Cruising with the Grands

Charlie and I have been on more cruises then we can count. We are fortunate that the business we are in allows us the opportunity to experience many cultures and countries. It has been years since we’ve been to the Western Caribbean, but this week we are experiencing cruising from an entirely different perspective. We have grandchildren with us who have never been on a cruise.


My daughter, son-in-law, his mother, and two of our grandchildren are on the Norwegian Spirit which sailed yesterday from New Orleans. Let me regress for a moment and tell you about taking children into the French Quarter and especially down Bourbon Street at night. Truman, our eight-year-old grandson, was intrigued by catching as many Mardi Gras beads as he could that were being thrown down to us from balconies above the shops and restaurants. Our ten-year-old granddaughter was interested in buying a Mardi Gras mask and going into one of the gaudiest costume jewelry shops I’ve ever seen. Of course, she had to get a snake ring filled with rhinestones that will only fit her first finger. But Nana and Grammy had a great time shopping with her.

We boarded the Norwegian Spirit yesterday (July 24) at midday. We had lunch in Cagney’s, a wonderful steakhouse on the ship. Teaching the grandchildren how to order from the big adult menu in a fancy restaurant and learning how to make a “b” with their left hand and a “d” with their right one to indicate which side holds their bread plate and which side their drink is on was quite interesting. Now, Mr. Literal Truman makes certain that everyone knows which bread plate is theirs.

Both of the children easily adapted to ship life. By late afternoon, they had made new friends and explored the ship on their own. Last night my daughter commented to Truman that he was acting so responsibly. His retort was “The cruise is making me do that.” Why hadn’t we thought of this earlier and taken him on a dozen cruises already!!!

Maeve instantly met a girl her age at the pool and at dinner let us know her friend’s name and that she was from Oklahoma. She is having a ball being able to get out on her own and meeting new friends.

Truman has found places on the ship that none of us have found as yet. This morning as Charlie was getting off the elevator on our floor Truman came barreling in announcing “Come on! I’ll show you!” as he was followed by a posse of his new best friends. Where he was going and what he was going to show them is yet to be known.

The seas are calm and beautiful. The sun is hot, hot, hot. Sea days are the best!! After a massage and facial, I feel like a new woman. More tomorrow from Costa Maya, Mexico.

Budapest - The Jewel of the Danube

April 19, 2011 - This morning we arrived in Budapest.  This is a city that is actually on both sides of the Danube River.  One part of the city is called Buda, which is on the hills of the Danube and where the castle is located, and the other part of the city is on the opposite side of the river and is called Pest (that's pronounced Pescht). 

I can truly say that I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful city.  There just aren't enough adjectives to describe it:  glamorous, dramatic, enchanting, magical.  Budapest has been called the "Paris of the East", and it's difficult to say which is more breathtaking - looking across the Danube towards the flat Pest from the heights of Buda, or from the direction of the hills and towers of Buda from Pest. 

Of course, Hungary is known for it's production of paprika.  Here's some facts about Hungarian paprika, which is very different from the paprika we use at home.

•Paprika powder is produced by grinding the dried deep red paprika pods of the pepper plant (Capsicum annum L. is the botanical name)


•Although paprika is the symbol of Hungary's cuisine the plant was brought to the country by the Turks only in the 16-17th centuries.

•Its pungency ranges from sweet to mildly hot and very hot, depending of the type of pepper the powder was produced. The color of the spices varies from mild to bright red, and there are papika powder types with brownish colour too.

•Note: Not the brightest red paprika is the hottest!  The orange coloured one will make you really cry.

•The hotness is caused by capsaicin, a chemical that is extracted from paprika plants to use in pharmaceutical production due to its painkilling effect

•The fresh red pepper is rich in vitamin C 

•Would you believe that even pálinka (brandy) is made from paprika?

So, the next time you sprinkle paprika on your deviled eggs or potato salad, or use it as a spice in chicken paprakasch, think of Budapest and the beauty of this wonderful Eastern European city.

Sacher Torte, Apfelstrudel, Lippizaner Stallions, and Composers

April 18, 2011- Vienna is a city is so steeped in history that the entire city could be a museum.  Very little of Vienna was bombed during World War II, but those buildings that were bombed were torn down and replaced with newer buildings that just seem out of place.  Our guide explained that after the war, there was no money to spend repairing them to their original design.  So newer, less expensive buildings were built in their place.

This is the city of music.  Even if the Danube isn't quite as blue here as Johannes Strauss' waltz would have us to believe, music is in the air in this city, and concerts are held almost nightly.  Vienna was once home to Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, and there are monuments and statues of each of them.

We visited St. Stephen's Cathedral (and yes, there is one in Linz and Passau, as well).  It is so beautiful to see the palmbuschen in vases around the cathedral commemorating Palm Sunday and Easter Week.  All of the crufixes are covered in purple, but will be uncovered on Easter Sunday and draped in white.

Vienna is also the home of the Lippizaner Stallions and their stables are in the heart of Vienna near the Stephensplatz (St. Stephen's plaza). 

But, Vienna is especially known for their Viennese pastries, especially the sacher torte.  We had to make a stop at Demel, the bakery for the imperials, the oldest and most famous bakery in the city of Vienna.

Keepers of the original Sacher torte recipe, Demel was the official bakery for the Emperor and has existed since 1786. It's a must see, the interior of the store has maintained its imperial style and is full of goodies such as strudels, tortes, chocolates and more. We had heard of their superb hot chocolate made with real chocolate and slowly heated milk! It was topped with whipped cream, and I mean real whipped cream, not the stuff we think of in the U.S.  In fact, Charlie ordered a double espresso with cream, and instead of a pitcher of cream, he was served a healthy serving of this delicacy.

Demel is worth visiting just to look at its artistic cakes, confectioneries and chocolates, which are now all prepared for Easter. 

What an incredible day we had just roaming the streets in beautiful 68 degree, sunshiny weather!!!

Up Your Nose with an Onion-Dome

Vinny Barbarino (John Travolta's character on Welcome Back, Kotter) had nothing on the Austrians and their smack in the face they gave the Ottomans when they tried to seize Vienna.  The Battle of Vienna marked the end of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe, virtually keeping Europe from becoming an Islamic state.

Dotting the landscape throughout the Wachau Valley and all through Austria, we have seen onion-domed churches everywhere.  Fashioned after mosques, these domes are topped with either a cross, denoting a Catholic church, or a rooster, representing a Protestant church.  This was the Austrians way of saying, "In your face."

Several culinary legends are related to the Battle of Vienna.  One legend is that the croissant was invented in Vienna, either in 1683 or during the earlier siege in 1529, to celebrate the defeat of the Ottoman attack of the city, with the shape referring to the crescents on the Ottoman flags.  Just one more "In your face" action by the people of Austria. 

So, to paraphrase Vinny Barbarino, Up Your Nose with an Onion-Dome

Palm Sunday in Melk, Austria

April 17, 2011 - Our day started very early with a tour to the Benedictine Abbey and Stiftsmuseum.  As soon as we completed our tour of this Baroque abbey that was built in 1089, we went outside on the terrace that connects the museum to the cathedral.  Immediately the bells started ringing calling the parishioners to mass.  When we went inside the cathedral, I expected to see it overflowing with worshippers, but sadly there were only eight people in this massive structure.

We saw the Abbey Library, which is housed in twelve rooms and has over 100,000 volumes, many of which were copied by hand by the monks who lived there hundreds of years ago.

As we were walking back to our ship, down a very steep hill, more of the parishioners were walking up the hill carrying very interesting bouquets.  Our curiosity got the best of us, and we stopped one of them and asked about what these were.

Around Easter time in Austria, Catholics celebrate Palm Sunday (when Jesus came to Jerusalem) by making a “Palmbuschen”.  Because there are no palm trees in Austria, the Palmbuschen is made from a wooden pole, which can be up to 8 feet tall, and to which people attach twigs from pussywillows (before it flowers), and evergreen trees like yew, juniper and boxwood. The Palmbuschen is then decorated with pretzels, apples and coloured ribbons.  We even saw children carrying them decorated with colored Easter eggs.

After the Palmbuschen has been completed, people take it to a church so that it is blessed. They then take them around the fields, which are thought to bring good luck for harvests. People display their Palmbuschen in front of their houses or next to where they keep their crucifix in the house, which is meant to protect family against thunderstorms or disease. If a thunderstorm happens, they break a piece from the palmbuschen and burn it for protection.

We left Melk around 11:00 am and cruised the Wachau Valley all afternoon. The landscape here is vineyards and apricot orchards as well as forests. Many castles dot the coastline along the river, the most famous being the Schonbuhel. This is a fairly new castle and was built in 1820. It was like seeing Cinderella's castle at DisneyWorld, except this one was real.


Our ship arrived in Vienna late afternoon, and tomorrow we tour this beautiful Austrian capital.

Passau & Linz, Germany

April 16, 2011 - Our ship arrived Passau early this morning.  Passau is a border city and is the last city on the Danube before crossing into Austria.  Last night I had to watch "The Sound of Music" all the way through to get the feel and excitement of Austria (Charlie's note - four times).

We did a walking tour of Passau this morning through the cobblestone streets.  Our guide took us through alleyways and along some of the back streets.  We saw the Dom of St. Stephen, a beautiful Catholic church with the largest cathedral pipe organ in the world with over 17,000 pipes and 231 registers.  We saw a monastery across the Inn River with 321 steps leading up to this Baroque pilgrimage church.  The old city of Passau was destroyed by fires in the 16th and 17th centuries.  Today, Passau is a modern town and a historical city all rolled into one.

Passau is a city on three rivers - The Danube, the Inn and the Ilz - very much like Pittsburgh without the crying towels.  The Inn River is more brownish, the Ilz River is green from the minerals scraped by glaciers and the snow melt from the Alps, and the Danube is supposed to be blue, but is actually olive drab. 

We sailed mid-morning from this beautiful city to Linz in Austria.  Linz is the home of the Linzer Torte, one of Charlie's all-time favorite desserts.  Both Mozart and Beethoven composed symphonies while staying in this city.  Both of these composers were known to have had a sweet tooth, and perhaps it was the delicious linzer torte than gave them their inspiration.

Regensburg to Passau

April 15, 2011 - This has been a different river cruise because one of the locks that we needed to go through from Nuremberg to Regensburg was closed until yesterday.  So, this meant that we would go to Regensburg as our third stop instead of our second.  Regensburg was absolutely delightful.  Unlike Nuremberg which had over 90% of the city bombed during World War II, Regensburg had less than 7% bombed.  So, instead of newer buildings, the old Roman Empire remains of the wall around the city still remain.  Over 1300 of the buildings are considered of "historic interest", and for this reason, the entire Old City has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

Charlie remembered that there had been a Messerschmitz factory right outside of Regensburg, and it had been bombed and decimated during the war. 

Until 1992, with the opening of the Main-Donau Canal, Regensburg was the end of the route for commerical ships on the Danube. 

This is another city to walk.  We saw the house the Napoleon occupied when he visited Regensburg as well as the Dom St. Peter, a Catholic cathedral that took 600 years to complete. 

As we were sailing from Regensburg, we saw a replica of the Parthenon high on a crest above the Danube.  Our guide explained that Ludwig I had commissioned this (Valhalla) and it was to be a Hall of Fame for the German Nation.

One thing that Regensburg is known for is the Wurstkuchl, which claimes to be the world's oldest "fried sausage kitchen".  At the end of our tour, there was sausage, sauerkraut and beer to sample.  We then, ended our day in Regensburg back on the ship with a beer tasting - four different types of Bavarian beer for four different breweries.

What a lovely way to end a day in Bavaria!!