Category Archives: Personal Stuff

Days 23, 24, and 25: In Which We Are Exhausted

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I am condensing these days because Covid aftereffects have slowed us down so much—me, in particular—that we didn’t do much.

On Day 23, Tom and I visited the Hofburg Palace, the imperial residence of the Habsburgs. I have said that once you’ve seen one palace, you’ve seen them all, and this is true of the Hofburg as well. It is actually a massive complex of palace buildings, but we only chose to see the Imperial Residences, which includes the silver and china collection, the Sissi Museum, and the residence of Sissi and Franz Joseph, the last rulers of the 600+ year reign of the Hapsburgs.

We entered the silver and china collection because someone directed us there, but not because we wanted to see it. It was rather like the funhouse of mirrors. We went around and around the exhibit, which was an endless collection of plates, candelabras, épèrgnes, bowls, basins, tableware, flasks, vases, etc., etc., including a monstrous gold centerpiece used for state dinners that must have been made in multiple pieces, as it went on forever. They don’t let you near that one, but you can see it through windows. We could not find our way out for the longest time, but finally emerged and entered the Sissi Museum.

Sissi was the Empress Elisabeth, known as Sissi all her life. She married her first cousin Emperor Franz Joseph when she was 16. She reminded me of Princess Diana. She was raised in a carefree atmosphere in Bavaria, but the Habsburg court was rigidly bound with traditions and rules that she found constraining in the extreme. The marriage was happy at first, and Franz Joseph seemed to adore her without ceasing, but after the birth of their last child, Sissi began spending all her time away from court. Under the excuse of ill health (some of which was caused by her poor diet and beauty regimen), she traveled widely, returning only rarely to Vienna.

Sissi and her 20-inch waist.

The couple’s only son and heir, Crown Prince Rudolf, committed murder-suicide with his 17-year-old mistress, Baroness Mary von Vetsera. This is referred to as the Meyerling incident as it took place at his hunting lodge in Meyerling. Apparently Rudolf shot the poor child, then sat there for several hours before offing himself.

The worst part of this was that Mary wasn’t even his first choice for this grisly double suicide. Rudolf had first asked a courtesan, who had the good sense to to turn him down. Mary, whom he had seduced and who was, at 17, emotionally vulnerable, agreed. Rudolf had syphillis, which he generously shared with his wife, Princess Stephanie, who became sterile. No doubt that explains in part his choices in life and in death. Poor Mary was disinterred several times over the years by people trying to prove various theories of what “actually” happened.

After this scandal, Sissi wore black for the rest of her life. She wrote a great deal of self-pitying poetry about how she longed for the sea, or wanted to escape on the wings of a seagull, and no one ever born could understand her. The original drama queen.

However, no one deserved to die as Sissi did. She was assassinated by an Italian anarchist in Geneva. She wasn’t even his first choice; he was in Geneva to kill the Duke of Orlėans.

As far as I could tell, Sissi spent most of her time on herself: her ankle-length hair took two to three hours to arrange and an entire day to wash. She starved and exercised to maintain her 20-inch waist and developed a horror of fat women which she passed on to her daughter, who was terrified when she met Queen Victoria—a royal not known for her wasp-waist. Sissy’s obsession with remaining a great beauty is reminiscent of some modern women I could think of. She refused to have photographs or portraits taken after the age of 30.

On the plus side, she defied the court and her in-laws in many—most—ways, maintaining her independence and doing things her way. A narcissistic woman, but strong and independent.

Emperor Franz Joseph as a young man. He was saved from an assassination attempt by that high, thick, tough collar. He wore military regalia at all times unless alone with the family.

Franz Joseph, in contrast, was a hard-working and dutiful monarch who tried very hard to be the epitome of a good king. He was under the impression that he was abstemious, eschewing all luxury by, for instance, sleeping in a plain, iron bed. This, of course, was nonsense, as anyone touring his private apartments could see. I think he was well-meaning, though.

Anyway, when Franz Joseph died, that was the end of the Habsburg empire. Not entirely the end of the Habsburgs, though. They spread their DNA throughout Europe through intermarriage with other royal families. Queen Elizabeth II, for example, is a descendent of this vast royal family.

Once we got through this museum, Tom and I were wiped out. I had hoped to see the Imperial Treasury, but we just couldn’t do it. We stopped for lunch at the first outdoor cafe we came to, and it was absolutely delicious. Then we headed back to the Daniel Hotel for a five-hour nap, dinner, and then slept for 10.5 hours. This post-Covid thing is not to be taken lightly.

A better view of the sailboat sculpture that sits mysteriously atop the Hotel Daniel, keeping the urban bees company.

On Day 24, we walked to the botanical garden next door, where we couldn’t read the signs, then had water and ice cream at the Belvedere Palace cafe. Then back to the Daniel for more napping. I feel I missed most of Vienna, thanks to the aftermath of Covid, but we have learned not to push it. We checked out and flew to Amsterdam, where we will depart for home.

We are staying at the Linden Hotel. We checked in very late, around 11:30 pm. Exhausted, we fell into bed. I thought we would instantly be asleep, but the noise was ridiculous. We could hear every person who walked by, talking. Dogs barked, motorcycles roared, trunks rumbled by, and people kept it up until well after midnight. It sounded like they were all in our room. We finally fell asleep after all the late-night revealers went home. In the (late) morning when we got up, we discovered that all the windows in our pie-shaped corner room were wide open. We had been too exhausted to notice. We are hoping to have a better sleep our second night. It is a Sunday, too, so there should be fewer partiers out there.

On Day 25, we walked to an outdoor cafe for breakfast, then went to an apothecary to get some meds for Tom, who is still coughing. Then back to the hotel for more napping.

Tom in a little street near our hotel in Amsterdam.

I think this concludes my recording of our journey. We are too exhausted to do much, and tomorrow, we fly home. I can hardly wait. My advice to anyone recovering from Covid is not to push yourself as we did at first, thinking it was just like a five-day cold. Rest. Rest. And more rest. This stuff is serious, and I am hoping I don’t experience this deep fatigue for too long. It is truly debilitating.

Amsterdam is such a lovely city.

Day 22: The Belvedere Palace

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We visited the Belvedere Palace today, which is just around the corner from our hotel. The highlight of the visit was the large collection of Klimt paintings, including the ultra-famous “The Kiss.” The museum also has an extensive collection of Austrian and German paintings by lesser-known painters. I found the paintings by women especially good, as they seemed to capture the individuality and personality of their subjects so well.

A few Klimt paintings: left to right “Woman in Gold,” “ “Judith,” and “The Kiss.” I find “Judith” fascinating. Her face is not the face of a woman who has just decapitated her enemy (Holofernes’ head appears as something of an afterthought at the lower right). She looks like a woman who just had the best orgasm of her life.

While the Belvedere is just a minor palace compared to the Schönbrunn or the Hofburg, it is nonetheless a palace, with all the marble, gold accents, sweeping vistas, statues, fountains, etc. that one could wish. I find it quietly satisfying that where once these were the exclusive previews of the aristocratic uber-wealthy, they are now visited by the People, who gain experience, knowledge, and pleasure from these former haunts of the rich. I look forward to the day when we can tour the gaudy, overblown mansions of the likes of Dr. Oz, Joel Osteen, and other multi-billionaires. I shall take pleasure in dribbling melted ice cream on their marble terraces.

Tom, me, and a sphinx.
The Belvedere Palace.
Ceiling, the Belvedere.
Belvedere Palace gardens—some of them, anyway.

We ate outside in the museum cafe. The food was delicious. There were some yellowjacket-type waspy things that thought so, too. They haven’t anywhere near the mean aggression of an American yellowjacket. Those girls will take you down if you get in their way.

David, Susan, Linda, and Clod all departed today. We are staying for another two days, then on to Amsterdam again for a couple of days before returning home. We spent the afternoon doing nothing, which felt just right. Tom and I are both still feeling the after-affects of Covid and are more tired than usual.

Days 20 and 21: The Road to Vienna

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Leaving Budapest.

We planned to take a train from Budapest to Vienna. I went down to the lobby a bit early, hoping for tea and maybe a pastry. When I sat down, the hotel manager asked if he could get me anything. I asked for tea and a pastry. He indicated the breakfast buffet in the bar and I said I didn’t want to buy a whole breakfast, thanks. He said he would see what he could do. A pot of tea and a basket of pastries arrived shortly, on the house.

The hotel arranged the train journey and called a cab, which was inadequate for the luggage of six people. The hotel manager took our overflow luggage to the train station in a separate cab, which he paid for himself because he said he should have ordered a larger cab. The service at the Clark Hotel is beyond amazing, and it was inexpensive, compared to a similar hotel in the US. Highly recommend.

The train ride was about 2.5 hours. We checked in to the Daniel Hotel in Vienna. The Daniel is a bit eccentric in a charming, hip and happening way. I could have done without the hammock in the room, which hit my head every time I walked by it, but I wound it up out of the way and only bumped into it occasionally after that. The roof of the hotel features a strange sculpture of a warping sailboat. They keep bees on the roof and sell the honey, which they also use in their unexpectedly delicious cafe food. There is an airstream trailer parked in the front garden, near the grape vines and rose garden.

The rooftop sailboat sculpture.

We walked down to the Belvedere Palace, not far from the hotel. Apparently, a prince was given it for defeating Napoleon in a battle. It’s huge, with gardens and fountains and furbelows, and now houses an excellent art museum. We were on a mission to find an outdoor cafe, which we didn’t find for a while because we were not in the outdoor cafe section of town.

Here we all are, posing in front of the Belvedere Palace. Just a weekend getaway place for the prince.

By the time we found an outdoor cafe, I was at the end of my rope. I didn’t realize it, but I had been experiencing lingering effects of Covid even though I was technically over it. We got a table and I nearly put my head down and cried before going to sleep, but managed to order smoked salmon instead. I felt marginally improved after eating, but took a taxi back to the hotel to take a nap while the others walked to the town center.

I found out later that I wasn’t the only one who had been feeling the after-effects of the disease. I guess I thought that once we passed the five-day mark, it would all be over, just like a cold—which is what it felt like. Not so, and I continued to feel ill for another day. So ill that I took a Covid test, convinced I was still sick with it, but it was negative. I guess I was pretty naive to think I could just bounce back, especially at my age. Thinking back, I had experienced a lot of pain and muscle weakness in Budapest that I passed off as caused by the extreme heat and my general lack of fitness.

The next day was pretty much a zero for me. The others visited the Schönbrunn Palace outside Vienna. I elected not to go, which turned out to be a good call, as I felt very ill. (This is when I tested myself.) By evening, I was somewhat recovered.

We walked to a brewery restaurant for dinner known for its local specialties and beer. I knew I had never had good wiener schnitzel before—unless it is supposed to taste like extra-crispy shoe leather—so I ordered that, plus a beer which I knew nothing about. The beer was tasty. The wiener schnitzel arrived in two golden slabs, piping hot. I can now say I have had probably the best possible wiener schnitzel, and I intend never to order it again. It’s not bad, just kind of boring.

So hopefully, I have recovered from the lingering effects of Covid and can go enjoy Vienna!

Day 19: Exploring Budapest

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The next day was as scorching as the day before. Linda, Tom, and I started with the Great Market Hall, with its soaring girders and colorful exterior. The building is absolutely enormous and we never even made it to the second or third floors. If we had been able to read Hungarian, we would have known that all the gifty-type stuff was on the second floor, while the third floor was restaurants. The first floor is food—piles of sausages and meats, mounds of fresh fruits and vegetables, bins full of paprikas and other spices. It was a feast for the senses, and reminded me of the open-air market on Las Ramblas in Barcelona.

Ex Teri or of the Great Market Hall. It is impossible to get a photo of the entire, enormous building.
First floor of the Great Market Hall.
Tom and Linda at a wine stall in the Hall. Linda was looking for a Hungarian varietal called Tokaji, known as Tokay in English. You buy it according to its sweetness rating, from 1 to 10.

To tell the truth, I was reluctant to tackle the stairs. My knees have tendonitis, and it has worsened considerably on this trip. The extreme heat hasn’t helped. We shopped on the first floor, then wandered down the shopping street we noticed the day before, running into Susan and David at an outdoor cafe—at least Tom did. Linda and I went into a linen store and disappeared for a while.

We walked to the Great Mosque. The tour guide was very knowledgeable. She explained that when the synagogue was built, in the mid-1800s, the Neolog Jewish community wanted to assimilate with Hungarian society. The interior is very church-like and unlike any other synagogue I have seen. It even has an organ, when musical instruments are usually forbidden in temple. The Neolog community, she explained, was neither Orthodox nor Reform, but rather a movement to modernize without sacrificing many of the traditional elements of Judaism.

Exterior of the Great Synagogue.

The building combines Moorish and Christian architectural and decorative elements while retaining Jewish symbolism. The Ark of the Covenant is vast, containing, if I remember correctly, 60 Torah scrolls, which is a lot. They are enormous scrolls, always hand-written, and very expensive.

Interior of the Great Synagogue. The enormous golden structure with the red curtain is the ark. While it resembles a Christian sanctuary, you can see the tablets of the 10 Commandments near the top, it is crowned with a Star of David, and there are many other Jewish elements that are harder to make out in this photo. The Moorish elements are everywhere, in juxtaposition with a massive pipe organ.

The synagogue was abandoned and damaged during WWII. I am ashamed that I didn’t know more about the eager willingness of the Hungarian Nazis to exterminate the Jews, causing staff at Auschwitz to complain they were sending too many Jews too quickly to the camp. There is a graveyard on the premises (also very different for a synagogue), and most of the dates were 1944 and 1945. There is a smaller temple dedicated to the heroes of WWI, and a very touching memorial to the dead of WWII; a silvery metal weeping willow with leaves inscribed with the names of those who perished. I will never understand this, and I am appalled and frightened by the ugly resurgence of Nazism in my own country—our ancestors fought and died to make sure Nazism was defeated. It weighs very heavily on my spirit.

Memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is beautiful and austere. The leaves are inscribed with the names of the dead.

Susan, David, Tom, and I went to the New York Cafe for lunch, which was delicious, but it could hardly compete with the decor, which was as much over the top as any palace. It’s also the size of a small palace. There was also live music, an excellent violinist and pianist playing classical music. A lovely experience.

The New York. Cafe.
Ceiling detail, the New York Cafe.

I returned to the hotel after that, exhausted from the heat. Later, we went to a charming restaurant called Déryné Bisztró. It was very close to the hotel, but walking involved going through a massive tunnel through the cliff behind the hotel, and we opted for a cab. The restaurant had a nice patio seating area, the food was delightful, and the service excellent. However, it was probably the noisiest restaurant I have ever eaten at. It is right on the street, and trams went by regularly, as did sirens. Just as a lovely jazz ensemble started up, the church across the street started ringing its very loud bells at 8 ‘o clock. It didn’t stop for at least 10 minutes. We braced ourselves when the next hour rolled around, it it just bonged softly a few times and quit. I asked our server why it rang forever at eight, but hardly at all at nine. He looked puzzled, so I guess he has stopped noticing. We did enjoy the jazz ensemble during the quieter moments.

Day 18: Freedom, Freedom!!!

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Everyone tested negative this morning. Except for me, of course, as I predicted. It has been 5 days since the first symptoms, but CDC says after five days you are no longer infectious. The staff was unimpressed with this information, so Tom and I ate breakfast in our stateroom.

One of the many ornate bridges across the Danube in Budapest.

Our suitcases were sprayed with disinfectant before moving them out, wrapped in large pink plastic bags to indicate infection I guess. They did the same with all our used dishes, linens, etc.). The six of us were allowed to go up to the sun deck, our first venture out in six days. Members of the staff walking by greeted us and said it was nice to see us again. We sat there, happy to be reunited and no doubt pleased to see someone other than our respective SOs for once. Romika, who is in charge of the stateroom staff, stopped by to ask how everything was going. He had called each of us every day to check in and had been quite solicitous. But we did express our opinion that no good deed goes unpunished; we were not sick when we boarded, we masked consistently, we tested when we got symptoms, and we reported the results. All the people who were sick, coughing, and not masking went merrily on their way. We felt they should have been reminded to mask and asked to test when ill. Not that it mattered now.

We were moored right next to another river cruise ship. This is looking straight down between the vessels—notice that you can’t see the water. There was a lot of bumping and grinding. Window cleaners were working out there in the very narrow gap between the ships.

Covid brain is real. I left my hat and my prescription meds in the room. I retrieved the hat myself, but just as we were piling into a taxi in Budapest, one of the staff rushed up with my meds in a plastic bag. I wish I had tipped her, but I was so surprised, I just stammered my thanks. I am normally quite careful about packing, but not this time. I felt clear-headed, but Tom says I was a bit fuzzy.

We took the taxi to the Clark Hotel, which turned out to be extremely cool, esthetically pleasing, and had wonderful, wonderful service for about the price of a Motel 6 in a large city. Our rooms were in the same position on different floors, with fantastic views of the river and the Buda Palace above us on the hill.

The view from our hotel room.

We got on the Hop On Hop Off bus to get an overview of the city. Our hotel was on the Buda side, but all the action seemed to be on the Pest side of the Danube. First, we had to go to the bus office to get paper tickets, which turned out to include a boat ride. I pointed out later that I didn’t really need to get on a boat in the river, and I guess the others agreed, because we didn’t. The man who was selling tickets turned out to be from Mauritius, very friendly and sweet, and we had a brief conversation in French.

One of the most interesting things we saw from the bus was the Great Synagogue of Budapest. It is a beautiful building, and the second-largest synagogue on the world. Susan expressed a desire to return the next day,and we all eagerly agreed.

Exterior of the Great Synagogue of Budapest.

Susan wanted to eat in the New York Cafe, which is justly famous for being the most splendid cafe in the galaxy. But Linda wanted to eat outside, which is still the wisest choice. I hope our immune systems are now more capable of dealing with Covid, but we all know we could get it again. We ended up in a cafe just down the street serving panini sandwiches. Maybe not the ideal choice for a blistering hot day, and the sandwiches were VERY hot, but quite tasty.

Then we peeked into the New York Cafe. I have seen palaces that were less magnificent. I suggested to Susan that we try another day.

The others took off walking in the heat to see the Grand Market Hall. I took the bus to a drop-off point just the other side of the Danube from the hall and walked across on a bridge. I arrived shortly after they did, but the hall was closed (it was Sunday). It is a gigantic building of many floors. The exterior is beautiful, with colored tile roofs. Linda and Clod had gone back to the hotel because of the heat. We went across the street to an outdoor cafe that had misters—what a great idea!—and got cold drinks. Then we walked down a street that had lots of cute shops and outdoor eateries, and was blocked to traffic. I knew Linda would enjoy it if we came back.

I loved the bright colored tiles on the Great Market Hall. The building is much larger than it appears here.

We picked up the bus at the end of the shopping street. The buses were sort of air-conditioned, or you could go up top and get a breeze. The upstairs seating had been covered with tarps that were fastened to steel bars located approximately at my forehead height. David commented that I may have missed one or two bars while taking my seat.

We ate at the Clark Hotel rooftop restaurant, Leo, that night. The view was the same as from our rooms, but closer to the Buda Palace, with panoramic views of the city and river. The food was absolutely amazing. I had been craving French fries ever since we left Amsterdam, so I ordered them as a side to my beef tournedoes. The fries arrived in an enormous bowl, and despite urging them on everyone, we couldn’t finish.

And thus ended our first day of freedom. I think we were all enormously grateful to be out of our staterooms. No exercise combined with huge quantities of food does not bode well for getting on the scales back home, especially since eating was one of the few forms of entertainment available.

Day 16: Beautiful Vienna, Which We Did Not See

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We spent a lot of ti e staring out of our stateroom window at the scenery. This is some of it.

We docked at Vienna, so the view from our stateroom changed. We were facing across the river from the old city, which meant a view of very modern buildings, including a tall skyscraper with a weird wavy design, and a spire that looked like it might be a control tower.

Cute little Austrian town on theDanube. Don’t ask me which one.
This is all we saw of Vienna. I assume there’s a lot more to see.

Not moving around is tiring, if you can believe it. I still feel like I have a bad cold, but the inactivity is getting to me. It is so much worse for Tom, who normally averages six miles of walking a day.

I spent my time working on a little graphic novel for our middle granddaughter about her favorite stuffed animal. Bunny is no longer as important to Jessamyn as she once was, but I promised, so I will deliver. I am refreshing my skills on Procreate—I let myself get rusty.

I finished an audiobook called “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” by TJ Klune. It is a gently humorous fantasy about the healing properties of love and the moral courage required to buck a bad system. I absolutely loved it. I had intended to buy it as a Kindle book, but I. Screwed up. However, the narrator, Daniel Henning, was very good, and added to the humor with the different voices for a very diverse cast of characters.

By late afternoon, I was beginning to feel better. If the experience of my travel companions is anything to go by, recovery is rapid. Just about everyone but me is back to normal except for the occasional cough. Glory to the house of science, which brought us the vaccine.

We left Vienna this evening. The six of us had already planned to go back to Vienna for a few days, so I am not upset about not seeing it on the tour. I am a little worried about the weight I must be gaining, sitting here and eating three squares plus an afternoon snack and getting no exercise. But seriously, the meals are by way of entertainment. We watched another stupid movie called “Blythe Spirit,” based on a play by Noel Coward and featuring Judi Dench. It sounded promising, but wasn’t.

Stormy evening on the Danube.

Day 15: In Which We Eat and Drink and Read but Do Nothing Else on Our Exciting European Vacation

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Today was not a good day from the standpoint of feeling healthy. As Tom grew steadily better, my cough worsened and I became more congested. My side aches from coughing.

Every time they bring us food, little salt and pepper shakers are included. I stole a couple of these to make a salt water rinse. Necessity is the mother of invention.

We have seen some rather odd things from our stateroom from time to time. This is a small Viking ship sailing on the Danube.

We are sailing on the Danube now, and I must report that it is not blue. More sort of muddy green, not that I’m complaining. We are passing by little villages nestled into green countryside, with thickly forested hills beyond. Once, we passed a speedboat stuck and abandoned in the river, with water flowing over it.

Alex the Magic Butler tells us that after they announced 6 new cases of Covid, masking went to100%. As he told me this, the guy who never masked ambled down the hall—wearing a mask.

There have been several places where people were swimming and fishing, so the water quality must be good.

The Uniworld staff continues to be solicitous and kind. They are taking care of us six sickies in addition to their normal duties, but are endlessly patient. We just have to remember to request EXACTLY what we want because if we just ask for salad, we get lettuce with dressing, and nothing else. I’m not complaining at all, it’s just the way it is. They aren’t mind readers.

A castle on the Danube.

Day 14: The View from Our Stateroom

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We went through a lot of locks today as we approached the continental divide. They grew ever larger, though we were not in the best position to see them from our stateroom.

Approaching one of the locks. This was taken from the sun deck before we were sequestered in our staterooms.

I began to cough and sniffle and asked the staff for cough medicine and throat lozenges. Someone got off in Passau, the last stop before entering Austria and the Danube, to buy me meds. They made an excellent selection, and it has helped.

I checked with our friends in the morning, and they were doing well. Tom and I spent the day watching the banks of the Danube, eating, reading, etc. We watched two of the movies available on board. “Wild Mountain Thyme” with Christopher Walken, John Hamm, and Emma Stone seemed promising, but it was my least favorite kind of plot; the people involved made everything complicated because they wouldn’t tell each other the truth. Ugh.

“The Courier,” with Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel Brosnahan (Mrs.Maisel), is a very good film. It’s based on a true story of spy intrigue during the Cold War, and I highly recommend it.

Not too much else to report. We are passing through some very pretty countryside.

Sunset reflection from our stateroom.

Day 13: The Plague Ship

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We knew we were risking Covid when we embarked. But all six of us were fully vaccinated and boosted, and we were careful about masking. Unfortunately, not all of our fellow travelers were as careful.

Early in the trip, a gentleman from Australia was taken off the ship sick with Covid and sent to the hospital. We heard later he had been seriously ill. He was discharged from the hospital and went directly home. He had isolated in his room for the first few days, so none of us had been anywhere near him. We weren’t overly concerned.

As the days went by, we noticed more and more people hacking and coughing, and mask wearing was only about 40%. One guy NEVER wore a mask.

Then, the evening we set sail for Regensburg, Clod tested positive for Covid. We all did the quick results test. I was the only one not feeling symptoms, and my test was negative. Tom’s was positive.

We all disembarked in Regensburg and took a taxi to a little booth to take a PCR test. Results were reported in two hours. By this time, I was feeling a faint tickle in my chest.

We stopped at an apothecary for some meds and walked back to the ship, a stroll of about 10 minutes. We got to the quay where River Duchess was moored. There was a long bench close to the ship.

We all sat down and stared glumly at the ship. Once we got back on board, we knew we would be confined to our staterooms and would not be allowed to socialize with each other. We talked for a few minutes and then one of the officers appeared and herded us gently back on to the ship.

We were all positive. The protocol was to stay in quarantine for five days, which meant that on the last day, when we were due to disembark in Budapest, we would be released from quarantine. Everyone assured us that all we had to do was ask for something (other than leaving our staterooms), and it would be brought to us. The phone rang constantly with people checking on us and asking if we needed anything. Our rooms would not be cleaned, but we could get fresh sheets and towels any time, and they would do our laundry.

They have been as good as their word. In addition to taking our meal orders, Alex brings everyone a snack in the afternoon, and anything we have asked for has been quickly fulfilled. Alex has been taking care of all of us.

I have taken a few photos, but much of the time, there isn’t much to see from our stateroom. We haven’t been bored, but Tom greatly misses his daily walk. My ankles were very swollen from all the walking in the heat, and are back to their normal size.

None of us are seriously ill, though I, being the last to get it, am experiencing a worsening of symptoms as the others are recovering. It feels like a cold, no worse.

Every day, we get a paper agenda informing us of all the activities we will not be participating in that day. But we did enjoy the 2/3 of the trip that we did get to experience outside of our staterooms

The view from our stateroom for one entire day. I don’t remember where.

Day 12: Nuremberg

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The choice today was between the WWII historical tour, which involved a lot of Nazi stuff, a walk down from the castle involving steep stuff and cobblestones—or free time at the city center. Three guesses which I chose. I have had enough of Nazis at home, where they appear to be taking over.

The tour guide on our bus was highly amusing. She was from Scotland. She came here as a young woman to improve her German. Apparently someone once called from the back of the bus, “Shouldn’t you have improved your English first?” She had a lot of funny little stories like that. She pointed out various points of historical interest before dropping the walking groups off at the castle.

Linda, Susan, and I walked around the central square. Nuremberg is a bit like Disneyland in that most of it has been replicated. It was thoroughly flattened in WWII. The stained glass was taken out of the old churches at the start of the war and was thus preserved. Except for the church of St. Sebaldus, the church where Johann Pachelbel and his son served as organists. (Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major is my absolute favorite piece of classical music.) The church was badly damaged but restored, though many of the stained glass windows have clear glass inserts where the stained glass was broken and not restored.

Interior of St. Sebaldus. The church also boasts a massive organ, and I bet Pachelbel’s Canon sounds
magnificent when played on it.

We didn’t go into the main cathedral, but on the hour, glockenspiel figures move around and trumpeters try to trumpet. (The mechanism appeared to not quite be working.) Really, the only structures left standing were a couple of houses, one of them the house of artist Albrecht Dürer. It all looks authentic and I am rather in awe of the time, effort, and expense required to do this.

We poked into a number of shops and walked a short way along the Pegnitz River. We saw a huge school of rather large fish just hanging lazily in the water, testifying to its purity. I am extremely impressed with the cleanliness on the waterways we have traveled on. We in the US have a long way to go.

Linda and Susan on the river walk.

We stopped at a specialty bakery to pick up some gifts, and we each chose a large cookie and a drink. I disliked my choice even though it has a lot of chocolate on it. It was very sweet, rich, dense, and again, very sweet. Sort of the cookie version of fruitcake. I left most of it there, thinking longingly of the delicious snowball in Rothenburg.

Market stalls in the center of the town square were offering the most gorgeous fruits and vegetables convey to me that they were some sort of cookie, not a fungus. Oh, well.

Gorgeous produce in the market square.

We met Thomas at an unmistakable landmark, known as the Beautiful Fountain. It is enameled in green, gold, and red. There are two rings caught in the ironwork surrounding the Beautiful Fountain, a small one of iron and a large one of brass. They can be turned, and the legend is that if you turn one of the rings around three times, your wishes will come true—just one of several stories about the fountain. I turned the ring, but forgot to make a wish.

The Beautiful Fountain.
A beautiful window. That is all.

Back at the ship, a historian who is an expert on the Main-Danube Canal came to speak to us. Europe has a continental divide, just as North America does, running from Spain deep into Russia. Above the divide, rivers run northerly, below, southerly. As early as 796 CE, Charlemagne attempted to cross the divide by building the Fossa Karolingen connecting two rivers to allow travel in a north-south direction, This still exists as a sort of ditch. King Ludwig I of Bavaria tried again with a longer canal, but it was never economically viable due to the introduction of railroad travel, the fact that the canal boats were powered by mules pulling them from the land, and difficulty in keeping the water level deep enough. The current canal connects the Main and the Danube, and construction on it ended in 1992.

The canal has 16 locks, growing ever larger as we approach the divide. The locks are 40 feet wide and the ship is 37 feet wide, so you do the math. Last night we were in a lock. I opened our window and measured the distance between the railing and the concrete wall with my hand. It was about six inches. These river cruise captains are amazing.