Unfortunately our last river cruise did not end well for the Ramblers. Not only did we have to take a substitute cruise due to low water, but the Rambler got sick at its end, and the Ramblers had to mark time in Amsterdam until we could fly home. At this point, the senior Rambler was absolutely not in favor of taking another cruise, yet somehow he was coaxed into just one more… that would go smoothly this time.

The Rambler thought long and hard about which cruise to choose and she finally decided on a 15 day cruise that traveled the Danube, Main and Rhine from Vienna to yes…Amsterdam again, on the River Princess. The Princess is one of Uniworld’s smaller ships with alas smaller cabins. However, their Super Ships don’t sail this route, because they generally need deeper water.

Because of potential low water issues in late July and August, the chosen cruise started in early July, when there was usually plenty of water. Of course, July is also the month when many Europeans are also on vacation, but given the options, it was an easy choice. Little could we imagine what would happen in 2020, but in 2019, this actually turned out to be a good choice. The Rambler would have preferred to start in Budapest, but no other Uniworld cruise fit her parameters and we are brand loyal.. Thus the Ramblers were booked to take the Alluring Amsterdam and Vienna cruise, starting from Vienna on July 7th.

Although the Ramblers had traveled these rivers before, this cruise made a few different stops and because the senior Rambler preferred cruising to sight-seeing, the banks of these rivers were lined with villages, castles and even some interesting industrial sites. At many stops, one can walk off the boat and stroll around without boarding a Uniworld bus.

Part of the deal to get him to go was that we fly business class so my next step was to get a good deal on our airfare. This is not so easy. When looking for business class fares, the best prices are offered by consolidators, but those fares are chancy and not much cheaper than booking direct. Many cruise lines offer airfare deals but sometimes the deals involve several transfers, are really early or really late or might involve a long layover. There are no direct flights to Vienna from Atlanta; all the Delta options involved a connector in Amsterdam. Airfares can be volatile and I and my travel agent were watching the prices closely. Probably should have booked directly with Delta, but instead booked through Uniworld, which meant they would pick us up when we arrived in Vienna. Unfortunately I waited a bit too long, which cost us several hundred dollars. My advice is, if you see a great price on an airline site, jump on it; they don’t last long.

We were set to leave July 3, arriving in Vienna, the next day. Our flight was comfortable, the service was excellent, especially since our seats were right next to the galley. My only concern was that our connecting flight from Amsterdam to Vienna took off less than an hour after we landed. To the Ramblers, this didn’t seem like much time to get from one gate to the other at Schiphol which is always crowded. No sense worrying, we though, as it was a regular route. Luckily we had wheelchair service and even then, we boarded rather late. Fortunately our seats on the connector were also business class so we didn’t have to struggle through a crowded plane.

With a sigh of relief, we settled down for our short flight. By the time we got there, we were dragging a bit, but fortunately the Vienna airport is much smaller. We met the Uniworld driver, our luggage was loaded and we were on our way to the Palais Hansen Kempinski. The Palais Hansen was not my first choice, but the AAA offered a free night there as a Uniworld promotion. The Ramblers like to get to our starting destination a few days early, so it was a no brainer. I added 2 more nights at a good price, including breakfast, and so we checked in July 4. Our cruise would start on July 7.

The last time we visited Vienna, we ended up at the Ritz-Carlton, due to low water, courtesy of Uniworld. We enjoyed our time in Vienna and were looking forward to staying there again. However, although the Palais Hansen and the Ritz Carlton are both 5 star hotels, we much preferred the location of the Ritz. The Hansen is located in the Borse (treasury) district, and there are hardly any cafes in easy walking distance while the Ritz offers several choices.The first night we ate at the hotel Lobby Bar. We never tried either of their two restaurants, De Kuche Wien, or their upscale restaurant, Edvard. The senior Rambler is not a fan of upscale eateries so we did not eat there. Honestly even the omnivore Rambler didn’t much like the food at the Rechnung Lobby Bar. But we were tired and not particularly hungry so it didn’t matter so much, However they did up sell the senior Rambler on bottled still water, which cost almost twice as much as my beer. Sometimes you really have to make a point of asking for tap water which is perfectly fine or you will get pricey bottled water. This is a real pet peeve of mine. Americans take it for granted that they will get tap water as they do at home, but this is not the case in Europe.

This trip I would be constantly frustrated in my search for tasty German and Austrian sausages. The hotel served Kasekriner, supposedly the sausage specialty of Vienna. Sausage lover that I am, I ordered it only to be disappointed in its taste…and it had cheese inside, not one of my favorites. In the next two days we would pass by several famed sausage stands, but I was never able to actually buy a decent wurst! Oh well, surely there would be other opportunities in our two week cruise.

One thing I loved at the Hansen was the huge rain-forest shower; it was a very relaxing experience. The Rambler took full advantage, knowing the showers on the Princess paled in comparison. We also enjoyed their breakfast which offered a variety of choices in a pleasant room with a garden theme.

We still had two days on our own in Vienna. Since there was nothing tour worthy in the Rambler’s ambulatory area, we spent some time people watching our first day there. Although Vienna doesn’t have the number of bicycles seen in Amsterdam, it is a place where people walk, cycle or scoot along on electric scooters. The scooter folks were the most interesting to us.

Later I learned that electric scooter rentals were new to Vienna in 2019 and the city was still not sure about their use. We have had similar issues in Atlanta which resulted in the curtailing of electric scooter use after some serious injuries and at least one death. The biggest problem in Atlanta was that the scooters had to share the roads with cars or the sidewalks with pedestrians.

In Vienna, there are many joint use pedestrian/bicycle. scooter lanes. Electric scooter users have to obey the same rules as bicyclists as they go about the same speed. These lanes are wide and well marked, and it is possible to travel from one to another for many miles. The Schottenring or Ring Road that circles the historic and cultural heart of Vienna, has one right down the middle of the divided highway. There are also busses and electric trams. Tourists need to look out for the trams as they are very quiet and can sneak up on you. We did enjoy the watching the traffic on these pedestrian/bike/ scooter paths. Of course the scooter riders were almost entirely young people, sometime with two riding on one scooter. They seemed to be enjoying themselves despite the unusually hot weather.

And it was HOT! Normally the temperature in Vienna at this time is in the low 80’s. and Austria gets lots of rain all year round. However, when we were there, the temperatures soared into the 90’s, Fahrenheit, of course. It remained hot while we were there, and as a result, we didn’t do as much the Rambler had planned.

We didn’t want to eat at the hotel again, except for breakfast, so we walked to a small place we had noticed earlier in the day, called the Borse Cafe. The Ramblers decided to have an early dinner as we hadn’t been hungry at lunch time. It was too hot for sitting outside so we walked into a relatively cool, wood paneled room. The windows were wide open, no air conditioning in most places here. No sausage either as the Borse featured Italian food, which turned out to be very tasty. We lucked out for a change, as our mushroom pizza was excellent.

Our jet lag was fading and the Hansen Concierge recommended that we do the Big Red Bus tour of Vienna tomorrow if we didn’t want to do much walking in the heat. Hopefully tho, it would be cooler tomorrow. Fingers crossed.