Cruising to Vienna.

We were greeted with a glass of champers and all the ladies were given a long stemmed red rose by Captain Punisha at our welcome cocktail reception which was really nice. Introduced to most of the senior crew and now know that the chief engineer is the Captain's nephew. He leaves the ship today in Vienna and will be replaced by the Captain's son! What a family... Lovely dinner and met a nice NZ couple. There are 12 New Zealanders on board, 1 from USA, about 6 from Uk, a handful from Malaysia and I think the rest are Aussies. There are about 150 guests so a good number. Our cabin steward is Marina and she's a gem. Came into our room last night and had a lovely towel arrangement like a big flower on my bed. B was a bit miffed that she didn't get one, so maybe it's her turn tonight! The little chocolates on our pillows when we come back from dinner are a lovely little treat. We both fell into our beds very tired last night after a great day. We are heading for Vienna (Wein in German) and go through our first lock at about 2.30 in the morning. Pass Bratislava at about 6.30 when we were both awake, sitting up in our beds with the room curtains wide open watching the world go by. I donned my complimentary large towelling robe and headed to the coffee station to get us both a hot drink. I figured that I wasn't looking my best at that hour but hoped no one else I bumped into in the hallway would be either! Coffee in bed whilst cruising the Danube.... Aah, just perfect. Forecast is about 12 with possible showers. After breakfast we go to a 'Learn a little German' session and so are now fluent in Deutsch. We then have an info session on Vienna. Some of our group are doing optional tours and some aren't. Early lunch at 11.45 and then on a coach at 1.30 for our Vienna city tour. Our ship is berthed about 30 minutes from the city centre. Our local guide Alexandra is really good and provides lots of info on both the history of the city, but goes out of her way to make sure we see lots of significant buildings (from the warmth and comfort of our coach). We are then on a walking tour through the main Strasse (street) seeing St Stephen's cathedral (there are over 100 churches in the city). We see the Sacher hotel and cafe where Sacher Torte originated and still is made from the original recipe. It's a beautiful shopping street with wide boulevards that for a lot of the area are pedestrian malls. We have a little bit of free time so B and I go for a little wander. The credit card really could get one heck of a hammering here... I have a free day tomorrow and already know which shops I want to go into! Back to join our group and Alexandra takes us on more of a walking tour. We go past the stables where the Lipizzaner horses train. Unfortunately we aren't in Vienna while they have a show as that would be amazing. Back to meet our coach at the Albertina and then on to the Naschmarket where we walk through all the market stalls and get to sample cheese, apricot pancakes and then local wine. Time to get back on the coach and head to our ship arriving at about 6pm.Dinner is at 7 pm so just enough time for B to do some hand washing and create our own little Chinese laundry in the bathroom while I catch up on the blog. Funny thing happened while she was doing the washing. Heard a knock at the door so I go and answer it to find an elderly gentleman standing there. As soon as he saw me he said 'wrong room' and headed off down the hallway. I'm not sure if he really was at the wrong room, or as B suggested when she thought I may have landed myself a fellow, that he took one look at me and changed his mind! Hurtful!!! It has been a really good day. No rain and such lovely sights to see this afternoon. Dinner is a lovely affair with great food, great company, copious amounts of wine and finally time for bed. Looking forward to tomorrow for my full day in Vienna and keen to hear what the girls think of their planned visit to Schonnbrun Palace in the morning (which I really loved from my previous visit to Vienna a couple of years ago). Guten Abend!