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Family Reflections:
We love river cruises! The food is amazing and both Waylon and Amari keep surprising the chefs and ordering top notch cuts of meat/fish instead of the very nicely offered pizza or fries and whatnot. We're a tad proud.
Amari has swooned over the luxury river cruise life. We keep trying to temper expectations for life after.
We were definitely one of a kind as we were told by the staff they've never had such young kids aboard. We think they represented well!
Our recommendation...just do it!
Budapest (Embarkation & Night Cruise)
Made it to the "vacation within the 'vacation'"!
Promise it's real, even though it looks photoshopped.
Gained some Matryoshka kids. They even come to dinner sometimes!
Budapest night cruise...really couldn't have asked for nicer temps in the middle of October (post flood...which everyone seemed to fair pretty well after the 2013 flood since they built up some flood resistance since then).
Budapest is beautiful during the day, but it is lit up for the heavens at night! Simply breathtaking...(clockwise) Buda Castle, Mattias Church and Fisherman's Bastion, Parliment, Chain Bridge, Parliment again.
Visegrad & Esztergom en route to Bratislava
Spent time acclimating on the ship. Visegrad Castle in the top photos and Esztergom Basilica in the bottom middle. A gorgeous, restful day!
Bratislava (Capital of Slovakia)
Beautiful sunrise...an advantage of ship life is you get to towns earlier than some of the tour bus crews. ;)
Walked up to the Bratislavsky hrad (castle) from the ship and then around town. Very cute and fairly relaxed pace, at least at this time of year.
Some play time below a castle...you know, normal.
St. Martin's Cathedral and much of Old Town rooftops.
"Bosorka" (left)- Slavic for witch...a sculpture dedicated to all the women accused of witchcraft, and subsequently burned, dating back to the 1600s.
St. Michaels Gate
One of our favorites, Church of St. Elisabeth, nicknamed "The Blue Church".
Amari found a red pepper fox at lunch!
Schloss Hof (Austria, right on the Slovakian border)
The Scholss Hof, a baroque palace. We loved the gardens in particular.
Halloween has definitely infiltrated Europe. About a 1% noticing of our holiday.
Your new queen and king!
These are so cool...Hungarian Zackel Sheep (never knew these cool sheep horns existed)! And (below), found another playground. Between the animals and playground, Scholss Hof became a kid fav!
We loved the outdoor space here! Camels, horses, sheep, goats, peacocks, llamas, alpacas, and more! And, Europe still trusts that if you're a stupid human, you deserve what comes to you. Lots of trust to just play and respect, with guidelines of course.
Vienna (Capital of Austria)
It's crazy to know that the President of Austria has a normal business day in a relatively normal building, that's not surrounded by arned guards. Yup...civil!
Knowing we're walking where some of the most amazing music was created, all the architecture additions in various styles, and random religious towers.
Just walking through the streets is fun.
Ok, I know it's yet another cathedral, even with the same name as some others, but this St. Stephen's Cathedral is pretty iconic with it's juxtaposition with the modern and semi-modern buildings.
I had no idea this company still existed...such memories of bright colors!
I know it looks weird, but we've learned to touch bronze statues in the spots that are black or golden. Those are the spots that carry luck or a good thing to come of some sort or another if touched. And we try to keep our humor up with all the walking we make the kids do!
We were graced with a procession of some sort and a band marching up in front of the Opera House.
Much to our surprise, they came up right in front of the Albertina Art Museum and gave an impromtu show right in front of us. We loved it! Amari is playing "Where's Waldo?" Can you spot her?
Some of our favorite pieces!
Finally riding a tram!
When living out of a suitcase, you get creative with what you have!
Dürnstein and the Wachau Valley
This is truly, such a beautiful landscape! The Wachau Valley specializes in white grapes and apricots, so of course we bought wine, apricot liqueur, rabbit sh!! (this is literally what they call dried apricot bits covered in chocolate), and apricot/nut mix. Delicious and beautiful!
Dürnstein Castle ruins hike.
Sorry, the morning light and the amazing landscape just made me take way too many photos and I couldn't decide which to share. Thus, I'm going a tad overboard (surely influenced a tad by my drink).
Dürnstein Castle is where King Richard I (Lion Heart) was imprisoned for a spell by Leopold V. Amazing to walk around here!
Melk Abbey from the boat...you can only do so many excursions since this river cruise is our "vacation".
This is how close to the lochs we got to one side of the ship. We'd open the window to watch us rise up.
Wrapping up our chill afternoon boat chilling day (with afternoon tea, tea sandwiches, and dessert of course)!
Mondsee and Salzburg (Austria)...birthplace of Mozart and home to many Sound of Music filming locations!
Mondsee Lake...a gorgeous, though foggy day. A local and tourist summer vacation spot!
Mondsee Abbey (where the Sound of Music wedding was filmed). Our tour guide through Mondsee and Salzburg was a trained opera singer and Sound of Music enthusiast, so we were enthralled as her voice captivated us throughout our tour.
Buildings were colored according to what was sold so that people knew where to go to buy/do things (ex: pink meant butcher).
Mozart Statue...apparently he, along with many Hapsburgs, made their portraits and statues way hotter/not ugly than reality. Old school photoshopping!
Mozart's Birthplace!
Papageno Statue celebrating Mozart's "The Magic Flute" opera...his last.
Residence Fountain (yes, in The Sound of Music)
The St. Peter's Abbey (background) and the cemetery, also shown in The Sound of Music.
The cemetery and small catacombs were one of our favorite spots! Peaceful and beautiful!
First big ol' bretzel (pretzel)!
Regensberg, Germany
Walking around and on the infamous Stone Bridge. Gorgeous and calm.
The colorful buildings were everywhere here, and such charm abounds!
A long awaited foggy morning! We've been truly happy with the nice weather, but had been expecting more of this at this time of year, and finally felt like it was fall!
Hofbrauhaus is near! We await Munich!
Dom St. Peter
Practicing our power moves!
Weltenburg Abbey (brewing since 1050)
Showing past flood lines (this year's wasn't big here, but in other parts of the Danube was big, at least to us.
You know they're doing something right when I'm drinking beer again! Living the life of the locals...and extremely delicious beer!
Skipping rocks at the abbey. One of our cruise mates from China got 8 skips!
En route back to the ship (a smaller ferry travels these parts).
River Cruise Endings
Our last night aboard with a Bavarian send off including delicious food, drink, and hilarious music group...many of whom play in a German philharmonic as their "day" jobs.
Sad to say goodbye to the ease of the week, but our waistlines await fewer desserts and more walking. We loved this adventure!
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