Danube River Day 5 (Passau, Germany): A New Blog Entry, A New Year, A New Decade!

Today was our first day in Germany!

I woke up way before my alarm clock went off and lounged around for most of the morning. Our excursion today wasn’t until early this afternoon.

Passau is a medieval town and is known for its beautiful architecture. It's equipped with cobblestone roads and everything! I grabbed a lot of pictures. Our guide took us on a walking tour through the city and showed us around for about an hour. We didn’t stop anywhere this time. After our guide finished the tour, we had free time to shop before we had to head back to our ship. Not a lot of the stores looked open but they were. We found a dollar tree type place and ended up picking up a bunch of souvenirs so I headed back to the ship to drop off the souvenirs and intended to head back out to explore some more but ended up staying on the ship for lunch.

We didn’t have anything planned after lunch so we had a few hours of down time so I attempted to take a nap again and ended up puttering around until dinner.

After dinner we went up to the lounge for a few festivities before the new year countdown at midnight. We played name that tune and had a few drinks. As a DJ you would think I would rock at that game but I didn’t do so hot.

I needed to get some ideas organized for my blog so I took a break from the festivities and went back to the room to get some thoughts down and freshen up before I went back.

What a year this has been!

I can’t believe the year is over… I can’t believe this decade is over! I’ve never celebrated a new year, let alone a new decade, so far away from home on vacation before so this is super new and super exciting to me. 2019 was a very interesting year. I’ve been on some of the most amazing trips and of course met some awesome people. To me, it isn’t destination that makes the trip but the people you meet, the people you travel with and the things you get to lean and experience. Don’t get me wrong, going to world class destinations is still absolutely incredible and I have so many more places that I want to go. I already have future travel plans in the works!

Hope you guys had an amazing year! Here’s to a new year, here’s to a new decade!

Happy new year everyone!!!

Thanks for reading,

~Dustin

Get out there!

Danube River Day 4 (Krems, Austria): A Monastery, Downtime and A Reception

Today was a pretty short day. We only have one excursion to a local monastery and a reception to go to today.

Göttweig Abby, founded in 1083, is an impressive monastery that looks over the Wachau Valley. The monastery had burned down in 1718 and was quickly rebuilt, much larger, in the baroque style. The pride and joy of Göttweig Abby is the Kaiserstiege—a grand baroque staircase under a gorgeous fresco by Paul Troger. The monastery houses an average of 45 monks at a time and is currently a functioning winery and hosts tours, religious retreats, lectures and classes to support itself.

After we got back from Göttweig Abby we had lunch and a lot of downtime before our welcome back reception. I should’ve used that time to organize notes for my blog but I didn’t. That time was used to lounge around and attempt to take a nap.

Every time we travel with Viking they invite us to a reception for guests that have traveled with them before. Normally the staff thanks you, serves you a few drinks and asks about your previous travels then you go on about your day but this time we interacted with other guests and met some pretty cool people. We actually stayed and mingled until the kicked us out.

Today was a much-needed short day.

Danube River Day 3 (Vienna, Austria): A Bus Tour, A Palace and A Classical Concert

Today we explored Vienna. The City of Music! The City of Dreams!

We started out our day with a bus ride around Vienna. The bus took us through the city center and we had some free time to explore the financial district. There's a surprising amount of high end shops out here. Most of everything is closed in Vienna on Sundays because of some law or regulation. The city literally shuts down, including the Christmas market, and all that’s open are restaurants and souvenir shops. Somehow these establishments get around this regulation. The gift shops that were up and running had signs on some displays saying that customers aren’t allowed to purchase that particular item on Sunday. Somehow that allows them to operate on this odd shut down day. I did a google search trying to find out why stores have to close on Sunday but all that came back were suggestions of things to do on Sunday’s when everything is closed... Thanks Google.

After our bus tour we went back for lunch then back out again to the Schönbrunn Palace, the home of Hazburg royalty. This palace has over a thousand rooms and it was huge! We were shuffled through a few of the rooms, including a few Chinese themed rooms, Napoleon Bonaparte' bedroom and Marie Antoinette’s room. It reminded me a lot of the Hermitage in Russia. No pictures were allowed.

Our last excursion was a Mozart and Strauss concert at an opera house by a small chamber ensemble. This has been my favorite part of the trip so far. Their act included a little humor and crowd interaction. This is something everyone has to experience at least once in their life. I wasn’t too sure about going to this one because it ended so late but I’m glad I went.

We got back super late and the kitchen staff had gulaschsuppe as a snack waiting for us. God forbid we go hungry on this trip! I really wanted to go to bed but I had to have a bowl and it was so worth it!

Today was an amazing day! We have an early day tomorrow.

Vienna is a beautiful city. 

Danube River Day 2 (Budapest, Hungary): A Bus Tour, A Cathedral and A Christmas Market

We’re taking a bus tour through Budapest and stopping at cathedral and a Christmas market today.

Our excursion this morning was a long one. The bus took us through 4 districts of Budapest-- the city center, Elizabeth Town the Jewish Quarter, the Castle District and we stopped at Matthias Church. Each area reminded me of a different part of Europe.

Matthias Church, officially known as The Church of Our Lady, was used as a coronation church for the Hungarian kings. This church is one of the oldest buildings in Budapest and has been remodeled, expanded and restored so many times that not much of the original church exists.  It’s also the home of the Black Madonna and a replica of the crown of Budapest.

The Christmas market that we went to had some of the best street food I’ve seen at any market. I have no idea what any of the foods are called because I can’t read a lick of Hungarian Most of the vendors there were food vendors. There were also lots of stores and restaurants around the Christmas market. Most of the bigger stores and restaurants in the area also had locations in America-- H&M, Zara, Hard Rock Café, McDonalds and Burger King. I tried to go to the local casino but they required a passport and I left mine on the ship… BUMMER!

After we got back we had the rest of the evening off so we ate and lounged around until bed time.

Danube River Day 1 (Budapest, Hungary): We Made It!

This trip starts out in Budapest and we’ll be making our way to Nuremberg.

Today was the longest travel day ever! It wasn’t because a lot of super exciting things happened but because Europe is legitimately really far away. We started out at Sacramento International Airport and had a short trip out to Salt Lake City. From there we flew over the pond to Paris and finally, Budapest. Our transfers went smooth, the food was eh and none of our luggage got lost so there isn’t a lot to report about that part of the trip. I did end up spilling some of the chicken marsala that I ordered on my shirt and the stain stayed with me all day. I also noticed a lot more dogs were traveling with us than usual. No complaints there! While we were at the different airports, we did some shopping and purchased currency before we headed out to our ship.

After an hour bus ride, we finally made it to our ship. We checked in, grabbed some tea and explored a little before we went dinner. Normally everyone arrives at the boat at the same time but I noticed that this time some people got here early in the afternoon and there were still passengers trickling in after dinner.

After dinner there was a performance by a local acapella group, The Windsingers. They performed a couple of traditional Hungarian Christmas songs, a few original songs and some American pop Christmas songs. They were pretty good!

After the mini concert I headed back to my cabin and unpacked because I was too lazy to unpack when we got here, then went straight to bed. Note to self, always unpack the first chance you get!

Today wasn't actually a particularly long travel day-- it just felt like it because I didn’t get a lot of sleep on the way here.

Tomorrow the real adventure starts!