DANUBE WALTZ

DANUBE WALTZ

On our Thursday way
sunrise greeted us as we bused
from night to day
Michigan Flyer, EL to DTW
via AA.

Two days late, an April fool.
Lufthansa’s pilots nearly scuttled
then shuttled us to Air Canada’s
18 seater, a prop, 
eight hours in Toronto
and an overnight zoo
of loud mouthed conventioneers to

Munich.

Au Canada!

April Fools’ Day plus three,
another canceled flight,
six hours, re-ticket lines
saved by a Friday lunch with Munich’s best
beer garden ham, sausages, cheese and bread,
and to quench our thirst, the first
of the week’s smooth European beers. 


Turning tide —
a short evening ride
to Budapest.

No more April pranks,
thanks to Viking’s prep,
The Hotel Le Meridien bar,
drinks and snacks.

Sleep-in-Saturday —
late breakfast in the bar,
eggs, cakes

and spring —

lilacs, forsythia,
pansies and budding trees,
wisteria,
dandelions, as yellow as you please.

The ship boards tomorrow
so, hungry for Hungary, we got to it.
A market outside with local crafts
and tempting foods to offer.
First task, find an ATM.
Florints, 200 to the dollar.

For most of the day,  a Big Bus tour
over the Elizabeth Bridge to Buda.

Hop off

at Castle Hill
for palaces, museums,
Roman ruins, concert halls
and views back across the river to Pest
and the world’s third largest Parliament building.

Outdoor lunch high above the Danube,
    Goulash of course.
    It’s more of a soup, you will notice.

Paused to watch guards
    marching,
        a drummer’s cadence,
            — changing —
at the president’s palace office.

Hop back on

Return to Pest via the Margaret Bridge.

Bronzed shoes on the banks of the river,
a quiet opportunity
to remember those who suffered
this Nazi atrocity.
Shoes and clothes worth keeping.
Owners not.
Shot.

Back at the hotel bar,
a jazz trio entertained.
Moon River.
Dinner at the hotel
to anticipate 

on-board-Sunday.

Thought about
but skipped Mass
for a breakfast buffet
and leisurely walk to the river.
Our ship awaits, The Viking Legend.

Welcome Aboard

Luncheon in the lounge.
Peter at the piano
playing Over the Rainbow,
Sentimental Journey, and Somewhere My Love,

travel music.

Champagne in our stateroom
waiting to be chilled.

In Budapest, Hungary
aboard a Norwegian longboat
registered in Switzerland,
passengers from around the world.
A bit of a stretch for us.
Not one kid on board.

“See the World in Comfort.”

Their motto turned out to be mostly true.

Deck top cocktail look at the Chain Bridge
rush hour traffic
and the spires and cupolas pricking the hills
Of Buda on the left, Pest to the right.
After dinner, hills of lights.

Monday, April 7

Viking’s version of the Budapest tour
took us past several Franz Liszt sites to
Heroes Square —
Hungarian historical statuary

with stories to tell

of Hungary’s long history — first unified by the Magyars in the 9th century,
earlier, the Roman Empire,
the Huns, the Mongols, the Ottomans
Charlemagne and the Franks,
the Holy Roman Empire,
then several centuries of the Habsburgs,
the last exiting with World War I.

A Hungarian aside —  
their tendency to end up on the wrong side — 
the Germans in both world wars
and then the Russians.

And in case you wondered —
Scholars seem to agree
the term “Hungary”
is not a function of the Huns
in their history.

Now Hungary is a 24-year-old  democratic neophyte.
Young adults appreciate the new freedoms
enabled by the 1989 “velvet revolution,”
but their parents lament the loss of
their right to a simple home
    in a massive drab apartment complex,
the right to a no frills car,
    and its several years-long waiting list
and a simple diet of “good news” from socialist television.

Socialisms’s low unemployment
and minimal income inequality,
all unfortunately bought with meaningless jobs
and low expectations —
our young guide’s view.

Viking’s turn at Castle Hill.
This time, St. Matthias’s Church with its colorful tiled roof,
Fisherman’s Bastian, an arcade on fortification walls
overlooking the river.
To the left, a life sized bronze of Zoltan Kodaly,
educator and musician,
getting his picture taken again and again.
Behind us a building displaying bullet holes,
a reminder of the risks of being, for so many centuries,
at Europe’s crossroads.

To the south, the Freedom Statue atop Gelle’rt Hill,
originally, a Soviet memorial
celebrating liberation from the Germans,
now sporting more generic liberation language.

Nearby, the Gelle’rt Hotel,
a destination for years
of those seeking the healing power
of Budapest’s mineral rich thermal waters.

Afternoon excursion,

a chance to get out of the city.

Here they come!
Fierce horsemen
riding bareback!
Racing across the Hungarian plains
brandishing swords, cracking whips
and shooting arrows with astounding dexterity.
One rider standing bareback on his horse
leads a charging team of four others.

It’s The Hungarian Cowboys!

And one cowgirl riding dressage style
a la Sisi (see Austria below).

The horses eventually knelt, sat, lay down,
their riders posing, perched
to receive our accolades of appreciation

while, a four oxen team plodded in front of us.

All of this thanks to a man whose success
at racing two- and four-wheel horse drawn carriages
supports this equine park,
museum, restaurant, stable tours, cart rides  and horse shows.

Palenka and poga’csa, complimentary.
That’s Hungarian brandy and biscuits.

That night, we silently glided out of town
heading north toward Slovakia,
Budapest’s lights receding 
from the Parliament building on the east
to Castle Hill in the west
and the Freedom Statue further south.
Brilliant.

Tuesday, April 8

Chilled morning sun
greeted us, day one
as we emerged deck top
to view our new sailing sights
and only daytime passage through a lock,
the first of eleven
that would raise our boat a thousand feet
over the coming week.

By noon, Bratislava.

During our bus tour of Slovakia’s capital
we began to appreciate our bus drivers’ abilities
to negotiate crowded narrow, winding, roads,
this one up a long hill
past the U. S. consulate’s miniature White House.
A short hike to the crest
brought us to the white baroque Bratislava Castle
and its government buildings surround,
all made brighter in the afternoon’s ample sun.
Far ranging views of the city below
and the country side,
Hungary back down the river to the left,
Austria up to the right.

The older part of the city, an invitation for a walking tour.
See how many you can find —
there were nine —
of its signature bronze statues.
We found two.
Leaning over a park bench, Napoleon.
Everyone’s favorite, peeking out of a manhole,
a little man.

Near the boat landing, a gothic cathedral, St. Martin’s,
welcomed us into its dark interior
and glass floor section
that looked down into an ancient crypt
    — creepy —
and museum-like rooms with ancient vestments
and sacramentary
    — musty —
but,
    — happily — 
someone practicing the organ.
This old church still works.

Many German cars in central Europe,
like the popular Volkswagen-made Skoda.
But wait,
a concern is growing
about dependency on a single industry.
They lead the world in the production of cars per capita
but want to avoid becoming —

another Detroit!

Back on ship

dinner featuring local foods
and an after dinner show
of Hungarian and Slovakian folk music.
Local singers and dancers.
A nice touch, well done.

Wednesday, April 9

Long busy day in Vienna.
A morning bus tour of the Ringstrasse
showed us a bustling city 
with a constant cycle of buildings being cleaned.
Free schools, health coverage and income security.
Pretty cool scene.

Then a walking tour for a closer look . . .
The Vienna Boy Choir’s Sunday chapel,
stables for the Lippizaner stallions,
St. Stephen’s Cathedral,
and the Hofburg palace, home of the Habsburgs
from the 13th to the 20th century.
Enough time to pay off most mortgages.

Austria is another country with a history to test an American’s imagination.
The original settlers, the Celts, drifted in from the northeast sometime BCE.
Then in the 700s, Charlemagne ruled, King of the Franks,
followed by the Magyars of Hungary
then Ottos I and II and the Babenberg family in the tenth century,
King Ottokar of Bohemia in 1242
and in 1278, Emperor Rudolf I began six centuries of Habsburg rule.

Six centuries!

Interrupted in the 1500s and 1600s by the Ottomans.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
the heir to the Austrian throne,
assassinated in 1914.
The ensuing WWI ended Habsburg rule
and led to the Austrian republic.
Hitler in 1938,
allied occupation from 1945 to 1954.
a neutral country in 1955
and in 1995 it joined the EU.
Whew. 

Ready for your test?

Maria Theresa, affectionately known as Sisi,
maybe the most celebrated of the Habsburgs,
ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire
and most of central Europe in the eighteenth century.
Her special talent,
serving as the mother-in-law to Europe
by using her 16 children to broker peace through marriage.

An afternoon excursion to her baroque summer palace,
Shonbrunn,
showed where she slept, carried on imperial business,
gave banquets and gambled.

Back in Vienna, an evening concert
at a hall in the Hofburg Palace
where once, at six years of age, Mozart played.
The story goes, after his performance,
he jumped into Sisi’s lap and kissed her cheek.
Fortunately for all, she was pleased.

Our concert was presented by a Viennese residential orchestra
who had a good time playing everybody’s favorite music — 
Mozart arias and ensembles,
Strauss waltzes complete with waltzers.
A tour highlight for me.
Could not get enough encores.

Thursday, April 10

We continued north from Vienna to Durnstein,
a medieval town
with the ruins of a castle which at one time held
the incarcerated Richard the Lionhearted.

The ensuing ride through the Wachau Valley
treated us to some of our trip’s best scenery.
Vineyards clinging to the terraced walls like ivy.

Then on to Melk’s Benedictine Abbey,
a 900-year-old hilltop castle donated to the monks
now boasting a jaw dropping baroque church,
spacious courtyards, immaculate hallways,
exquisitely decorated rooms,
a museum, 
great views
and a huge library of old books, still in use.

We walked back down to the ship
through the city,
one of us too tired to stop and shop.

Dinner on the ship that night,  a taste of Austria
with two strolling musicians in lederhosen
singing Austrian folk songs.

    Did you almost say “Australian?”
    Common bit of humor here,
    “We do not have kangaroos.”

My favorite, “Ein Prosit,”
a toasting song I learned in Milwaukee.
Chorus tour, 1959.
Herr Track, our Viennese director.

Ovenight the ship cruised to Linz.

Friday, April 11

A two hour bus trip took us from Linz to Salzburg
and a view of the Alps.

Back in the day when salt was dear
and a living could be made in the trade,
Salzburg obtained its name,
“Salt City.”.

Vertical rock walls define the edge
of the old part of Salzburg,
but its crowded shopping streets
are where the action is.
They still sport gilded wrought iron signs with symbols
(no need to read words or numbers)
advertising the shops’ merchandise,

such as Mozart Balls,
a candy delicacy available everywhere.
Mr. Furst, their inventor,
missed his patent opportunity
by failing to register.

In the middle of everything was “Mozart’s house,”
a yellow apartment building where, four floors up, he spent his first 17 years.

Lunch at “the oldest restaurant in Europe,”
dating from the 7th century
on the grounds of St. Peter’s Abbey,
followed by dessert  and a Viennese melange
at “the oldest cafe in Europe,”
The Mozart Cafe.

Toured St. Peter’s graveyard
and its splashy spring decorated graves,
decorations which were truly over the top,
pun certainly intended.

The beautiful Mirabella Gardens
were fresh with new spring life.
Lots of significance in local history
(archbishops, mistresses and all that)
but they achieved contemporary renown
as scenery for filming  the movie, The Sound of Music.
We listened intently
to the accounts of the creative license taken —
    what was filmed elsewhere and here
    and what would have happened to their escape
    had the family disappeared
        over the mountain —
            into Germany.

Back on ship

Captain’s dinner
followed by a Sound of Salzburg Show in the lounge.
Mozart to Lehar and Strauss,
folk songs to dance to and
Sound of Music sing-alongs.

Later, in the lounge, Peter’s piano,
accompanied Dave, our crew director,
displaying the talent that supported his earlier singing career.

Saturday, April 12

Passau,
German town bordering Austria 
and the Czech Republic
at the confluence of three rivers.
We were asked if we thought the Danube
seemed bluer than the other two,
but we also read that the Danube “Blue”
probably refers to moods,
not hues.

Many beautiful baroque buildings
including St. Stephan’s Cathedral,
home of the largest cathedral organ in the world
(over 17,000 pipes in five interconnected organs).
But no concerts given during Lent.
Dennis opted for on-board quiet time.
But Carole went.

Back on ship,
chef’s dinner
and a tour of the galley.

Friday the thirteenth came on
Sunday this April.

Leave by bus, 4:15, a. m., for Munich,
then an 8:00 a.m. plane to Frankfurt
and at noon, nine hours to DTW. 
Arrive, 3 p. m. EDT,
Michigan Flyer at 5:30 and home by 8:00
to fresh food and flowers (Thanks, Aaron).

Carole, could now put to rest
her exhausted self
and this project,
its months of planning stress
back on the shelf.

But Monday morning,
up and at ‘em early (European time effect).

DRK
5/26/14