Dürnstein

With the storm coming over the water towards us we set off to 

a small village of just over 1000 people called Dürnstein.

The rain continued and we had our first chance 

to do a village walk instead of a City Tour.

The Dance of the Two Umbrellas!

Architecture abounds where ever you look..

...and picturesque vistas continue to take your breath away.

This small church that is perched on the hill 

has a novel approach to space saving..

All the graves above are from 1800 onwards..

....the old bones where stacked in the cellar type area..

all just stacked on each other..

This Castle above was where Leopold held Richard the Lionheart prisoner,

when he was on his way back from the Crusades.

The mist in the hills behind the village , 

looking through the vines that surround the area.

When we where cruising out of town there was this sculpture

of Richard the Lionheart and the Minstrel that found him and helped 

him escape.The story goes that the Minstrel played English folk songs 

underneath the castle wall until he found Richard.

Schönbruun Palace

Todays excursion was to the Schönbruun Palace,

unfortunately it was raining...

This Palace also boasts a huge garden that even includes 

a Zoo...Spring has not quite sprung yet but you could see the basics..

It has been a long time since I have seen a Red Squirrel

and Stephen had never seen them..

we found a couple of them on the pathways of the garden.

No idea who these are but they are one of many dotted around the grounds which 

cover over 2  Square Kilometres .

With Easter coming the Courtyard was covered with stalls 

selling Easter fare as only the Central Europeans can do.

  

These manicured gardens just give you an indication of the 

splendour to come.

This is the back of the Palace.

Opulence all around..

and as for the artwork, furnishing and flooring inside,

OMG. 

Unable to take pictures but stunning..

in fact mind blowing.

Then you turn around and see this at the other end of the walk way.

Onwards to Vienna

Well this has been a bit slow because the Wi Fi has been dodgy!

An all night sail had us in Bratislava at dawn.

This Palace (?) perched high on the hill. 

As you can see from the Panorama from our window.

Maybe one day I sleep past dawn!

But why would you want to ?

Just to prove I like New Architecture as well !

This next to The Hilton Hotel.

After breakfast a walk on the top deck,

'till it started drizzling.

So we called into see Our Captain in his wheel house.

This is what he controls the ship with.

Waiting to get into the Loch.

Here he is at the starboard control.

Yes he's that close to the side.

The crew then Lasso us to the floating bollard (?)

Then up we go!

Tied up at dock, looking across to New Vienna.

We didn't go on the tour...

Instead we caught up with Jodie..

We wanted to see "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimpt.

Now bear in mind this is "The Spare Palace"

and now Art Gallery!!!!

I managed to get a photo of 5 of my favourite things,

Before Frau Hitler said "NO PHOTOS"

Well I didn't know !

So I missed out on a photo of The Kiss...

Great to see it in real life!

The girls in the foyer.

Looking back from the garden...

Jodie wanted to see our suite, 

the only problem was the ship wasn't there when we got back!

They had to move it...

A lovely Austrian Riesling as another APT ship pulls up alongside.

They're that close on the dock, then they walk through our ship to get off. 

The evening tour was a concert at 

The Palais Liechtenstein...

WOW.

NBF's who live about 4 streets away in Kalamunda.

The orchestra played for about an hour.

Fantastic!! 

Ain't Life A Bitch

Well after nearly freezing to death on the morning walk,

We eventually got onto the Amadante at 2.30 pm.

We were directed to our suite #301

This is classified as an Owners Suite....

Stuff Me comes to mind!

The Bathroom with Bath....

I intend to try this out shortly!

"Anything you want in the fridge just ask"

And a welcoming bottle of Verve Cliquot of course !!!!

And then the food....Zeppelin won't cover this !!!!

A couple of oddities!

These are a few from the "big camera"

The phantom photographer !

Something that we probably won't 

see again...

After breakfast this cruised downstream.

If I'm not mistaken this is "our boat" coming into Budapest.

So looking at it from our Hotel Room!

I think our suite is the large front window

on the "other side"

We will be heading upstream.

A few last photos from yesterday, before the Cruise begins.

We love our markets!

And they don't get much more spectacular than this one.

Upstairs "tourist stuff" Ground floor "food stuff"

and basement "Aldi"  We didn't get down  there!

This was the plaza opposite, once again beautiful buildings.

Inside the Great Market Hall

My Hungarian reading skills are below zero...

But I think this is part of The University.

This was one of the Must Do's for us 

Gellért Spa.

The structure of the bridge was spectacular.

The foyer magnificent....

So we "Took the Waters"

along with a million others! 

We sat for hours in the outdoor pool, 

Alison tried to do her exercises but there were too many people!

We also chatted to a couple of lovely guys from the US,

and a interesting couple from Israel.

The Statue on The Citadel.

And at Dusk...

No wonder Budapest is known as

The Paris of Middle Europe