(NOTE: based on some emails, I received, some of you might not know that if you click on a photo it will enlarge to fill your screen)

The River Beatrice (the Germans pronounce it “bee-at-trice”) is 410 feet long, 37 1/2 feet wide, and about 40 feet high. It really looks less like a boat than a barge, and less like a barge than a floating mattress. Which, in a sense it is for about 140 guests. Chagalls, Tolouse-Lautrecs, and Picassos adorn the passageways leading me to believe that the boat might be worth more at auction than on-river. Or, more worrisome, in an insurance claim. Not that I feel the boat or we are in any danger from Teddy the Torch. So far, there seems to be more profit in tourism.

The staterooms occupy the two upper decks. We are on the lower of the two, about 10 feet off the water, but we don’t hear those above us. And, since the river is virtually flat, there is no chance of getting inundated. In fact, the boat is so well helmed and outfitted, it is impossible to tell when we are moving.  Even the bottled water in our stateroom doesn’t ripple. Our cruising speed is about 12 knots at the maximum. The Danube itself has a current of almost five knots at times. Words like serene and stately come to mind as one motors down the river.

The main lounge and restaurant occupy the front half of the boat, one on each upper deck. Most seating is for six, and there is no couples seating in the restaurant. So, we are getting used to chatting with other people instead of our cats. This leads us to the conclusion that we and the cats need to get out more.

We’ve met guests from Australia, Britain, South Africa, Mexico, and the USA. All are interested in travel, food, and politics, so the conversations are interesting and lively, and we all seem to have a lot in common.

As we have found in the past, the Aussies are particularly warm, funny, and easy-going. They seem to be like Americans used to be before we started taking life, and our role in the world, so seriously.