This was the last stage of our cruise, leaving Vienna at 4.30pm and cruising through the evening and night to arrive in Budapest at 8.30am the next morning.
The photos follow us leaving Vienna, and later going through a huge lock at night, followed by our morning arrival in Budapest. The weather was glorious once again, we were so lucky with that.
The bridge of the ship had once again been stowed for this lock as even with its great depth there was not enough clearance for that.
The high temperatures and lack of rain again had their effect. There was a moment when the crew were not sure we would be allowed into Budapest so they dumped all excess water and fuel in Vienna so as to lighten the load and achieve the permissible draught – by a centimeter !
Despite this, as we turned in the river so as to moor facing uptide, we briefly grounded! For the first time we felt the boat lurch as the captain applied power and managed to drag us back off the submerged sandbank. He was successful and we moored. The next day we saw him making inspections to see if there was any damage. For us it was fine – we made it without another coach transfer. 😊
