Day 5 - 20/10/2017 Bratislava Slovakia

Beautiful place with an old wall pathways around the town. We have seen the old town hall, Michaels gate which was the entrance in front of the moat where the castle bridge used to be lifted, St Martins Cathedral and are having lunch at the Hrad restaurant on Bratislava Castle wall - the castle has been here since the Stone Age.

Day 4 - 19/10/2017 Second day in Budapest

Gym, breakfast and then a walk to the Catholic Church built in a cave that was set up in the 13th century by the Polish and Hungarian Catholics. Climbed to the Statue of Liberty and the castle all on the Buda side of the Danube river.

We crossed over a bridge to the Buda side and walked to the parliament buildings, stopped at a Coffee shop that served Manuel’s coffee, very nice, we carried onto St Stephens basilica a beautiful Catholic Church. Onto the Hard Rock Cafe, Desigual - missed the Synagogue and carried onto the market. The market has everything from every kind of food to table cloths and t-shirts. The WiFi is so slow that i cannot upload any pictures so will upload at a later stage. An amazing pic of statues of all of the influential people that improved people’s lot in life via peaceful means. Gandi, Jesus, Buddha, etc Lovely day, learned so much!

Day 3 - 18/10/2017 Budapest

Arrived in Budapest at 14:00 today and went on a bike ride sightseeing - beautiful buildings and so bike friendly - I could see the efficiency in the other riders of our group - German ladies used to cycling in traffic. The bikes with weird, if you moved your foot backwards the bike automatically breaked. It certainly is a huge city with Buda on the one side of the river and Pest on the other. We cycled back to the ship and after a couple of Pina Coladas it was dinner time. The food is so good that we are eating

 breakfast, lunch and dinner. Gym in the morning, a run at midday and a cycle later in the afternoon, we are using up the calories. We went out to see the lights at night and watched an impromptu dance show on the side of the building. 

Wow!

Bridge of chains designed by the same engineer that designed the Eiffel Tower.

Day 2 - 17/10/2017 boarding A-Rosa

No address, no reference, no boarding time for the ship. After emailing imagine cruising we got an address nothing else. After we boarded we found out it’s a common problem with imagine cruising communications. We took the underground to Handelskaai, a 2km walk along a park where Michael found a solar flower. Eventually we found the boat. Lovely to be full board includes all drinks all food. Except some - so weird excludes orange juice?? Euro 2:90 for 2 glasses. Good amenities. A small Gym - no running before 8:00am. Bavarian dinner buffet but the red German wine is very acrid, leaves a very weird taste in your mouth.

Day 1 - 16/10/2017 arrived in Vienna airport

A different tour in that it has no transfers. We discovered this quite late in our planning so explored different options of getting to and from the various places without finalizing any.

A bus journey from the  airport to the hotel Mercury Wien, walked down a street with multiple Zara, H&M, Spar Europe, Disigual (my favorite shop) until we reached the museum quarter and old town. A beer in a park in Vienna, after which Vienna schnitzel at a traditional vianese restaurant - thin and crumbed,  it covered the full plate and hung over the sides. Huge but very tasty. Another beer and exhausted (maybe a little drunk) slept so well.

Dubai on the way to Vienna

31’C at 4:30 am in Dubai International - it just seems to get bigger - more building in progress - so many flights and yet it just works. Starbucks yay Mike orders a Frappuccino and a Cuppaccino for me. Always the same dependable great taste!

Getting ready for Terrance to take us to Cape Town Airport.

Vienna here we come. 

Chat before our ride to the airport ✈️🛳