Thursday May 31st

Well the day has just begun , it is 8:45 and already lots has happened.
I awoke at five o'clock so I guess I am on this time zone. We went to bed at ten so that was not bad.
We will be going through the first of 68 locks this morning. I went to the coffee station and I was too early for the muffins which surprised me. Anyway after Ken got up we decided to go topside and see if we could see the lock approaching. We visited with other passengers, took pictures, got muffins and more coffee.

As we began to move and the lock approached I spoke with an Asian man about the locks and how long it would take to fill. Of course we exchanged information about where we are from and to my surprise and his they are from the Eagle Mountain neighbourhood of Abbotsford. It is indeed a small world.. We had breakfast with Ben and Jane. They have been in Abbotsford since 2008 and they are from Taiwan. It was a great visit and we laughed and exchanged stories for the next hour. By the way they said they thought we were in our middle to late fifties so they will be our new best friends. We exchanged information and made a promise to stay in touch when we get back to Abbotsford. Hopefully we will meet again several times during this cruise.

It was nice to come back to our room to enjoy the balcony. We saw our first palace in Bratislava which is the capital of Slovakia.

 Soon it was time for the safety drill. It is done differently than it is on Princess. Over the PA they sound the emergency signal. Then you are told to put on your PFD and wait. Then you wait until the announcement tell you where to go. We went to the sun deck and reported to a crew member. He checked our name off of a list and when everyone was accounted for we were directed to return to our cabin. There was a detailed safety video and it stated that watching the video was necessary and if you did not watch it your TV would be locked. So you watched the video in your room and the only goal for the drill was to make certain you knew where to go, easy peasy

Next I went to the port lecture. Ken passed on it but I went just in case there was something we needed to know for tonight. Ken continued to enjoy the balcony.

During the port talk the ship passed a light house..... I got a picture.

It also passed another set of  old castle  ruins.... I got another picture.

I picked up a coffee and a cookie to hold us until lunch. More time to relax on the balcony.

At lunch we sat with a gentleman named Dennis. Dennis has sailed with Viking many times and he is from Florida. Ken had a burger and I had what they called a Cuban sandwich. It was great and it came with a few French Fries. The fries were great. You know how I love good fries. There were done to perfection. I will have them again.....afterall tomorrow is June.

We spent a lot of time enjoying the balcony and the Danube. There were several small cottages along the shore and we even saw 2 nude adults enjoying the sunny warm afternoon....I did not get a picture.

 Before we knew it we were in Vienna.


Dinner was early...5:45 because of the concert tonight. Dinner was a German special menu. Ken and I had all 3 of the courses.

We then headed for the buses and the concert.
It was a Mozart and Strauss concert. It was absolutely amazing. There were solos, duets, arias, dancing and of course the wonderful orchestra. We had a wonderful time.

Back to the ship for cookies and the end of a day.
Tomorrow we tour Vienna.