Budapest Sail In

Friday July 4th, 2014

We dragged ourselves out of bed early this morning (6.30am) so we could be showered, dressed & down to breakfast by 7.30am, then up on the sun deck with our cameras ready for our sail in to Budapest by 8am.

This is a very large (10,000,000 population) & beautiful city. Although we have yet to leave the ship, the views from here are amazing.

Here are a few of my photos taken from the sail in:

 

Dinner With Captain Rob!

Thursday evening July 3rd, 2014

Well our Captain's farewell cocktail & subsequent dinner was the "icing on the cake" as we prepare to finish our final river cruise. Just typing this makes me feel sad to be leaving this beautiful ship & wonderful staff tomorrow morning. 

Our new friends, Jack & Marjory also received an invitation to dine with Captain Rob, so that made it even more special.

The menu was superb as usual, I have forgotten the exact names of each course, however do have some photographic evidence, except I had actually started my main before remembering the photo. Also the dessert photo was taken before the beautiful slices of bombe alaska were added. Apologies for my place card featuring in most shots.

The dinner took place in the Erlebnis Restaurant at the rear of the ship on deck 3. Very nice views & a great place to watch the sunset.

I think we had about 22 present, 20 passengers plus Captain Rob & Korana (our lovely) Cruise Director. Everyone seemed to have a great night with lot's of talking & photo taking. We continue to be impressed by the genuine friendliness of Captain & the fact he is always around talking to passengers (when not busy driving the ship) & answering questions.

Here are a few passable photos, many required deleting as I must have accidentally changed a setting because they were quite blurred. Nothing to do with the lovely wine I was drinking!

After dinner some of us proceeded to the lounge to listen to the music & have a nightcap. As usual the bar staff, especially Alex, were great.

It was almost midnight when we reached our cabin, so a short night as we are getting up early to watch the sail in to Budapest.

This was such a special evening and we feel really honoured to be invited to join the Captain. The whole experience with APT has been wonderful (still 4 more days, 1 here & 3 in Prague). Thank you to all concerned!

Betty & Mike 

 

Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna

Thursday July 3rd, 2014

Another beautiful sunny day! 

Today our selected excursion, a visit to The Spanish Horses, was cancelled due to the fact they were all away in the country on holiday! So the options left were a bike ride (definitely not) a trip to Bratislava (2 hrs each way on a coach) & a guided tour of the Schonbrunn Palace, which was modelled on The Palace of Versailles, near Paris. I chose the palace & Mike decided to just go for a walk around the river.

The coach departed at 9am & we had our guide on board who did another commentary as we drove the 40 minutes required to arrive at the palace. 

We were taken through 20 of the 40 rooms & given a commentary via our voice boxes. No photography allowed inside the palace! I was not aware of this until we had arrived, so maybe would have taken another option if I had known. Anyhow, it was very beautiful with luxurious decoration & great paintings.

Next we were allowed some free time so I decided to go on the train with friends, Warren & Gaylene. It turned out to be OK, but took an hour & we did not see nearly as much of the gardens as we would have liked. I still managed to take lot's of photos though.

We arrived back just in time to catch the coach back to the ship for lunch.

On arrival I was greeted by Mike with a drink & this invitation:

So we are quite excited to be having dinner with the lovely young Captain. He is just 29 & has been so friendly since we arrived last week. I did have a long chat with him one night after a few drinks & told him how great this ship & staff are. I also said he was nicer than our previous 2 captains. Do you think that is why we received the invite?

Will fill you all in on our dinner tomorrow :)

Betty & Mike

Liechtenstein City Palace Classical Concert

Wednesday July 2nd 2014 - continued

What a fantastic evening we had in Vienna!

After an early dinner (entree & main), we were collected at 7pm & taken to the Liechtenstein City Palace. Despite a beautiful sunny day it was raining when we left the ship so thank goodness for all the APT supplied umbrellas. Luckily we only had a short stop from the coach into this beautiful palace, which was renovated at a cost of 200 million Euros & only completed in 2013. So photos of outside were not possible.

We were greeted with champagne & allowed to take photos inside before taking our seats in the concert hall.

Some of the "dodgy" audience :)

The concert consisted of works from both Strauss & Mozart in the forms of solos, choir & the orchestra. It was amazing & the time passed so quickly. It ended with, of course, The Blue Danube Waltz, one of my all time classical favourites. I managed to record a video of this piece on my camera. Everyone, including the non classical enthusiasts, loved the entire performance.

We arrived back at the ship around 10pm to be greeted by the staff who had set up a feast in the lounge of Austrian specialities, including the best apple strudel I have ever tasted. Our friend Jack produced a bottle of Apricot Liqueur he had purchased a day or so earlier & shared it with, Warren, Gaylene, Mike & I. It was delicious!

Tomorrow is a visit to another palace. More about that later.

Betty & Mike