Day 20. Journey home.
Our transfer isn't until early afternoon so we're officially still in Budapest for half a day. Packing takes hubby a while so I get yesterday's blog written and posted as I'd not managed to do it last night. By 11:00 we're pounding the pavements again, a new route past the North Station and back to Margaret Bridge and the magnificenct Parliament building. Sadly just as we get there the heavens open with a vengeance so we scrutinise every element of the visitors centre (a tour is not available within our time-frame) the gift shop and finally the cafe which is quite timely.
By the time we emerge the storm is passing over (AccuWeather's radar map confirmed this) so we brave the remaining rain - its warm anyway - and take our now-familiar route back to our hotel for the very last time.
We look back on what we've walked and including today, which is day 20, we've done 262 miles, of which about 40 was in Amsterdam, and just over 50 was in Budapest. The best day was 30 on Bastille Day between Riedenburg and Regensburg. The least was our lazy first day in Budapest when we did a coach tour in the morning and spent the afternoon lazing on the sun-deck. Steps total 534,000 making our average 26,700 per day.
Weather-wise we've had some very mixed times, not as much sun as we might have hoped for, but the temperature hasn't disappointed, I think just one morning we had jumpers out, for about an hour. Equally the rain has been extremely sparse, a few over-nighters, one afternoon when we experienced deluge (thank heavens for water-proofs) and a brief period today that conveniently coincided with lunch-time. Hottest has been in the last three days where the afternoon temperature has been about 35 or 36, even the nights are still 26 to 28.
As newbie river cruisers I have to admit I was initially underwhelmed with our boat, but a fortnight of experience has tempered my understanding significantly and I'm much more sanguine about the whole experience now. Indeed, leaving food out of the debate for now, I would say that things were pretty good onboard. Having become used to our boutique suite, we can say we had sufficient space for pretty much everything, although the wardrobe was hopelessly tiny, drawer space was great and we coped with this problem with remarkably few wrinkles!
In other areas, the pool section was just perfect - and probably better than the river boats that had an open deck pool - we enjoyed a dip every afternoon, cocktail in hand, mostly just a handful of other people sharing the space, not our cocktails. Of course you will already know it's the cinema some evenings too. The pool was a lovely oasis away from the lounge at the other end of the boat. Talking of the lounge, It wasn't always busy, but the bar / lounge is the only place people can congregate anytime so it did get a bit busy, and I'm pretty sure there weren't 171 seats available, let alone the ship's maximum capacity of 186 As it happened we didn't use it, apart from standing at the back to listen to the next day's port talk and chef's presentation of the main course (this should have been a warning shot!) We walked through it regularly - to pick up drinks, get to the light-bites lunch spot, and to gain access to the front observation deck area, which is a lovely little area and some days the only outside space.
It was quite a surprise to learn after a few days, that the wonderfully expansive top deck was going to be closed for five days, this is definitely something they don't make clear in advance, however all the companies are essentially the same, it's all about the boat's specifications.
Let's talk about this now. The boats from all the companies (and goodness, there are a lot to choose from) all follow basically the same design. 135m long, 11.5m wide and a height I don't have a number for but it's small enough to allow us to squeeze under the lowest bridge on the Main - Danube canal. Indeed second officer told us they regularly have to take on ballast to force the boat lower in the water (we did see it expunging ballast at one stage, so were fully appraised of the situation!) the length and height specifications are, just like PanaMax ships that are designed to transit the (old) Panama Canal, the exact size needed to fit into the smallest lock, one of the 68 on the voyage - I don't know which one.
So we're talking looong, low and moderately narrow - so much that the cabins are not so big, apart from the four that are double width - we couldn't get one of those but had the next size down, with a bit of a balcony added by ways of moving the corridor off-centre. It's enough to get a separate table and chairs and divider between room and balcony although we didn't use it once, preferring the whole space to be open-plan with our vertical French Window. Long means it's a fair walk from the pool, at the very aft to the bar at the front, but you'll be relieved to know that Vladimir or Bogdan were always available on ext 400 so we didn't actually have a problem with that!
On the top deck, seven times round meant a mile, so we were easily able to walk and watch scenery in stereo on those early days as we cruised the amazing Rhein valley, at first our fellow guests were quite wary of us, but later in the cruise we were know to everyone as 'the boys' and they all wanted to know how much we'd walked that day. Once the deck had been closed we did worry about how much excercise we might get, but with a lot of ports (every day, plus four with two ports) we didn't do less than six miles any day and averaged double that.
The destinations (ports is a cruise term, not really the right word) were without exception interesting places, whether they were tiny little towns or larger cities such as Amsterdam, Nürnbeg and the last three. Beauty is omnipresent, exquisite churches, cute squares and buildings everywhere and delightful countryside close by - except for Nürnberg which was a curious day, you'll have read all about that by now anyway.
Staff onboard were all exceedingly polite, friendly and helpful, nothing seemed like too much trouble for anyone. Of course we had a few favourites, top of the list was Vladimir, he was a young, energetic chap, smile always beaming, and presumably because of how he was rostered, always close by when we needed something. Our dinner wait-staff were less well trained, and it did take us a while to settle in there, but we managed it eventually.
Let's tackle that thorny subject once and for all. As you know I'very been banging on about this at great length so here's the situation. It wasn't a great start to the cruise when our first dinner was a buffet - how can that be a good start to what's supposed to be a wonderful holiday? If you're a cruiser you might think, OK but that can still be a splendid occasion - well yes, but even so that's always option three or four, we don't have options on this small boat. The choices were disappointing and the quality was similar - gosh I was extremely unhappy that night. The next night was Captain's Welcome Dinner, which on paper sounded great, a five course event. The first issue we discovered was that dinner is served at 19:00, no option, and definitely no turning up late. Another annoyance is that whilst there are window tables for two, these are just three inches away from the adjacent tables for four, so in all effect there are no private tables anywhere.
I know this sounds a bit superior, but we like to dine alone - we'll talk to people on deck, on the trips, indeed anywhere ... but communal dining is for schools and prisons, not holidays. Another issue is the noise - this is an obtuse combination of the low ceilings (as I said these boats are built to slide under low bridges) and dare I say it, the clientele. We love the diversity of the people we meet on holidays and have met some great folks on this holiday, but oh boy can they shout, no that's not true, their natural level is just short of deafening.
The next night we were on our way to a table, a few minutes later than everyone else, when the captain spoke to us, asked us if all was well - we mentioned the noise - he then escorted us the length of the dining room to a small section beyond the forward serving station, where two tables were apart from the rest, set out for four people each. One of these became our regular place for the rest of the cruise apart from two nights, one we chose to eat elsewhere and the other because another buffet caused consternation. A few nights later a lovely group of four Kiwi sisters took the other table, also unhappy about the noise in the room, they returned for every possible meal. Like us they chose to dress for dinner so it was an elegant little corner!
Nearly everyone we spoke too, many quite unsolicited, thought the food was excellent. Top tucker and great grub were phrases I heard on several occasions. It is, therefore, quite possible the next few paragraph will be misinterpreted by some readers as me being too particular. In my opinion - NO, it wasn't great food, not even good sometimes, not by my standards anyway.
There are several issues to consider. Firstly the menu was fairly slim, each day the choice was from two starters, a no-choice soup, three mains (one meat, one fish, one vegetarian) and then two puddings, ice cream or cheese. Additionally they advertised rump steak, salmon steak, Caesar salad and chicken breast as 'everyday' options. So the choice was fairly restrictive and given this is the only place available, this is the entire list of options. Imagination was fairly poor some nights - for instance Hungarian dinner is roast pork (what happened to goulash or stroganoff?) and one light lunch was ham pasta or cheese and ham toastie! - and on others the continuity was questionable - aubergine salad one night, aubergine soup the following night.
Second the volume of mass-produced, off the shelf content was high. One couldn't say that food was crafted lovingly by chef and his team, for the most part it felt like it was just assembled. I doubt any of the soups were made.
Lastly the quality was highly questionable at times, from the tasteless whipped butter, infamous tinned carrots, dubious gnocchi, to some very curious tasting desserts seemingly made with synthetic cream. Also twice I had the steak - once was acceptable the other poor. These are just some examples, but every night I essentially thought "I can cook better" and I'm not a chef.
I'm not really blaming chef - in principle, although I have no evidence - he is an accomplished person, he certainly sells himself well every evening. I blame the company for failing to provide him with enough room and resources to deliver good food. The brochure / website says "superb meals" but sadly they just aren’t!
I've taken great pains to make clear the huge divide between the food and every single other aspect. I don't know if any of the other cruise lines are better or worse and one can pay a lot more. Yet hanging over a railing talking to an English couple on a much more expensive boat were equally not impressed- sadly our conversation didn't last long as one of us sailed away but I would have loved to continue that conversation! Hardly a scientific test, but the only example I have.
Equally I have friends who've said their food was great and disappointing and so-so on different boats, but it's not easy to get an objective measure - some would say my comments are not either, as they are only measured against my (extensive) ocean-going experience.
Moving back to general reflections we had great pre and post cruise days in Amsterdam and Budapest, both of which were excellent cities I'm very glad we explored. Thankfully we managed excellent dining every night in both cities and of those five, two were Michelin Rosette restaurants which has helped redress matters (at great expense!)
Finally to answer the question "will we go again?" Yes, but only when we find a company that delivers on the culinary front.
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