May 5th - Travel Blog

Hi, it’s Christina –

I'm sure these looked really cool at
night, but I fell asleep before the
lights came on.

Greetings from Dürnstein; we just docked. We are here for a few hours, then we are off to Melk, so today’s blog of yesterday’s adventures will be coming in snips and snaps. Hopefully I’ll have it finished before dinner (lunch time for you).

Just so you know, I’m not one to hold a grudge. The woman who I was so annoyed with upon our arrival, Renata, I have been talking with, and it turns out she is a lovely woman. Our initial meeting was unfortunate, but all fences have been mended.

Unless there's something really cool
at one of the next 9 locks, this will be
the last one you'll be seeing.

We went through another lock yesterday, which I found out was number two of eleven. I took a few pictures, but I was not going to bore you with detailed accounts of all eleven locks. The one difference between the first lock and the second lock was we had another ship in there with us. It was a little scary watching them try to squeeze our long narrow ship alongside of their fat one, so I snapped a couple of shots, then went back inside, trusting the captain knew what he was doing.

Sorry, no clue what the middle left
one is, but it was pretty.

Right after breakfast, I ran down to the cabin, changed into jeans, and grabbed my coat – if I had had a hat and mittens, I would have grabbed them too. It was so cold and raw yesterday, it was really miserable. One bonus was my sneakers seem to be waterproof, so I was not walking around with wet feet all day – YEAH!

As usual, by 8:30 I was on a tour bus. Although the sites we are seeing are lovely, and the history lessons we are getting are beyond compare, this is not a very relaxing vacation. It is going to take me several days, upon my return, to recuperate.

From the bus we were able to catch a glimpse of the Jubilee Church, it’s cool because it looks medieval. We also drove past the park with the oldest working ferris wheel in the world. It was built in 1880 (I think). If you look closely, the cars look like tram cars instead of just seats like we picture a ferris wheel. You can even rent out individual cars for special occasions. Each rotation takes 20 minutes, so if you rent a car for a romantic dinner, you make your rotation, when you stop at the bottom, the waiter brings you your next course, refills your wine, and then you are off for another rotation.

Silvia (center)

Our guide through Vienna was Silvia. She was sweet, and funny (in a much better way than Katerina), and informative. She also seems to share my sweet tooth, because she pointed out all the good pastry shoppes on our journey.

We visited the outside of Helden Platz – the Hofburg winter palace. I did snap a ton of pictures (it was a challenge cropping all the umbrellas out of the shots). Don’t ask me what’s what, because they all kinda blended together. What fascinates me is even your average building has ornate things – scroll work, statues, paintings – not just the palaces or opera houses.

I don't know why, but
this clock made me think
of Ben Franklin.

I kept this picture separate from the others because I wanted to point it out to you. This tower (I don’t know what else to call it) has 3 clocks. The clocks are all run on solar power and have been since way before I knew people even were able to harness solar power to use as energy. The ball in the middle, that is a lunar clock.

We did manage to catch a glimpse of the Lipizzan horses. We lucked out. They had had a performance at 10:00 and were being brought back to their stable while we were passing. They are such beautiful creatures. I didn’t know they were all born brown, and as they aged they turned white. No, that doesn’t mean they are old, they usually turn white within their first few years. Think of Dalmatian puppies, they are born completely white, and then develop their spots over several months.

The crown in the bottom row
is actually a cake.

The one in the stall was so funny. He was munching on some hay, not paying attention to anything much, when he noticed me, he stopped chewing, his ears perked up, his head came up, and he posed for the photo. At first I thought it was a coincidence, but then I did the same thing a few minutes later, and he reacted the same way; and I watched as he did the same for another tourist. The horse was a total ham.

Bottom right is a carousel.

Well, while in Vienna, one must stop at a coffee house, so I did. Aïda was charming, but honestly the cake was dry and the coffee was bitter. Jagna, our waitress was very good though. It was so crowded, I squeezed onto a bar stool by the window, but then noticed Janet and Trevor at a nearby table and asked them if I could join them. It was nice to get in out of the rain and just sit and chat. When the bill came, Trevor grabbed mine as well and insisted they pick up the tab for my coffee and cake. How sweet was that? Three cups of coffee and two pieces of cake was 19€! Good grief!

The one cathedral I was looking forward to seeing was St. Stephen’s in Vienna, but when I got inside, I was so disappointed. It was dark and cold (meaning sterile not temperature) and uninviting. I snapped a few photos before I noticed the no pictures sign, so I have them to share with you, but honestly you’re not missing much. The church is much more impressive from the outside.

All and all, I was not overly impressed with Vienna, but then again, I’m much more of a country mouse than a city mouse. Big cities make me nervous. For the next few days we will be in quaint country towns, so weather permitting, I’ll be a lot happier.

Unfortunately, my foray into the market with the chef yesterday was cancelled. Only one other person signed up, so it wasn’t worth the trip. That’s okay, because if I was being honest, I was bushed. I went back to my cabin and took a nap. Being outside in the rain and the cold and the wind while exploring Vienna sapped my energy.

After dinner, mom went to see the Mozart / Strauss concert, and I crawled under the covers. I think I was sound asleep by eight o’clock last night, and I pretty much slept through until five this morning. I guess I needed it. I haven’t seen mom yet today, so I have no idea how she liked the concert, but overhearing others’ accounts, I’m sure she had a good time.

Okay, I’m off to explore Dürnstein on my own, I just have to grab my coat. Until tomorrow, have a WONDERFUL day & happy writing.

April 29th - Travel Blog

Hi, it’s Christina –

Greetings from Prague, Czech Republic! It is now 6 am on Friday morning, at least I think it’s Friday, the brain is a little foggy at this point. 

Still awake and ready to leave
on our adventure.

Wednesday, Paulie’s birthday, mom and I got dropped off at Newark Airport around 3:45, breezed through security, and were at our terminal gate, waiting for the 6:25 plane, by 4:10. Not exactly sure why we needed to be at the airport by 4:00 for a 6:30 flight, I think it may be a ploy by the airports to get you there early so you have nothing to do while you’re waiting, so you spend money. Well, all they got out of me was $4.50 for a water – which, of course, while juggling my bags to get on the plane, I forgot. UGH.

Since all of the other passengers heeded the two hour early warning, our British Airways flight took off twenty-five minutes early. How cool was that! They passed out the best pretzels – these tiny sour cream and onion ones – I wish I had snapped a picture of them so I could get them again. Hopefully they’ll have the same ones on the return flight.

Yeah, I'm the world's worst selfie taker

The flight wasn’t full, so I moved over two seats, and my mom, who was sitting with two other people moved over by me. If I was a little smarter, and a little more selfish, I would have snagged a whole row like some of the other folks did, this way I would have been able to lay down and maybe get more than the 17 minutes of sleep I got.

Yummy & he knows how to plate a dish!

I did get to watch Burnt – the Bradley Cooper movie where he’s a chef. It was rather enjoyable, and had several parts where I caught myself laughing out loud and quickly covered my mouth to muffle the sound so I wouldn’t wake the folks who were actually sleeping.

Heathrow

We had a nice tail wind, and got to London early, a little too early, because Heathrow won’t allow planes to land before 6:00 am, so we had to circle a while before we could land. Now, not for nothing, but Heathrow is a fairly major international hub. Wouldn’t you think A) the place would be a little nicer, and B) their baggage inspection area would run a lot more efficiently? The airport, or at least terminal 3 – which was nowhere near where we landed - is a maze of drab corridors – picture a 1950s insane asylum, yeah, that bad. The inspection area had maybe six people manning it, and when each and every container containing liquid, paste or gel – even containers at or under the allowable size – are inspected, and you have multiple planes dumping out at the same time, sixty inspectors would have a hard time keeping up, let alone six. 

It was a bit of a cluster, and there were countless people complaining because they missed their connecting flights because of the inspection delays. I felt bad because mom and I were the 5^th and 6^th bags to be inspected, and we had a 4 hour layover. If I had known when we got in line, I would have let the people with an earlier flight to go ahead of me. Wouldn’t you think there would be an express lane or something specifically for travelers who have a small window between flights?

Waiting for the bus at the
Vienna Airport

The new flights don’t post which gates you are at until an hour before (of course our was the only one which posted only twenty minutes before), so mom and I went to the most central area we could find to sit and wait. I grabbed a much needed cappuccino, and a tea for my mom - $8! Sheesh! When our flight finally posted, I came into my first incompetent British Airways employees – the ones at the desk checking in the passengers. Mom and I are the second ones to the desk – there is NO ONE else there, and the witchy blonde chick makes us drag our bags through the cue. At this point, I had been awake for over 24 hours, and let’s just say I wasn’t in the mood for inanity, though I did manage to restrain myself from making a scene, she knew she was not my favorite person at the moment.

We get on our flight for Vienne (Wein), and mom promptly falls asleep – good for her, but I’m a bit envious. At this point, my back had just about enough of sitting, and bless the flight attendants hearts, they fully understood, and allowed me to stand in the back of the plane with them. Sarah & Rebecca were positively delightful, and made the two hour flight go by in a flash.

So far, from what I’ve seen of Wein, I’m not all that impressed. I’m hoping the area we see from the ship will be much improved over the dirty, grimy, industrial area around the airport.

The bathroom on the bus - Let's
just say that was an adventure
and leave it at that.

We did not have passage booked from Wein to Prague because our travel agent said it was much cheaper to do it on site, so after a bit of confusion, we were able to, for 22 Euro, get on a bus, but the bus only took us part of the way. We had to get off in some town and wait for the actual bus that was going all the way to Prague.

Hoping the rain doesn't really
come. It's chilly enough with-
out it!

Here’s where my first encounter with some drama occurred – the bus was about to leave, and mom is nowhere to be found. She was cold, so she said she was going to wait inside the door. Fine, no big deal. I should have known better, because the door she was “waiting” in led to a mall. The bus was closing its doors, I screamed for it to stop, screamed for my mom to hurry up when I finally saw her coming – and we were able to catch the bus. Thank God, because if we had missed it, the next bus wasn’t coming for a few hours and we would have had to purchase new tickets.

I know it's hard to see, but I'm
pretty sure this is a nuclear
power plant. YIKES!

This was around 4:00 pm – the 36 hour mark of being awake. Yeah, I’m twitching at this point. On the bus, we have wifi, but not until we hit the Czech Republic. The moment wifi kicks on, I go in search of an address for our hotel, because nowhere in the paperwork sent by our travel agent is there an actual physical address for our hotel – and, of course, everyone we ask has never heard of Hotel Orien – probably because I was saying Oh-rye-on and over here they pronounce it Or-ree-on.

The “cruise director” on the bus (I don’t know what else to call her – flight attendant, maybe – she helped the travelers, made them drinks, handed out headphones), Lucy, plopped down in the seat next to me, and helped me search for the hotel. Then when she finally found an address (we had to check several sites, and finally the address was listed on a review site), she screen printed everything from her phone and emailed it to me.

The view from one of the many windows
in our hotel room.

Initially, upon arrival in Prague, we were going to make our way via the metro, to the train station to purchase our tickets for our Sunday transfer to Budapest, then take the metro two more stations, get off and walk the few blocks to our hotel, but by the time we arrived, WE WERE DONE. There was no way either of us were walking more than a few feet dragging our luggage.

Our kitchen

So, we opted for a cab. I had heard horror stories about the cabs in Prague – thankfully I do not have one to add to them. The price was 300 Korun (pronounced Crown) – roughly $12.50. The driver, Alexi, was great. He pointed out good restaurants – ones the locals like, told us about several tourist traps to avoid (hopefully some of his tips penetrated my sleep deprived brain), and didn’t drive like the maniac all the trip advisor sites claimed all Czech taxi drivers did. God must have known I wouldn’t have been able to handle any more stress, so he put Alexi in our path. THANK YOU!

That little hobbit bed in the corner
is mine.

We arrive at our fully booked hotel. Our room only has one bed, but the staff scrambled and found another bed to put in the room – it’s about as comfortable as you’d expect a rollaway to be, but at that point I really didn’t care. Mom and I dropped off our bags, then went to Vini Vidi Vici, one of the restaurants Alexi recommended, had some pumpkin soup and bread for dinner, then came back and went to sleep.

Not sure what’s on the agenda for today, but I’ll be sure to let you know all about it tomorrow morning.

Until then, have a WONDERFUL day & happy writing.