THE RETURN OF THE WANDERING STRANGERS

                 THE RETURN OF THE WANDERING STRANGERS

                                                              HE SAYS:

We have now returned to Ottawa and have settled into our old ways and routines. We have caught up on the laundry and unpaid bills, and have rescued most of our garden from the unseasonably scorching weather. Eleanor is now, blessedly, recovered from her illness and is further pursuing her sainthood.   She says: This isn’t something one pursues!  You either have it or you don’t, and since he doesn’t, you can’t expect him to understand, can you?

Upon our return we babysat my 20 month old granddaughter, Penelope, for three days while her parents played hooky and went off by themselves for some r & r before granddaughter # 2 arrives towards the end of September. I had completely forgotten, actually repressed, how active and completely exhausting the little buggers are at that age. I was completely wiped out, but St. Eleanor performed did her grandmotherly magic. There is a reason why parenthood is for the young!  She says: “Grandmotherly magic” is really just recycled motherhood.  It’s like riding a bicycle: once you’ve done it, you never really forget, but it’s much more fun when you’re a grandparent and you can return them when you get tired.  But his difficulty getting back on that bike makes me wonder just how much quality parenting he actually did when his twins were small.  He says he did a lot, but….(HE: Obviously the"S" in sainthood is for snarky.)

Many people have asked us what the highlights were for us during our Danube trip. In the first instance we owe a tremendous amount of thanks to our travel agent, Ms Sue Fearon, Manager, at Advantage Travel in Ottawa, who helped us plan the trip and did the grunt work. As well, Viking Tours provided a great river cruise experience. The attention to detail (in most instances) was more than impressive, as was the gourmet food that added more than a few pounds. The tourist part of the cruise was interesting and good fun, but I don’t personally react well to be shepherd around. Tours of any kind have their advantages and disadvantages; it is all a matter of what one wants and the trade-offs involved.   She says:  Given the short time we had in each port, I can understand why we were “shepherded”.  I appreciated the guided tours and the way the company managed to squeeze so many sites and activities into such a short time span.  Yes, there were times when we weren’t able to spend as much time as we’d liked at a specific site, but at least we saw them, which we could never have done on our own!  That said, I have to admit that I’d expected to have more time just to sit and relax on board the boat than we actually did.  Some people chose to stay behind to have a leisurely day on board every now and then and others chose to go ashore and wander through a town on their own, but we took advantage of the incredible guides to learn as much as we could about every place we visited, and I’m glad we did. 

For us one of the highlights was meeting and getting to know our dinner time companions – the two Southern Belles and the two California Babes – who were not only good fun and progressive, but were the antithesis of “Ugly Americans”.

In terms of the trip’s highlights there are a number of places that stood out for me; Eleanor undoubtedly has her own list of high points. In short, the highlights were Vienna, Budapest by night, Prague and Castle Alley.  She says: Yep.  My list is a little different.  The cities were lovely, but after a while, all cities start to look alike, and with the heat we were facing as we moved further inland, all that baking pavement and the crush of tourists started to become way too much for me.  I loved what Richard calls “castle alley”, a beautiful 4 or 5 hour stretch of the Rhine with dozens of castles and vineyards hugging the hills.  Arriving in Budapest at night to see the city blazing with lights was memorable, too, but I preferred visiting the small German towns with their half-timbered houses, cobblestone streets, and overflowing flowerboxes.  Even better was just sitting on the top deck enjoying the sun and the scenery.

Vienna’s culture, architecture, and political history put it right up there with other great capitals of the world such as Paris and London.  And the lighted entrance into Budapest at night on the Danube was spectacular. Prague however has a gentle beauty and charm which is unforgettable. The cuisine in both places was amazing. Castle Alley as we call it was a stretch along the Rhine River where there were some 30 castles with vinegards, in varying states of collapse, on either side of the river. The view was breathtaking and it was like being transported into some fairy wonderland.

Unfortunately, Amsterdam, Bratislava and Budapest were done, from a tourist perspective, in a very superficial and cursory fashion which was quite disappointing. This sojourn is now over. But in truthfulness, as much fun as it was, it is also nice to be home.  Throughout this endeavour I have been blessed with Eleanor’s company, good will, wicked sense of humour, and smiley and saintly disposition, as well as her ability to put things in their proper perspective. Eleanor in the next little while will hopefully add photos to our Danube blog.  She says: but don’t hold your breath, ok?  You know what I’m like: a very saintly procrastinator.

We are already planning our forthcoming three week trip in February 2013 to Habana and Cuba (my 14^th trip to the Emerald Island), as well as a few weeks in the Algarve in southern Portugal early next summer.  She says:  NO CITIES!!  Well, Lisbon and Havana aren’t mega-cities, so they’ll be ok, but both anticipated holidays involve more beach-walking than museum-slogging, so I’m ok with a few big buildings.

Until then happy trails, or is it happy sails? Stay tuned.