Cruising the Danube From Budapest to Vienna-Thursday December 13

We departed Budapest about 8:45 this morning. We made one stop at about 2:00 in Esztergom. The picture is of the cathedral there. Esztergom was the winter home of the monarch in the 1000-1200 period. The church was built in the late 1800s. We picked up travelers from Budapest who had taken a 4 hour bus trip to see Budapest and its outlying ares. We enjoyed the cruising and the warmth of the ship. We saw the ice in the river but avoided the icy air!

Since then we have been traveling mostly west along the border of Hungary and Slovakia. Shortly (about 10:30 here or 2:30 in Daphne) we will enter Slovakia alone and about midnight will enter Austria. We dock in Vienna at about 8:00 am. Tomorrow will be a special day. Althougb a planned tour to see the 150th anniversary exhibit of Gustav Klimt's work was cancelled because of a lack of response from the passengers, Connie and I will make our own trip to the Belvedere Museum for the exhibit. Even though pictures are very slow to load on the G3 access we have, expect more than one tomorrow.

We enjoyed our second meal tonight. I had Hungarian duck in a cranberry sauce. The duck was excellent. Yes, excellent. The white wines have been quite good. The reds not so good. Drinkable, yes. but nothing of real interest.

Gustav Klimt and Vienna tomorrow. Hurrah!

A parting note: Well, maybe no more than one picture a post until we have a better Internet connection. Certainly in Paris. Perhaps in London. Each picture is taking 5 minutes to load. I am not used to this!