Our Trip (Part 1)
Title
Our Trip (Part 1)
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"We are back."
Date
2014
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Coverage
2014
Identifier
OUR_TRIP
Text
OUR TRIP (Part 1)
We are back. Our plane from Zurich landed at 8:30 pm Friday October 24 (or as they say in Europe and in the army, 20:30). It is sort of weird since we left Amsterdam around 3 pm, and had to change planes in Zurich. And the flight from Zurich to Boston took eight hours. OK. We had lost six hours going to Budapest, and made it up coming back. There was a comic who opened his act with “I just flew in from Chicago and are my arms tired.” We flew in from Zurich and were tired and aching all over. And what did we get while we were in Amsterdam? A lousy cold.
Still, it was a great trip. We left Boston Thursday evening October 9, and arrived in Frankfort at 6 am. These days we request a wheel chair for Fran, which means that I run along, trying to keep up with the person pushing the wheel chair. Sometimes we get an electric cart, which weaves in and out among the more mobile pedestrians. Frankfort is a very big airport, and not only did we have a wheel chair, and an electric cart, we had a bus that took us to a truck that had a built-in elevator. It parked alongside the plane, and while the other passengers entered the plane by walking down the corridor to the front of the plane, we entered from an elevator in the back. Real cool.
Two hours later, we were at the Budapest airport where we were met by a representative of Avalon Waterways, taken to a lovely hotel in downtown Budapest, served coffee or tea, and waited until we were able to board our ship, Avalon Illumination. I walked around, took some pictures, and became aware that I will not be able to do much walking.
River cruise ships are much smaller than ocean cruise ships. Ours had a 168 passenger capacity. It was 135 meters long, 11.5 meters wide and 6 meters high. I multiply meters by 3 to get feet. A nice size. And a nice crew, and nice fellow passengers. I was surprised how many came from countries other than the US. I was aware that the staff was drawn mostly from Eastern Europe (Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania), but I had no idea that the passengers would be from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and England, as well as Michigan, California, Florida and Wisconsin. We had the distinction of being the oldest couple. There was one person older than me: Ralph from Ontario, who was born in April 1927. He was travelling alone, and was planning to take another cruise in January to the Fiji Islands—68 days. If you have it, spend it. I believe we were the only Jewish couple.
The other passengers did not seem particularly wealthy, but flying from Sydney or Canberra to Budapest, and spending several days before and after the cruise, isn’t for pikers. There were several business types: one owned a trucking company, another had been a building contractor, but there were others who had worked for General Motors, had been a railroad engineer, a farmer, a teacher, and a few travel agents. The average age—late 60s. Mostly couples, though there was one father-daughter combo, and two men and two women travelling together. There were two couples from Australia travelling together—the parents, and their daughter and her husband, the youngest couple.
Socializing took place mostly at mealtime. Open seating enabled you to sit with other folks and get to know them. The opening conversation reminded me of the girls’ ball bouncing game: “A my name is Anna and my sister’s name is Alice, we come from Atlanta, and we sell apples.” We tell each other our names (which is usually forgotten), and where we are from, what we do (or did), and other cruises we have been on. We talk about family, the weather, the aging process, and what we might have in common, other places we have visited or plan to visit, and in one case—politics.
I mentioned the crew, and was reminded again, how hard they worked: The seamen, the housekeepers, the cooks, waiters, even the receptionists. The three crew members who really impressed me were the men who handled all the docking arrangements, and it was constant. We would pull into a dock, and one man would hop off the boat and another would throw him a cable or rope, which he would attach to a stanchion, or whatever you call those low heavy round metal posts. Then the gangplank is lowered and put in place, and railings are attached, enabling the passengers to get off and on the boat. I became friendly with one of the crew, Christian from Romania. He was 30 years old, was married with two children, had been doing this for four years, was away four months at a time. He said the money was good: 1400 Euros a month, about $400 a week. More than he could make in Romania. When I observed that the work was very hard, he said the dishwasher works even harder. The other two crew members were Carol from Hungary who was 63, and Matthias from Slovakia who was in his 20s.
The waiters and waitresses were friendly, efficient and always helpful and smiling, despite the pressure of serving. They also came from Eastern Europe, except for a very pretty waitress who came from the Phillipines. The food, as seems to be the case on cruises, was overwhelming. Though breakfast and lunch were served “buffet” style, there was always a waiter to pour coffee, and to bring you anything you wanted. The chef was from Barbados and was a magician, working in a very small galley and whipping up wonderful dishes and soups. Champagne was served at breakfast, soft drinks at lunch, and wine and beer at dinner. Coffee, tea and cake were served in the lounge at 4 pm, and a late night snack at 10:30 pm. I was never up for the late night snack. There was a remarkable musician, Ivan from Bulgaria, who played the piano, guitar, and a wide range of electronic devices.
The weather was unbelievable. For the first 12 days we had sunshine and the temperature was in the 70s. I was on the sundeck almost every day, and even used the Jacuzzi. It turned cloudy, rainy and cold when we hit Cologne and Amsterdam. The routine was usually departure after breakfast for a tour of the city, sometimes by bus where a guide described the sights (and sites) or on foot with a guide. We had ear pieces so we heard the guides easily. There was also an accommodation for those of us who walked more slowly. We were termed “gentle walkers.” (not gentile walkers.)
I took lots of pictures, but I was a rank amateur compared to at least 20 or 30 other passengers who had really professional looking cameras. Another 40 or 50 had I-pads.
I had to recharge my camera’s battery every day, and toward the end of the trip, having no more room on my Sim card, despite the fact that I deleted a bunch of old pictures, I bought a new one in Cologne. The area was very photogenic. I also used my I-phone to take pictures, but I felt less comfortable using it. I may have taken over 1,000 photos. I keep remembering shooting 35 mm rolls of film with 36 exposures, coming home with 10 rolls and thinking I went overboard. Part 2 will describe some of the cities visited and the sights (and sites). And part 3 will be photos.
We are back. Our plane from Zurich landed at 8:30 pm Friday October 24 (or as they say in Europe and in the army, 20:30). It is sort of weird since we left Amsterdam around 3 pm, and had to change planes in Zurich. And the flight from Zurich to Boston took eight hours. OK. We had lost six hours going to Budapest, and made it up coming back. There was a comic who opened his act with “I just flew in from Chicago and are my arms tired.” We flew in from Zurich and were tired and aching all over. And what did we get while we were in Amsterdam? A lousy cold.
Still, it was a great trip. We left Boston Thursday evening October 9, and arrived in Frankfort at 6 am. These days we request a wheel chair for Fran, which means that I run along, trying to keep up with the person pushing the wheel chair. Sometimes we get an electric cart, which weaves in and out among the more mobile pedestrians. Frankfort is a very big airport, and not only did we have a wheel chair, and an electric cart, we had a bus that took us to a truck that had a built-in elevator. It parked alongside the plane, and while the other passengers entered the plane by walking down the corridor to the front of the plane, we entered from an elevator in the back. Real cool.
Two hours later, we were at the Budapest airport where we were met by a representative of Avalon Waterways, taken to a lovely hotel in downtown Budapest, served coffee or tea, and waited until we were able to board our ship, Avalon Illumination. I walked around, took some pictures, and became aware that I will not be able to do much walking.
River cruise ships are much smaller than ocean cruise ships. Ours had a 168 passenger capacity. It was 135 meters long, 11.5 meters wide and 6 meters high. I multiply meters by 3 to get feet. A nice size. And a nice crew, and nice fellow passengers. I was surprised how many came from countries other than the US. I was aware that the staff was drawn mostly from Eastern Europe (Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania), but I had no idea that the passengers would be from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and England, as well as Michigan, California, Florida and Wisconsin. We had the distinction of being the oldest couple. There was one person older than me: Ralph from Ontario, who was born in April 1927. He was travelling alone, and was planning to take another cruise in January to the Fiji Islands—68 days. If you have it, spend it. I believe we were the only Jewish couple.
The other passengers did not seem particularly wealthy, but flying from Sydney or Canberra to Budapest, and spending several days before and after the cruise, isn’t for pikers. There were several business types: one owned a trucking company, another had been a building contractor, but there were others who had worked for General Motors, had been a railroad engineer, a farmer, a teacher, and a few travel agents. The average age—late 60s. Mostly couples, though there was one father-daughter combo, and two men and two women travelling together. There were two couples from Australia travelling together—the parents, and their daughter and her husband, the youngest couple.
Socializing took place mostly at mealtime. Open seating enabled you to sit with other folks and get to know them. The opening conversation reminded me of the girls’ ball bouncing game: “A my name is Anna and my sister’s name is Alice, we come from Atlanta, and we sell apples.” We tell each other our names (which is usually forgotten), and where we are from, what we do (or did), and other cruises we have been on. We talk about family, the weather, the aging process, and what we might have in common, other places we have visited or plan to visit, and in one case—politics.
I mentioned the crew, and was reminded again, how hard they worked: The seamen, the housekeepers, the cooks, waiters, even the receptionists. The three crew members who really impressed me were the men who handled all the docking arrangements, and it was constant. We would pull into a dock, and one man would hop off the boat and another would throw him a cable or rope, which he would attach to a stanchion, or whatever you call those low heavy round metal posts. Then the gangplank is lowered and put in place, and railings are attached, enabling the passengers to get off and on the boat. I became friendly with one of the crew, Christian from Romania. He was 30 years old, was married with two children, had been doing this for four years, was away four months at a time. He said the money was good: 1400 Euros a month, about $400 a week. More than he could make in Romania. When I observed that the work was very hard, he said the dishwasher works even harder. The other two crew members were Carol from Hungary who was 63, and Matthias from Slovakia who was in his 20s.
The waiters and waitresses were friendly, efficient and always helpful and smiling, despite the pressure of serving. They also came from Eastern Europe, except for a very pretty waitress who came from the Phillipines. The food, as seems to be the case on cruises, was overwhelming. Though breakfast and lunch were served “buffet” style, there was always a waiter to pour coffee, and to bring you anything you wanted. The chef was from Barbados and was a magician, working in a very small galley and whipping up wonderful dishes and soups. Champagne was served at breakfast, soft drinks at lunch, and wine and beer at dinner. Coffee, tea and cake were served in the lounge at 4 pm, and a late night snack at 10:30 pm. I was never up for the late night snack. There was a remarkable musician, Ivan from Bulgaria, who played the piano, guitar, and a wide range of electronic devices.
The weather was unbelievable. For the first 12 days we had sunshine and the temperature was in the 70s. I was on the sundeck almost every day, and even used the Jacuzzi. It turned cloudy, rainy and cold when we hit Cologne and Amsterdam. The routine was usually departure after breakfast for a tour of the city, sometimes by bus where a guide described the sights (and sites) or on foot with a guide. We had ear pieces so we heard the guides easily. There was also an accommodation for those of us who walked more slowly. We were termed “gentle walkers.” (not gentile walkers.)
I took lots of pictures, but I was a rank amateur compared to at least 20 or 30 other passengers who had really professional looking cameras. Another 40 or 50 had I-pads.
I had to recharge my camera’s battery every day, and toward the end of the trip, having no more room on my Sim card, despite the fact that I deleted a bunch of old pictures, I bought a new one in Cologne. The area was very photogenic. I also used my I-phone to take pictures, but I felt less comfortable using it. I may have taken over 1,000 photos. I keep remembering shooting 35 mm rolls of film with 36 exposures, coming home with 10 rolls and thinking I went overboard. Part 2 will describe some of the cities visited and the sights (and sites). And part 3 will be photos.
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “Our Trip (Part 1),” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed April 27, 2024, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/222.