It was
April 13
th, around 7:00 PM at Hotel President
in Prague. We were fortunate to have a private room at
the hotel to celebrate our Farewell Dinner at the end of
our
Classical Music Delights
on the Danube cruise tour. The room was
filled with chatter; the hotel staff, observing our
exchange, must have thought we had spent a lifetime
together, and not just a mere two weeks; for we had
jelled as a group over that time and many new
friendships flourished. And at the farewell dinner, over
the din of animated talk, Bill Anderson of the New
Classical 96.3FM whispered to me, “Just listen to the
conversations!” Everyone seemed to speak at the same
time; and the conversations were about an event, person,
or place we had experienced together. By his whisper,
Bill was telling me that we were at the end of an
enormously successful cruise tour.
You may
wonder: “What was the ‘glue’ that pulled people together
so effectively?” “What did we have in common?” And
“Where did the cruise tour visit?”
The
majority of the group were listeners of 96.3 FM; there
was a shared passion for classical music. And the Classical Music Delights on the
Danube travel package had sandwiched a
Lueftner Cruises musical cruise on the Danube between
the magical destination cities of Ljubljana, Slovenia
and Prague, Czech Republic. What a treat! Concerts on
board the ship and on-shore performed by a quartet that
sails with the ship from Passau, Germany to Budapest,
Hungary and back to Passau!
Some
came from far away as Mexico, from Rochester NY, and the
remainder from Ontario Province. But one couple booked
well after the radio campaign was over; they had
Slovenian roots and had read about the cruise tour in
the Evening Out
magazine.
Highlights
Many
marveled at the excitement of the places visited on tour
and about included events, and asked: “How do you go about planning such a
tour?”
I attribute that skill to Zaneta; she is after
all, our destination and itinerary chef and aptly
applies her culinary art to creating gourmet tours. This
is how we went about planning the cruise tour.
Once we
had settled on Lueftner’s musical cruise, we
complemented the on-board concerts by reserving seats
for “Parsifal” – a Richard Wagner Opera at the Budapest
State Opera House, and a rousing concert, the “Sounds of
Vienna” at the Kursalon Wien in Vienna, where Johann
Strauss and his brother Eduard performed, the “Don
Quichotte” ballet at Prague’s State Opera House, and
incidental folklore performances deep in Postonja Cave,
and a performance in Prague.
Slovenia
On arrival in Ljubljana April
1
st our guide Maja and our driver Elvir
greeted us at the airport and transferred us to our
5-star hotel – Hotel Lev (the Lion). In no time, Maja
had us all charmed with her enthusiasm, her personality,
knowledge and excellent communication skills.
For me,
the highlight of our visit to Slovenia was Postonja
Caves, magical Lake Bled, with its island Church and
mountain-top castle, Ljubljana and its castle
overlooking the city, the friendly people, the food, and
surprisingly, its wines.
Our
drive through the Alps from Ljubljana to Passau was
indeed scenic. We drove by skiers,
through exceedingly long tunnels, the infamous “Eagles
Nest” – Hitler’s hideout and stopped for a break at one
of the most scenic road stops I have ever seen. The
Amadeus Royal lay in wait for us at Passau; we boarded,
freshened up, relaxed, and gathered for the Captain’s
welcome cocktail and for the first of many briefings
from Gabriel our cruise Director.
The Amadeus Royal and Lueftner
Cruises
We
commend Lueftner Cruises on its hiring practices; they
rely less on agency hiring, preferring to hire directly.
I believe the result, i.e. the inclusion of married
couples within the crew creates a loyalty
and dedication that sets them
apart. Lueftner’s shore excursions were insightful and
provided me with information I had missed on previous
visits to the same locations.
In 2008,
Zaneta and I had the good fortune to meet Dr. Lueftner
and his wife on board a sister ship, the Amadeus
Princess. We asked him how he got started in the river
cruising business and he answered, “Back in the 1920’s my father
installed some cabins with shared bathroom facilities on
one of the barges he used for transporting furniture.
There was instant demand and we never looked back.”
Lueftner Cruises now has a fleet of 10 river
boats that sail the Danube and the Rhine; the company
enjoys preferred dock locations due to its long tenure.
Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Germany
and the Czech Republic
In Bratislava, the capital of
Slovakia, George our guide towered over us all at 6ft
8ins. He took us up to the highest point in Bratislava,
overlooking the castle and where 6,800 soldiers are
buried. The castle had been destroyed several times and
is still being restored – one of many testimonies to the
pride of history we humans share. Our evening concert
performed at Clarisse Church (great acoustics!) capped
the day.
Some of
us opted to sail into picturesque Budapest rather than
driving in after excursions of Szentendre (St. Andrew),
a charming medieval town with narrow cobblestone streets
and a wide variety of boutiques with excellent buys,
Visegrad, with
the ruins of an enormous Slavic
castle high above the point where the Danube makes an
180 degree turn towards Budapest, and Esztergom, the
birthplace of the first Hungarian King, St. Stephen, the
location of his coronation January 1
st, 1000,
and the start of the Hungarian State.
In
Budapest, we attended the opera “Parsifal” at the
amazing State Opera House, which claims acoustics
bettered only by La Scala in Milan and Palais Garnier in
Paris. After a morning tour of Budapest, we were off to
Vienna next day, where we celebrated Easter. We had two
guided tours of Vienna in
virtually empty streets, visited
Schoenbrunn Palace, and attended a rousing performance
at the Kursalon – where the waltz master Strauss used to
play. We sailed from Venice just before midnight for
Weisenkirchen, a hillside town with terraced vineyards.
There, at the early hour of 10:00 AM we were treated to
some excellent whites. We then drove to Durnstein, known
for its Gothic blue-spired church and as the place where
Richard the Lion Heart had been jailed. Melk Abbey was
next; best described as the Monks’ creation of heaven on
earth. Our ship had sailed to Melk and we boarded her
bound for Passau, where Pavel, our guide and Peter, our
driver waited to transport us to
Prague where we would spend three
nights.
Our
evening entertainment on the first night in Prague was a
folklore event with unlimited wine and beer – enjoyed by
all, as much for the performances on unusual instruments
as for the complimentary drinks and traditional food. On
the following day, we experienced our first rain of the
tour as we drove to Hradcany Castle to start our walking
tour to the Old Town Square from there, across Charles
Bridge. On this evening, we thoroughly enjoyed the
ballet “Don Quichotte” based on the Spanish novel.
Frankly, it was amongst the best performed ballets I
have seen.
We explored Prague on our final
day, and we were blessed once more with perfect weather.
At the Farewell Dinner at the President Hotel, Bill
Anderson reviewed the tour, led singing to lyrics he had
written; something that Bill has done in the past. Keith
Nicholas did a Belafonte rendition.
At the
end of it all, everyone exchanged contact information
and planned to be at the reunion, May 12th.
We accepted Herb and Joan Williams’ invitation to hold
the reunion at their home. Wonderful group, wonderful
people, wonderful cruise tour!
earth.
The heart of the country is in the
vast Outback—one of
the oldest landscapes in the world. Its dramatic red
rocks (Uluru
being the most majestic one), ochre plains and purple
mountains are topped by brilliant blue skies. A “dinner under the
stars” at sunset and a visit to Uluru at sun
rise is a must--nowhere else will you see such dramatic
display of nature’s beauty. It is here that the
indigenous inhabitants of Australia, the
Aborigines
settled 60,000 years ago. For thousands of years they
hunted 
to overcome widespread poverty.
Nowadays, Australians are
increasingly aware of the rich heritage of the Aborigines, and
the society is trying to reconcile and make amends for
injustice committed by their ancestors over 200 years
ago. Even though the first European
settlers were convicts, and Australia is
known as a penal country, very few Australians
have true convict origin. Within only one generation of
the arrival of the First Fleet in
1788, Australia had become a nation of immigrants.
A visit to the Outback
followed; here we witnessed the most dramatic landscape
dominated by Uluru. The
highlight here was the dinner under the stars
overlooking Uluru at
sunset, and the dramatic sunrise at the footsteps of Uluru, followed
by the Liru
Walk where we retraced the paths of the Liru Ancestors
through the bush land near Uluru. We then
flew to Sydney,
Australia’s largest city. Sydney embraces
its harbour, taking the sea and natural waterways to its
heart. The grand style of the Opera House has
made the city the landmark of the South Pacific.
We drove through the historic “Rocks” area
where Australia was
first founded with its maze of terrace houses, pubs and
restaurants. Here we boarded Oceania’s elegant
Regatta—our
home for the next 17
days.
its many of the prison’s original
facilities. After cruising the Tasman Sea for
two days, we reached the western coast of New Zealand’s South
Island and sailed along the fjords of Milford Sound.
Our first port of call was Dunedin—New Zealand’s
oldest city well known for its Victorian and
Edwardian architecture. Next, we called on Wellington, New
Zealand’s capital city and most northern port in the
South
Island. Apart from the stunning bays and
exhibitions. We then sailed to the
North Island and called on Napier, nestled
in Hawke’s
Bay, for an introduction to New Zealand’s most
popular wine region with over 70 wineries. Bursting with
taste sensations, Hawke’s Bay is
one of New Zealand’s leading food and wine destinations.
Tauranga was our next port 