So this wonderful trip is over.

Last weekend we tried unsuccessfully to coordinate an opportunity to attend church in Hungary, but this week in Passau, Germany, we were successful.  Our Cruise manager Laslo researched the mass times and directions.  Instead of going on the official city tour, Theresa, Dad and I took our own tour, saw the old part of the city and made our way to one of the most beautiful churches we’d seen during this trip.  St. Stephen’s Basilica was white inside and out, in the final stages of a restoration and had plenty of natural light flooding in.  While the mass was in German, one of the great things about the Catholic service is that it doesn’t vary from country to country, or from one language to another.  We had all attended enough services that we could definitely follow along and responded in English when appropriate.  This church actually has the second largest pipe organ in the world and we fell upon it mostly by chance, although Dad would say there are no coincidences. 

Just wow! We arrived early in the capital, Vienna.  The modern section of the city that is seen from the river belies the gem that lies further to the south.  We all left the ship to tour: David on foot; Chris and Stephanie on bikes; everyone else on a bus. Our short ride into the centre of Vienna was loaded with marvelous architecture and our guide quickly, very quickly told us the significance of many buildings occupied by kings and noble people.  As we heard yesterday in Hungary, the dual monarchy of Hungary/Austria was as much on display again today as it was a couple days ago in Godollo Palace, Budapest.

Hungary feels more like what I expected travelling in Europe to feel like!  Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia have all been deeply impacted by years of conflict and their economies have not fully recovered.  Their citizens remain fiercely local and passionate about their history, but as a tourist spending only a few days, these countries have blended a bit together since they have experienced many of the same challenges with dominating empires, rulers and political entities.  However, when we arrived in Hungary things were different.  Although we have heard many times from local tour guides that Hungary has always been on the losing team of various wars and alliances over the millennia, they have managed to invest heavily on restoring their buildings and streets to their former glory.  We started our visit in the much-restored city of Pécs.  Among its many large buildings is the huge Saint Peter and Paul’s Cathedral with its 4 tall towers overlooking the wide central square. The city had a bit of a fairy tale feel to it, and we loved it.

Another hot couple of days, but it seems like the heat will break tomorrow.  Greatest news today is that, after 5 full days with only a few pieces of clothing tucked into his carry-on, Chris finally is in possession of his luggage.  His experience with Air France was horrible, finally telling him that they would only get it to Belgrade but that he had to come to the airport and retrieve his luggage himself. But Stephan, our Cruise Manager and Ama Waterways angel helped him as much as possible, giving him an escort to the airport.   

We are finding our groove.  Some jet lag, some trying to adjust to sleeping in unfamiliar quarters….  It’s hot, 40 and 37 degrees yesterday and today respectively.  We are excited to go on excursions but then we find that it's too hot.  Today we traveled through several impressive locks: the first at 12:30 in the morning.  While talking to Mary on the phone I saw walls going by.  Once I realized that we were sailing into the lock I suggested to Gus that we go up to watch as the ship traversed through the locks. Little did I know that there were two more locks at 5:30 am and 6:30 am. 

While most of the group had stated last night that they were planning to chill on the ship today, upon waking in the morning, everyone was eager to check out Bulgaria.  As you might expect, we started this family vacation attempting to balance the desire to check in with each other, courteously agreeing to join with each other on excursions, wanting to ensure that we all get to enjoy time with dad without monopolizing his time and also aware that we each also have a need to satisfy our own interests.  This could be a potential relationship minefield. Already there are clear differences on the approach each of us has interacting with Dad’s interpreted needs, but I remain positive that we will work it all out, its early days yet.

As Super Mario said: Here we goooo!!