Grand European Tour - Part One

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Our seas flight takes about 12 hours with stops in Chicago and Zurich before arriving at our starting location - Budapest Hungary 🇭🇺.  We arrive at our ship at 3:30 in the afternoon and only have time to organize our room before dinner.  The dinners do not have any assigned seating so we tend to eat with new people at every meal.  Americans make up about 75% of the passengers.

Day 1 & 2: Budapest, Hungary.  Next day we jump on a bus for a guided tour of panoramic Budapest.  The tour began with a bus tour of modern Pest.   We toured the elegant Andrassy Avenue, The Champs-Elysees of Budapest, the Hungarian State Opera House and Heroes' Square, a wide-open plaza of monuments and statues.  We then explored the Buda side of the city.  We visited the Castle District with its massive hilltop castle complex, the turreted Fishermen's Bastion and Matthias Church, named for the country's most popular medieval king.

The town of Budapest started out as two towns - on opposite sides of the Danube River.  This is the Chain Bridge, that links the two cities, which was just outside our window.

One of the many grand churches we will visit on this trip

This is the parliament building - the biggest in Europe

This is the Castle District  in the oldest part of town.  As with many of these towns many of these structures were damaged in the world wars and have been rebuilt.  

With the churches we visit there a two major design types - Gothic and Baroque.  Gothic evolved from the Roman days and used a lot of stained glass and illustrations of biblical stories.  Most individuals at that time did not read and needed these illustrations to receive the message.  Baroque relied on grander and dramatic images to draw the eye upward giving the illusion of looking into the heavens.  The inside is filled with sculptures and paintings that need to be seen in person.

Around 6:00 pm on day two, we set sail for Vienna with projected arrival - 4:00 the next afternoon.

Day 3 & 4: Vienna, Austria

Our first excursion was a Mozart & Strauss concert by the Vienna Residence Orchestra. We enjoyed the beautiful strains of Strauss waltzes and selections from Mozart's "The Magic Flute".  After the concert we took a scenic bus drive after dark through an illuminated Vienna. 

Day 4: We took a scenic tour of panoramic Vienna.  The tour guide pointed out the splendid buildings on the remarkable Ringstrasse, the gracious boulevard laid out on the site of the old city walls in the mid-19th century.  Imposing palaces, elegant public building and grand residences line this famous avenue.  We admired the Gothic St. Stephen's Cathedral.

One cannot help but be moved by these churches.  The artristic talent to create these masterpieces is something to behold

The political leaders at that time never got tired of trying to out do each other - which worked out great for tourists today.

That afternoon drove to the summer home for the ruling family -  Habsburg’s Schönbrunn Palace.  No pictures were allowed inside.  One nice feature of these cruises is the daily trips that are led by a local guide.  You learn the history of these places which adds another layer to the experience.

Day 5: Scenic Cruising & Melk, Austia.

The scenic cruise on the Danube River:

 Melk Abbey.  No pictures were allowed inside.  The Melk Abbey is a masterwork of baroque brilliance,  Perched on dramatic cliffs high above the Danube, this historic building is one of the most graceful landmarks of the Wachau Valley.  Rebuilt in the 18th-century, after the original 12th-century building was destroyed by fire.  Today, part of the building houses a private school with about 900 students ranging from grade 6 through 12.

Day 6: Passau, Germany.    These smaller towns which still have the feel of what these areas looked like many years ago were the highlight for me.  You need to let yourself as best as you can feel  what it must have been like to live during those times which the guides do a great job of doing,

The organ is this church is the biggest in Europe - went to a concert that day.