Rollin' On The River

We just got home from an amazing adventure on the Danube River! We were lucky enough to have this opportunity thanks to Jake's company. Jake is in a position now where he's eligible to apply for these trips, so we did just that at the beginning of the year. We found out in March that we had been selected to go and were so excited! We spent 8 days traveling through 3 countries, and I took lots of photos so please enjoy!

We left home early in the morning on Saturday and flew to Chicago then on to Vienna, Austria. We lost 8 hours, so ended up getting into Vienna Sunday morning. We did our best to sleep on the plane so we could make it through that first day without being zombies, but really only managed a few hours. When we got to Vienna, we were shuttled to a hotel to meet with the rest of our group (about 200 people). There we had a nice breakfast and went on alternating walking tours of the city. It was pretty rainy that day, but we ventured out anyway.

St. Stephan's Cathedral

This garden was close to the hotel we'd be staying at the end of our trip. This is composer Johann Strauss

Later on that day, we were all shuttled over to the river boat we would spend the next 5 days on. This was the view from our room on the ship

The next morning we woke up in Budapest, Hungary

That morning, we went on a walking tour in Budapest. It was raining again, and pretty chilly, so there weren't as many tourists out walking around which was nice. We were two of just a select few who actually walked all the way up to this castle and cathedral from our group. We had umbrellas but were still completely soaked by the time we were done. Completely worth it though!

See the water splashing off the ground? And the water line on Jake's pants?

We had a beautiful view of the city from up there

That afternoon we had free time, so we walked around this indoor farmer's market. It was so huge and had pretty much everything you can think of

After going back to the ship to dry off and have lunch, we ventured back out into the rain and walked to the parliament building. We knew this was one place we didn't want to miss

They fly both the flags of Hungary and Transylvania

That night, we had another beautiful view from our room on the ship, that turned into an even more beautiful view the next morning

For our second day in Budapest, we had signed up for an excursion in the morning. We were taken to Margaret Island and went on a "bringo" adventure. A bringo is a little bike that fits 2 - 4 people and looks a lot like the photo here:

We were in a four person bringo, and spent about an hour biking around Margaret Island. They have hotels, statues, running paths, musical fountains, and plenty of really pretty landscapes to look at.

That afternoon we had free time again so we decided to go for a little hike. I say little, because that's what we thought it was. It ended up being quite a big hike! 

Here's a photo of the Gellert statue we planned to hike to from the vantage point of our ship

Here you can see the Gellert statue, as well as the liberty statue (on top of the hill on the left)

So first we hiked up to the Gellert Statue

Then we saw that we could just keep going up the hill, so we decided to go for it. About the time we felt like we might die.. (dramatic) we realized we'd hiked up to the liberty statue!

The view from all the way up there

That night we sailed out of Budapest after dark and got to see the city all lit up (see the liberty statue waaaaay up there??)

The next morning we woke up in Bratislava, Slovakia. We went on a walking tour around this restored castle and had about an hour and a half of free time to walk around the city on our own.

This was the side of the little trolley-like bus we rode around in

The narrowest street in Bratislava

Most photographed site in Bratislava

The view of the castle leaving Bratislava

This castle is right on the border of Slovakia and Austria

That night we sailed from Bratislava all the way past Vienna to Melk, Austria. We were entertained on the ship with karaoke (I mean, REALLY entertained). The next morning we woke up in Melk and went to tour the Melk Abbey.

View of the Abbey from the gardens

Walking through the gardens

I know my mom will especially love these photos. We kept saying she could spend a day just in the gardens. To be fair, they were huge

View of Melk from the gardens

My favorite game.. where's Jake?

The ceiling in one of the entrances to the Abbey

Inside the Abbey

Ceiling inside the marble room

The marble room

View of the city from the Abbey. Melk has a population of about 7,000

We toured the library of the Abbey, which is all original, and no photos were allowed. There are about 10,000 books in it, and it was unbelievable. After the library, we walked through the church, which is still active, and there was a prayer being done so we couldn't take photos in there either. 

I found this photo online of the church and it really doesn't do it justice! It was incredible

After touring the Abbey, we headed out on our second excursion. We signed up to canoe down the Danube river from Melk to Durnstein where we would meet back up with the ship. I'm so glad we did this, and it's what I was most excited for. It did not disappoint! We had so much fun and it was really cool to be on the Danube and see everything from that vantage point.

The canoe tour was about 3 hours with a stop halfway through for lunch. I didn't take any photos though until we could see Durnstein

Some of the other group ahead of us and one of our tour guides on a stand up paddle board

In this you can kind of see the ruins of Durnstein going up the middle of the mountain with the Lion Heart castle on top of the hill

That night was our last dinner on the ship so we dressed up for the Captain's dinner and ate on the deck. We actually dressed up for every dinner, this is just the only one we got a photo of

Since we canoed into Durnstein instead of going with the ship, we missed the walking tour of the city. So after dinner that night, we wandered around the small city center. Population there is only about 800.

The next day, we woke up in Vienna and disembarked the ship. We were going to stay at the hotel we'd been taken to our first day there for two nights. Before getting checked into the hotel, we went to tour a palace in Vienna. They had a carriage museum with some of the only remaining carriages of their time.

The last time this funeral carriage was used was in 1989

Original harnesses for the horses

This thing weighs something like 4 tons. It was used for the emperor and empress of Austria as a portable throne. It was pulled by 7 horses

After the carriage museum, we toured the palace and gardens

That night was the first night we had dinner on our own, and we ended up going to a Japanese restaurant. The food was so delicious!

The next morning we went on our last excursion. We went to tour the palaces of Prince Eugene. First was the summer palace where there was a really awesome art exhibit.

Another game of.. where's Jake?

This is an art installation of life jackets to represent the refugees from Syria. It's in the shape of an "F" for the word fluchtling meaning refugee in German

This is the part of the palace that was meant solely for entertaining. There were no kitchen or living quarters here

The building you see at the end of the gardens was where the living quarters were. Every time a party was thrown, the food had to be taken up to the other building

This was the only room in the palace we could photograph

The rest of the summer palace tour was an art exhibit with paintings by Gustav Klimt and other artists of his time. If you read our favorite movie list from last year, you would see a movie called "The Woman in Gold." This movie was about a painting by Gustav Klimt which used to be in Austria; they considered it to be their "Mona Lisa." It's now in a museum in New York City. Anyway, since we couldn't take any photographs of the paintings, here are two of the most famous which I found on the internet.

"The Kiss" 

We saw the original of this painting

"The Lady in Gold"

After the summer palace, we toured the winter palace

There weren't many pictures allowed in this one either, but I had to take a picture of this ceiling. This was in a room that was so tiny, but so beautifully decorated. The most surprising thing about this room, was that it served no purpose. It was just something that was required in a palace to "show off"

That afternoon we had lunch on our own and ate at this place. It's in the cellar of a building that was built in 1591

After lunch, we spent a few hours walking it off in Vienna

Our last night in Vienna, we got dressed up and had dinner at the Prince of Lichtenstein's palace. It was magical! He has a private art collection that we were able to tour before eating.

The room in which we dined

We had an orchestra entertaining us

The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed home! We literally slept almost the entire day on our flights and then slept all night as well. We were so exhausted! It was an incredible experience though, and we're so grateful to have been able to be a part of every moment.