Adventures in Europe, week five

Week 5: Our 2019 Europe/UK adventure

St Matthias Church

Falconeer, Heroes Square

View from the hill, Budapest

1/12/19: No early morning walk this morning, we lazed in bed with our coffee before a lovely buffet breakfast in the restaurant. Soon it was time for the safety briefing and information session for today’s tour of Budapest. Just after 9:30 we boarded our bus and headed out along the streets, starting in Pest where we saw the Opera house, the large synagogue and Heroes square, before heading across the bridge into Buda and up to the Castle hill. St Matthias church and the Fisherman’s bastion was very busy, but the views were quite spectacular as it was such a sunny day. We walked as far as the palace, investigating the Labyrinth, where Count Dracula was held prisoner in the caves under the hill. Returning to the bus we drove past the Parliament and the “60 shoes” monument to Jewish prisoners shot and pushed into the Danube during WW2. Our guide was most informative and we returned to the ship with a much better understanding of the history and highlights of Budapest. We enjoyed a glass of warm punch on our return, then, after peeling off our layers of coats, scarves, hats and gloves we had a pre-lunch drink, entering the restaurant just as the ship prepared to depart the port. We sailed down past all the beautiful buildings of Budapest, quickly leaving the city behind as the sun set. Later in the afternoon we listened to the briefing for tomorrow’s visit to Bratislava. After freshening up we returned to the lounge for happy hour drinks before another delicious dinner. Later, we rugged up and took a stroll around the top deck, admiring the lights of small riverside villages and the two hardy people wading in the (heated) jacuzzi!

It snowed overnight!

Palace gates, Bratislava

Palace grounds, Bratislava

Blue church, Bratislava

2/12/19: We woke to the sound of water rushing by and the sight of snow falling as we continued our journey down the Danube, arriving at Bratislava  just after 8am. After breakfast we boarded our bus for another very informative guided tour, visiting the Palace and admiring the views from the snow covered hills before touring the old city, through Michael’s gate, along the monarchs’ walk, into the town square and past the Parliament building, the opera house and many beautiful shops and restaurants. We took a walk to see the lovely blue church before returning via the town centre to the ship for lunch. In the afternoon the sun came out and we returned to the city, wandering down some narrow streets and buying some souvenirs at the Christmas market before returning to the ship for an afternoon rest. We cruised away from Bratislava at 6:00, watching lights flicker in small towns as we passed by enjoying drinks, then dinner, while a music quiz kept everyone entertained for the evening.

Quirky traffic lights in Vienna

Vienna opera house

Vienna Christmas markets

Viennese love

3/12/19: We awoke in Vienna and, after a hearty breakfast, we were ready for a day of exploring! We boarded our bus for a guided tour of the Ringstrasse, then left the group at the Volksgarten, beside the royal palace, to view the Spanish Lapizzi horses exercising to music in the courtyard. It was beautiful! Later, we walked to St Stephans church, in the heart of the city, admiring both the outside and the beautiful interior, and visiting the Christmas markets behind. We then strolled down the main pedestrian mall to visit the Christmas markets in Karlsplatz - a beautiful display of local craftsmanship. From there we strolled along the Ringstrasse to Maria-Theresa Platz, where we shared a bratwurst and some gluhwein at another Christmas market, before finishing at the Rathaus, enjoying the ice-skating and another gluhwein at our final Christmas market for today! We caught the bus back to the ship, where we walked along the streets to the local supermarket and took a stroll along the Danube past all the other cruise liners before returning to our cabin for a well earned rest. Later, after a delicious dinner, we listened to a local string quartet “Ars Mundi” play a selection of Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Strauss and our favourite canon from Pachelbel. There is nothing nicer than sitting in a ship on the Danube listening to the Blue Danube waltz by Strauss!! The ship dropped its lines and pulled away from the dock right on 10:00 and we watched as we cruised downstream and through a lock before deciding it was time for bed. 

Going through a lock on the Danube

Baby it's cold outside!

Christmas markets in Budapest

4/12/19: We woke to the sound of water rushing by as we cruised along. We had passed Bratislava, and as we rose and had breakfast we cruised back into Hungary, passing Gyor. We went for a walk on the top deck, where the temperature was -6 but the wind chill factor added to the biting cold! We rounded the Danube bend, passing numerous small villages, enjoying lunch and reaching Budapest just after 2pm. We disembarked for a walk into town, along the pedestrian mall, all the way to St Stephens cathedral where artisan Christmas markets awaited us! There are different crafts here to what we saw in Bratislava and Vienna - more earthy tones and humorous figurines. The food stalls are like full size restaurants, and the servings are enormous! Later we retraced our steps through the mall and down to the huge covered markets, two levels of food, eating places and stalls selling all things Hungarian. Returning to the ship we were delayed from boarding by the Avalon ship leaving, and had to wait in the cold and dark for our ship to return to the dock, but after a warming shower we were ready for the Captain’s cocktail hour and a five course dinner, sharing a table and several wines with Australian friends Tim and Michelle. We returned to the lounge and laughed and talked the night away before retiring to bed, our last night of a most enjoyable cruise.

Parliament building

5/12/19: The first passengers left for their return journey at 7:45, while we completed our packing and enjoyed a lazy breakfast. Then we headed out for our 10:00 excursion through the Hungarian Parliament House - a fascinating insight into riches, conflicts and resolutions, kingdoms, communism and democracy, all within the huge and opulent building. The gold leaf staircase, al frescoes, statues and the Crown Jewels were marvellous. Later, we strolled back through the Christmas markets along the road to the Cathedral and through the pedestrian mall, returning to our ship for lunch and farewell drinks before boarding a shuttle coach to the airport, where we caught a taxi to our nearby hotel. The hotel room is plain but adequate, with not much around except airport parking! We were directed to Maci Laci, an interesting local “Bufe” where we had dinner...nobody spoke English, so ordering was a challenge, and the drinks were almost non existent, but we shared a bottle of wine we purchased in a nearby”Tabak”. We returned to our hotel room early, as we have an early wake up and trip to the airport in the morning!

Doha

6/12/19: The alarm woke us at 4:45am, giving us time to get dressed, finish packing and have a light breakfast before our shuttle service to the airport. We checked in and were in the lounge by 6am. We boarded our plane at 7:15 and once everyone was settled in and the wings were de-iced, we took off for Doha - leaving the snow for the desert! After five hours, and with a 2 hour time difference, we landed at 3:30, clearing customs and immigration and arriving at the Intercontinental Hotel before 4pm. Our room on the 38th floor has views over the city buildings and we enjoyed a swim on the 46th floor and a drink on the 56th floor before going downstairs to choose a restaurant for dinner. The prices here are quite eye-watering, but we settled on a lovely meal in the Indian restaurant and stopped counting the cost! Later we returned to our room for a cuppa before bed - we have an early start for our city tour tomorrow and we don’t want to miss it!

Traditional fishing boat

Blue Mosque, Doha

7/12/19: We woke early to a light and sunny sky, shared our room service breakfast and were ready for our city tour by 9am. The guide arrived in a little mini bus and took us to see many of Doha’s locations; first we visited the cultural centre, where we entered the blue mosque and admired the huge amphitheatre, then wandered to the beach where crews of men were working on the old fishing boats, or Dhouws. Next was The Pearl, a man made series of interconnected islands where the residences are built to represent different exotic locations like Venice and Morocco, the houses cost a fortune and the shops, cars and boats reflect that wealth! We drove into the city, past the royal palace and Parliament, into the more traditional part of Doha, stopping at the Souk Waqif to wander the narrow alleys of this busy old style market. Then we drove to the edge of the bay, or Corniche, to take photos of the high rise buildings on the far shore and see the hundreds of traditional fishing and pearling boats (Dhouws), which are owned by rich Qataris but crewed by Indian, Pakistani or Sri Lankan men, keen to make a living for their families back home. Foreign workers do many of the more intense labouring and service jobs, living away from their families for long periods of time in order to earn a decent wage. We drove to one of the many shopping malls - Qataris spend hours in malls, which often contain amusements for the whole family, like rides, bowling alleys, cinemas, even an ice skating rink! Summers are so hot that it is necessary to stay indoors as much as possible so the shopping malls cater for this. We returned to the hotel at 12, satisfied with our glimpse of life in the desert, and keen to hit the pool for some relaxation. Later, we finished off our huge breakfast tray, and soon it was time to ready ourselves for the flight home. After a light meal in the business lounge we boarded our plane, which took off just before 8pm bound for Melbourne.

Time to go home!