The last stage of our cruise took us to Budapest via various monastery, medieval pageant and beer tasting activities (E., V. and A) and kayaking (me).
Altogether it was a terrific trip on what was a relatively small boat - we were among around 80 passengers (capacity was around 110) and although it was billed as an “active” cruise (and indeed there was indeed plenty of participants for the hiking, biking and kayaking as well as the more traditional museum and gallery visits) there was only one other family similar to ours in terms of age demographic. The vast majority of the passengers were of a more mature age with a large proportion from Australia and the US but it certainly made for very convivial evenings as we were plied with free flowing wines and beers and massive 4 course meals (so the availability of vigorous physical activities very much needed).
V celebrated her 18th Birthday onboard which was marked by much celebration and a cake in honour of the youngest passenger (V’s birthday normally coincided with our trips to UK and Europe on holiday so she was always complaining of having to fly on her birthday so it was nice to be able to spend it closer to the ground - albeit on water!)
We made the most of our last few days including an early entrance and guided tour to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and so were treated to a leisurely viewing of the various prime examples of the oeuvre of Breughel, Velasquez, Titian and Reuben collected by the various members of the Hapsburg family.
Our night time arrival in Budapest was truly spectacular and although we were definitely sad to leave the boat, we were very much looking forward to exploring the City.
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