Our European Vacation 2012


Welcome to our online photo album. I will be adding pages and photos daily, so be sure to check back!

The first two days were spent exploring Munich. The first day, we walked around the neighborhood of our hotel and recovered from the overnight flight. The second day, we explored downtown Munich at the Marienplatz. The public transportation system here is wonderful, and was very convenient.
Photos from around Munich

The third day, we took a day long tour to Howenschwangau to visit Neuswantstein. Our guide, also named Mike, was very good. He is from MN, and moved to Germany 8 years ago when he married a German.
Photos from Neuschwanstein

The fourth day, we took the train to Passau to board the Viking Prestige. The ship was docked overnight in Passau, and we explored the town on the fifth day.
Photos from Passau

The sixth day, we arrived in Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart and the setting for The Sound of Music. Our local tour guide, Peter, was very funny, and sang snippets from the Sound of Music as he pointed out the sights on our walking tour. We also sampled the famous Sacher Torte at the Sacher Hotel Cafe.
Photos from Salzburg

We sailed for Melk during the night, and spent half of the seventh day there. Mike went ashore while I stayed back on the ship. At lunchtime, we set sail for the little town of Duernstein. Our crew treated us to a "Taste of Germany" luncheon on the sun deck. There was even a strolling accordian player. Sailing through the Wachau valley was beautiful, and we passed several small towns along the way. Duernstein is a very small town, with narrow cobblestone streets lined with shops and cafes.
Photos from Melk
Photos from Duernstein
On the eight day, we were in Vienna. We were not able to see the Lippizaner horses perform, as they did not have a performance scheduled for that day. After a short ride trough the city, we had a walking tour to see some of the highlights. We walked around in Vienna and saw some of the sights. That evening, we returned to the ship for dinner, then while most of the other passengers went to a Mozart and Strauss concert, we headed to the amusement park to ride the famous Ferris Wheel.
Photos from Vienna

On the ninth day, we visited our first Eastern European port - the town of Bratislava in Slovakia. We had a hop-on-hop-off style tour of the town with short stops at the castle and shopping areas.
In the evening, we had the dressy Captain's Farewell Dinner. It was very nice, and most of the ladies wore cocktail dresses or dressy slacks with sequined tops and most of the gentlemen wore suits.
Photos from Bratislava (Page 1)
Photos from Bratislava (Page 2)

On the tenth day, we continued to Budapest, Hungary. The buildings were very pretty, but it was sad to see them in such bad shape. Many of them are in need of restoration, but there is not enough money available to do the work. This is the first country that we visited that is not on the Euro. Our tour guide explained that the Hungarians do not want to go to the Euro because they are concerned that it will cause inflation, as has happened in other European countries.
Photos from Budapest (Page 1)
Photos from Budapest (Page 2)
Photos from Budapest (Page 3)

We took an optional excursion in the afternoon to go to see the Hungarian Cowboys. It was a fun trip to an Equestrian Center in the countryside. The owners are champion carriage racers, and have a very impressive trophy barn.
Photos from Budapest (Page 4)

We remained docked in Budapest overnight and the eleventh day was disembarkation day. We took a cab from the dock to the train station and purchased train tickets to Prague. We arranged this on our own, without a guide, and it was very easy to do.
We arrived at Prague and took a taxi to our hotel, the Mamaison Hotel Patchuv Palace. The hotel was gorgeous and they gave us a complimentary upgrade to a junior suite when we checked in. Mozart was a frequent guest when it was a palace.
Photos from our journey to Prague

On the twelfth day, we walked to the Old Square to meet our guide for the day trip to Kutna Hora to see the Sedlec Ossuary and the town of Kutna Hora.
Photos from our first day in Prague

The Sedlec Ossuary, also known as The Bone Church was the sight Mike was most looking forward to visiting. Our day tour started with our arrival at the ossuary.
Photos from The Sedlec Ossuary

After our visit to the ossuary, we rode into the town of Kutna Hora, an old silver mining town.
Photos from Kutna Hora

In the afternoon, we walked around Prague before returning to our hotel completely wiped out.
Photos from the rest of the day in Prague

On the thirteenth day, we finally rested. For the first time during our vacation, we did not set the alarm! We ordered room service for breakfast and packed our bags to go home. The hotel's car service took us to the airport in a very nice Skoda.