The Scenic Ruby Riverboat

This is our lovely floating home for the next 2 weeks. Well, this is not ours exactly - this one is the Scenic Sapphire and ours is the Ruby - but they look exactly the same.

We have a very cozy cabin in the middle of the "Danube" deck (which is the top deck) and we look out to the port side (that's the left for those of you nautically challenged people).

Here is a little something that the house keepers left for us on the first morning.

The ship has a large lounge area and a lovely restaurant and even a wellness spa and hairdresser - we plan to utilise all the facilities!

Our first day in Budapest and we set off on our bus tour - it was pissing down and nobody wanted to get off and look around - which was fine by us! The tour guide told us a story about the Marriott Hotel. It was once booked out by Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Grace Kelly for 3 months while they were shooting a movie..... Now that's pretty extravegant in itself - but Liz was celebrating her 40th birthday in that time and she told the city that she was Elizabeth Taylor and that she would like the city to be illuminated for her birthday. The city - being ruled by communism at the time said - whoever you are, that is not going to happen. So she dug around in her purse and offered them 2 million dollars to just go ahead and illuminate the city for her. You would think that the impoverished city would have jumped at the chance to fill their coffers, but surprisingly they said no! It just goes to show that money can't buy you everything - especially in a communist country that has never seen your movies!

It hasn't stopped raining here in Budapest - so this is what all my photos look like. I think they have a rather paintingesque quality about them.

Also because of the rain we were forced to find shelter inside and drink the most delicious thick, sauce-like hot chocolates with lashings of cream..... it was hell!

We've been on the ship for two days now and we've eaten our weight in delicious 5 course meals!!

This is us in the dining room. Sure we're smiling - but we rolled back our cabin!

Today we're sailing from Budapest to Vienna - so there is a group activity being held in the Ruby Lounge - napkin folding! When I worked at Cafe Del Pescatore in Scarborough, there was a day when not a single customer walked through the door and so I folded more than 2000 napkins - so I'm going to stay cozied up in our cabin and watch the world go by!

This is one of hundreds of little fishing houses along the Danube

Jen just turned to me and said - you know what's great about this? There are no kids - I've just noticed! I have to agree....