What? You thought we had just boarded the boat?
Well, our secret was bad internet connection. "Oh Lord, stuck with low wi-fi, again." Almost everything else about the Amacello was wonderful!
So, let's back up a bit.
We toured Buda and Pest (two towns, kind of like Milton Freewater) on our own and then we toured it again with the "Boat People." One of the Budapest Highlights was the hot mulled wine served outside at the Christmas markets. We have learned to love that drink! Karen has decided to open up a hot wine stand somewhere in our neighborhood.
After touring Buda and Pest, we boarded the boat and headed to Bratislava. Bratislava is in Slovokia and the word means "cranky" in Slav. The people were mostly cranky, with a few angry people, some apparently depressed people and some just sort of ticked off. I don't know if they use make-up for this effect, but the women all have dark sunken eyes which beautifully show off their sour expressions. It's kind of like finding yourself on the set of a Zombie-movie, but not quite as funny.
Our walking guide was good and I stopped by an ATM to get some local Slovniks, or Slinkys, whatever the Slovaks call their money. I tried not to get too much, but was translating Euros into Slotnes and was not too clear on what we had.
Of course, at the end of the tour, we were tired and I still had all these Slurpees or Slopniks, so we did some shoppin. First, we went to a chocolate and coffee shop. We apparently insulted the waitress when we tried to buy something. I think we upset her comatose state. Against Karen's advice, I left a tip, which only assured myself a place in Slav hell. I had noticed they had some fancy bottles of brandy for one to two thousand Sputniks, which was about what we seemed to have, so we bought a bottle. Of course, even though this cafe had hundreds of bottles, I don't think they sell very many. Several of the clerks had to be consulted, a ladder produced, much sighing and gnashing of teeth, and finally a bottle. Obviously a very old bottle, or, at least, a very dusty one. We then asked for a box of cookies just to mess with their minds.
Bratislavia
We then went to a grocery store to buy some bottled water, candy, and a hair brush for Karen, where an old cranky guy said something that sound like a curse to us. I think he thought we were German.
After all that, we wanted to stay in Bratislava and set up house, but the boat was leaving.
Every night on the boat, we had a wonderful sit-down dinner with multiple-choices of appetizers, salads, soups, entrees and desserts, together with liberal pourings of regional wines, and every meal was different! You had to pace yourself or you'd end up as an overweight burping blob on the couch, unable to move.
The seatings were not assigned, so you had the chance to dine alone or meet people. We did it all!
We teamed up with four delightful people from England, Chris and Jan from Ashford, and Keith and Jan from Bournemouth. We couldn't find anyone else named Jan, so we thought the six-om worked out quite well.
Keith & Jan
Jan & Chris
A highlight of the entertainment on the Amacello actually occurred in Bratislava. The only four girls in town with smiles and bright eyes got together and formed a singing group called the "Afrodites". They were energetic and wonderful, including a few songs by ABBA (because, as people in the know understand, "It all comes back to ABBA.").
We sailed into Vienna, where we bee-lined for St. Stephans Cathedral, which was, once again, gorgeous. After that, we walked back to where we stayed last time (the Ambassador Hotel).
St. Stephan's Cathedral - Vienna, Austria
Karen lighting a candle in St. Stephan's Cathedral.
We stopped at a restaurant where we had eaten some wonderful snacks a couple Summers ago. Everything was inside because of winter, but we thought we would try it. The lone waiter was one of those people who appeared to be a bustle of activity, but couldn't actually get anything done. Kind of like a moth around a flame. After 10 minutes and nothing but a menu, we decided to continue our stroll.
We ended up at a great local restaurant, for soup, wienerschnitzel and wine! It paid to keep on moving!!
We ambled our way back to the boat, freshened up and ate some more, then joined an optional tour to go to a concert of Mozart and Strauss. We should have guessed there was trouble when we were stopped in the entry and told we could not bring our coats into the concert hall, due to fire regulations. The only place to leave your coat was with a handy coat check person, who charged us to check the coats. This all seemed a little too coordinated, not sure if the fire marshal got a cut from the coat proceeds or the "fire regulations" were just a total scam. I was grateful they didn't require us to leave more clothes down there. We settled into our chairs in the fairly small hall, being irritated by the local children. It's probably just me, but I find whining and rude children who can't speak English to be particularly irritating. Well, the concert started and the first song wasn't too bad, kind of a warm up tune you could forgive the musicians later when they actually hit stride. Unfortunately, that song was apparently their acme and they went downhill from there. The performance included heavy tromping from a group of ballet wannabes and then singing by a girl and a couple of guys who appeared to just have been dropped off the turnip truck near La Scala in Milan and thought they could sing. They were wrong. Karen and I had an argument as to whether they were the quality of a mediocre high school group or a very poor community college group. I'm not sure who won that argument. Fortunately, I had cigars and we weren't allowed to smoke them indoors, so we had an excellent excuse to leave the "show" a little into the second half.
More on the boat trip in a later Post!!!
Well, our secret was bad internet connection. "Oh Lord, stuck with low wi-fi, again." Almost everything else about the Amacello was wonderful!
So, let's back up a bit.
We toured Buda and Pest (two towns, kind of like Milton Freewater) on our own and then we toured it again with the "Boat People." One of the Budapest Highlights was the hot mulled wine served outside at the Christmas markets. We have learned to love that drink! Karen has decided to open up a hot wine stand somewhere in our neighborhood.
After touring Buda and Pest, we boarded the boat and headed to Bratislava. Bratislava is in Slovokia and the word means "cranky" in Slav. The people were mostly cranky, with a few angry people, some apparently depressed people and some just sort of ticked off. I don't know if they use make-up for this effect, but the women all have dark sunken eyes which beautifully show off their sour expressions. It's kind of like finding yourself on the set of a Zombie-movie, but not quite as funny.
Our walking guide was good and I stopped by an ATM to get some local Slovniks, or Slinkys, whatever the Slovaks call their money. I tried not to get too much, but was translating Euros into Slotnes and was not too clear on what we had.
Of course, at the end of the tour, we were tired and I still had all these Slurpees or Slopniks, so we did some shoppin. First, we went to a chocolate and coffee shop. We apparently insulted the waitress when we tried to buy something. I think we upset her comatose state. Against Karen's advice, I left a tip, which only assured myself a place in Slav hell. I had noticed they had some fancy bottles of brandy for one to two thousand Sputniks, which was about what we seemed to have, so we bought a bottle. Of course, even though this cafe had hundreds of bottles, I don't think they sell very many. Several of the clerks had to be consulted, a ladder produced, much sighing and gnashing of teeth, and finally a bottle. Obviously a very old bottle, or, at least, a very dusty one. We then asked for a box of cookies just to mess with their minds.
BratislaviaAfter all that, we wanted to stay in Bratislava and set up house, but the boat was leaving.
Every night on the boat, we had a wonderful sit-down dinner with multiple-choices of appetizers, salads, soups, entrees and desserts, together with liberal pourings of regional wines, and every meal was different! You had to pace yourself or you'd end up as an overweight burping blob on the couch, unable to move.
The seatings were not assigned, so you had the chance to dine alone or meet people. We did it all!
We teamed up with four delightful people from England, Chris and Jan from Ashford, and Keith and Jan from Bournemouth. We couldn't find anyone else named Jan, so we thought the six-om worked out quite well.
Keith & Jan
Jan & ChrisA highlight of the entertainment on the Amacello actually occurred in Bratislava. The only four girls in town with smiles and bright eyes got together and formed a singing group called the "Afrodites". They were energetic and wonderful, including a few songs by ABBA (because, as people in the know understand, "It all comes back to ABBA.").
We sailed into Vienna, where we bee-lined for St. Stephans Cathedral, which was, once again, gorgeous. After that, we walked back to where we stayed last time (the Ambassador Hotel).
St. Stephan's Cathedral - Vienna, Austria
Karen lighting a candle in St. Stephan's Cathedral.We ended up at a great local restaurant, for soup, wienerschnitzel and wine! It paid to keep on moving!!
We ambled our way back to the boat, freshened up and ate some more, then joined an optional tour to go to a concert of Mozart and Strauss. We should have guessed there was trouble when we were stopped in the entry and told we could not bring our coats into the concert hall, due to fire regulations. The only place to leave your coat was with a handy coat check person, who charged us to check the coats. This all seemed a little too coordinated, not sure if the fire marshal got a cut from the coat proceeds or the "fire regulations" were just a total scam. I was grateful they didn't require us to leave more clothes down there. We settled into our chairs in the fairly small hall, being irritated by the local children. It's probably just me, but I find whining and rude children who can't speak English to be particularly irritating. Well, the concert started and the first song wasn't too bad, kind of a warm up tune you could forgive the musicians later when they actually hit stride. Unfortunately, that song was apparently their acme and they went downhill from there. The performance included heavy tromping from a group of ballet wannabes and then singing by a girl and a couple of guys who appeared to just have been dropped off the turnip truck near La Scala in Milan and thought they could sing. They were wrong. Karen and I had an argument as to whether they were the quality of a mediocre high school group or a very poor community college group. I'm not sure who won that argument. Fortunately, I had cigars and we weren't allowed to smoke them indoors, so we had an excellent excuse to leave the "show" a little into the second half.
More on the boat trip in a later Post!!!
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