Traveling from the Florida Canal Cottage to Oregon was a bit different this year. It was an amazing 'detour.' We're home now and still sorting out our memories … and our pictures from the trip. To get started while I finish that project, here are just a few favorites. There will be more later.
Budapest
We were on a Viking River Cruise for 15 days — boarding the boat in Budapest. The boat docked in a different port almost every day — we visited twelve cities in four different countries, traveling along three rivers to Amsterdam where we disembarked.
Bill in Ghent
After that, we stayed (all on our own) for two weeks — spending more time in the Netherlands and adding the countries of Belgium and Luxembourg. We had a wonderful time — the whole trip was a triumph for the travel planner (who is pictured above, in Belgium).
With Jacob and Maya at Schonbrunn Palace and also enjoying Sacher Torte in old-town Vienna
Hopping backwards to our time on the Viking — we enjoyed and learned from every one of those twelve stops … sometimes we went on the tours the ship offered and sometimes we went out on our own. The very best guided tour of all though was our own private one during our two-day stop in Vienna. Here we were met by Jacob and Maya, our European grandson and granddaughter (in-law), who flew to meet us. It was wonderful to see them and without doubt we had the best possible tour guides in the world, as Vienna is a familiar city to them.
Castles and colorful villages on the Rhine
One of the best parts of a river cruise is that there are wonderful sights to see almost every minute of daylight. These rivers aren't wide and the views from our balcony or on the top deck were amazing. The pictures in the above collage were taken from the boat on one day's travel – between Wertheim and Koblenz Germany.
Wachau Valley
Every morning of the whole trip, I woke up amazed … the boat, the cities, the food, the scenery all really were the stuff of dreams. But I think even more than anything the charming views out the window of our room enhanced the dreamlike quality.
This post barely touches the seventeen cities in six countries that we visited, not to mention the scenic points between! Needless to say, there will be more! … it was a wonderful trip and it is also wonderful to be home!
To get here, we flew from Amsterdam to Colorado where we spent a week with our son and daughter-in-law –mostly decompressing, for which we are enormously grateful. Then home to Oregon, where our daughter and son-in-law kindly retrieved us from the airport. Because I always include a picture of the first mountain sighting when we return from low-land Florida — and since we our trip was about the low countries of Europe — Colorado once again has the honors! The picture is from a walk on the greenbelt near where our family lives.
LINKING this time to: ALL SEASONS; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS ; TUESDAY TREASURES ; SAY CHEESE; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS
Thank you to all of the hosts.
We appreciate all visitors and commenters! Thank you.