Durnstein and Melk

DH decided to do the bike ride from Durnstein to Melk - a distance of 32 kms.  The ride was for experienced riders only so I did the walking tours of both places.  It has been cold with temperatures ranging from -5 to 0 degrees, but surprisingly if you are not in the wind it doesn't feel that cold.
Durnstein is a little village right on the banks of the Danube.  I imagine in summer it would be a most beautiful village. If you wanted to you could walk up the hill to the monument to Richard the Lionheart.  I was content to stay at the bottom and take photos!  After Durnstein, and seeing off the bike riders, we boarded the ship to sail on to Melk.  As I was leaving the ship for the walking tour of Melk, I ran into DH who had just arrived back from his ride.  He also joined the walking tour.  Melk is also another interesting place with the Abbey of Melk towering over the city.  It did turn bitterly cold in Melk with nowhere to escape the winds.  We cut our trip short and headed back to the boat for a warming Schnapps!

The village of Melk

The enormous Melk Abbey overlooking the village

Durnstein

Spring is trying to spring

A very cold Melk

The cyclists getting ready to leave Durnstein bound for Melk

Dinner with a wind chaffed DH

Sailing from Budapest to Vienna

It is so cold and bleak.  They are forecasting snow within the next couple of days so that will be interesting.  Today we sailed from Budapest to Vienna.   As it is the beginning of spring, the trees are still trying to throw our their green shoots.  It is a very stark sight but the upside is that we can see so much more than if the trees were covered in leaves!
Here are some photos taken from the balcony as we sailed to Vienna.

One of the many castles at Brataslavia

Brataslavia

There are hundreds of these little cabins along the Danube, some more elegant than others!

Vienna is beautiful.  Tonight the Scenic guests were invited to the Palais Liechtenstein for champagne and an evening of Viennese music.  DH and I are not classical music lovers but we were more than surprised that every song that was played, we knew.  It was a beautiful evening and a memory that will linger for a long time.

The Palais Leichtenstein

Inside the palace

The concert room

Budapest by night

There are no words to describe Budapest at night.  Every bridge and building is illuminated so magnificently until midnight and then the lights are turned off.  We experienced this as we were driven into Budapest at midnight on our first night.  It was like somebody had snapped there fingers and said "lights out"!

Here are some photos.

Budapest by Day

We spent two days in Budapest and could have stayed two weeks.  It was one of the most beautiful cities we had ever visited.  Divided by the Danube into Buda and Pest, the two sides could not be more different.  The first day, before we joined the cruise, we took a Big Bus Tour, where we could jump on and jump off.  The day was magnificent albeit, cold.  These are some photos taken from the bus.

There are plenty of outdoor eating areas, but you will always see blankets draped over the chairs for the patrons 

Our accomodation for the first night is in the background

Pipes and Pearls?

What was once the kings palace, destroyed and rebuilt no less than five times and now home to many museums and galleries

One of the seven bridges crossing the Danube in Budapest

Looking towards Parliament House

The biggest and most beautiful Parliament House in the world.

And so begins our journey.

Catching ZZZ's at Malaysia

KL International Airport

We left Cairns at 4.30 pm on Monday the 18th March and steeled ourselves for the next 36 hours in transit to Europe.  We would have 24 hours of flying time and 12 hours waiting for connections.  The first part of our journey, from Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur was excellent.  We boarded the plane in Brisbane at 11.55 pm and because we were really tired we slept the whole 6 hours to KL and arrived very refreshed at 6.30 am (KL time).  The next leg took us from KL to Amsterdam.  We left at 9.30 am and we settled into our seats for the next 12 hours to the Netherlands. Because we were flying from East to West we had sunshine all the way.  We watched lots of TV and movies but then strangely enough we both got really tired and slept for many hours.  We flew on a "jumbo jet" - 747 and our seats were upstairs.  We were grateful for the seats that lay right down and as there were only three of us upstairs so we were well catered for by the stewardess.  We arrived in Amsterdam at 3.30pm (Netherlands time)  and had to wait until 9.30pm for our flight to Budapest.  This was the hardest stopover. It was so very hard to keep our eyes open for this length of time.  Thank goodness for the business class lounges!  We drank copious amounts of coffee to keep ourselves awake until our flight departed and as soon as we boarded the plane to Budapest, we fell asleep.  We finally arrived at our destination at 11.30pm.  At baggage collection our worst nightmare, one suitcase missing - mine!  Thank goodness we had taken the advice of Scenic Tours and split our clothing and toiletries between the two suitcases so it wasn't really a worry.  We gave the airline our hotel name and address and also told them that we would be boarding the Scenic Pearl ship the following day.  They said that normally lost luggage arrives within twelve hours.  The next day we were transferred to our ship (still no luggage) only to find that the ship had been changed to Scenic Diamond.  I informed the ship tour director that I was missing luggage and that there might be a problem having it delivered because of the change of ships.  He said no problem he would sort it. He obviously didn't because I still had no luggage after 36 hours.  Finally someone tracked it down for me. Yes the name of the ship had KLM confused so my suitcase was still waiting at the Budapest airport.  It would cost me $50 euro to have it delivered to the ship by taxi!  I will fight this one when I get back to Australia!

Air Malaysia

Like the leg room on board the Jumbo!

A winner!

DH and I are sitting in the KLM lounge at Amsterdam waiting for our connection to Budapest, and to pass the five hour wait I thought I would check emails on the free wi-fi.  Much to my surprise and delight the first email I opened was to tell me that I had won first prize in The Newsport February photo competition for the Iguana that I took at the Mareeba Zoo.  Here is the link.  I'm absolutely gobsmacked to have my photo chosen from so many very talented photographers.  I also get a fantastic price of a 30cm x 47cm acrylic print valued at $130 PLUS $50 cash!

Dinner with Friends

We hosted a formal dinner party at our place on the week-end.  We wanted to gather together the friends that have meant so very much to us over the past thirty-five years of our married life.  The dinner was a celebration of friendship.  We all live so far apart but it is amazing that when we all get together we simply pick up where we left off.  That is true friendship.  Money can't buy it and it can't be taken away from you.  Here are some photos taken by the photographer that we engaged for the evening.

Kuramar in black and white

I'm still testing the Olympus OMD EM5.  I want to use it as much as possible before we go on holidays so that I am very familiar will all the settings. Modern day cameras have so many more settings than the old SLR's.  I still prefer manual settings but I did a few tests today with the landscape setting.

The Magpie Geese don't have a chance with Lily - she hates birds and chases any she sees

Seeing how good close up can get on a grass flower