And so to the main event. All the other Laimer Hof residents seemed to be having a lie-in so we had a solitary final breakfast in order to get back to the airport pronto - with not a single untoward issue on the transport system. It was decidedly weird to be going to the Flughaven with no intention of flying, but this was the scheduled arrangement for our transfer to the ship.
The designated time of 10 o'clock came and went, as did 11o'clock, but eventually we were off and away on a comfortable Viking executive coach and nearly two hours later pulled up in Passau at the gangplank of 'Legend', our floating hotel for the next week. The Danube certainly had plenty of (non-blue) water, but thankfully it wasn't overflowing. Vlad the cruise manager hopped on the coach with fistfuls of room keys which he distributed before directing us to the lounge to enjoy a buffet lunch while our luggage was delivered to our cabins - sorry, 'state rooms'. Small but perfectly formed, with lots of ingenious storage space, and a French balcony - not actually a balcony at all, but floor length sliding windows and a bar on which to lean whilst admiring the view. The view on arrival was straight into the windows of a sister ship pulled up alongside ... but fortunately by mid-afternoon that had set sail (is that the right term?) revealing a vista of pretty painted houses against a backdrop of green hillside.
There was time for a sun-drenched saunter around the quaint town before dinner - a delicious many-course event (with a strong emphasis on mushrooms) shared with two generations from California and Chicago. Good company. There have been some British voices in evidence, but already we've met enough Americans to make a future road-trip viable. The crew meanwhile is made up of Eastern Europeans of various nationalities, Vlad himself being a Romanian who lives in Bulgaria. Hotel Manager Sasha, from Serbia, is due to give a basic German lesson tomorrow ... if only we'd had that a few days earlier. Gute Nacht.
The designated time of 10 o'clock came and went, as did 11o'clock, but eventually we were off and away on a comfortable Viking executive coach and nearly two hours later pulled up in Passau at the gangplank of 'Legend', our floating hotel for the next week. The Danube certainly had plenty of (non-blue) water, but thankfully it wasn't overflowing. Vlad the cruise manager hopped on the coach with fistfuls of room keys which he distributed before directing us to the lounge to enjoy a buffet lunch while our luggage was delivered to our cabins - sorry, 'state rooms'. Small but perfectly formed, with lots of ingenious storage space, and a French balcony - not actually a balcony at all, but floor length sliding windows and a bar on which to lean whilst admiring the view. The view on arrival was straight into the windows of a sister ship pulled up alongside ... but fortunately by mid-afternoon that had set sail (is that the right term?) revealing a vista of pretty painted houses against a backdrop of green hillside.
There was time for a sun-drenched saunter around the quaint town before dinner - a delicious many-course event (with a strong emphasis on mushrooms) shared with two generations from California and Chicago. Good company. There have been some British voices in evidence, but already we've met enough Americans to make a future road-trip viable. The crew meanwhile is made up of Eastern Europeans of various nationalities, Vlad himself being a Romanian who lives in Bulgaria. Hotel Manager Sasha, from Serbia, is due to give a basic German lesson tomorrow ... if only we'd had that a few days earlier. Gute Nacht.