Sunday, April 29, 2012

On the Road Again - April 27 and 28

Yesterday was a free day for us. We slept late, had a good breakfast and then sat out on foot to explore Prague or Praha as the locals call it.  We walked back to Old Town to do some shopping.  Many items to choose from: crystals, garnets, glassware, soaps, or just regular souvenirs.  We also tried some authentic Czech food.

Today after breakfast and a trip to the grocery store, we finally headed to Passau.  Once we were on our bus, we met Helga, our tour guide.  She told us to sit down, fasten our seat belts, and hold our heads up to be counted. Just imagine the comic book version of a German grandmother with helmet on - well that was Helga.  We were told to look at her maps, and she even told us the names of some books that we should read.  Helga and Joseph, our bus driver, kept up a conversation all the way to Passau, which was a four hour drive .  Since they spoke in German, I have no idea what they said, probably talking about "those Americans".  On our way up and over the Bavarian Hills, we saw many interesting villages and some snow left from the storm three weeks ago.  So finally we arrived at our ship, the Viking Odin.  It is a new ship with only 4-5 cruises before us.  It even has the "new smell".

We met some of the crew and were shown to our cabin.  Even though it is quite new and we have a balcony, the cabin is smaller than the one we had before; however we were able to find a place for everything and were soon settled in for the week.  Off to meet the rest of the crew at the Welcome Aboard party.

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