The Trip -- from Prague to Budapest via the Danube

Day one found six of us, who had flown from Los Angeles to Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines 12 hour flight over the North Pole, having a light dinner before repairing to our rooms at the Airport Hotel.  This, after a "night" flight meant we were experiencing back to back nights which was to mean serious jet lag on the next day as we departed for Prague at 10 AM.  The Istanbul to Prague flight took about two and one-half hours and since we were flying mostly eastward, roughly following the course of the Danube through the heart of Eastern Europe, we gained one hour of time, arriving at the Prague Airport around noontime. There we were met by the driver/owner of a new Mercedes mini bus who delivered us to our hotel around 1PM. 

Living room of Starrat suite

Mamaison Pachtuv on right

The Mamaison Pachtuv Palace, is what is nowadays promoted as a high-end boutique hotel. In its previous incarnation was a home of a rich Czech Earl,  Pachtuv, a friend of Amadeus Mozart who stayed with the Earl on his many visits to Prague.  It was most amenable with high ceilinged rooms of charm and good taste.  The hotel's current ownership is a consortium of investors and the lately infamous AIG Corporation, a victim of Eliot Spitzer's prosecutorial jihad against successful Wall Street firms. It  is managed by the Mammaison chain of high-end boutique hotels. 

On the first evening, after a welcoming cocktail party hosted by Helen, four of us found our way to the Konirma restaurant in the New Town, highly recommended by one of Helen's UCLA nurses married to a Czech born American.  The recommendation was deliciously accurate.  Of particular note was the pork ribs advertised as marinated and slow-cooked for 8 hours.  The ribs were thick and meaty and rendered cuttable with the side of a fork!  On top of the quality of the food, the cocktails and wine-included meal at $70 per couple represented the best culinary value some of us found on our stay in Prague.

Magnificent architecture throughout Prague

Prague is a charming European city jammed with tourists as well as 1.3 million Czechs who fill sidewalks, streets, shops and restaurants seemingly  24/7.  Music is big in Prague.  Affordable hour long concerts and opera as well as ubiquitous street performers noticeably enlivening the city. It is a most walkable city with an historical building or home every block or so. Fortunately it was spared significant bombing during WWII.

A decided highlight was a private guided tour of the Prague Castle and the

Strahov Library

Strahov Library a magnificent repository of 80,000 priceless original first (and probably only) prints of books on astronomy, astrology, philosophy and all the rest representing the advancement of knowledge up to and including the Middle Ages.  A generous recent grant from Norway has made possible the restoration and preservation of these treasures for the future. 

Statue wannabe Strahov Library

A sense of appreciation for this generosity almost makes one want to take up kippered herring and slivovitz, or whatever it is they eat and drink in those cold and uninviting climes in Scandanavia.  

After two full days and three nights the group heads by bus for Nurenburg where AMA's river cruise ship, home for the next seven days, awaits.   A more or less forgettable two hour stop at the Pilsner brewery on the way educates on the art of making fine beer -- and it is an art! 

A football field and 1/2 long

The AMACERTO is a state-of-the-art river cruise ship somewhere over 400 feet long.  Cabins are "tight" but quite livable for economy level and somewhat more commodious, and probably worth the added cost, at the upgrade levels.  Amazing what a few more feet of cabin space can make.  Food and wine was generous, well served and, if not at the fine dining level of say a Regent cruise, did not disappoint.

Entering one of many locks

Days on the Danube involved negotiating multiple locks, some interesting scenery, and progressively colder weather although we were headed south.

Royal Palace Vienna

Melk Monastery dates from 12th century

Besides the two day visit to Vienna, the Melk Monastery stop was a highlight of the multi day cruise from Nurenburg to Bratislava, the capital of the new 5 million population Republic of Slovakia.  Along the way there were walking tours of authentically medieval Nurenburg, Regensburg, and Passau with a factory tour of the Audi car manufacturer thrown in for the gear heads on board.  A faulty lock somewhere between Vienna and before our intended final docking at Budapest, resulted in an unplanned three hour cross-country bus trip through the tiny Republic (pop: 5,000,000) of Slovakia as well as the rich farmland of Hungary to that country's capital city of Budapest as well as an overnight in a Sofitel Hotel in  the middle of the new town section of the city.  Absent the balky lock  AMACERTO was to have taken us all the way to Budapest on the Danube, alas, not to be.  After an all-too-brief one-day tour of this most interesting city,  the group split up, some returning to the U.S. and others on to Istanbul and Turkey.