Uniworld River Beatrice, 4/10/16 Budapest to Passau

Hey Host Jazzbeau, the Cruise Critic automatic censoring algorithm is driving my insane, and making it a real challenge to do this blog. Let me explain.

I have used Picasa for years as my online photo repository, but it's being phased out and transitioned to Google Photos. So I'm copying links from Google Photos for this blog. Unfortunately this is offending the CC censors, because every once in a while the URL for the Google photo contains the three consecutive letters, "w" then "t" then "f" which is immediately censored out so that the image link won't work! :mad:

When this happens, I have to go back to Picasaweb and find a different URL for that photo. Since Picasa is being phased out, I don't know if that link will be useful for much longer, and I don't want to write a blog with broken links.

It's a real pain in the neck to keep going back and forth between google photos and Picasa to try and find a link that will work for my photos. Perhaps the censoring software could be tweaked in order to ignore certain combinations of letters in image URLs? I'm obviously not cursing when those letters appear randomly in a link, and the link never appears in the blog, just the picture, so censoring it out is counterproductive.

The censoring software is beyond my purview. Maybe Tina Fey could bring it up with those on high? :)

Don't give up JP! Your readers appreciate your hard work. I agree that the CC site is at least ten years behind technology wise. There is no excuse for it.

Host Jazzbeau - thanks. If you could pass the information on to the higher-ups I'd much appreciate it. If you need any more info to help define the issue better I'll be happy to e-mail it to you.

Got2Cruise - thanks for the encouragement. Much appreciated!

**

Back to Monday, April 11, in Budapest.

From the opera house, we meandered through some narrower less touristy streets looking for a wine bar on Chris' list but given the early hour, it was closed as we expected. So we walked a few more blocks to find the great synagogue. We didn’t go inside, but it's a cool building from the outside. It looks a little Moorish in its design - like the great mosque in Cordoba.

By then it was getting towards lunch time so we went looking for a way home. But first, yet another beautiful random building...

We took the Metro one stop from Astoria to Deak Ferenc ter, and walked down Vaci Utca, to see the sights that we had missed on Saturday. That was the place we'd walked through right after one of our index cards blew away, so we were a little discombobulated and had missed a few sights. So we saw the Fishergirl fountain this time.

And the Bank Palace, now a shopping mall.

And the Thonet House, with its beautifully decorated façade of Zsolnay tiles.

From here we walked back to Március 15. tér, where the boat was waiting for us. One shot of the statuary in that square, with Elizabeth Bridge in the background, and you can faintly see the Citadella atop Gellert Hill beyond that.

Finally, we arrived back at the ship for lunch. A very productive morning! A few hours left in Budapest before we sail away at 6PM, so time for one more foray out, I think. And our Budapest cards last until 5PM, so we've worked that one quite well, I think.

First of all, thanks for all the photos. Wish it was less difficult for you to post them. I have a few questions. We'll only be in Budapest one day, in August, so I want to make the most of our time there. Was it hard to find Hospital in the Rock? Is there any part of Buda Castle to tour or is it just museums? At St. Stephen's Cathedral, you said you took the elevator halfway up. Does the elevator go all the way up?

First of all, thanks for all the photos. Wish it was less difficult for you to post them. I have a few questions. We'll only be in Budapest one day, in August, so I want to make the most of our time there. Was it hard to find Hospital in the Rock? Is there any part of Buda Castle to tour or is it just museums? At St. Stephen's Cathedral, you said you took the elevator halfway up. Does the elevator go all the way up?

Hi mimmy52, glad to help.

The Hospital in the Rock is easy. From Matyas Church (the #16 bus stops there) it's about 3 blocks. Walk AWAY from the church, away from the Danube, to the end of the street where it forms a T with a street running parallel to the edge of the hill. You will see an archway that leads to a set of stairs, going down the hill; the stairs go down and to the left. (There is also an elevator). Once down the stairs, turn around and walk back in the opposite direction and you'll see the Hospital in the Rock. Here is a map from the bus stop, with the path I'm describing.

The majority of Buda Castle was museum-type stuff. The basement was more old castle-like but it's small. The range of exhibits is wide so it was interesting enough.

St. Stephens - yes, there are two elevators that you can ride in sequence. The first one goes up maybe 2/3 of the way. We didn't bother with the second one because we thought a few steps would be good for us. The second one would have saved us probably another hundred or so steps, so we weren't as lazy as we thought. It looks like the second elevator ends maybe 20 steps below the viewing platform, so you have to climb some steps no matter what, it appears. Note that it's the same ticket, whether you take the stairs or the elevator. The ticket sales booth is in the entrance to the stairway - a doorway outside the church, to the right of the main portal. Get your ticket, step back OUT of the stairway, walk past the main door (still on the porch) to the other side, past the gift shop kiosk, and the elevator is hidden behind there.

Monday, April 11 - last few hours in Budapest!

After our busy morning we still made it back to the boat by 12:30. The lunch buffet was nice today, as it hadn't been sitting out for a few hours, and it was much more like the high quality food that we remember. We enjoyed the selections and were ready to head back out shortly after 1.

Luckily we still had a few hours to play with before all-aboard at 5:45PM. We took our familiar 2 tram all the way north to the end of the line, at the Margaret Island Bridge. From here it was an easy walk to the southern tip of the island, which is named after Margit (Margaret), the daughter of King Bela IV and later a Saint.

As we exited the bridge and walked onto the island, the first thing we saw was this garden. The metal sculpture is the centenary monument, built in 1973 to commemorate the 1873 unification of Buda, Obuda, and Pest as one city - Budapest.

From here we headed north, intending to walk most of the length of the island. I noticed that there were buses that seem to head up and down the length of the island so that may come in handy later...

Don't know who the guy is on the right of this picture, but he happily posed with me.

Lots of nicely manicured lawns, and the flower gardens were alive with Spring blooms. A very pleasant place to stroll for a few hours. in the distance is a water tower.

There were 14th-century Franciscan church ruins to explore, along the way.

A few more shots of the ruins before moving on.

We're only 1/3 of the way through the island, so northward ho! No time to dawdle...there's a ship to catch in just a few hours.

Many thanks for the directions and the visual, JP. It's very helpful. And just think, if they had included Obuda in the new name, it could be called Budapesto.

And just think, if they had included Obuda in the new name, it could be called Budapesto.

That's LOL funny! I hadn't thought of that one. Thanks for sharing!

Monday, April 11 - Margaret Island, Budapest

From one ruin to another - walking north from the Franciscan Church ruins, we came to the ruins of a Dominican Church and Convent - also in ruins. This is where Princess Margit lived in the 13th century. It was destroyed in the 16th century by Turkish invaders, then rediscovered in the 1800s after the foundations were exposed after a flood.

They have a viewing platform erected here so that you can get a nice overview. The spring blooms are in full force; it's a very nice place. Glad that we chose to spend the afternoon here.

The gazebo-like structure looked much prettier from the outside. Too much graffiti inside, and not a nice place to sit and enjoy the ambience.

A short distance from here is St. Margaret's gravesite. It was also rediscovered in the 1800s after the floods. She lived to the ripe old age of 29, after living in the convent on this island for 20 years. She was sent here after her father (Bela IV) made an oath that he would offer his daughter to God should he successfully repel a Mongol invasion.

A little bit north of here is St. Michael's Church, reconstructed in the 1930s but originally from the 11th century. It is claimed to be (have been) the oldest building on this island.

We're gradually working our way north to the other end of the island. It's really nice here. The whole island is full of nice walking, running, and biking trails, and people are out and about enjoying the scenery. The Danube is close by on either bank. Other than the group of schoolkids we met at the convent, it's been quiet and peaceful. A great way to spend the afternoon, and it's not even 3PM yet.

Monday, April 11 - Margaret Island and the last of Budapest

We walked from the convent ruins to the water tower. No climbing as it wasn’t open for the season yet. Further north, there was a hotel and spa on the island that looked as if it had seen better days.

The Japanese Garden just north of the hotel was pretty though.

And there was a gazebo here, perfect for a few pictures while enjoying the view of the gardens, and the Danube.

At the northern tip of the island I saw a bus stop, so we waited there for a few minutes for the 26 bus, which took us all the way down the island - back to the bus stop that I'd seen at the southern tip when we started our walk. A great time saver - it was about a 2 mile trip. We walked back over the bridge, back to the #2 tram, and tried to figure out our next adventure - we still had 2 hours left before our cards expired!

We thought we’d visit the Hungarian National Museum, which was free with the Budapest card. So we took the #2 tram down along the river, one stop past our boat to Fővám tér, and then changed to the metro for one quick stop. But, we forgot that the museum was closed on Monday - one of the side effects of being on vacation is having no clue what day it is! So we got a picture but nothing else.

I guess we can't really check that one off our list yet...

So as a plan B, we decided to visit the Central Market. Since it was very conveniently located near the museum, it was easy to get back - one metro stop back to Fővám tér, then less than a block of walking. It was nicely empty, given that it was near the end of the day.

We wandered the aisles taking in the atmosphere. Lots of the same paprika that we'd bought earlier today, but looking at the prices, I think we got a better deal at the smaller non-touristy market. The strings of dried pepper caught my eye.

Since we were leaving Hungary shortly, it was our last chance to pick up a bottle of wine as a souvenir. We found a vendor and bought a bottle of Bull’s Blood, a traditional red blend, for less than 10 dollars. I haven’t spent all of my forints but what can you do? I guess I will trade them in for Euros somewhere later on.

At this point it was after 4:00 and we'd done everything that we could realistically do - so one last time back to the old favorite #2 tram, one stop north back to the ship, and we were ready for sailaway.

I think we made great use of our 72-hour Budapest cards...we certainly felt that we got our money's worth! We used public transport successfully to get everywhere that we wanted to go, and there wasn't much left on Chris' itinerary that we hadn't seen. Time for a little relaxing before sailaway - I think we've earned it!

Monday, April 11 - Budapest sail away!

Back on board the ship, we had just about an hour before sail away. We spent the time relaxing on the top deck, enjoying the afternoon sunshine, which was really great after the past few days of clouds and wind. A glass of rosé made it even better! Soon, we were underway - even a little earlier than our 5:45 scheduled departure time.

Here we've just passed under the Elizabeth Bridge, with Március 15. tér on the left. The church that's visible in the picture is the Inner City Parish Church (Belvárosi plébániatemplom), founded in 1046, making it the oldest church in Pest. You can't visit it now as the interior is being completely redone. We walked up to the front door yesterday and it's fenced off, but you can see the major reconstruction going on. The church was built over older Roman construction. Some remaining ruins are visible in the adjacent square.

Further north, another view of Pesti Vigadó (the concert hall), now nicely bathed in afternoon sunshine.

One last look at the Elizabeth Bridge and Gellert Hill beyond, with the Liberty Statue towering above the Citadella.

A couple of views of the Four Seasons Hotel and the Chain Bridge.

And soon they were all in the distance.

Looking forward to seeing Parliament in the nice sunshine. Hope we get there soon though, as we have to attend the Captain's Welcome Reception shortly. Then there will be a briefing, and finally the Gala Welcome Dinner! Eagerly anticipating that one.

Glad we pulled away from the dock a little early; that leaves us time to get dressed up for dinner, even if we stay out on deck just a little bit longer...it's hard to go in when the views are this good!

Monday, April 11 - Budapest sail away, continued

We reached Parliament shortly. Great view except for the tourist who wouldn't get out of Chris' picture...

A few more shots for good measure. It's hard not to take tons of pictures on a beautiful day like today.

The beautiful blue sky - where was this the past 3 days? Oh well, glad to have it now.

Finally it was time to go in. It's past 6:00 and we're not dressed for the Welcome Party which starts at 6:15. On the way in, we took advantage of the empty lobby to grab this shot. River Beatrice is a beautiful ship.

OK, now it's time to see if we can make ourselves presentable in 10 minutes or less!

Monday, April 11 - Leaving Budapest, Captain's Welcome Dinner

Luckily we had brought some dressier outfits because many folks were dressed nicely for the occasion. I had debated bringing a blazer, and eventually I brought it because we had lots of room in our suitcases. I felt very comfortable in my jacket and tie tonight, and Chris had brought a nice dress - not a long formal dress, a shorter cocktail-length dress. I would bet that half of the men were wearing jackets tonight.

The welcome party and briefing were the usual. Tomorrow we'd make a short stop in Bratislava to drop off anyone who wished to visit, then the ship would sail on northward towards Vienna. After about 2 hours in Bratislava, we'd bus northward to meet the ship somewhere in Austria, and sail onward to Vienna, where we'd arrive around dinner time.

Tomorrow night there would be an optional excursion for a concert in Vienna. We weren't sure whether to sign up or not; we have €126 in onboard credit each, but this will take €69 of that, and we're not sure what else there will be to use it on. The concert sounds OK but we're not sure that we really want to do it. Decisions! It's not helping that we haven't yet received the cruise overview sheet, which will list all of the excursions and the prices for the optional ones. Hard to plan...we decided to think about it over dinner.

We headed to the dining room on time tonight for the gala welcome dinner.

We were at our own table tonight so service was fast. Dinner was delicious and the included wines were still Hungarian. The white was a Furmint from Tokaj, and the red was a Kékfrancos. Both very nice.

Here is tonight's menu:

For amuse bouche, a deconstructed Caprese salad, followed by the shrimp cocktail:

The wild mushroom risotto was delicious, as was the beef entrée. So far the food is as good as I remember!

Dessert came with its own special touch.

A little dancing in the lounge, and some more wine, while we debated whether to sign up for the optional private concert tomorrow. We couldn’t get excited enough to sign up for it, so inertia eventually won out and we let the opportunity pass. We’ll see how this pans out. I hope we don't regret it.

Time to stop thinking and get some sleep! Even though we don't get to Bratislava until 10AM, I doubt that we'll sleep in because we never do. Too exciting to finally be sailing on the Danube!

Not only do we have similar travel styles, but I'm pretty sure I have the exact same coat that Chris was wearing in your sail away pictures. :)

Not only do we have similar travel styles, but I'm pretty sure I have the exact same coat that Chris was wearing in your sail away pictures. :)

Cool! We hit the LL Bean catalog about a month before our trip. We were looking for something just a little more substantial than a rain shell, but still water resistant. So both of our jackets in the pictures that day came from that little shopping splurge; hers is a Pathfinder soft shell jacket and mine is called a Propel soft shell jacket. They were both pretty handy to have and worked as expected, comfortable in temperatures down to the high 40s, and stood up to wind and light rain nicely. So, it would be perfect up in Wisconsin...for say, July? ;)

And since we had so much room in our suitcases, we brought the rain shells too. They came in handy on the day or two it was raining more.

Speaking of which, time to put my jacket on and go out for a walk. Have been sitting all day at work and feeling quite sluggish! Hoping that it propels me down the walking path because I don't have much energy to do it on my own...:rolleyes:

Tuesday April 12 - Bratislava

Slept well today...until about 5:45, then we were awake for good. Of course, there was no reason to rush this morning as we don’t arrive in Bratislava until after 10. But, further sleep was futile!

The Danube was foggy and the water was still, so it appeared magical as we drifted along.

We went for a late breakfast at 8:30, which was the usual buffet. They have been offering daily specials, and we ordered it today - a battered and fried apple slice. Chris' Mom used to make that as a treat and we've made them at home too - it was very nice to share.

At 9, Tamas gave an overview of the cruise and all excursion choices, then mentioned that there were still tickets available for the musical concert tonight in Vienna. We decided to sign up for that, since the other optional excursions weren’t particularly appealing to us, and we didn't want to waste our OBC.

We approached the city of Bratislava a little before 10:00 and enjoyed the view from the top deck. Here is Eurovea, an upscale mall just to the south of Old Town.

An overview; the steeple to the far left is St. Martin's Cathedral.

Bratislava Castle, and St. Martin's again. Our dock is at the right of the photo.

And a closer view of the Castle - not sure we'll get there but it's on our list!

This pretty building is actually a trade school.

We docked and got ready for our whirlwind tour. We'll have no more than 2 hours here, and there are a lot of places on Chris' index card! We figure that we'll stay with the guided tour for a bit then head out on our own, once we learn where the bus picks us up... We could always catch a train or the hydrofoil to Vienna if we miss the bus, but I heard that the wine selection isn't as good!

Finally catching up on your report, and loving it! Thanks for taking the time to post all the details and photos. We are on the Maria Theresa for a Christmas market cruise, and will be spending some time in Budapest on the front and back ends of the cruise, so I really appreciate all of the info.

bubbulz, enjoy Budapest - hopefully as much as we did! So much to see and do. We left a few things for next time.

**

Tuesday April 12 - Bratislava

We hopped off the boat in Bratislava for a quick walking tour with our guide Yuri, who was quite amusing. We assembled on the river bank and headed into town. We didn't know much at all about the history of this part of the world, and Yuri gave us bite-sized stories that we could process easily.

Along the Danube, there was a small park with a memorial to the 1944 Slovak National Uprising against the occupying troops and the pro-German government that were in Slovakia at the time. A little further on there was a monument to Ludovit Stur, the father of the modern Slovak language.

In that same square we saw the Reduta Bratislava concert hall, now home to the Bratislava Philharmonic.

And the Victory Monument, thanking the Soviet Army for freeing a "grateful" Bratislava.

We now had come inland a little and we were on the main promenade, which runs parallel to the Danube. On one end was the Opera House:

And ahead of us, an open promenade. Let's go!

So far we've seen a few things on our list already, so we'll stick with Yuri for now and see if he takes us to any more places that we're looking for. He's a funny guide and so far, quite informative. Everything except the castle is very close, so it should be easy to find...we hope!

Tuesday April 12 - Bratislava walking tour

Down the promenade! A nice wide walkway with trees and shade. Here is a statue to Hviezdoslav, a famous poet. One of the downsides to cruising early in the Spring is that many of the fountains are dry. That was the case here.

The US Embassy is next

The "maiden" statue; she is sitting with a deer.

Hans Christian Andersen statue - on the front, it's just him. On the back there are the figures of some of the famous characters from his stories.

You can tell it's a little warmer today because the shorts are coming out. We wore them too. Still the minority, as it was only in the low 60s, but the sunshine was very nice.

At the other end of the Promenade we saw the plague column. We've seen several of these in other European cities as well. This celebrates the end of an epidemic that struck in 1712. You may think that the plague was only an issue way back in the dark ages, but not so, I guess.

Now, we turned right and headed up towards the cathedral. This is a very compact city and it's been easy to walk around to most of the sights so far. Most of the rest of the items on our to-do list are just one block further inland. Since Yuri is going that way, we'll stay with him and listen to some more of his funny stories.

Tuesday, April 12 - Bratislava walking tour, continued

One block from the plague column, and we were at St. Martin's Cathedral. This old church was built over a 100 year time span, from the 1300s to the 1400s. The tower is newer, as several prior ones were damaged by fire, lightning, etc. The current tower dates from the mid-1800s. This was the coronation church for Hungarian kings and queens from the 1500s to the 1800s.

You can also see a black metal statue (it looks like melted metal scraps) in the middle of the picture, and a shiny reflective marble wall to the left. The wall commemorates a synagogue that used to stand here, but was demolished when a large bridge was built in the late 1960s, and the statue is a remembrance of lives lost in the Holocaust.

In honor of the cathedral's role as a coronation church, there is a replica of St. Stephen's crown atop the church spire. It is plated with a large amount of gold. I couldn't remember what Yuri said, but Wikipedia says that it's 18 pounds!

A few streets over and we were at St. Michael's gate, part of the old city walls. There was supposed to be a chocolate shop but I didn't see it where I expected it to be. Oh well, we really don't need more food at this point!

On to the Old Town Hall, at one edge of the city's Main Square. It looks like it should be a church, not a town hall. It's one of the oldest buildings in the city - the tower dates back to 1370. There is a city museum inside now, and I think you can climb the tower. No time for any of that today...

This beautiful building has a very odd name - the Primate's Palace! In Slovak, it's Primaciálny palác. The mayor and the city council are based here now, but the building has seen major events in the past. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved here in 1805 as a result of the signing of the fourth Peace of Pressburg. BTW, Pressburg is the former name of the city of Bratislava, another historical fact I didn't know until I heard it today.

Sorry for the backlighting, but we didn't have time to wait and come back in a few hours for a better picture...

There's a New Town Hall across from the palace. The 1940s architecture isn't as ornate as the Primate's Palace. Even though the lighting is so much better, I think it's not as pretty.

So far Yuri's tour has been entertaining but time is ticking away. Our bus back to the boat leaves in about an hour and we still don't know where the meeting point will be. Hope that they figure it out soon, and we still have a little free time to try to get to the castle!

I'm very glad we stopped here in Bratislava, as it's an interesting place. But on the other hand, it's very frustrating to have just two hours to try to see a city. Decisions, decisions!

Tuesday, April 12 - Bratislava walking tour, continued

Onward, with Yuri - a few statues and carvings along the way. This was on the gate of the Old Town Hall.

And a statue of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary (crowned here in Pressburg) atop the Roland Fountain, in the Main Square of town:

This is a popular statue - the "worker" or the "peeper" as you wish to call it. Cumil is resting with his head and shoulders peeking out of a manhole cover. Is he a worker taking a break? Or as Yuri says, is he peeking up ladies' skirts?

From here we walked back to the promenade and determined that this would be the meeting point. We only had about 45 minutes left in town, so we had to move it if we wanted to try to climb to the castle. Off we went!

We walked the promenade again, turned right towards St. Martin's Church, and went left under the bridge, where we found a set of stairs going up. It was a very quick climb, and we were up at the level of the Castle within 5 minutes. We walked along the edge of the hill to a gate in the castle wall.

You have to pause for a minute to enjoy the view. Here's the New Bridge (Novy Most ) - built in the early 1970s - the one that the Synagogue was demolished for. The structure atop the bridge is called the UFO, and apparently there is a bar and restarurant there where you can have lunch or a drink with a view. No time for that today, so we took the obligatory tourist photo and headed through the gate.

Once through the gate, we circled back and entered the Castle grounds.

Time for a quick look around before we head back down into the town. I had happened to see a money exchange during our walking tour, and I want to get rid of my extra Forints. Hope I leave myself enough time!

Tuesday, April 12 - Bratislava on our own

Once we were through the gate, it was a little further uphill to the scenic viewpoint. The whole city stretched out in front of us.

It was nice to walk around in the sunshine. Great views in all directions! This view looks back towards the Danube, and shows Sigismund Gate, which is where we entered the Castle (and is also pictured in my last post).

Time to lose the jackets; between the warm weather and the fast climb, we were plenty warm enough. St. Martin's Cathedral looks so tiny from this point of view.

In the front of the Castle, there was a monument to St. Elizabeth. She was a 13th-century royal who took a vow of poverty and spent her life helping the less fortunate.

We spent about 15 minutes up at the Castle, exploring the various viewpoints, the sunshine, and a little rest before heading back down the stairs. No time to visit inside the castle, so we missed the museums within. What else can we do in 20 minutes?

Back to the old town, we saw that this old building is Pharmacy Salvator. Dating from 1904, it's no longer a pharmacy but now contains apartments. The carving on the façade is Christ the Redeemer. A beautiful building!

Time to find the money changer, while we still have a few minutes!

Tuesday, April 12 - Leaving Bratislava

We wandered back through the city for a second look and I traded in my extra 25,000Ft for E73. A bit of a bath on the conversion, but we don’t need any more Forints, so no need to keep them other than a few hundred as souvenirs.

Along the way, Chris stopped for a chat with this fellow. His name is Schone Naci, and the statue is based on a real (former) Bratislava inhabitant who would walk the streets dressed in fancy clothes, greeting all of the ladies by doffing his top hat.

I found a few statues more to my liking... It's noon and we haven't eaten in a few hours - what's that all about?

Too soon, we met at the rendezvous point and headed back to the bus. It was only about a 20 minute ride back to the ship, which was waiting for us in Hainburg, Austria.

Nothing more than a technical stop. Certainly no time to climb to the ruins of Hainburg Castle, high above the town on Schlossberg Hill. It was first built in 1050. Hard to see in this picture though the hill is obvious.

Time for lunch! The buffet was nice as usual, and the white wine was an Austrian Grüner Veltliner. We enjoyed a lazy afternoon in our suite, sipping our complimentary bottle of Champagne (AMEX Platinum cruise benefits) and labeling our pictures. Our butler Panche delivered some snacks later, and it was restful.

Here's an idea of where we were today in Bratislava. Looks like we covered the majority of it. The two places we didn't get to go were the UFO bar, and Eurovea. Next time, we'll have to stay a little longer!

Tonight, we should be in Vienna for the concert. No big plans other than that!

Tuesday, April 12 - Evening in Vienna

We had an early dinner scheduled tonight, so we could be done and ready to depart for the concert at 7:30. The Dinner was served as a buffet - the one and only time that happened on this trip. We headed over around 6:30 and enjoyed Wiener Schnitzel, along with potato salad, and some nice Austrian white wines.

It was a delicious, but quick dinner, and soon we were docked alongside the pier, right where we expected from my pre-cruise research at the port authority's website. We're one of the closest ships to the bridge, so it should not be a bad walk at all to get to the U-Bahn station - excellent!

We got ready and headed out for our concert. This was in a lovely small venue just off the Ringstrasse. It was called the Haus der Ingenieure, in an old Palace (Palais Eschenbach). The room was beautiful and the acoustics were very nice. As promised, we were the only group there.

The stage, awaiting the performers:

A little shot of the beautiful woodwork, decorating the room:

There was a 10 piece orchestra, which for some of the pieces was accompanied by two opera singers and four waltz dancers. A very nice show, heavy on Mozart and Strauss. We enjoyed it very much, and were very glad that we had ended up going after all!

When we returned, there was a surprise gift in our room - a CD of the group we had seen tonight, performing many of the same musical pieces! A nice extra touch; we had enjoyed the show very much and I'm sure that listening to some of the music at home will bring back nice memories.

The crew had set up a snack for us in the lounge, because after all it had been several hours since our early dinner. So we went over and had some Viennese sausage, cabbage, and more potato salad. The wine tonight was a Cabernet Sauvignon from Austria, which according to my notes was only so-so. In retrospect, I think that the sharp mustard didn't get along with the Cab Sauv; no red wine would show well with that type of food. So we switched back to the Austrian whites, which were very nice (and acidic, so they could stand up to the mustard).

The musical duo was playing mostly dinner music, so we didn't stay up very late after our snack. We had to get ready for a big day in Vienna tomorrow! We have visited once before, on a land-based trip - replacing our June 2013 Danube cruise that was canceled by the huge floods. So we've seen many of the major sites that the ship's tours will cover tomorrow.

Because the ship's tours would be redundant for us, our plan is to get on the U-Bahn bright and early, and knock a bunch of additional items off our hit list - things we missed last time. As luck would have it, we've received an invitation to dine at the special dinner venue tomorrow evening at 7:00. This sounds like a great meal, but the only negative is that we can't stay out late in Vienna. So that puts extra pressure on us to get a lot of stuff done in a hurry!

Practical information: Here's a map of Vienna showing our docking location (gold stars in upper right corner), and the U1 U-Bahn line outlined in Red. The pointer is on Vorgartenstrasse, the nearest stop. It's a 500 meter walk. Four stops to Stephensplatz, in the lower left (where the red line bends).

Get the running shoes ready! I'll describe how to get to the U-Bahn station in more detail tomorrow, but in a nutshell - it was very easy.