The Hotel Alpina by night … Roast chestnuts and mulled wine (glühwein) by the Christmas tree … … and the “sun deck” is being cleared of snow after a heavy fall – automatically! The lobby. Table 46 – Family Tapp’s…
OBERGURGL – DEC 2019 – Part 1
This is going to be more of a collection of photos of our trip to Austria than a travel blog. Having had our air transport to our full family holiday to France over New Year cancelled when Thomas Cook went…
14. TIME FOR HOME
Bad news and good! Sadly, we leave the ship today – Monday 14 October. But not until 5pm. So the good news is that we have plenty of time for another exploration of the city. Immediately opposite our ship we…
13. BUDA AND PEST
After 14 days cruising and 3,200 kilometreos travelled, we moor in Budapest about 200 metres from where we started! We’ve travelled the long way round to get here! Now we get a tour of the city (with lots of weekend…
12. MORE FRENEMIES
Is this really our last but one day of the trip? Today we get to hear the Croatian view of the world. We have docked in Vukovar, Croatia’s largest river port, located at the confluence of the River Vuka and…
11. “FRENEMIES” FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
Today we are in Novi Sad, Serbia. Grab our passports and go! The city was founded in 1694 when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from the Petrovaradin fort. It developed into an important trading and manufacturing centre…
10. SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET
Sailing overnight from Vidin we arrived at the Iron Gate locks in the early hours of the Thursday morning (10 October). Our clocks changed this morning so we got a more leisurely breakfast than usual! We sailed on into the…
09. OUR SHIP
It’s about time we had a look at our ship. The Robert Burns is sister to Thomas Hardy! Bet you didn’t know that! Two identical boats. Both 135 metres long and 11.4 metres in beam. Both licenced to carry 176…
08. FORTRESS DAY
We’ve done enough churches – now it’s time for a couple of medieval Bulgarian fortresses! Wednesday is Fort-day! Mooring at Vidin, we loaded on board our buses. It’s funny how we have become creatures of habit (or are we just…
07. INTO THE HILLS
Day 9 and it’s Tuesday. Tomorrow, as I write this, it will be Tuesday two weeks on! Today we are being coached into the hilly ground to the south of the Danube valley. We had docked at Rousse again. Familiar…