Horological Meandering

:: Extra Credit Question - when do you change your watch on a flight? Do you carry two or more? ::

MAR 23 We arrived at 1445 local time and walked around, had a few drinks and snacks, took showers, and relaxed.

We moved to a new aircraft which departed for Budapest, 1340m (2110km). We never got out of our seats onboard. We cleared customs and went to our hotel by mini-bus, checking in right at midnight EET. I changed my watch after we got to the room. We walked 5450 steps.

MAR 24 We rose at 800 local time and (yawning) staggered onto a bus for city tour and a forced march around the world's 2nd largest building. 

After the tours, our buses took all 186 of us 40 miles (65km) south to Giurgu where we found our lovely Viking cruise ship ATLA. 

We boarded, had welcome drinks, found the cabin, unpacked half the bags, went to dinner, then back to the room to sleep. At 2100 we travelled 5km across the river and arrived in Russe, Bulgaria (fast asleep). We had walked 8650 steps. 

MAR 25 Partially-awake at 0300, I tried to find my new iPad Pro, but it was missing. After pacing around and gnashing my teeth, I woke my wife and we commenced a Phase One search 

[Captain Kirk testified it was a phase one search is a painstaking effort to find a crewman unable to respond. It presupposes that the crewman wishes to be found and is not hiding (see Star Trek "Court Martial")]. 

After a few hours I realized we didn't have it, the hotel didn't have it, and we went up to have tea and pastries at 0600. 

 We spent the day touring Russe (me) and Veliko Tarnova & Arbanasi (Mrs C). Here, I photographed a typical local inhabitant engaged in local customs.

We enjoyed a private piano concert 

and watched Soviet-era cranes move sand from A to B while pigeons and Roma children tried to make us laugh.

The boat stopped in Svistov for a few moments then went on to Vidin, Bulgaria. I made no progress locating the iPad. Today we walked 6250 steps.

MAR 26 We looked around Vidin then went back to the ship. By using "Find My Phone" I was able to confirm my iPad was at the Bucharest airport. A call verified that it at Lost & Found, but I was told I could ONLY get it by returning in person. No chance of that, as we were now 200m (325km) away. 

On our bus ride today we saw more local inhabitants engaged in ritual behaviors...

We went on a most arduous tour of the Belogradchik fortress (a huge outcropping of rocks) 

guaranteed to induce cardiac stress and strain. 

Upon our return the ship left for Belgrade. Today we walked 9475 steps (most of them were uphill).

MAR 27 This was a cruise day & night, and we had no chance to leave the ship. The Customer Service director suggested an officer from Romania to call and negotiate my iPad retrieval. Despite lots of brisk arguing and arm-waving into the phone, he was unable to achieve a positive result.

We went through the largest locks on the Danube, up 50 ft (16m) vertically in each of 2 chambers.

It was nice to see our Russian/German captain uses Swiss-Made equipment on board, although I brought Japanese ...

While walking back and forth taking photos of the famous Iron Gate (see the Photography forum), and getting food & drinks, we racked up 3500 steps.

MAR 28 At 0700 we reached Belgrade. We had a 4-hour city tour of intense traffic, and a large park and fortress. 

We toured the yet-unfinished St Sava Cathedral's basement.

The afternoon was spent on the ship resting, and lectures about Serbian culture and conflicts. At 2300 the ship cast off for Croatia. Following Captain's orders, we changed our clocks before going to bed because we were leaving EET and entering CET time zone. We walked 10,500 steps.

:: Extra Credit Question - when does Europe change to Daylight Savings Time? ::

MAR 29 At 0800 we stopped in Ilok to offload some passengers for a private tour, then continued on to Vukovar arriving before 1200. We had a 5 hour shore excursion and returned to the ship just in time for cocktail hour. The ship left Vukovar at 2100 heading for Kalocsa, Hungary. We walked 6750 steps.

MAR 30 at the very early hour of 0500 we arrived in Mohacs, Hungary for border control. Four unhappy Singaporeans had to leave the ship at 0515 for fingerprinting (?) then we all marched past the customs officers seated in our breakfast lounge for a passport check. 

By 0700 we were sailing again, and reached Kalocsa by 1230. We visited a private home, then went on to a horse farm and dramatic riding excursion. We departed at 1900. 

The head of Viking Customer Service wrote me a nice letter to verify for my insurance that we'd made every effort to retrieve the iPad remotely. We walked 7250 steps.

MAR 31 We landed in Buda and Pesht about 0800 to fantastic scenery.

We were eased off the boat after breakfast for a long city tour (by bus) and eventually arrived at a fantastic Hilton on the Castle hill. In the afternoon we crossed the chain bridge, went to the Basilica, and wearily made our way back up to the hotel. To celebrate, we had a great dinner in a Michelin-recognized restaurant at 1800 to avoid the crowds. 

As you can see, I had a monstrous wienershnitzel.  It was like a tasty veal potato chip

Today we racked up 10,800 steps.

APR 1 Another day in Budapest was spent almost entirely in cruising around the city. 

We did a few shops and galleries but despite enticing offers, bought nothing. 

Since our schedule called for departure at 0415 we had another great dinner at 1800 and went to bed. 

We had walked 15050 bone-crushing steps.

APR 2/3 We left the room at 0415 and had a sack breakfast on our laps in the lounge while waiting for the bus. We enjoyed champagne (or a reasonable facsimile) in the airport lounge while waiting for our 0700 departure. 

The flight to Heathrow 950m (1500km) was uneventful. 

Half-way to the CONNECTIONS hall Mrs C realized she was missing her iPhone. Apple device left on the plane again! We race back 1000 steps down the empty hallways at high speed and managed miraculously to call the phone and entice a cabin cleaner to come up and hand it through a secure doorway. A giant "whew", a toilet break and a sit-down rest were required (I hate working up a big sweat before a long flight). I changed my watch here back onto GMT for our London layover. 

We got through control, found the purple bus from Term3 to Term5 3m (5km) and checked in for the final flight. We spent 4 hours in various British Airways lounges, moving from seat to seat when the yakking around us got too annoying. We took the train to the satellite lounge, arrived at the gate as just Group 2 was called, and walked right onto our aircraft (777 this time). After a slightly late 1550 takeoff, we started our 5470m (8800km) flight to San Diego. Enroute we conducted an impromptu wine tasting.

I changed my watch to PDT while we were over Utah, about an hour before landing. Arriving near schedule about 1900 PDT, we got off leaving nothing on board. I have to say the last few paces up our brick driveway were slow and weary ones… we'd walked over 6750 steps.

FINALE

At 0400 PDT I woke up, made breakfast of tea and cookies and started on this journal, as we have no milk, cereal, toast or eggs in the house. I hope you enjoyed a different style vacation report of our 93,000 steps.

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