Final word on vacation time…

We had lots of questions at the end of the year, asking if Larry still had a job. It’s true that we spent 4 of the last 6 weeks of 2016 vacationing. (Yes, vacation can be a verb.) Like most of the world outside the US copious amounts of holiday time are part of the deal with most jobs. In Larry’s case it is a number of days, and since his work week is 4 days, the number of weeks it works out to is extended. Also like most of the rest of the world (except the US and Japan) you are expected to take your vacation, and only a small portion can be rolled into the next year. So yes, we vacationed. And we enjoyed the heck out of it! We met some really great, fun (and funny) people, and saw a beautiful part of the world, all while knocking some things off our individual and joint bucket lists.

We knew the Christmas Market cruise portion of our vacation time was going to be great when we met several of our fellow passengers in the lobby bar before the welcome party. The next day on a tour of Prague, our guide had a very strong accent. Some members of our little group (soon to be collectively referred to as ‘the trouble makers’) was having a small issue understanding her. The fun part is HOW things were being interpreted. She was discussing some of the historical architecture and the success that the forefathers had creating buildings in the Baroque style. That’s when it started… her accent made success into ‘sexes’ and Baroque into ‘buttock’ somebody behind us questioned why we needed to know about that, and it went rapidly downhill from there.

The next day, we had a different guide with a different accent, and it was me having the issue. Remember the accent Tim Conway used in the Mrs Wiggins sketches on the Carol Burnett show? This woman had tremendous knowledge she was sharing but I was constantly suppressing laughter because I just kept seeing and hearing Tim Conway and Carol Burnett. Thankfully there were many breaks in commentary between Prague and Nuremburg, and I was able to take my mind elsewhere for a while in between.

I have no prior experience with overnight river cruising, and have been looking forward to this trip since we initially booked it. We chose AMA Waterways for our trip. This line happens to employ a crew primarily from Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. They very obviously love their jobs, and each and every day they were teasing and playing with both guests and each other. There was a ton of laughter, and it made for a wonderful feel on board. Bottom line is that I would very highly recommend them (if you’d like to read my complete review send me a note and I will shoot you the link.) I have always believed that a happy employee is the best possible sales tool for any company, and this was not an exception.

During one of the Cruise Director briefings, we were told of a European tradition that involves placing a shoe outside your door on St Nicholas Day or the night of the feast of St. Nicholas. (The actual date of this varies by region from December 5 to December 19, and may be the precursor to hanging stockings out at Christmas Eve in the US.) The shoes are placed out in hopes that St Nicholas will place coins or candy in them. We were also told that bad children, would receive a visit from Krampus, this bizarre sort of Christmas demon. Much time was spent describing Krampus, and the terrible things he brought. We were asked to place a shoe outside our door if we wanted to experience this tradition. We were also warned that Krampus occasionally visited…

So, that night before we went to sleep, we each placed a shoe outside our cabin door. In the morning, we looked in our shoes…

I got a chocolate Santa.

Larry on the other hand…

As far as we were able to determine, he received the only one on our particular cruise. We ate chocolate Santa. I saved choclate Krampus!

Cruises down the Danube River taken in December, focus on Christkindlmarkts in the towns along the way. The cruise portion started in Nurembur
g, and the iconic market there. When you see pictures of German Christmas markets, there will almost always be a photo of the Nuremburg Market, with its striped stalls in the Old Town Square.

We also stopped in Regensburg, Passau, Linz, Melk, and Vienna. After cruising past beautiful Bratislava (saved for another day) our river cruise ended in Budapest. All in all we had access to 10 markets in 8 days. Thankfully not all of the markets were the same. I loved the market at Thurn and Taxis Palace in Regensburg, which had by far the most original feel with the most interesting mix of artisans. It was my most favorite. I also loved the shop of a fantastic glass artist at the little market in Passau. In Vienna, there was a small market in front of Schӧnnbrun Palace that had a very festive feel, and some truly handmade local items. The main market in Budapest had some completely different artists and types of wares, and a far more relaxed vibe.

In all of the ports there was a walking tour. In some places we split up into separate, smaller groups and walked according to ability. One these days I walked with the ‘fast walker’ group. In Regensburg I was extremely grateful that I did so. Our guide was hysterical! He not only knew his stuff, but he had some great little side stories to share. One of them involved a discussion of how people had been taxed in previous times. The number of floors that a family had was an indication of wealth. If the family living in it fell into debt they were required to take a floor (or two) off. In some cases those owners were not happy with that conclusion, and expressed themselves in different ways. For example, the patriarch of a family required to remove 2 floors from his home commissioned an artist to create this relief… note she is sticking her tongue out and turning her bare buttocks out. (No it is not Baroque in style, nor was it a house of ill repute at any time.) The second great story involves Don John of Austria (also Don John of Regensburg) the illegitimate son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He was also the half-brother of Phillip II of Spain. He has quite a colorful history! He was a successful military leader, appears as a villain in one of Shakespeare’s plays, is the source for 2 operas, a poem, and 2 historical novels. History documents his military conquests quite favorably. Apparently he was also quite the horndog. Our guide had an impressive list of women he was associated with, and far more children than history attributes to him. At the time in the 1500s the name Juan was given to sons of unknown paternity. Multiple Juans appeared in his wake (as well as at least 2 daughters). Our guide claimed that the statue of Don John has double meaning. I will leave it to you to decide…

We had a fantastic time on our vacation. In addition to the cruise we spent extra time in Prague at the front end, and Budapest at the back end. Both of those are places where I would like to spend more time. In addition, I would love to return to Regensburg. I loved it, and one day was not nearly enough.

We have been back from our end of year escapades for a couple of weeks now. It has taken that long to settle back into life here and overcome the train wreck that was our diet and drinking habits while on vacation (but that is what vacation is for, right?) We were in the taxi about half way home, when Larry asked me if it feels like we are ‘home’ yet. Because I did not answer quickly he assumed my answer was no, but in fact it really does. Next step is setting up an actual physical place to call ‘home.’ More on that soon.

In the meantime – here are some cool photos taken along the way…

A cycle powered carousel