Boomsmas in Europe 17

The last day! How did it creep up like that?  We sailed along the Danube - now in Hungary - and during breakfast approached Budapest (pronounced Budapesht). It's two towns with Buda, green and hilly on the right hand side and Pest, flat, Parliamentary and populated on the left hand side. 

That's Parliament House above, a huge building. Soon after we  berthed we boarded buses and were turned loose in the shopping centre of town. I couldn't really get into it with the money so different and the memory of my Vienna shopping spree still fresh. 

After lunch another guided tour, this time starting at the Matthias Church in Buda. 

It is very beautiful outside. Nearby is the Fisherman's Bastion, a rampart with views over the river to Pest. 

And a handy Starbucks. I used the WC on the way back to the bus: 1 Euro!!!

The gentleman on horseback guards the loos to make sure you pay up. 

Several statues later in Pest we entered the Concert Hall of the Blind School for a piano concert. 

They deliberately made the Blind School beautiful so the students can have it described and feel valued. 

The concert was fantastic and I don't know the performer's name, only that he is a professor of music. He started with a Bach fugue on the organ,

moving to the piano for Beethoven and Liszt, organ again and finally a piece of his own improvisation - "from my own head."

These cultural experiences are called Scenic Enrich and are a good point of difference from the many other river cruise lines. 

We are moored piggy back with another ship so to get ashore we have to walk through their reception. But during dinner tonight we took off on a twilight dinner cruise up the river past Parliament and back to the exact same spot we left. The exact same couple is lying on their bed watching TV. 

A lovely end to a lovely day. Now we have to pack and tomorrow morning early we're off to the airport to return home. 

Boomsmas in Europe 16

We passed through Bratislava, capital of  Slovakia, during dinner tonight. Nobody cared except Telstra who sent us a text. 

Far more interesting was the big thank you to the 56 staff who have served us so well during the trip. There are 12 chefs! Well we do eat a lot and tonight's farewell dinner was excellent -  although no red olives. 

Boomsmas in Europe 15

We elected for today's excursion  to go with the ship's chef to the Naschmarkt while he bought supplies for tonight's dinner. It was a disappointment as he barely spoke to us and bought nothing. We all hope he bought some of these olives:

Yes, RED olives. 

Beautiful fruit

Amazing array of spices. After the chef left us ( I hope to buy olives ...) our guide Maggie took us to taste Austrian cheese. 

This is a hay-wrapped cheese, very nice, served with housemade fruit bar, poppyseed cake and pumpkin seed oil

Free time for an hour - we had a really good raspberry drink which was described as a precursor to wine called Himbeer Sturm

Spectacular teapot display. 

David headed back to the boat, leaving me free for a shopping trip. I must have walked miles, couldn't find a department store but enjoyed what I saw. I went into a tea shop called Haas & Haas, loved the teas, so went into the tearoom cafe and ordered Apfelstrudel  tea. Best cup of tea I've had all trip because made with boiling water. And a free WC. 

When I emerged it was raining, absolutely sheeting down; tourists huddled disconsolately in doorways with nowhere to go for shelter. I had a folding umbrella but just had to laugh - it was SO WET! 

The poor carriage horses by St Stephen's Cathedral weren't amused. 

Luckily Scenic's shuttle bus was waiting at the designated spot and I could get a ride back to the boat and dry clothes - not that it was particularly cold. Back in time for a demonstration in the ship's lounge of the Viennese waltz 

Note: no ears. I put down my knitting in courtesy to the dancers

Boomsmas in Europe 14

With our guide Emily we bused into the old city centre via the Ringenstrasse which takes in many beautiful buildings. It's like driving in a wedding cake, there's so much decoration around 

This one above is Art Nouveau near the Naschmarkt 

This is taken from a famous Viennese coffee shop (Starbucks) outside the Spanish Riding School, where we attended a performance. The stallions are off at summer camp so we saw the mares and the foals. 

The young pregnant mares performed beautiful dressage in perfect unison. 

The older mares and foals stormed into the arena with a flurry of manes and tails then settled down to enjoy themselves. There are 35 foals in this year's crop. 

When the final whip crack came they all knew it was over and belted for the exit. 

It was a great show - well worth doing - the only event we've paid extra for the whole trip with Scenic except Frappacinos etc. 

Rain hit after dinner as we drove to the Palais Liechtenstein 

for a classical music concert preceded by champagne and a chance to look at the Golden Carriage of Prince Joseph Wenzel. 

Every time someone moved too close to the carriage an alarm went off so it was not a relaxing champagne. We walked up a wide marble staircase to the concert room mindful of our guide's adminition: "Be sure to enjoy the concert, tickets cost 200 euros each."

It was terrific in spite of the hard decorative chairs

The small orchestra played Strauss (of course), there were two singers and a pair of dancers who waltzed to The Blue Danube. 

I had to take photos in between heads, which is why above has ears in it. The new blot on the landscape is the iPad photographer, iPhones to a lesser extent, who hold up their device and take away one's viewing area. 

Palais Liechtenstein as we departed: the rain is over. 

Boomsmas in Europe 13

We rebelled today - and gave the Abbey of Melk a miss. Reading, knitting and blogging filled in the morning admirably with a bit of activity watching the crew tending the boat:

After the Abbeyists (large, with a private school for 900 children in part of it) returned we set off for Durnstein, past little villages nestled on the river bank with vineyards at their backs, 

through to Durnstein where we are to meet the intrepid passengers who set off from Melk on bicycles 3 hours ago. 

What an incredible Wedgwood-blue tower and amazing ruined castle at the top of the hill. 

When we walked into the village we discovered the blue tower is a church and the ruined castle is just that, having been built in the 11th century and housing Richard the Lion Heart when he was imprisoned by Hadmar I. 

My favourite shot of the day. 

Hadmar I apologising for his wickedness in locking up Richard, a fellow-crusader. 

The main and only street wanders about (why were medieval streets crooked?) and contain many shops selling things apricot. When the vines were hit by phylloxera in the late 19th century, farmers turned to apricots instead and now have a thriving business in apricot wine, liqueur, schnapps, syrup, hand cream, body lotion etc and a strange concoction called "Drunken Apricot" for 2.5 Euros which is dipped out of a barrel and drunk. We had an apricot ice instead. 

The group had Happy Hour at a local wine pub, having been warned not to ask for beer. 

The grapes aren't ripe yet. 

Boomsmas in Europe 12

Salzburg today - Sound of Music here we come! It was a 2 hour bus drive from Passau in Germany, across the River Inns where the Austrian border is; as Austria unwound I felt it looked different, cosier somehow, rolling farmlands with no fences, wheat and maize with little onion-tower churches. I now know that round churches are baroque while pointy ones are gothic. Might be handy for trivial pursuit. 

The mountains are the Alps which ring Salzburg, a beautiful town with an Old Town and ABC. Our guide led us across a bridge encrusted with padlocks which young people put there as a symbol of everlasting love, as they do in Paris:

and then to the Mirabell Palace 

We plunged deep into Old Town, struggling to keep up with the (young) guide and David's Whisper Box not working

David trying to listen. 

It was hot in the main square where Mozart's statue looks out at the horse carriages and bubble-blowers

Mozart was born in Salzburg and is commemorated in the Music University and too many chocolate shops. Too hot for chocolate!

Horse poo is collected by a man with a shovel and bucket of soapy water. 

Note: the cobblestones aren't bad but it was HOT and when the guide let us off on an hour's free time all we could think of was a cool drink - which left half an hour free time, not enough to look at the very interesting shops. Next time I'll skip the tour and do my own thing. 

Salzburg has 8 million visitors per year and a lot of them were there with us as we trekked miles it seemed to our buses for the drive to lunch in the mountains along a steep and winding road rather like driving up to Belair from Adelaide. 

We were welcomed to the restaurant by four horn players 

and the back of what turned out to be the cello player. No time to admire the glorious view - into the restaurant where we were handed a stein of the local Stiegl beer, the 4th beer I've liked. Might be getting a taste for beer. 

After lunch there was a concert, MCed by a Julie Andrews look-a-like and could she sing! Her rendition of The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music brought tears to my eyes. 

The concert was a strange mix of classical, Sound of Music and oddities like an Alpenhorn, a guy playing the mouth drum and 2 blokes slapping their leather shorts and tap-dancing.

Strange fact: Europeans don't know The Sound of Music as the film was never released here due to a feeling that the words of the songs were so English they couldn't be translated properly. Salzburgians know the film as something visitors love and they promote the edelweiss flower, one of which we given as we left. 

The 2 hour return trip to the boat was tedious as we were all tired. 

It was our turn for dinner at the Portobello restaurant in the prow of the boat where every night a select few are fed prime Italian cuisine and wines. It was lovely and so was the sunset over Linz Austria where we were moored. 

The colour lasted about five minutes.