Danube River Cruise - Sept 2024

 I slept fitfully and woke up not feeling very well. I have a cough and my body feels like hell. Not sure if I'm sick or if it is just from being cold and miserable yesterday. I took it real easy at breakfast. I have no appetite. Just had coffee and yogurt.  Headed back to the room after the port talk advising us of all the changes. The good news is that we get back 50% of the price of the cruise. I tried to rest some without much success. Took more ibuprofen and drank some vitamins. Still feel pretty rough. But I'm going to try and do the hike this afternoon. Truthfully, I'm counting the hours until I get to go home. I'm done with travel for a while. I need to stay put and try and recover. Every trip has been so challenging emotionally and this one has been the hardest by far. Feels like an endurance contest and if it weren't for the others with me, I'd catch the first flight available and go home. I don't feel good and I just want to be home. I'm dread...

 Slept poorly in spite of Ativan but managed to feel pretty decent when I got up. We didn't make it to Yoga today. Too rushed for my taste. Got the breakfast provided. I'm sticking to usual fare for me today. Yogurt and coffee.  This morning, we are doing our visit to two Austrian farms. We boarded the bus and headed out. The weather continues to be absolutely horrible with temperatures in the 40's and never ending rain. The first farm was a pumpkin farm. It was really a beautiful place. They talked to us explaining they had strawberries and 450 varieties of pumpkins. We got to taste the strawberry wine and the pumpkin oil. Absolutely delicious. We were blown away when they told us they use drinking water for irrigation and that the standards for regular farming are much higher than those of organic farming in the United States. Erika and Laurie both bought products to take home. Of course, Erika had to try all the different types of alcohol they make.  The next farm was ...

 We all got up and did yoga this morning. That felt nice although I'm still struggling with the mental fallout from last night. I am doing a little better. Had breakfast, showered and barely got on the bus in time for our trip to Cesky Kremlov. I was hurrying too fast and didn't pick up my earpiece and lanyard to be able to listen to our tour guide. But I didn't care very much. The drive was beautiful although it is in the 40's and raining, just as promised. We drove about an hour and a half and arrived at the most beautiful little village with a castle and a river running through it. We had another tour guide for the tour through the town. We wandered through the town with him telling us about history and the shops. I missed much of it without the earpiece but I wasn't sure I cared. It was so cold but fortunately, the rain stopped while we were touring through the village. After the tour, we went and had a very traditional lunch at a restaurant in the town. It was ...

 I woke up and felt wonderfully refreshed. I woke up once about two hours after I went to bed and took another 0.5 mg of Ativan and that did the trick. Oh sweet sleep. Today is quite pretty although a little cool. And if the weather forecast is correct, we won't see the sun again so we are appreciating it. We took a hike to the top of the mountain overlooking Passau and enjoyed the beautiful views. Hiked down and went into the town for a bit, wandering around. Stopped and had beer, coffee and some local desserts. Such fun and everything I love about Europe.  I'm now on the boat and we are headed to Linz. The trip to Linz was interesting. We traveled through quite a few locks. I am struggling to understand the theories behind this phenomenon that allows larger ship to navigate the changing depths in water. When we arrived in Linz, the weather was still nice. We had dinner together at a little less of a din than the night before. After dinner, we headed into the city to explore....

 Of course, every international trip begins with the plane ride that tries the body. This one was nice because it was nonstop to Munich and the flight left at 1:30 so there was no early morning wake up call. Erika and I both parked at the same cheap spot by SFO and met each other there. We luckily got the shuttle within a few minutes of arriving because we found out they only ran every 45 min. Our check in process was seamless and we found ourselves at our international gate with plenty of time to spare. We met Joanne there. She had flown from Phoenix to SFO earlier We were going to fly over the ocean together. We all got a little something to eat in the airport and boarded the plane. Erika and I were lucky because we got a row with just two seats and had nobody to contend with during the flight. The flight was smooth and we had a strong tailwind, arriving in Munich about 45 minutes early. Laurie had flown in a couple hours ahead of us and we met her there. Customs was lightning qu...