The Danube Waltz by John Upchurch

We had a large group of 34 people traveling together for Gary Croty's 50th birthday. This amazing journey down the Danube started in Budapest traveling down the Danube River and ended in Passau, Germany. Budapest is an amazing combination of two cities with a viberant zest for life. To get a great understanding of the city we rented bikes for the day and toured the city and its beautiful parks. The visit however would not be complete without a stop in the famous baths. The next day after a full day of touring and eating Hungarian food we started the Riverboat crusie down the Danube in the ealry evening on the Viking Ledgend. I did not know what to expect with the stop in the Slovakian Capital of Bratislava, however this is a modern city with very friendly people. Again to explore I rented a bike for the day and rode the bike paths around the city and down along the river to Delvin. The highlight of the cruise was Vienna. The city itself is beautiful and full of history. We had the special experience of celebrating Gary's 50th birthday at Palace Auersperg. We started with champange in the courtyard under a perfect blue sky. We then prceeeded to be served a wonderful 4 course dinner all the while 6 musicians played classic music by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. The highlight was the lead violinist playing a stratavarious violin, while several opera singers performed for our small group. After the fun had ended we boarded the ship and continued on down the Danube. The next morning we stopped in Durnstein, Austria and 20 members of our group joined me for a twenty mile bike ride from Durnstein, Austria to Melk, Austria. Along the way we stopped and enjoyed the local culture like the wonderful beer. We were determined to taste all the beer flavors along the way. We also enjoyed riding through all the small towns and villages along the way. We ended our journey in Passau, which is a picturesque village in southern Germany. Then we boarded a motorcoach for the journey to Munich. The last party to celebrate our buddy turning 50 was one last night of beer drinking at the Hofbrauhaus. Several of us dressed for the occassion and ended up joining the band onstage for a couple of pictures.