Passage To Eastern Europe Viking River Cruise
Tuesday, November 08, 2022 - Kalocsa, Hungary
The day's statistics:
- Weather: partly cloudy, upper-50s
- Steps: 8,771 Linda; 11,732 Steve
We were forewarned last night that border control MAY board the ship and do a passport inspection.
They have been known to do this early in the morning. Or not.
We were entering the Schengen Area, which is a cooperative area within the EU that abolishes passport control
(and other things). But because we were now entering it, our passports had to be verified - this is similar
to the process we went through in Serbia, but for a little bit of a different area.
We were boarded and border security performed passport face checks. We were called to the lounge by floor
and were verified. It took the two of us all of ten minutes at the most to walk to the lounge, wait on the
short line, get verified, and return to our cabin.
Breakfast was actually just the two of us today.
The Hungarian flag was hoisted.
Usually we are already at the destination port when we awake. Today, like yesterday, we hadn't gotten there yet.
Pretty much every other day (not in the alternating sense, but in the all the other days sense) we had a
morning excursion. Today we did not. So in order to help compensate for the lack of walking, we did some
laps on the sun deck.
It must be nice having a ramp that essentially runs from your garage straight to the Danube River.
The morning free time gave us an opportunity to get a jump on getting our luggage organized.
We were already on the ship and hadn't gone anywhere, so we just had to walk to the restaurant for lunch.
Today's lunch was with Albert and Michael. Michael was joking that he wasn't sure he'd remember how to cook
for himself when he got home. He also had an extra entree because, well, it was the last lunch on the ship and
he wanted to take advantage of it.
The menu.
Linda had Corn chowder, Roast beef & herbed cream cheese sandwich, and Ice cream of the day.
I had Sesame tuna tataki bowl (it's on the menu as a second course), Spaghetti alla carbonara, and Donauwelle.
We chatted for a little bit, but then returned to the cabin to continue packing and get ready for this afternoon's
excursion at 1:30.
While we were dining, we docked in Kalocsa.
Our excursion departed fifteen minutes late at 1:45.
Our driver was Tibor, and our guide was Niclas (nee-clouch).
We were headed to the St. Mary Assumption Cathedral. On the way, some sights.
We were within sight of the cathedral.
The bus (along with two other Viking buses) parked in a large lot and we had a 100 meter (1000 foot) or so walk.
Near the parking lot was this 3D map of the town.
A statue.
Another end of the stream - river? - we already drove over.
There are two towers, each with a clock, and they aren't exactly
the same time (they may be off by merely seconds, but this happens to show them out of sync).
Before stepping inside, got a couple more shots, including the design in the stones in front of the church.
We finally entered the church.
One primary objective for visiting this church was to hear an organ concert. This organ is one of the largest
organs in Europe with 4,100 pipes (4,100 pipes). The largest organ in Europe we heard three years ago in
Passau, Germany, also on a Viking cruise.
The organist played five songs in all. The music actually starts at 0:13.
After the concert, on the way out, got this last image inside the church, above the door on the way out - Saint
George slaying the dragon. A shot of the window from the outside is above.
We were told that at one time, the doors were opened and the organist played a concert for all the town to hear, and enjoy.
We finished at the church and returned to our bus.
Our next stop was in Puszta - or "the Hungarian Plains" - to see a horse show.
On the way, we passed some abandoned Russian military buildings.
Some farmland - lots and lots of farmland. And some sheep.
We arrived at the facility.
We were greeted near the parking lot by riders in garb, cracking their whips.
The riders - called Csikos - "guided the buses" to the parking lot.
The first item of business was a visit to the facilities. The ladies' room had this on the door (Linda took this
picture - and didn't even look at the men's room door).
When we arrived, someone was playing what looks like a clarinet, oboe, or some other reed instrument. Also, one of
the riders was giving young children horseback rides.
Before the show started, we were treated with some brandy, and paprika powdered bread with optional raw onions.
A couple of the riders.
We were going to be treated to a horse riding show. There were five horse riders and one on a donkey. Some of the
routines were, shall we say, redundant, so I didn't get one continuous video, but rather I stopped recording in a
couple places. The video generally consists of some of these sceens (these are Linda's pictures).
Here's the video of the performance.
After the show, we walked sort of behind the viewing stands. There were some flowers in bloom.
Then we visited the stables.
After the brief stop in the stables, we stepped outside to see the rider returning from his performance.
Adjacent to the stables was a paddock with some more horses.
We then boarded a carriage for a short ride out into the pasture and back, seeing some livestock - including Racka
(ra-tska) sheep, whose unique spiral horns can grow up to two feet long - and buildings.
After a little more than an hour, our visit was over. We boarded the bus and headed back to the ship.
After dropping off our belongings in our cabin, we headed to the lounge for the port talk. Unlike other port talks,
this one explained what we're going to do for our disembarkment and transition to the Intercontinental Hotel.
This was our last dinner on the ship, so tonight we got pictures with our regular servers Gede and Imre (respectively).
Tonight we ate with Pam and Judy.
We reviewed the menu.
Linda had Hungarian goulash soup, Danube river fish paprikash, and Somlói galuska.
I had Hungarian goulash soup, Roasted rack of lamb, Chocolate & cranberry layer cake, and
Créme brúlée (yes, TWO desserts - last trip I had créme brúlée two or three
times because I like it, I hadn't had it on this trip yet, and this was my last opportunity to have some).
This was the wine that we enjoyed with every - I believe - lunch and dinner.
We sat and chatted for a little bit and then headed to our cabin to finalize our packing.
Just before going to sleep, I captured this night shot of a church steeple.