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?