Thursday,
5 Sep 2024 – Breakfast
was early (7:00) because we had morning excursions; ours starting at 8:30 AM. Originally, Sally had signed us for the
Jewish walking tour of Regensburg, but found out there was a “leisure” walking
group of Regensburg, which should have been easier for us. As we left the ship, there was no bus in
sight. We had to walk quite a distance
on a path that doubled back before we came close to any buildings. At first, we thought we were walking to a
bus, but NO BUS! Our guide, Suzanne,
spoke very good English and gave us a lot of history. That part of the day was
great. We walked across the Old Stone
Bridge, constructed in the 12th century, a “masterpiece of medieval engineering
with its 16 arches” and on to St. Peter’s Cathedral, which “is considered
Bavaria’s best Gothic architectural work.” Our tour ended there, at the Old Town’s
Neupfarrplatz square, which is a “cross section of history – having served as
an ancient Roman gathering place, a thriving Jewish quarter, a bustling
marketplace and the site of Nazi book burnings.” We stopped at a Stube (bar/café) there with
another couple (Sandy & Richard) and Clarence,
who had come on the outing without his wife Carol. Jesse had pop, and Sally had a latte. Then we walked with Clarence back to the
ship. It had moved to be closer to the
cathedral, but was still pretty far. If Sally
had known how much we would have to walk (and with no bus!), she wouldn’t have
taken this tour! On the other hand, the
old streets were narrow, and vehicles (especially busses) didn’t drive
here. When we reached pier 6, our ship
was “double parked,”, so that we had to walk through another Viking ship to get
onto ours. Sally was exhausted and very
sweaty, so she took a shower, while Jesse went to have a light lunch.
Friday,
6 Sep 2024 – After breakfast, Jesse went on our excursion
(9:15, Walking Tour of Passau, our
ship’s last stop in Germany). Sally asked
if this tour would be bussed at all, and when told “no,” she let Jesse go
without her. (Yesterday was just too
exhausting!) Soon after he left, Sally
went back to sleep.
Jesse was with the “Leisure” group
for the walking tour of Passau. Our tour
guide was a young woman named Christina.
We followed Christina through the streets of Passau while taking in the
sights. Passau is one of Bavaria’s
oldest cities and was founded by the Celts more than 2,000 years ago. Three rivers converge here: the blue Danube,
the green Inn, and the black Ilz. The
second worst flood in the history of Passau happened in 2013, more than 500
years after its worst flood. Christina
pointed out water marks that showed the level of flooding for the various
floods. We stopped for a rest break near
Hotel Wilder Mann, a modernized 5-story hotel, housed in a building dating back
to 1512. The highlight of the tour was a
visit to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, “located on the highest point of the city’s
Old Town. Over the centuries, many
churches have been built and rebuilt on the site, which itself was nearly
destroyed by the 1662 fire that swept through Passau. With only its late Gothic eastern façade left
standing, St. Stephen’s was rebuilt between 1668 and 1693 by architect Carlo
Lurago… In addition to its famous pipe
organ, the largest in the world outside the United States, the cathedra boasts
eight enormous bells weighing up to 16,645 lbs.” The cathedral was undergoing renovation at
the time of our tour, but it was magnificent just the same.
After the tour, Christina gave us
directions for our return to the ship.
No one else seemed to be returning at the time, so Jesse attempted to
make his way back on his own, and of course, got lost! At one point, he saw Carol who gave him
additional directions, which he should have followed but didn’t. He asked Carol, “Shouldn’t I be able to get
back following this street?” Carol
responded, “Probably.” After walking
quite a distance, Jesse found himself in a residential area. A man saw his confusion and pointed towards
the direction to the ship. He arrived
back in the cabin shortly thereafter at about 11:00 AM!
Shortly
after that, Jesse wanted to go for lunch.
Sally decided to go also, but mostly to drink cranberry juice and
cappuccino. (She also got tomato
soup.) We sat with Keith & Jean (we had
sat with them at dinner yesterday, too).
Keith had spent 2.5 years in Stuttgart, and she taught in the early
grades. Then by 1:30, Sally wanted to go
out for a short walk (maybe 1/3-mile total) and Jesse kindly went with her. Sally needed (badly) to stop at a toilet and
noticed a public one nearby as we had walked from the ship, so we stopped there
before reboarding the ship. (Public
toilets – those are something new in Germany!)
Today, our ship was parked next to the cement wall (by our cabin
window), with no scenery at all, which was a big reason for Sally’s wanting to
get out, plus she needed to walk! And
the other side was next to another ship for much of the time. For dinner, we sat with two other couples for
about the third night; they are from Philadelphia and have been neighbors for
50 years. Their names are Jane &
Will, and John & Sandy. Will is 86
(born in 1937) and his birthday is 22 October, only eight days after Sally’s! Tonight, we were all served a plate of
identical German food, and then chose dessert from a table. Sally wasn’t very hungry so she didn’t eat
much.
Saturday,
7 Sep 2024 – Sally felt a lack of sleep when she had to get up
for breakfast, and would have liked to stay in bed! But we ate so that we could take a walk at
the Melk Abbey. We had to walk
some distance to get up to a bus stop.
After that, the walk was pretty good.
We soon had a guide, who took us through the abbey, room by room. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the
Abbey, but Jesse purchased a tour book (with photos) afterwards. It is Benedictine and very ornate, “possibly”
the most famous abbey in Austria.
Dramatically situated on an outcrop rising above the Danube, “it stands
resplendent in a golden hue, crowned by towers.” The views from the abbey are
sensational. Built between 1702 and 1736,
the abbey was originally a royal palace with ceremonial courts, guest
apartments, grand halls and a library.
In the 11th century, Leopold II of Bebenberg presented the palace to the
Benedictine monks, who turned it into a fortified abbey. The highlight of the abbey is the
Stiftskirche, or “Abbey Church.” It has
twin towers and its “jaw-dropping interior is a baroque extravaganza, featuring
magnificent frescos.” Its library
contains about 80,000 medieval manuscripts.
The monastic community of Melk is more than 900 years old, and
black-robed Benedictine monks still stroll amid the marble sculptures and
frescoed walls. The monastery school has
more than 700 students. (Our female
guide was one.) Upon leaving the abbey,
we (and most other visitors) rode an elevator instead of climbing stairs up
about four floors high! The busses were
ready and waiting for us, so we didn’t walk back very far to the ship. We took showers right away before going to
lunch – although the dining room was very full already when we got there. We sat in the back with people we hadn’t met,
Laura & Tim from Appleton, WI. We
talked about genealogy a lot. Sally ordered
green salad, cranberry juice and cappuccino.
After returning to our cabin, Sally crawled into bed and “sacked out.” Our ship stopped again at Krems (which we
hadn’t expected). It was a picturesque
little city, as we could see from our cabin, but we didn’t get off. After dinner at 9:00 we went upstairs to the
lounge to a Waltz Show. Two Vienna
ballet soloists performed the traditional Viennese waltz and shared the history
of this dance. Some passengers went up
front to learn the basic steps. When it
ended, we were ready to go to bed!
Sunday, 8 Sep
2024 – Jesse got up complaining about how cold it was in
our cabin. (Sally sweats a lot under the
heavy comforter on our bed unless the heat is turned down, which then makes him
too cold. It’ll be good to go home to
our appropriate covers.) After
breakfast, we got on a bus, parked near the ship exit this time, and headed for
a few hours of sightseeing. Our tour was
Panoramic Vienna. First, the bus
drove around in central Vienna. Since it
was Sunday, the streets had little motor traffic, but just lots of walkers and
some horse-drawn carriages. Our guide,
Verena, left us in front of St. Stephen’s Church, where Mass was in
progress. After standing there for a few
minutes, we went inside the church briefly.
The service (in German) was going on, with very beautiful (and very
loud) organ music. Then we went outside
again, and with Sandy, walked back toward the place where the bus would
return. We stopped at the Hard Rock
Café, where we ordered cold, fruit-flavored drinks and sat at an outdoor table
to consume them, then used the restroom before heading back to the meeting
place, where Sandy’s husband Richard was sitting on a bench. Others soon arrived, too; then the bus came, and
we were taken back to the ship. We
walked for a few blocks, but not enough to get sweaty or exhausted. Soon after returning to the ship, we went for
lunch. Sally intended to have cranberry
juice or cappuccino, but instead got beer, a BLT (which wasn’t very good, and we
should’ve shared one instead of each ordering one), and a small dessert
cake. Sally felt overly full, but she
lay in bed and fell immediately asleep.
Jesse steered us to the dining room after she awoke, though it was an
hour earlier than usual. (A later dinner
was also scheduled for those on late tours.)
Anyway, at first the other couples we’ve been sitting with didn’t
appear, and we assumed they were eating dinner elsewhere – until suddenly they
appeared (after our first course). They
had been confused by the time change. At
the end of our time together, we talked about DNA results, etc. They are going out tomorrow on an optional
all-day excursion to Bratislavia. We weren’t
scheduled for anything, but planned to walk a short distance, making sure we didn’t
get lost, maybe finding a drug store.
Monday, 9 Sep
2024 – At breakfast we sat at the same table with the
same group as at dinner last evening. The
ship was docked in Vienna for a second day.
When the others left to get ready for a travel day (to Bratislavia,
capital of Slovakia), we talked longer with Wayne, a Vietnam veteran who uses two
canes and was not going off the ship. It
was a rainy day and very cool. Although
we had considered a walk by ourselves, the weather wasn’t inviting. Since Jesse had been given some cough drops by
Wayne’s wife, Kathy he wasn’t motivated to walk anywhere now. The first part of the day, we had a ship next
to us, so had no scenery from our cabin.
Then later, we had a ship on the other side, between our ship and the
plank to shore. After we left dock, the
scenery was nice for a while. There was
a meeting in the lounge for those going on tour tomorrow and/or disembarking. We were going on tour and only heard the last
part of what was said. Then it was
dinner time. The two couples from
Philadelphia that we’ve been sitting with are going out tomorrow and also
extending their stay on the ship. But
Morris & Anna were getting off. (We
hadn’t seen them much recently. They were
recovering from bad colds and are trying to keep from spreading their
germs! They live in Melbourne, Australia,
but we’d like to have their e-mail address – if we would see them before they
leave the ship.)
Tuesday, 10 Sep
2024 – At breakfast, much to our pleasure, Morris &
Anna joined us. We were docked in
Budapest, Hungary, and went out to bus 37B before 9:20 AM. (It left at 9:30, but was half full when we
got in!) Today's tour was Panoramic
Budapest. Our tour
guide was Agnes. The weather was cloudy
today, though partly sunny later. It was
74⁰F, cooler than most days; Sally didn’t get very sweaty today. Prior to 1873, Buda and Pest were separate
cities on opposite side of the Danube River.
First, the bus drove around in the Pest area on the east side of the
Danube, which was the not-so-rich part of the two cities. Sally was very surprised to see so much
beautiful Gothic-style architecture.
(Their WW II damage was great.)
We stopped at The Church of Our Lady of Buda Cathedral and walked
through it, sitting a couple of times in pews.
It was gorgeous inside as well as out.
Then the bus took us around the Buda side of the river. We saw some pretty dolls (in a shop window)
with native costumes, and Jesse bought one for his sister, Verna. We walked about the average amount today, but
stopped sometimes to rest, so we didn’t get terribly tired. The guide told us about Hungarian history,
mentioning the date 1956 (Hungarian Revolution), which Saly remember vaguely
from when she was in college. Also, she remembered
1970, when she tutored, a man who wanted English conversation when she was living
in Germany. He was Hungarian, and making
trips back to his homeland (Hungary) to blow up bridges, etc. They didn’t become totally free until 1989,
when the “wall” finally was taken down.
There was a debate this evening in Philadelphia between Kamala Harris and
Trump, but CNN would be airing it at 3:00 AM on the ship. We delayed our departure from the dining room
table at lunch, while talking with two women about Trump.
Wednesday, 11
Sep 2024 – In the morning, Jesse said he had listened to the
Harris-Trump debate, to Sally’s surprise.
It wasn’t planned; he just happened to wake up at 3:00 AM! Later, we watched replays of much of the
debate on TV, plus questions afterward, so Sally didn’t think she had missed
much. (CNN gave her win by 63% and Trump
at 37%. (Yay, Kamala!) Suitcases were stacked in the reception area,
and the restaurant was pretty empty when we went for breakfast (about
7:30). Lots of new
people have come on the ship. Our ship was docked at Budapest a
second day and there were no scheduled tours, so after
breakfast, Sally went back to bed and slept almost till lunch. At lunch, we sat with two older women from
North Ireland (newly boarded). After
that, Sally wanted to go off the ship for a short time because another Viking
ship was docked next to us, so our blinds had been closed all day – it felt
like she was living in a closet! We went
up some stairs, and we considered walking partway across the bridge. A couple told us we could ride on the public
transportation system (free for people 65+).
But Sally decided not to do either, and Jesse wasn’t very eager to go
anywhere – so we went back to our cabin!
At 6:00 we had another safety
meeting, followed by dinner. At dinner,
we sat with the couple from Hong Kong (Comey & Beatrix) and Pierre &
Isabelle. (Sally hadn’t met them, but
Jesse had eaten lunch with them one day when Sally didn’t go.)
Thursday, 12 Sep
2024 – We went to breakfast somewhat early today and
were out at bus D group before 8:30 AM, sitting in the back. We learned from the desk clerk that “leisure”
tour groups would not be available for the remainder of the cruise. Temperature in central Europe (Hungary) is
known to be hot and dry. Today it
started out cloudy, with temp 80⁰F. However,
at first it was 54⁰F, so Sally took her light blue jacket. Our excursion today was Kalocsa
& Puskta. Our tour
guide, Micole, was good. First stop was
the Puszta. “The
Hungarians are an equestrian folk at heart.
The country has a great tradition of horsemanship that began when the
nomadic Magyar warriors came thundering across the steppes from Asia on
horseback. In time, their descendants
settled on the Great Plain, or Puszta, of Hungary, which resembled the American
West….” We sat on bleachers watching
long-horned cattle pulling wagons. Next
were horses, ridden at first individually by men with flowing sleeves and long
coats; they popped their whips, performed some tricks (laying their horses
down, striking down props with their whips, etc.). The final feat was a man standing on the
backs of horses 9 and 10, behind a team of 4 horses, followed by 4 more
horses. It was quite spectacular,
reminiscent of the horses of Vienna. We
used restrooms there and received drinks of water. (Sally’s legs became very hot, with the sun
on her black pants, while sitting on the bleachers, until we left to be in the
shade.) From the horse ranch, the bus
took us to St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Kalocsa.
We walked about 900 meters from the bus to the church, where we sat in the
pews. The inside was very ornate, being
constructed in the 1700’s on top of two older churches. We listened for 20 plus minutes to an organ
concert of three classical songs (by Bach and others) before leaving to walk
back to the bus. By 12:00 noon the four
buses arrived back at the ship. Everyone
walked the same distance today, but it was manageable. Afterward, we ate breakfast, sitting with the
Hong Kong couple, plus two young women from NC (Melonee & Marylay). Then Sally napped. Tonight, we sat at the table where we always
sat until 9:10, and the two Philadelphia couples joined us – like old times.
Friday, 13 Sep
2024 – Today was a dark, rainy day, and was also the
coldest day we have had on this cruise (56⁰F according
to the Viking Daily), after being 80⁰F
yesterday. We went early to breakfast
(6:30), and then took the shore excursion to Osijek and
Vukovar, Croatia. Our tour guide
was Biljana.
First, we walked (in the rain) from the bus to a Catholic
Church in Osijek (Church of the Glorious Name of Mary). The lights were not turned on inside, and the
daylight coming through the windows was minimal, so that we could not see very
well the beautiful decoration inside the church. But we were told to be seated, and we
listened to a woman play an electronic piano and sing Croation folk music; then
she sang “Amen, amen, amen” without her accompaniment. She is a member of a choir that sings in
various locations. Before getting back
on the bus, we all used restrooms in back of the church. (There were only two stalls in the women’s
area, so it was a long line; eventually, we started using the men’s room
also. Sally was the second woman to use
the men’s room.) After that, the bus
took us to Vukovar. There, people in our
bus were divided into three groups that went into three separate homes that are
licensed as bed and breakfast places. We
went with others in our group into a home, where a woman (holding a small dog)
greeted us at the door. We sat at a long
table in her dining room, where we ate three or four types of cakes and drank
juice and brandy. Several people asked
questions about her life, and she answered in English. (She had a heavy accent and spoke from the
other end of the room; her speech was impossible for Sally to hear/understand,
though she heard the questions.) Sally
was still wondering what caused the war in the 1990’s that left so many ruins
and land mines. (Most have been rebuilt,
but not all.) After reaching the ship,
we went for lunch, and sat by our usual dinner friends. After lunch, Sally napped and Jesse (unintentionally)
also slept. Soon we went to dinner, and
sat with our four usual friends from Philadelphia. We learned a little new about them tonight – Sally
mentioned that some of our Sioux Falls neighbors “watch Fox News all day,” and
Will chimed in that John & Sandy do also!
Although very close friends, they do not agree on politics!
Saturday,
14 Sep 2024 – Breakfast
was early (soon after 7:00), then our shore excursion: Panoramic Belgrade, Serbia.
Today was another rainy day, more in the morning than later, and even
slightly colder than yesterday. According to our brochure: “Scattered showers,
55⁰F.” (Sally was glad that she brought
her boots and some warm clothes.) She
was also getting a cold – again; her second cold since we’ve been on the
ship! She’d like to have stayed in bed
and skipped today’s tour, but she was very interested in seeing Belgrade,
Serbia. Before leaving the ship, we had
to pick up our passports at the desk and carry them with us because Serbia
isn’t part of the European Union.
Our Viking ship was on the Sava
River (near the Danube). Our bus was
Group A. When we walked up the hill to
the busses, we had to pass busses 4, 3, 2, 1, E, D, C, B… until we finally came
to bus A! Sally was tired by the time we
sat down near the back of bus A. Our
guide told a lot of interesting history of Belgrade. From the Viking Daily: “The former capital of
the state of Yugoslavia, and today’s Serbian capital, Belgrade is one of the oldest
cities in Europe. Its location at the
confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers and at the intersection of Eastern and
Western Europe has long made it a contested region. Throughout its history, the ‘White City,’ as
its Serbian name translates, has been destroyed and rebuilt 20 times. Fortunately, the wide-reaching citadel
remains, housing the Kalemegdan Fortress, Orthodox churches, Turkish baths and
green parkland. Its Cathedral of St.
Sava is one of the largest Orthodox buildings in the world.”
The bus let us out to walk through
the wooden fortress with high vaulted doors and old weapons (cannons, etc.)
sitting out at the sides. Then we walked
through park land. Sally was trying to
keep up with our group but also sat on her cane seat whenever possible. It started to become a struggle for her. It sprinkled rain at times; then one of her
hearing aid batteries expired. She also had
trouble keeping her “whisperer” in her ear when she pulled her hood over her
ears because of rain, so she did not hear much of what our guide was saying. Finally, we stopped at a shopping center to
use restrooms that were buried in the far corner of the basement. (Sally sat on her cane seat along the
way.) Then we waited outside at the
meeting place. Our leader was very
conscientious in waiting until everyone got there. Soon a miracle happened: we got on a city
bus!!! Sally was very grateful at that point and was
able to relax.
Soon we arrived at the huge Eastern
Orthodox church with beautiful frescoes on the walls and domed ceiling. Sally had hoped
to sit there in a seat, but she had forgotten that congregations in these
churches stand during services! Studying
the paintings, the wall displayed old men with beards reaching the floor. (The
Orthodox church here requires the long beard and also marriage – not celibacy!) From there, we walked next door to a smaller
church, where our guide says she goes instead of going to the big one. Then we got on the bus again, which took us
back to the ship. While standing in the
church, Sally felt wet and cold; the cold breeze coming into the church chilled
her neck. (She could feel her cold
getting worse!) She didn’t go right to
sleep tonight; she got up and was on her laptop for an hour or so.
Sunday, 15 Sep 2024 – Today was another rainy day. Our Viking Daily said “Mostly sunny,
55⁰F.” However, it was raining when we
walked out the door, and it never stopped!
Jesse carried a very large umbrella over both of us from our ship. Our shore excursion was “Golubac Fortress
by foot” from 8:45 to 9:45 AM, and our tour guide was
Marco. We could see the fortress ahead
of us on the river, so it wasn’t very far.
However, the stone walk was wet and slippery. The fortress was originally above the water,
but after the river was dammed relatively recently, it is now partly in the
water. We climbed over old wooden boards
on the bridge into the fortress. Inside,
we could see round stones and the sling device originally used to shoot the
stones at any enemy. Inside were various
items that had been rescued from the original building. It was a cold castle inside. A video was also available to watch, but we
were soon ready to retrace our steps back to the ship. When we reached our cabin, we were soaking
wet – Sally’s boots, socks, bottom few inches of her jeans, her jacket, and
arms of her shirt! Jesse was similarly
soaked, and he was wearing sandals, not boots.
(Sally’s boots obviously seriously leaked as we walked through
puddles.) The weather news on TV said
that Storm Boris was making its way across central and eastern Europe after weeks
of dryness.
We had eaten breakfast after 7:00,
so we lay around in our cabin until time for lunch (after 12:30). We sat with Commy & Beatrix and Michael
& Linda (from Gary, IN). Then, it
was back to our room, and Sally napped (Jesse unintentionally also). Sally was
keeping her cold from being too obvious with DayQuil and NyQuil, with only a
few of each left. Sally’s weight was not
going down much (if any) because she usually ate more than she intended, so
that the walking exercise was not really doing much good, though she would probably
have gained weight if she didn’t walk! Jesse just enjoyed the cruise and didn’t
worry about any temporary weight gain. Back
in the U.S., there was a second assassination attempt on Trump today while he
was golfing on his estate. The news was
full of it after that; they caught site of the man who was getting into a
vehicle and caught him.
Monday,
16 Sep 2024 – Although Sally
slept okay last night, we lost an hour of sleep, changing to East European Time
at midnight. Sally awoke with a headache
that wouldn’t go away, and tried to keep from sneezing during breakfast. Our Viking Daily said “Partly cloudy,
67 degrees. It was actually mostly
sunny. We arrived at a small place, Vidin,
Bulgaria. The walking excursion was “Belogradchik
Rocks & Fortress,” rated as “demanding” (as opposed to “easy”). They said people could make it easy just by
not climbing to higher areas. Anyway, Sally
decided she needed extra rest because she felt like she could be getting sick,
but Jesse went on the excursion without her.
The tour started with a bus ride from
Vidin to the Belogradchik Rocks, which took a little more than an hour. Our tour guide was Simona. Jesse took photos from the bus as it traveled
though small towns and country sides. Along
the way, our bus stopped along the road while the driver inspected the
bus. Apparently, it was making a noise
that he didn’t like Upon arrival, Jesse
had to walk uphill to a bathroom; after that, he was already tired before doing
anything else. Simona informed us that
the company would be sending another bus to return us to the port.
Jesse started his walk toward the
fortress. Just inside the entrance gate,
there was a man selling various sculptures that he had created. They looked very nice, but were a little on
the expensive side. From a distance,
Jesse could see the red-hued cliffs and mountains. “The result of millennia of weathering, river
erosion, freezing and countless other factors, these formations are more than
Bulgaria’s great natural wonder.”
Reportedly, fantastic figures and profiles emerge when you catch them at
just the right angle and silhouettes of people, towers, ships, mushrooms,
palaces and animals populate the cliffs.
The Belogradchik Fortress, built by the Ottomans, is within the maze of
rock columns and pillars.
Jesse was exhausted by the time he neared the base of the rock
formations, and quickly found a bench in the shade. He decided that a climb to the top of the
cliffs was a bridge too far for him. He
conversed with Michael (from North Island, New Zealand) as they
watched his wife, Patricia, climb the steps all the way to the top and
back down again. At first, there was a
woman sitting with us waiting for her husband to complete the climb. Michael & Patricia have
been raising their grandson, who is now 10 years old. But now, the mother has decided to get
involved with raising her son. She has
different ideas about how he should be raised, which had created some anxiety
for Patricia. We’ve known other
grandparents who have raised their grandchildren for various reasons.
For our
return trip, the company had sent us a large van rather than a bus. So, some of our passenger had to crowd on to
other buses. There was a little delay in
our departure while the three tour guides accounted for all of the passengers. Since Jesse was alone, he sat in one of the
single seats in the van.
Sally stayed in bed, and did go
back to sleep for possibly the last hour before Jesse returned from his tour at
about 1:00 PM. Sally dressed and went to
lunch with him. We sat by two younger
couples (only one person was still working).
Sally had only cranberry juice, green salad, and cappuccino. (None of the others had wine; one had
beer. It did seem that most people drank
a lot of wine on this trip!) There were
very few people on the ship now who started in Amsterdam. We both took showers this afternoon (Jesse
has had at least one more than Sally, but she felt better. She also happened to find four more NyQuil,
which she was “rationing.” That made her feel much better already! This was the second evening when other
couples “beat us” to the table where we’d been sitting with our Philadelphia
friends for most of this trip. (Sally
wanted to go early since we didn’t get it last night, but Jesse discouraged her,
saying last night was “special,” due to a buffet layout. But he was wrong!) We found out for certain tonight that one
couple backs Trump, and the other backs Kamala – yet they are close friends. We gave them our e-mail cards tonight. Tomorrow was an all-day (9:00 AM to 6:30 PM)
shore excursion, but it’s also packing day; we must have our luggage in the
hall by 7:00 AM on Wednesday! Tomorrow
is our last dinner on the ship. Sally
was glad to be feeling better tonight than last night!
Tuesday,
17 Sep 2024 – We ate breakfast on the Viking Lofn soon after
7:00 AN. From 9:00 AM to 6:30 PM. we had
a very long tour of Veliko Tarnovo & Arbanasi, Bulgaria. The bus took us into one of Bulgaria’s most
scenic regions, where we drove from Vidin to the Bilogradchik rocks. The erosion has made a beautiful
countryside. We saw the Bilogradchik
Fortress, built by the Ottomans. We saw
many old, obviously mostly destroyed buildings that have never been repaired and
are empty today. Our tour guide, Teodora (Dori), said that
the last owner was supposed to get his property back after the country was
liberated. However, in some cases, the
ownership was disputed, and there was much trouble – and the property was just
left empty. We walked along a cobblestone
street with souvenir shops, etc., and Sally became very tired. We finally stopped for lunch at a place that was
built like a castle on a hill, with restrooms in another building down a hill
(past a pen with peacocks inside). In
the eating area, dancers in traditional costumes entertained us. Then Jesse toured an ancient merchant’s home,
while Sally sat outside. Afterwards, some
of our group went to a church, but we walked back to the restaurant with a few
others and waited for them to return. We
finally arrived back at the ship, very tired, and after dinner we had to pack
up all of our belongings – with the suitcases outside the door by 7:00 AM. Although Sally was very tired from the
exhausting walking, she had really enjoyed the cruise!
