October 6, 7 and 8- travel day to Vienna

We have been very busy so I had no time to update the blog.

First, I should correct my previous blog when I said that Russian rule of Budapest ended in 1989 after a 13 day uprising.   Russian rule ended in 1989 but the 13 day uprising was in the late 1950's.  

We began sailing toward Vienna in the late afternoon on October 6.  That night we were entertained with traditional Hungarian dances by 4 dancers in traditional costumes.  At one point, the two female dances danced with half full liquor bottles balanced on their heads.  That must take quite a bit of practice.

On the way to Vienna, we passed Bratislava and its Fortress (see picture below).

Shortly before Vienna, we passed through a lock- one of about 63 on the trip.  This was fascinating.  There were already two large ships in the lock.  Our captain had to steer beside one of them.  Let me tell you, there was less than a foot between the 2 boats and also less than a foot between the other side of our boat and the wall of the lock.  See the pictures below.  The whole operation of entering the lock, manoevering into position and raising the level of the water in the lock took  little more than half an hour.  

After dinner, we were driven to Liechtenstein Palace for a concert of Strauss, Mozart and Beethoven music just for us.  Of course, I enjoyed the Mozart pieces the most.  The Palace was very grand with paintings on the ceilings and art masterpieces from the early Renaissance to the Baroque era.  We were served Champagne upon entering the Palace.

In the morning on October 8, we toured Schoenbrunn Palace.  I have never seen so much gold leaf all over everything in my life.  Empress Maria Theresa expanded the Palace in the 1700's modelled after  Versailles.  She ruled for many years and was and still is much loved by the people.  She had 16 children in 20 years- one of them Marie Antoinette.  The grounds are huge.  We couldn't imagine how many staff it took and takes to maintain them.

Tonight after dinner, they will be teaching us the  Viennese waltz and we set sail for the Durnstein/Melk area.  Tomorrow, a 35 km bike ride tour from Durnstein to Melk was offered.  We thought about it but decided we might  be quite sore for some days after and are taking a more sedate tour of the Melk Abbey instead.

 Fortress in Bratislave at the concert pulling into the lock.  We came level with the ship on the right with only about a foot between us.  That's the bow of our ship in the bottom left side of the picture.