structures, in locations throughout the city.

We cruised all night, and arrived in Nuremberg, Germany, in the morning, during breakfast. Home of the Nazi Party conventions and propaganda events, and later the World War II war crimes trials. Because of Bob and Mikele's great interest in history, we chose the World War II Nuremberg tour. We saw a lot of interesting places. This pics is of the grandstand across from the huge Nuremberg parade ground, where I'm sure we've all seen old movies of Adolf Hitler surrounded by thousands of soldiers, giving his hugely motivational speeches.

We toured what they called the Documentation Center, a place which documents Hitler's rise to power, and the various people, mechanisms, and events, behind how the Third Reich became so powerful, and committed the unbelievably atrocious acts they did. It's meant to be (and is!) a very moving reminder of something that mankind should never want to repeat.

One last look at our ship, the Viking Var, as she was tied up at the Nuremberg dock, on the last night before our cruise ended. They had a very nice goodbye dinner and associated activities, before we all retired for our last night in Europe. The next morning, we all headed back to our various homes. Mikele and Bob had to be on their way at 4am, but my flight was a little later, so I got to have breakfast in the dining room at 6am, before I caught my shuttle to the Nuremberg airport at 6:45.

I woke up on the cold, rainy morning of my travel-home day, with a really sore throat, which turned into a full-blown cold, with a runny nose, sinus congestion, coughing and sneezing, over the course of my flight home. At least I didn't have any trouble with my Lufthansa reservations, or the flights themselves, which were mostly on time. I was just glad that my ears stayed clear all day, so I didn't blow out my eardrums during the descent to landing. Part of me wished my ears were plugged up, because I was sitting next to a mother with her mostly well-behaved baby, and one row in front of a very unhappy baby, who screamed at the top of their lungs during the entire 10 hour flight from Munich to Denver. I was so glad to get home!

Florida visit

I visited Dad and Adele in Florida, for a week at the end of February. I left Mandy behind for safekeeping with a helper. This time I booked a more reasonable daytime flight to Ft Lauderdale, and used a rental car agency that had a presence at the airport. Lessons learned from earlier trips. I enjoyed popping in and out of the small puffy cumulus clouds, on the approach to landing. 

Dad and Adele are doing pretty well, as he says, "considering the alternative." We did a few fun things, like taking Adele out for an early birthday dinner at Cafe Chardonnay, one of her favorite places, and a lunch with dad's Pundits group, who had invited Robert Beck to speak. Robert has published a book titled "Inside the Tailhook Scandal: A Naval Aviator's Story", which sounds like it will be an interesting read.

I got out for a few walks, during the daytime and after dark. The landscaping out there is so beautiful, it's a real pleasure to walk around and look at it all.

The cold from hell

I realized I had a sore throat, at the beginning of January, before we headed out on our road trip back home, but hoped I would fight off whatever I was catching. Nope! The day after we got back, I was hit with the rest of the symptoms, of what I assume is a rotten cold virus. It peaked after a few days, then held steady for over a week, causing me to go through several boxes of tissue, and a lot of cold medications along the way. Only now after four weeks, has it dwindled down to an irritatingly persistent dry cough. Ugh! I hate this. I'm hoping there is good news - with any luck, my immune system has now been well exercised, and is up to full strength!

Christmas trip

The Christmas driving trip to California with my niece went well. It took two 10-hour days on the road, each way. We took I-70 west to I-15 into California on the way out, and I-80 east to I-25 on the way back. It was a big adventure, with sub-freezing temperatures, ice and snow on the roads, several places where chains were required, and one night of heavy snow and near zero visibility, but we got where we were going, which is the most important part. I was glad to have my all-wheel-drive Honda CR-V with all weather tires, so we never had to put on chains. We saw lots of cars spun out into snowdrifts along the road in Nevada and Utah, and realized we were doing something right, or were very lucky, since it never happened to us.

My dog Mandy was a perfect little road traveler as usual. It was really nice, to have her along, and to easily find a pet-friendly hotel at the halfway point each way.

Of course, we had to stop for lunch at the In-N-Out Burger in Barstow, since it is Dorothy's favorite burger place, and I love it too. It's become our regular stop after entering California, when we travel that way.

We spent two weeks at my little sister's house and enjoyed lots of fun activities, including walks in the rain, shopping and eating out together, Marissa's weekly yoga class, and of course Christmas eve dinner at Brighton and Marissa's place.

Brighton and Marissa took Dorothy and me and Mandy for a walk on the coast in San Simeon, to see where they plan to have their wedding next year. It's a beautiful location.

On the way back, we drove up Highway 101 to San Francisco, and met Kristan's brother John and Michelle for lunch at Dorothy's favorite Chinese place, Bow Hon. After lunch, we all went for a short walk around the City, and John gave us a running commentary with some of the history of the area. I really enjoyed that!

We continued on to Vallejo, and visited for a few hours with my  high school girlfriend Kris. She retired from her job at the Alameda County emergency medical services a few years ago, and now is a foster mom for wayward dogs on their way to adoption. We stayed with my old friends Ken and Freddie in Lincoln near Sacramento two nights, before hitting the road for the long trip east over the snowy Sierras, through Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, to Colorado.

Thanksgiving with Sis

Mandy and I flew to Arcata, CA to spend Thanksgiving with my big sis Otamay. Mandy did great on all four flights. We enjoyed lots of rain and cool weather, a nice warm house heated by a wood-fired stove, walks through the neighborhoods and some very pretty local parks, and a delicious Thanksgiving Dinner at her friend Chris' house.

This pic is from our walk through the Arcata Marshland. Nice moist area, and lots of birds everywhere.

This pic is from the day Otamay set us up with massages, and I went for a walk through the Humboldt State University campus, while she was getting hers.

This pic is from one of our walks around the neighborhoods near Otamay's house. Beautiful countryside just a few blocks from her house. A deer was checking us out, as we walked by.

We spent some time relaxing and watching the Horacio Hornblower series, and some movies. Mandy settled right into her spot on the couch next to me.

This pic is from our walk through Hiller Park, on Thanksgiving Day. There's a beautiful view of the Mad River and the Pacific Ocean from the bluff.

This pic is from the 3-day period where Otamay set up a booth at a fair in the Eureka Redwood Acres Fairgrounds, and put her high-fire pottery out for sale. We were the first ones there on the pre-fair setup day, and we were in the small building, so it looks pretty lonely, but it filled up quickly, after everyone else arrived. Otamay is so creative and talented. She had so many beautiful pieces available for sale.

November Visitor

My old friend and neighbor Ken came to visit for a few days. We went on a few of our old breakfast/walk routines. Fun but all-too-short visit! One day we had breakfast at Lucille's Creole Cafe, then walked along the South Platte River.

One day we had breakfast at DW's 280 Diner in Conifer, then walked at Flying J Ranch Open Space Park. That park is so nice.

One day we had breakfast at The Cow, a breakfast/lunch place in Morrison, then walked on the trail from Morrison Park through town to Bear Creek Lake, then returned to The Cow for lunch, after our 6 mile walk, a long one for us!

Disneyland!

Dorothy and I drove to California in late October, with my perfect traveling dog Mandy, to support my nephew Brighton in holding a surprise birthday party for his girlfriend Marissa at Disneyland! Little did we know, he was also planning to propose marriage to her. She accepted! Here's my first pic of our trip, with Mandy resting comfortably in her backseat nest.

On our first driving day, we stopped and used the Glenwood Hot Springs for an hour. What a treat! Then Dorothy found this wonderful local polish restaurant, Polanka, where we had a delicious lunch, served by two very nice cooks. If I had better social skills (ref: Kristan), I'd know if they were also the owners, and the story behind the restaurant. Sigh.

We spent our first night on the road in Cedar City at the La Quinta Inn. Loved it. They were dog-friendly, really nice to talk to, took the reservation while we were driving, and gave us an AARP discount for their last room. Everything was super clean, the bed was comfortable, and even though it's close to the highway, the room was very quiet. Mandy was really happy to be traveling with us. I brought her big fluffy fleece blanket, and she loved cuddling up in it, snug and warm.

The next morning, we got going early, and decided to take a detour through Zion National Park. I've heard so much about it, but had never found the time to tour through there. It really is a beautiful place. And it was pretty fun, to finally get to use the lifetime National Parks pass that the gave me, the last time I went into RMNP. We went completely through the park in both directions, then headed back to I-15 to complete our trip.

We made it through Las Vegas uneventfully, but then Waze started suggesting some very strange and circuitous routes, down through Henderson and Searchlight, which seemed like such a huge detour, that we couldn't bring ourselves to go that way. Then we realized why, as we got stopped on I-15 for over an hour, probably due to an accident ahead. We experienced another long stoppage, and an extended period of very slow speeds, before getting to normal traffic flow somewhere around Zzyzx. So frustrating. But we eventually made it to the California border, and to our highly anticipated dinner stop at In-N-Out Burger in Barstow. Not sure why we like it so much, but it's gotten to be a tradition, to stop at the first one we can find, after crossing the border. Dorothy likes her cheeseburger "animal style" and since we split that meal, I discovered that I like it that way, too!

Dorothy started her night driving shift at Barstow, and unfortunately ran into heavy rain around Bakersfield, but she's a good driver, and handled it just fine. With our detour through Zion and all the delays on I-15, we only got to Atascadero at 11pm. Bob was nice enough to wait up for us, and helped Mandy and I get settled into our room. We injected ourselves into their lives for two weeks, and they were very gracious hosts. I shared coffee and his usual scrambled eggs and salmon breakfast with Bob before his work every morning. We picked up Mikele from her work at Cal Poly, and took her for a birthday lunch at the Apple Farm restaurant in San Luis Obispo. We went for lots of dog walks around the lake at Atascadero Lake Park, and checked out the flamingos and turtles at the Zoo, on our way by. It was nice to see the lake filling up again.

Bob was nice enough to take some time off work to play with me. We ran some errands, like getting Mikele a birthday present of a patio furniture set for their new and beautiful backyard patio. It was fun packing all that furniture carefully into the bed of Bob's pickup, and we were proud that we got it all to fit for a single trip home. We played disc golf at the local Heilmann park, in light rain, and enjoyed every minute. We walked the Avila Beach Bob Jones Trail, and then rushed back in time to pick up Mikele for lunch at Splash Cafe in SLO.

I was very nervous about leaving Mandy at my sister's house, while we drove to Disneyland for two days, but Tim was there to feed her in the mornings and evenings, so I took a deep breath, and off we went. We had a wonderful time! Brighton proposed on Saturday night, and we met them on Sunday morning to celebrate. Marissa was in shock to see all of us greeting her in the morning, but she handled it so well. I enjoyed meeting a bunch of their close friends, and hanging out with Marissa's mom Jodi. Most everyone headed home on Sunday evening or Monday morning, but Bob, Dorothy and I stayed for a day at the California Adventure park, and had a really fun time. We had to leave before the park switched over to their Halloween party mode, but it was fun seeing everyone coming into the park in costume. We grabbed dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory nearby in Fullerton, then hit the road for the four hour drive home, and made it to Atascadero at midnight.

Our drive back was more direct, with fewer traffic jams, just the one in Las Vegas during rush hour. Waze did a pretty good job of routing us around that, through surface streets. Dorothy found us an awesome dinner place in Cedar City, called the Pizza Cart, and a great lunch place in Grand Junction, called Bin 707. We managed to hit a storm that aligned itself along I-70 from Green River all the way to Denver, but all it did was drop some rain on us. All in all, a very pleasant trip.

Kristan's Birthday

What a beautiful sunrise this morning! Kristan would've turned 64 today. I didn't plan any kind of memorial dinner or other get-together this year - not because I didn't want to, but mostly just because I'm feeling overwhelmed by current events. So, I'll just take a moment now, to celebrate the day she was born. She packed so much into her unexpectedly short life. I will always be thankful we found each other.