As you may know, our river cruise goes from Budapest in Hungary, to Amsterdam in Holland. The general direction of travel is North West, travelling on rivers canals and locks.
Last night we were informed that there had been an incident on the first lock that we encounter on this trip. What that means basically is that the river is effectively 'Shut!' No ships can go up or down the Danube. Unfortunately that means us as well.
Today we were bused into the town where we were intended to be docked at. Our ship is stuck down river someplace, in the middle of nowhere along with about 30 or more ships wanting to move up and the same number of or more trying to get down. Exciting stuff and it makes for good stories later. How it turns out, nobody knows at this time.
Today in Bratislava, Slovakia...
What a surprise. I had no idea that Slovakia or Bratislava were anywhere as safe and advanced as they are. This country has been bounced around by the fortunes of war and fate for seemingly endless eras. They celebrate the peace now but history says this area will be subject to more war and disruption, you can almost bet on it. There are about 5,000,00 people, half of Hungary's population. They are bound culturally to Hungary although their languages are poles apart.
We had a great few hours in the city/town and if you did know where you were it could be in any thriving European city, modern, clean, full of young people dressed like young people all over the world. And like people all over the world they sit at sidewalk cafes and drink, smoke and while the time away.
Ww know not what tomorrow holds for us, all we know is that it will be different.
We are quite laid back and having a great time and we go with the flow. The ship is wonderful, the food is fantastic and the crew is exceptional, what more could we ask for?
This was the view that greeted us in the morning. Moored at some remote area because the first lock was closed. Our ship sat here while we explored our intended cities by coach. [Ugh!]
We visited Slovakia by coach as we were unable to get upriver by our boat.
We coached into Bratislava from our moored spot, a two hour coach ride. Those ships on the shore are where we should have been moored and we would have escaped a four hour coach ride that day.
The fairy-tale like castle, never having been used as a home to a monarch. Looks good though.
This was an interesting cafe, except I had to redo the blog and lost the meaning of the charm of it.
That is a whimsy statue of Napoleon there, it is for no other reason than to amuse tourists,
and it does.
Gorgeous old buildings, not sure how much damage was done here in WW II.
That was built when brick masons did unbelievable work.
An art school for children.
Find Fellette.
Who would have thought...
Next day the EU parliament met here and shut the damn river down for 30 miles either
side of this city for five hours!
This was taken when we sailed out of Budapest at dusk.
The Hungarian Parliament buildings, an absolutely unbelievable sight at night.
No comments:
Post a Comment