Cruising the Danube

After the wonderful evening Monday, Judy and I got to our cabin and spent a little time decompessing. It may be that the time difference helped us stay awake, or maybe it was the short nap we had in the afternoon. Either way, we were still awake at 11:00, when we both remembered something the Captain had said in his talk before the Welcome Dinner. We opened the drapes, opened the window, and leaned out to look through the mist at a distant glow ahead of the ship. I actually think the mist helped, because Esztergam Basilica was eerily beautiful as we approached it. Not a bad sight to take us into dreamland after a fun day.

The sight that greeted us the next morning wasn’t quite so beautiful, however. When we opened the drape, we saw that our side of the ship was only a few inches from a concrete wall. We were in the first of several locks we would go through that week, and the ships used by all the cruise lines are made within incredibly close tolerances. They have to fit through all the locks, yet still provide spacious quarters for their guests. I didn’t take me long after a quick breakfast to get up top and watch the whole process, running from the front to the back and watching the ship rise a little over twenty feet to the next level of the river. You’ll see a long sequence of photographs of locks closing and opening on the Photo Page for today.

Fascinating. To me, anyway.

A combination of running around topside in the mist, too much fun the nght before, and the lingering disorientaion of the time difference gave me a little attack of vertigo, so we decided the safest thing to do was to make this a shipboard day. I even took a short morning nap. We hated to miss Bratislava, but discretion meant caution was more important than visiting what we were told is a beautiful city. That means we have to come back, of course. Wouldn’t want to miss anything, after all.

Being on the ship all day did provide us with several good opportunities we would have missed otherwise. We got to see parts of the Danube we would have missed had we gone to Bratislava, because the shore visit people were delivered by coach to a new port for pickup around lunch time. During the afternoon, Judy took a nap while I listened to the Captain’s talk about the Danube and technical details of the River Beatrice. We both enjoyed the Viennese Waltz demonstration later in the afternoon, part of Uniworld’s preparation for our visit to Vienna the next day.

This is also a good time for me to describe some of Uniworld’s approach to making every day of the cruise interesting, informative, and fun. The part we remember most is the daily talk each evening before dinner. There were always talks about what to expect the following day, more than just a review of the schedule, but including that important information. They were never long, but they were always interesting and important. And there was always a reminder of what to expect that evening after dinner, an onboard concert, dancing, or other entertainment. These talks were held upstairs in the lounge during the cocktail hour and immediately followed by moving downstairs to the restaurant for dinner. For me, the best part was the final talk each day, delivered by the Sommelier. We always got details about the specific local wines that were to be served with dinner.

Dinner that evening was good (so was the wine), and we decided to end our shipboard day by attending the evening’s entertainment in the Lounge. And we were delighted! Entertainment that evening was a concert by the Pressburger Duo, based in Bratislava. (Pressburg was the German name for Bratislava during certain regimes in this area.) Both guys had positions with the house orchestra that was resident in a Bratislava theatre. What fun! The conductor was “at the piano,” while the concertmaster was the stand-up soloist. He played the violin (really well), he sang (even a credible performance of “La donna e mobile”), and played a couple of folk instruments I’d never seen or heard of before. If I were still teaching MU 126, … but I’m not. So I just enjoyed the show. YAY!

Eventually the concert ended, and we went off to our cabin after another wonderful and relaxing day, courtesy of Uniworld.