Monday, November 4, 2019; Bratislava, Slovakia and Late Night Arrival, Budapest

Monday, November 4, 2019; Bratislava, Slovakia and Late Night Arrival, Budapest, Hungary

Well, we ended up losing the window curtain lottery today.  We woke to find ourselves tied up alongside the Viking Freya with a French Balcony just inches from our own.  But the outside temperatures had warmed to the mid 50’s.  There was heavy overcast, and the promise of some rain today.  

As we crossed the Viking Freya to get to our shore excursion, we learned that Viking has itineraries specialized to certain markets.  The Freya was carrying passengers almost exclusively from China, and their staff was all Chinese speaking.  Even the dining menus are specialized to cater to the dining preferences of these Chinese tourists.  We learned that rather than have all their meals in the ship’s restaurant, they often have banquets hosted at a restaurant ashore.  We also noted crew loading fresh greens for the galley that aren’t served to western customers.  

Bratislava is apparently the only European national capital situated at the junction of 3 countries- Austria, Hungary and Slovakia.  Slovakia was once part of Czechoslovakia.  The Slovaks and Czechs parted ways in an amicable divorce in 1993.  But while the Slovaks and Czechs are both members of the European Union, only the Slovaks adopted the Euro currency.  The Czechs still use their own Korunas.  

Slovakia, like the Czech Republic, is a highly industrialized country, and one of their main industries is automobile manufacturing.  Volkswagen, Kia and even Land Rover have huge manufacturing plants in Slovakia.  Our guide joked that Kia even has a special line of vehicles for Slovaks- the Slova-KIAs,  of course.  One of our Czech guides had earlier joked that no-one working in a Kia factory is allowed to own No-KIA phones.

Flag of Slovakia

Empty Suits of Armor represent spoils of war.

Castle Courtyard

Bratislava Castle

Janet’s found the Treasure Room

View over the Danube from the Bratislava Castle

Bratislava has a castle overlooking the Danube, which looks like it has undergone extensive renovations and reconstruction since emerging from the Soviet era.  There is also a cobble stoned historical district that our tour took us through.  Towards the end of this European River cruise, it’s getting harder to get excited about more narrow winding and hilly cobblestoned streets, but each is cute in its own right.  Bratislava seems to have a lot of images of St. Michael wielding his flaming sword, and St. George standing atop a copper dragon at the top of the main old town gate tower’s spire.  

Our tour started with a bus ride to the castle at the top of the hill, and then dropped us off on the edge of the historical district, which was conveniently within walking distance to the ships tied up on the Danube.  We did have some rain sprinkle on us during our tour, but it was no more than a light drizzle.  

Our Bratislava port call was quite brief.  Our excursion was at 8:30am and the boat cast off for Budapest at 11:15am sharp.  This was apparently because we were scheduled to pass through the largest lock on the Danube at 2pm- a passage that has to be booked a year in advance.  This lock has a 60 ft lift/drop.  The lock was large enough for 2 ships our sized, but we shared it with a smaller empty freight ship.  

There was an educational video on the ship’s navigation and propulsion systems.  These ships have 4 independently steerable propulsion pods aft and bow thrusters.  This gives them the maneuvering finesse necessary to navigate the rivers and canals of Europe.  

After the morning’s drizzle, the sky cleared and it warmed up into the mid 60’s in the afternoon.  Our stateroom was in the sun, and it was quite pleasant to have the balcony open and the sun streaming into our room after so many days of cold weather. 

The ship had an afternoon tea today, which was the first, and perhaps only one of this itinerary.  But instead of serving tea, they were pouring coffee with Mozart Chocolate liqueur.  They had finger sandwiches, tiny scones and cakes that were good, but no white glove services like on Princess, or Viking Ocean.

The evening will conclude with a Captain’s farewell reception and the ship will arrive in Budapest around midnight.  We’ll have to take a nap to stay awake to see the lights of Budapest as we sail in.  We will, however, have one more night aboard the ship as it remains tied up in Budapest.  We will have to pack our bags tomorrow evening.