My wife, Billie, and I were fortunate to be invited to join a group of my travel executive peers by Globus Brands aboard Avalon Waterways, the MS Poetry. The MS Poetry was built in 2004 and contains about 80 cabins. We were to cruise the Danube River between Budapest, Hungary and Vienna, Austria and were also to visit Bratislava, Slovakia, Melk Austria, Passau, Germany, Linz and Durnstein, Austria.

We arrived in Budapest, Hungary a couple of days early to recover from the jet lag and be refreshed for the river cruise. We flew from FLL to Dulles to Frankfort and to Budapest, a total of 12 hours in the air. We left our pontoon boat home this time even though my wife wanted to see how it worked on the Danube.

Neither of us have ever traveled to Europe before other than my military stint in World War 1. Getting used to the monetary system was a treat especially going from the dollar, to Forints to Euros. I paid 400 Forints for a candy bar. I guess that's about $2. I really think I overpaid everyone. The dollar being worth about 70 cents to the Euro was an eye opener. All of a sudden I became a cheap tipper. One bellman, after I tipped him, put our baggage back into the taxi cab. Poor sport!

We were fortunate to stay at the LeMeridein, a 5 star hotel which was the only time the Internet was available to us. The ship did not have wireless and its only two public computers were too slow and cost about $5 per minute. Of course, my luggage did not arrive with us and couldn't be found. My wife had her bag but I was without. Concerned that we wouldn't have the bag before the cruise, we went out and bought some basic clothes which cost a small fortune. A set of 3 briefs set us back $35. My wife was upset that it wasn't her bag that was lost as she wanted some new clothes. Now being down an extra $1000 due to my new clothes and a necklace my wife bought to stay even with me, my baggage shows up at the hotel. I tried to return my new clothes but I kept being told to "Go Home Ugly American".

We still liked Budapest for several reasons. My wife for the plentiful outdoor beer cafes and me for looking at Budapest's beautiful women. My wife likes plain food so we stopped in McDonalds frequently while I savored the goulash dishes at the outside cafes. The prices were high on everything but I did notice less things made in China. Apparently Hungary produces many of their own goods. What a novel idea. We should try that in the US. Budapest is a very beautiful, old city and the people are really very nice.

I'm not going to bore you with a day by day or port by port description of our cruise. I'll leave that up to the real port or cruise reviewers. I'll hit on the highlights, perhaps jumping around a bit and ending your reading ordeal with my typical straight forward observations.

Have you ever attended a niche cruising alliance panel and a mega cruise ship panel? The niche cruising panel will tell you that the people who cruise the rivers of the world are really experienced large ship cruisers who desire a change. Between you and me and the lamp post, that is not necessarily true. The only thing the two travel segments have in common is that each boat/ship has a captain and the vessel floats on water.

There were a couple of oddities with river cruising I have to mention. We were looking forward to sitting on the top deck and watch the stars as many of us romantic devils like to do. As we (my wife and I) headed for the deck one evening, there was a chain across the steps denying everyone access. As I stormed into the cruise director's office to find out what was going on, I was informed that due to some bridges being low on the Danube, it was dangerous to be on the top deck at night. Not wanting to lose my head over this, we took refuge in the lounge. The captain's bridge also goes up and down if the bridge is too low. I wondered who steers the boat when the bridge is below the top deck. Nobody wanted to answer that question. Another oddity was when we were docked at the towns. There was so much traffic on the river that the cruise boats docked side by side. If you were docked on the outside, you would need to walk through another ship to reach the dock. Imagine trying to do this with the mega ships. So each time we docked we were treated to a ship inspection. I went through such ships from Tauck, Viking and other Avalon ships.

We really enjoyed stopping in the small villages and Bratislava, Slovakia. Neat little towns nestled among the Alps.The scenery was the best I have ever seen, except looking at my wife of course. Wonderful bakeries, souvenir shops,and sidewalk beer cafes, all out of a magazine. The least impressive was Vienna. Partly a modern city and partly the old Vienna. Their Apple strudels and wiener schnitzels were overrated.

I believe river cruises are the way to go when you desire many ports of call and plenty of land time each day. The scenery along the waterways is simply fantastic and it beats riding in a motor coach all day hoping for a bathroom stop or something to eat. It's far more relaxing and you know where you are going to sleep every night. No surprises and having to shuffle suitcases around. River cruises have one huge advantage over the large ships. The rivers are usually so shallow that if your boat sank, all you would need to do is go to the top deck where you won't get wet. It's all well worth the experience.

My wife just reminded me that I was supposed to include the recipe for the best chicken wings she's ever tasted. She had to kiss up with the chef to get it. How embarrassing! The first copy is free but each copy after that is $1.

2.2 pounds chicken wings, 7 ounces soy sauce, 7 ounces honey, 2 soup spoon sambal olek, 1 soup spoon paprika powder/pepper, 1 soup spoon garlic, and 2 soup spoon tomato ketchup

Put all the spices in a bowl, mix it together, put the chicken wings inside, cover the bowl with plastic foil and put in fridge by 40 degrees for approximately 12 hours.

Fry it in the oven by 320F for 20 minutes or you can fry it on a flat garden grill.

Please excuse the chef's Austrian accent

As for me,I'm still looking for the casino.