Hungry Times Two

Telling people you've just returned from a Viking River Cruise will earn mixed reactions. A few people smirk and ask how old I really am (yes, I know from the PBS Masterpiece Theatre underwriting promos that I'm a little under their target demographic). Some want to know what makes it a Viking cruise (no, I didn't don a winged helmet and pray to Norse gods, but that would be pretty amazing ). But most seem interested to hear about the Danube River trip and what I enjoyed the most.  Spending some relaxing time with my mom on the cruise was tops, as well as taking advantage of all the ship's perks: unlimited espresso drinks and sparkling water whenever, fully-catered meals for nearly all of the eight-day trip, and a lovely "Aquavit Terrace" lounge to sip drinks and in our case, refine our Scrabble skills, while the ship cruised upriver from Budapest, Hungary to Passau, Germany.  And the CHEESE. At every breakfast, there were at least 3-5 different...

After our Budapest stop and a cursory tour of a pleasant-but-not-incredibly-memorable Bratislava, Slovakia, our ship cruised on to Austria's capital city of Vienna. I'd visited Austria before in the mid-1990s during a high school spring break trip, but my tolerance and appreciation for art, architecture, and history thankfully improved since my teenage years. The Viking ship was docked at a remote location away from the main city center, so we were bussed and taxi-ed into and out of the Ringstrasse, a main boulevard loop of the city. For fans of classical music, art, Baroque buildings, cafe culture, and royal history, Vienna is your place. The Hapsburg monarchy was based here, and the Hofburg Palace and surrounding complex of related residences, museums, monuments, and gardens could take days to see. My mom and I did a cursory walking tour with our group and then once that was over, we unintentionally toured a good bit more of Vienna by foot on a gray day. Traveling wi...