Back in the Saddle

Many things have happened in the nearly two years since I wrote last.  Most of them had to do with a family member's health, now being slowly restored, that took up time and psychological energy that in turn required having down time to restore that energy.

But now I am back in the saddle, and then some.  In fact, so busy with life at full tilt that I STILL haven't had time to blog.  Hopefully, now that I have finally remembered my blogspot password, I can now do a little updating and then on to realtime living!

We took a Viking Riverboat cruise called the Danube Waltz up the Danube from Budapest, Hungary  to Passau, Germany, visiting magnificent castles, government buildings, churches and town highlights along the way. 

This trip was our belated honeymoon.  Our wedding was in May, 2017, but the trip was during April, 2018, and it was magical.  At night we would glide slowly by towns and  countrysides with their churches and castle all lit up  like Disneyland.  It took my breath away.  By day we would take bus or walking tours of the cities or we would visit a distillery to sample the schnapps or to a farm to learn how to make various breads or to see Hungarian horsemen perform on beautiful HUGE horses.

The ship had a superb chef and a talented and attentive crew who would perform for us sometimes.  The food was exceptional and would often include local traditional fare as well as the beautifully executed culinary bounty provided by our chef.

It is very smooth sailing on a flat bottomed riverboat.  You glide serenely, and there is no rocking about.  The weather couldn't have been better - temps in the 70's, clear skies, no polution, so you could see for miles and miles.

Sometimes I thought the clustered and quaint houses with their central church reminded me of the smaller towns in Pennsylvania, where I spent a lot of time walking with my grandmother.  To the observing eye, it seemed like a simpler time, and I  wanted to get off the boat to visit with the local townspeople, who could speak English,, and just "visit" informally.  

We had signed on for only 7 days -- way too short for such a rich experience, but when we made the reservations, we thought we would have to limit the time away from work for my husband.  

But as luck would have it, he was between jobs at the time, so we could have stayed for two weeks, which I would recommend if you're not a frequent visitor of Europe.  He's retired now, so we will have more scheduling freedom in the future.

That's all for now.  

More about quilting on another day.