Viennese Walzing

Last night we were treated to a fabulous, private concert at the Palace Liechenstein in Vienna - there was classical music - a bit of Mozart, a bit of Stauss, a couple of opera singers and these two gorgeous ballet dancers. It was just lovely! We felt so cultured.

Today is a religious public holiday in Vienna for Corpus Christi so naturally on our only day in Vienna - all the shops are closed except the touristy souvenir shops so we were able to buy that all important fridge magnet! As part of the 'festival' there was a parade through the town centre from church to church and here is a little delight we were able to capture on camera. I'm not sure of the religious or cultural significance, but if the shops were open, I would have purchased one for myself!

And here's one for the gents!

Well...... if there is a street we haven't walked up or down in downtown Vienna then you can dress me up like a Wiener Schnitzel and call me Wolfgang. Our tour of this beautiful, architecturally classic city started at the crack of 8 this morning and we've only just managed to WALK back to the ship in a zig zag pattern through streets and parks now at 4.30pm - stopping only once for Viennese coffee and Sachertorte - that's big fat chocolate cake in Austrian! and once for a delicious sausage injected with cheese...... I'm thinking now that all that walking was necessary!

Ok - so on the tour this morning we all got on our correct buses going to different locations and we all have our ear pieces in our ears and making sure that our little transmitters are working and we can hear out tour guide..... then one little man at the front of the bus says "Mine is not working" Vera - the guide goes through all the steps again. "No, I still can't hear you". People start calling suggestions out to him from all over the bus, 'have you turned it on?' 'you have to plug it in to the transmitter', 'turn it up' - all things that you would have thought - seeing as this man has used this device at least 2 times before that we all know of...... he would have already tried. "No, I still can't hear you" - when finally Vera went in for a closer look and bless his heart - he didn't have the ear piece anywhere near his ear. It was in his lap! This is what I'm dealing with people!

xxx

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....

Prague to Budapest

Our days in Prague are over and we're now heading towards Budapest to get onto our river boat and get cruising!

We are told there will be a couple of stops along the way and the first stop is going to be at a petrol station which also has a McDonald's. We're also told that this will be the last place that we can spend our Czech money (not us - we spent our last kronas on essentials - a charm for Jen's bracelet!). So penniless, we sat on the bus whilst the other people all braved the freezing winds and the 15 other bus loads of people and raced off to get either a cup of coffee or that last minute souvenir. We were going to be staying at this location for 30 minutes! After 10 mintues or so, we thought that perhaps we'd go for a walk and use the facilities and chose the petrol station to do so - thinking this would have less people than the overcrowded Maccas. When we got there, we found people (a lot of people) shopping and browsing around the petrol station shop as if it were Harrods. People came back to the bus with wine and all sorts of unlikely things. If only we'd kept some of our Czech money!

When in Prague........

It's important to try and fit in with the locals

There are no words!

Now this is just confusing something that is already pretty confusing already - I mean.... it looks like a bear, but it's not a bear; it looks cute and cuddly but growls and has really big claws. So how are the Czech people meant to know a koala when they see one in Australia if this is what they are going on? Or....... perhaps the ceramic figurine just wasn't finished before they popped it in the window display and they thought - nobody will notice!

This reminded me of the time I went to Disneyland and whilst on the "It's a Small World" ride we were confronted with the Australia scene = a blue kangaroo like animal with (i kid you not) pink stars on it's tummy and shoulder who was being hunted by what looked like a little Fijian boy in a grass skirt.

Perhaps they were thinking of Austria?

Dinner and a Show!

Praguian Folkloric Entertainment - it doesn't get any more entertaining than this!

The Odd Couple

Whilst people watching in Prague - we've noticed lots of men's groups wandering around in matching outfits - perhaps it's the city of choice when planning buck's weekends? I've mentioned the Hell's Angels - I'm thinking not a buck's weekend? We spotted a group of middle aged men in matching trench coats and boaters. Then there the 4 men in matching black T-shirts that simply said "Meh". I don't know what it meant, but they were signing animatedly to each other. At least they won't be a rowdy buck's night!
The oddest group we've seen so far - by far - is the coupling of a very tall (at least 6ft 5"), very thin, very bald monk walking along with a very short (5ft 5"), very swaggery, pimp-like man, whose name could only have been Guido! Now, I want to know under what circumstances did they meet?

Lou - From Oregon, USA

Breakfast - sitting with Lou, a lovely chap from Oregon, USA and we're discussing beautiful things in each other's countries.

Lou: "I think Uluru is amazing..."
Shell: "Were you there at a time when you were allowed to climb the rock?"
Lou: "I think very highly of Indigenous people and that is their religious site. I could rollerskate around St Peter's Basillica, but would I?" [leans into me in order to make a point - widens eyes and speaks slowly as if I'm a little slow] "Would I?"
Shell: "Very good point Lou."

You have to imagine this conversation in an American accent (his, not mine).

xxx

Prague - clearly where Angels don't fear to tread!

We have spotted a representative by way of leather vest from nearly every country that has a chapter of the Hell's Angels. they are like their own version of Miss World proudly displaying a sash with the name of their home country emplazoned across it, except the name of the Angel's country is written on the back so at least they're not lookin directly at you when you stare and say..... "oh, Stockholm - yes, I thought so". As our discussion of Hell's Angels continued we wondered..... Did the esteemed members look like that before they joined? or Did they join and were then given notes on how to dress and groom themselves?



The other thing we've noticed in Prague that has left us both worried and concerned is the apparent compulsariness to wearing all white! Men, women - it doesn't discriminate - and it seems more is ..... more - shoes, trousers - all the way up to headwear.... all in the one outfit. Now one person may have an all white ensemble that they like to don from time to time, but our concern lay more with the groups of people all wearing the get ups at the same time!

I must ask Jilka what the hell is going on here.

xxx

Prague - Beautiful Prague

Deer Goulash with Bread Dumplings

Jen and I on our walking tour - complete with headsets


St Wenceslas Square - Prague

The Astrological Clock - Old town Square - Prague

Charles Bridge - Prague

Our meet and greet went well - made the ultimate small talk with a few people in ear shot swapping names, country/town of origin and by what means of transport did we take to arrive in Prague = Shelley. Perth. Flew via Singapore. x 10.

Brekky was at the crack of dawn because we were all going on a guided walking tour with Jitka. We met some more of our fellow cruisers - some lovely and very chatty, some we're going to do our best to avoid - It's amazing how people think it's ok to talk to you about their various health issues in the first 2 mintues of meeting you over breakfast or how much they disliked the Czechs!!!! (this comes from an ex church minister - where's the love hey?)

So - hooked up to an earpiece - off we go into the Wenceslas Square, which is really a long rectangle if we're going to be mathematically correct about it. We made our way around to the Old Town Square where we watched the Astrological clock do it's thing on the hour. A little look at The Charles Bridge - which the tours guides don't take the punters over anymore, because they kept on losing people!!!??? So we looked at it from one end..... then did it ourselves later.

Our tour finished, as everything should - with coffee and cake then Jen and I headed off to do more touring of our own. A cruise on the Vltava River was lovely - our tour guide was a very talented, multi lingual chap, whose accent unfortuately for us, was so strong that we spent the cruise squinting to unerstand what he was saying and to boot, he said everything twice - once in his heavily accented English and again in his heavily accented Czech which actually sounded the same. An older English gentleman on the boat mentioned to our guide that the people at the back couldn't hear him and our relaxed guide looked at him, shrugged his shoulders and went on with his commentry, however from then on - all heavily accented languages were shouted!

We thought that we would try traditional Prague food - so we tred deer goulash with bread dumplings which was much tastier than it looked.

There was a musical concert of Bach, Schubert and Albinoni at St Nicholas' church which seemed like a typical Praguian thing to do and it was beautiful. An organ and a trumpet. If you closed your eyes you could visualise a scene from a movie where everything was in dramatic slow motion. The lady in front of me chose to work out her finances on her programme whilst her husband drank in the experience!

xxx

There are Angels among us

Sitting, waiting to board the last leg of this journey to Prague.... people watching - our favourite pasttime. We were searching for possible ship mates and so far everyone could be a possibility..... Everyone seems to be a 3/4 aged (somewhere between middle and old aged) couples who look like they are called Ron and Joan or Graham and Jan. However none are showing concrete signs (like a backpack with the cruise name emblazened on it) So we'll just have to wait until tonight's "meet and greet" at the hotel.

Gazing around the room and 2 by 2 large, hairy and leather clad bikies entre the boarding lounge. They are of varying ages and sizes and hairiness - and actually look like they belong to a vetran chapter. Each member is wearing their compulsary leather waistcoat with the name of their city. Darwin was present - complete with curly mullet, ink and shorts!! (it's raining in Frankfurt today)

Looking forward to getting out of airports and away from planes for a while now.

xxx

2 Tigers thanks!

People watching in the Qantas lounge in Singapore Airport.

Jen: "Well...... should we have a beer?"

This is after arrival champas on the plane we've just got off followed by pre dinner Bloody Marys, followed by 2-3 glasses of wine with dinner....... if we're not hammered by Frankfurt, something is wrong!

Talk about Party Jen - I've got my work cut out for me if I'm going to keep up!

2 x Tigers thanks

xxx