Still wet nd cold but ...

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Phase 6 – Still cold and wet







Friday, May 16 Vienna



Woke up in Vienna. Rain was coming down during breakfast and the trees were blowing but not as badly as in Bratislava. Did a morning tour around the Ringstrasse but photos through the rain streaked windows didn’t turn out very well. Then we walked around the main pedestrian area of downtown to St Stephan’s church. Massive black limestone interior – size would have definitely been intimidating if I had been sinful. As soon as we left the church 6 of us headed for one of the famous Viennese coffee shops. You may think I’m obsessed with good coffee but really it’s a cultural way of life here and they manage to have a wide variety of chocolate desserts to have with the cappuccino. I will not name names but there are other coffee and chocolate addicts among us here on the Viking Jarl. After we headed back to the ship and I didn’t even look in any of the shops let alone buy (mainly because they were rather expensive brands in annoying model sizes). Our afternoon market trip had to be cancelled due to wind and rain. I used the time on board to finish a book I was reading and do some arrangements for our group. Dinner was early so we could get to our Mozart and Strauss concert on time. I had heard the music that was played before but could never guess what each selection was or by which composer. We had opera singers perform some of the pieces as well and the conductor had a running gag going on with the percussionist who was acting like Harpo Marx. Thank goodness everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the audience kept doing standing ovations at the end. Home to the ship and apparently I missed out on late night goulash soup and free drinks. Won’t happen again. Only 5953 steps – I am soon going to have to walk the jogging track on the top deck even if it is raining and windy.



My best line of the day was to Ross,



“What’s the point of travelling if you don’t help the local economy?”







Saturday, May 17 Melk



Up at 8 and dressed warm. Some rain and some light sky. We were bussed up to the Abbey and had an excellent tour through there with an excellent guide. I was very impressed with the library – volumes and volumes in rooms with spiral staircases, ceiling frescoes and old globes and documents displayed. Unfortunately we couldn’t take photos. Walked back through the town and only a few shops were open. My memories of being there 8 years ago were of warm sun and a good coffee and a very nice lingerie shop. The shop must have closed, no coffee place that was enticing but at least the rain had stopped. We walked back to the ship but stopped in the pub near the dock. Did a sketch and then got ready for dinner. At dinner Deb and I kept making hand puppets out of the table centerpiece, the appetizer sticks and the little butter covers (and no I hadn’t been drinking). Made for the loud dinner table. After that we went up to the lounge and played a trivia game. Luckily I was sitting with a group who knew all kinds of answers (I did contribute one or two) and we won a bottle of sparkling wine. Thank goodness we won because one nameless member of our group is rather competitive and may have physically taken out another team. 7565 steps – one wedding outfit for sure doesn’t fit now.







Sunday, May 18 Passau



Woke up to sun. Yeehaw. Cool but sun. We arrived in Passau and got the cutest guide yet. His name was Daniel and I wish I’d taken a pic of him. He certainly was an excellent speaker and very good at answering questions and giving overviews of the things we were seeing – church, cathedral, town hall, architectural details etc. This unfortunately was a Sunday with the shops closed. After the tour we walked around and had to duck the roadblock tapes because they were doing a 7.4 km run. I can’t imagine running through those cobblestones that were slippery and very hilly. The drumming bands were fun to watch. On the way back to the ship we stopped for Cappuccinos and beer. Nice little spot on the waterfront and as we finished our drinks the waitress came out with a glass of schnapps for each of us – excellent hospitality everywhere we’ve been so far. Back on the ship we began cruising again and we had a strudel making demo. I volunteered to make the second one and luckily didn’t put a hole in the dough when I did the stretching part. I will try this at home. After dinner we had a group impromptu booze party. I had bought a small of bottle of liquor at the abbey in Melk and so had Deb. Our group brought some of the sparkling wine from their cabins and Dex had some killer aperitif thing from Hungry. We had a fair bit of fun and I think we were the envy of other guests on the ship. 11,466 steps







Monday, May 19 Regensburg



Sun! Sun! and heat!!! Started the day with the worst guide we’ve had – still good but compared to everyone we’ve had so far she didn’t measure up. Couldn’t explain things clearly and slow. Anyway the shops were open and Di G and I set up with Ross following behind as bag carrier and moneyman. We hit a few good shops and a knife shop where Thor helped us buy a new bread knife – apparently he used to sell knives and he speaks good German. Di and I had lunch at Hemingway’s restaurant (the guy got around) and the Prosecco was cheaper than the cappuccino so we sat and enjoyed the sun with our sparkling drink and a shared hamburger. More shopping (fun place – Butlers) and back to the ship. The sun deck was open so I took a glass of limoncello up to the sundeck and tried to read (kept nodding off in the sun) – don’t know where Ross was. There was a pre-dinner cocktail party for passengers who had travelled on Viking before. We had some canapes, more sparkling wine, a shot of Aquavit (warm going down) and then I had a Black Russian. As we got up to go to dinner I was given another Black Russian to have during dinner. Have no idea what or if I ate anything that night and I will not include the pic a friend took of me at dinner. We had a huge game of Scattegories hosted by the tour director. Hilarious answers but for some reason our answer of silverfish in bathroom cabinets was voted out (they haven’t been to our house on Chelsea with the basement bathrooms. No amount of arguing could convince the crowd of 100 that we were right. Some from our group did win though so more sparkling wine was poured. Good thing Viking has their own vineyards. Off to bed – carefully. 9055 steps







Tuesday, May 20 Nuremberg







Relaxing morning on board just trying out the various sunny deck spots. Arrived in Nuremberg and started our tour. Went to Hitler’s stadium that had never been completed and our guide was very good giving you the feel of Hitler’s megalomaniacal personality. On to the castle. Interesting defense techniques with winding approaches and tactical spots for shooting or pouring hot oil or burning bales of hay. Very easy to picture the difficult life and times in the medieval world. Twisting streets and cobblestones brought us to a great little gingerbread shop where Anne and I slipped in and bought a fair supply of goodies. Next to the main market square and Simpsons and Ross and I searched for the little sausages that are famous in the area. I don’t care about sausages but these were great – if I hadn’t been having 3 course breakfasts, lunches and dinners lately I would have had a whole order for myself. As we came back to the ship we were handed a tequila sunrise and then it was time to get ready for our group’s official pre-dinner cocktail party. Very generous Viking sponsored bar. Our group had the sundeck all to ourselves and the captain, the director and the manager showed up to mingle with us. Two margaritas and 1 mudslide and lots of laughing. Good group photo for the North Shore News. Dinner and I went to bed early supposedly to catch up on this blog but that didn’t happen. 5896 steps – hmmmmm gotta do something about this soon.

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Comments

[Jodi]

Silverfish
I can vouch for your silverfish in bathroom cabinets - we now have them at our house, funnily enough they appeared shortly after we stored your stuff from Chelsea Cres!!! You should have gotten points for that one...