The Bakers Grand European Vacation

Our tour guide suggested a nearby coffee shop for anyone who was staying and thinking of getting a coffee. Greg and I decided to follow his suggestion and head to Sluka. At first we thought we needed to order at the counter and that seating was limited but we quickly figured out they had waiters and tons of seating in the back.

We headed towards the rear of the shop in search of a table and passed cake examples that you could order.

After warming up and using their clean and free restrooms we were back out in the drizzle to explore.

We ended our organized tour at Saint Stephen’s Cathedral. It was a beautiful Cathedral inside and out.

The Cathedral is black in some places which is leftover from pollution from years ago when cars weren’t as efficient as they are now. They do restoration on it one section at a time and each section takes 40 years.

I learned so much about myself today. Essentially our tour guide confirmed my German Heritage when he said Germans are direct, punctual and rule followers. I am all those things.

Austrians as compared are all those things except they like the bend the rules. His example was that in Austria the buildings couldn’t be taller than 4 stories so they started making the ground floor E, the next floor like P or something and the next floor M followed by floor 1. The building still only had floor floors but were 7 stories tall.

We had the option to return to the boat with our guide or stay in the city on our own. Carry and Linda decided to go back to the boat. Greg and I are off to explore.

This morning we are heading out on an organized “up close and personal” tour of Vienna which basically means we are walking with a guide to the subway where we will take the train into city center. From there we will spend the next two hours or so walking around. We opted for this in place of the bus tour.

But first breakfast. We joined Mary Beth and Kevin and grabbed stuff from the buffet. Today’s breakfast was meh but we didn’t have a ton of time to order something special. I did confirm that soup at bedtime isn’t a Canadian thing…it’s a Kevin thing.

At 8:45am, we headed out with our listening devices. Greg and I thought we were so smart to get an Airfly Bluetooth transmitter so we could use our AirPods to hear. My AirPods wouldn’t connect so we each used one of Greg’s. That worked for less than an hour before it became more annoying that cool. They kept disconnecting and then got static-y. So we went old school with the wired earpiece.

Warning: this post is mostly a picture book.

We are less than 45 mins in and someone already needs a bathroom break. Also, the heavy breathing by our tour guide into the mic is almost more than I can take. He’s very nice though. I just can’t.

We popped out at the opera house on a cool cloudy on and off drizzly day. Eighty percent of the opera house here was destroyed in WW2. Many people think the opera house is ugly including the Emperor who criticized its design. It was designed by a gay architect who was so upset by the criticism he had a heart attack. Once he passed his lover was so distraught he committed suicide. The emperor felt responsible for two deaths due to his criticism so he never criticized it again. For the next 45 years he made the same statement over and over which was “it was really nice. I enjoyed it a lot.”

Prior to the 1850’s the city of Vienna was surrounded by a wall. When the wall was taken down it made room for 800 new buildings.

The opera house was supposed to be taller but they miscalculated the level of the street. Many people thought it looked like a train station including the Germans which is why it was bombed during the war.

Vienna is famous for its sachre torte which is a chocolate torte with apricot filling. I had read that Hotel Suchre was the place to go but was corrected by our tour guide who said all the tourists go there. This is where the recipe was developed years and years ago but tastes have changed over time. Theirs was described as very sweet and dry. He advised us to go to really any other place in town as all cafes have their own versions which have adapted to today’s tastes.

Basically all stores in town were closed today. Austria has the most rigid opening hours in all of Europe. Stores close at 6pm Saturday and don’t reopen until Monday morning. This is due to the Catholic Church as well as trade groups wanting businesses closed. The only stores that were open were really souvenir shops.

Our tour guide explained that often the workers in the coffee shops aren’t the nicest but it’s common for people to stay for hours and only buy one cup of coffee.

So I said I was ready for bed after the concert, and I was, but I had forgotten that upon arrival back at the ship there would be goulash soup waiting for us for an almost midnight snack.

It’s been a few hours since we last ate so we headed up to the lounge for a bowl of soup. Our new besties from dinner last night , Paul and Jane, were there too and sat at the table next to us.

Sidebar, the couple we ate dinner with, not in Milo’s section, Kevin and Mary Beth were from Canada. Kevin said he eats a bowl of soup most nights before bed. Say what? Is that a thing? Feels like so much work but also in some ways I feel like I’m missing out. A nice warm bowl of soup before bed?

The goulash soup was quite tasty. Kinda funny they waited until we got to Austria to serve the famous Hungarian dish.

Ok, now it’s 11:00pm, a time I haven’t seen in quite a while and it’s officially time for bed.

Tomorrow we are doing an up close walking tour of Vienna in the morning. We switched from a bus tour to a walking tour. We are scheduled to leave at 8:45.

We have all day Vienna with a back on board time of 11:30pm with zero plans aside from the morning tour. Excited to explore!

After dinner we headed out on our first official Viking tour which was a bus ride to a Mozart and Strauss concert.

I had somewhat low expectations and was honestly thinking it would be a snooze. I was so wrong.

The conductor was super engaging. He interacted with the audience more than any other conductors I’ve seen. (Not that it’s been that many but who’s counting.)

The concert lasted about 90 mins and then it was time to head back to the boat.

So far I’m impressed with the Viking excursions but I haven’t had to wear my speaker thing around my neck and follow a group with a sign. Tomorrow morning is the first day for that.

It’s past my bedtime! Gotta get to bed!

Well, dinner was basically tragic. After the port talk was complete we all jumped up and walked as quickly as possible behind some slow moving women to the dining room to try and get a table in Milo’s section.

Much to my chagrin, all of the tables in Milo’s section were already full which basically means people skipped the port talk to claim their tables.

Our server was fine but was no Milo. I was so distraught I forgot to take a pic of the menu or of my meals…except for dessert. I got my shit together in time for that.

I had some sort of salad with pears and cranberries that was good. Defaulted to the same chicken as night one because I wasn’t into wiener schnitzel which was the chef’s choice.

Dessert was solid with carrot cake.

Greg had run to the room to grab Equal for his coffee before dessert and when he walked back in Milo stopped him and said “I’m sorry Greg.” I said did you tell him I’m not ok?

As I was leaving the restaurant, Milo stopped me and apologized. We decided we need to organize a coup tomorrow. It’s war. I will not be ousted by all these retired couples.

Tonight’s activities is a Mozart concert in Vienna. It’s gonna be a late night.

Thankfully the day warmed up from this morning’s lock and emergency drill adventures. We have been able to stand on the sundeck and enjoy the sights as well as doing some walking on the walking path.

I have no idea where we were for most of these pics. Somewhere in either Slovakia or Austria.

We decided to have lunch on the Aquavit Terrace. They only had place settings on the tables inside so we grabbed the last one of those. I was sad to not be at Milo’s table but Greg assured me that it would just make Milo miss me more. I’m going with the flow (mostly) for this trip so I’m hoping he’s right.

As we were sitting at our table we saw a castle or something coming up so I ran up to the sundeck to attempt a pic.

For lunch I had the broccoli soup (gave most of it to Carey), the ragu (gave only one tiny bite to Greg and cleaned the rest of my plate) and the banana split. Literally can’t tell you the last time I had a banana split and I’ve been missing out.

Greg made bad decisions and got the hot dog…whyyyyy? And for dessert he got the flan. I thought I was happy he got that thinking we could share until I decided that we could not because mine was way better and his was meh.

During lunch we were passing a cute little town so I ran up to try to get a pic. It didn’t turn out well because of the sun.

The pics weren’t my best but I did meet Marilyn (named after Marilyn Monroe) from South Carolina who was nice. She asked if I was traveling with my parents and I said my in-laws and she said “oh you are brave!”

For the record, while lunch service was good it was NOT Milo.

At 3pm there was an apple strudel making demonstration with apple strudel tasting after.

I was a big talker offering to make this for when Carey and Linda come to town next. After watching them make it and tasting it I’ve decided that I’m actually not interested in likely making it. I’d rather make apple cobbler.

After the banana split, the pasta and the apple strudel (that I ate even though it was just ok) I decided to hit the walking track. I was not alone.

We were also next to the Vienna airport so I was able to take lots of pics and videos to send to Brooks.

Milo came in to check on us in the lounge before dinner for the port talk. Turns out he was off for lunch so I actually didn’t miss him!

There was a mandatory safety drill this morning scheduled at 10:30am. They announced it last night and also made an announcement at 10:15 reminding everyone about it.

When the alarms sounded we were to take out our life jackets from under the bed and report on the sundeck in a specific area according to our cabin number. We were told we would be shown how to properly put on our life jacket and that roll call would be taken.

When then alarm sounded I headed up to the second floor. I was the first one up and was greeted by a worker who said he needed to show me how to put on my life jacket. Once that was on I headed to the sundeck where I was also one of the first ones up there.

I checked in with the crew in charge of our muster section and took a spot near Milo who was directing everyone to safety.

We had an early wake up call this morning to head to the sun deck to watch the ship go through the largest locks. It was a chilly 49 degrees. I’m beyond thankful that I packed a coat.

Pre breakfast and coffee in the room this morning. Per the notification on our phones we have entered Slovakia.

I got a good spot to stand on the front of the boat as we approached the locks so I’d have an unobstructed view. It worked mostly well.

Tonight dinner menu is below and dinner is at 7pm.

They always have the standard choices of steak, chicken, some fish, creme brûlée, etc. Tonight I’m going with the farmer’s salad and the traditional chicken paprikash. It has spaetzel so it feels like I can’t go wrong.

A little more about dinner. It’s open seating and only one sitting. The smallest tables in the dining room have 6 chairs. There are some 8 and 10 top tables as well. That’s how we ended up sitting with Sherry and Gary Thursday evening.

On Thursday we overheard some people talking to one of the servers about where to sit. These were veteran Viking cruisers who seemed to know some of the staff. The server told them where his tables were and they decided to head down slightly early to stake claim on a table.

I like their strategy and why not learn from veterans. So on Thursday I busted down and claimed a table in that section as soon as the talk was over. I mean come on, I’m under the median age by a few years. I can outwalk these people!

We sat in Milo’s section (pronounced Me-lo) and to say I’m now obsessed with him is an understatement. He’s attentive, funny, asked about our dogs etc. He’s from the Philippines and has worked for Viking for ten years. He started first on ocean cruises because Viking wouldn’t hire Asians until 2012 which pisses me off but I digress.

Tonight my compadres were further behind than I liked and I hated running for an empty table alone so I waited a bit until they actually entered the dining room and then we asked another couple if we could join them at a table in Milo’s section.

Paul and Jane are from NY but now reside in Amelia Island. They were a lovely couple who were so funny and entertaining. Jane is also a die hard New York Times puzzle girl who does all the puzzles. She also told me about a card game called Sets that I think I need to look up. Sounds a little hard to learn but fun.

Tonight’s meal…

I tried to convince Milo into blocking that table for the 6 of us ongoing but he deflected and instead basically quoted the entire movie of Top Gun Maverick. So…is that a no?

It’s fine…I’m willing to run to you Milo.

After getting back to our room at 9:30pm Greg remembered that we had bought those cake pop things. He tried one but I decided to be healthy and pass on yet another dessert.