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Published: June 11th 2012
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As some of you may know I recently went on a trip for work to Central Europe and did a River Cruise on the River Beatrice, here are some of our adventures from the trip...
Cezch Republic: We started in Prague which is a lovely city, we toured the old town and the Jewish quarter, tasted some Cezch beer, which I liked but Grant found quite bitter, got lost in the side streets, hade some dumplings and tried the first of many gouloush's, and I got to do a bit of shopping as well. But the highlight of Prague was deffinitly as we were walking through a quite side street, I noticed a lot of police cars, and just thought we must be near the police station, but then I saw a group of people getting up from a lunch at a restuarant and who do I see but Bill Clinton about 10 feet away! He was shaking a few hands and posing for a few photos, and I was able to snap this photo (Grant got a better one straight on) But then it got a bit much and they rushed him off, it wasn't until then that I
noticed all the big guys loming around the street as well talking into thier wrists. Quite funny that out of all places I see the president for the first time in the Cezch Republic!
After our three days in Prague, we traveld overland to Passau Germany to board the ship, with a stop in Chescky Krumlov, a beautiful picturesk town with a river running through it and a castle at the top. We took so many photos here, these are just a few of them, but it was a lovely stop and we sat near the river bank and had lunch and a few beers. Once we got to Passau we boarded the ship and the true luxury begain, seriously I don't think I have ever been so well looked after than on this trip, the service and staff were just amazing. Passau was a bit uneventful, it was a nice and clean city, and we went for a walk in the evening, but there wasn't much to see there. I'm glad this was the start of the trip, if we had ended here instead of Budapest, it would have benn very underwhelming.
We
sailed that night and woke up in Linz, the next morning, where we took, a day trip to Salzburg, the home of the Van trap family! Funny enough, Austrians don't know much about the Sound of Music, the movie never caught on there, but the tours deffinitly did, but we didn't do one, instead we walked around the town, and then around the castle (begining to see a theme here? Pretty much every town has a castle) And we saw the abbey from the movie, I sang the hills are alive a few to many times and Grant got annoyed :-) When we got back that evening we wen't out in Linz for a few drinks, but the town for the most part was pretty dead, it was Pentacostal so not much was open.
The next morning we woke up in Melk, we didn't go up to the abbey, because instead we decided to take the bikes out and travel by land (only 30k's) to the next town and meet the ship there. It was a really pretty ride, and mostly flat which I liked :-) We rode through fields and wineries, and cute little towns, and
even stopped for some wine tasting, we finished right as the ship was pulling into dock in Durnstien, and were minor celebs to the other passengers getting off to explore Durnstien they were quite impressed that we rode. The rest of the day we sat and relaxed on the sun deck and had pretty much the whole place to ourselves as everyone else was out in the town. I ordered a Pina Colada and a smoked salmon sandwich and read my book and it was a much needed rest.
The next stop was Vienna, where we had 2 days. After our day travelling by land by ourselves we must have gotten out of the habbit of travelling on a schedual because we missed the coach to Shoundbrun palace in the morning, and we almost didn't go because it was raining, but the crew convinced us it was worth going and they told us how to take the Metro and we ended up getting there about the same time. The sun came out and it was well worth it. The other highlight of Vienna was the concert we went to, it was an orchistra, with a bit of opera, the
hall was beautiful, and quite an experience. Afterwards we went out to this place called the sand in the city, Viennas take on a beach night club, it had like 10 different bars, with sand and lawn chairs in the middle, and I think I saw a volleyball court as well.
Bratlislave - After seeing all of the other castles I must say the Castle in Bratislava was a bit of a let down, quite unimpressive and we couldn't go in it, and the sourounding city was a bit depressing, but the old town part of the city was awesome. There was a concert in one of the squares with like metal 90's music playing, and a bizzar going on, which we sat at and people watched for a while. After we went and had a beer at a local pub, and it must have been the cheapest beer so far I think it was only like 2 dollars.
Budapest
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