DAY 149 - DAY 4 MOZART - FOLLOW OUR TRIPS

DAY 149 - DAY 4 MOZART

5/13/2019

WELCOME TO LINZ, AUSTRIA

We enjoyed the rest of yesterday afternoon on-board Mozart. As mentioned, Keith took the morning off from exercise. After lunch he decided to go to the Fitness Centers for a workout. Although not as large as the ocean vessels, there is quite a bit of equipment.

Before dinner last evening we enjoyed a pre-dinner drink in our room. From there we went to the Palm Court and listened to Mark Farris play the piano. Mark is amazing. He played lots of songs including a couple of songs from The Beatles including one that was appropriate for Mother's Day.

Mark is not only an amazing pianist but we have met very few people having a memory as he does. We haven't seen him for awhile, yet he asked about our children by name. We are so glad he is on this voyage.

We were invited by Crystal Society Hostess Alexandria Stanga and the person she is training who takes her position when she goes on holiday; Mariyana Yordanova for dinner at Waterside.

This is the menu from Waterside.

We had four courses starting with Shrimp Cocktail for Anne Marie and a Tomato Tartar for Keith

For our second course we each had Salad.

All four of us had the Wiener Schnitzel and it was delicious along with the delicious Potato Salad.

For dessert it was ice cream for Anne Marie and a fruit plate for Keith.

It was an absolutely wonderful meal. The Executive Chef came out at the end and we told him how much we enjoyed the meal.

Service was wonderful as it was on the first night we dined at Waterside (we dined off the ship on the second night), cuisine was fresh and delicious and we enjoyed non-stop conversation with Alexandria and Mariyana.

During the meal we had beautiful views from the ship and we watched as we went through a Lock. The view of the lock was a different perspective. Before we went into the lock we could see that. The difference was once in the lock we could see the concrete out the window. On the ocean vessel going through the Panama Canal we are used to seeing it from a higher deck.

We enjoyed lots of good laughs. One of them was a discussion about Toto. Toto is the manufacturer of the toilet that is in each of the guests bathrooms. This toilet is one smart toilet. You go inside the bathroom and it is preparing for you. It even heats the seat.

Moving from toilets. LOL....

We had mentioned the freshness of the cuisine we want to digress for a moment. Earlier in the day we stopped by The Bistro which serves light snacks and other items. We saw the ice cream and assumed it was Ben & Jerry's as this is what they serve on the Ocean Vessels. We learned they make their own ice cream and pretty much everything that is served on-board. For example, they even make their own hamburger rolls.

Keith mentioned that the roll we had at our first dinner was the best he has had at sea and pretty much on land. The person from Mozart mentioned something we hadn't thought of and that is not only the recipe and the talent of the chef but also the ingredients used. Items such as Flour are local from Austria as is the milk.

We have been very impressed with the quality of the items from produce and fruit to the items prepared for each meal along with the recipes and the taste of the cuisine.

There was a special Mother's Day Show performed last evening by Mark Farris. It was a SIng-A-Long Sound Of Music show which was a tribute to the fabulous Grandmothers of Crystal Cruises, including dame Juie Andrews. This fit very well with our upcoming visit to Salzburg.

When we returned to the room there was chocolates (Mozart Candy) on our bed.

We slept well last evening. We were tired from the night before making it easy to fall asleep. Some have asked us about the comfort of the beds and for us they are very comfortable.

After enjoying breakfast in our room we got ready to visit Linz, Austria. We went on a long walk. It was cold outside. We could have used gloves.

Linz is the third largest city of Austria. It is located nineteen miles from the Czech border. The population within the city is 200,000 people.

Linz is well known for the Linzer Tote thought to be the oldest cake in the world with its first recipe dating all the say back to 1653. We passed by a store featuring them.

The city was founded by the Romans. They called it Lentia. The name Linz was recorded in AD 799.

The city is known for its shopping and we passed by many shops, restaurants, cafes and other businesses.

It is a well organized city. The motorists are very respectful for pedestrians crossing in the crossing walk.

We saw several electric trams which efficiency take people to various points on their route.

There were several churches and government buildings with domes reminiscent of churches.

We did come to a clothing store dating to 1914 with our surname.

We had lunch back on-board Mozart. Once a 10 day cruise Waterside is closed for lunch. It made sense today with many guests on full-day tours.

We had lunch at Blue Bar & Grill which is a restaurant open 12:00 to 2:00 PM each day for lunch. For those of you familiar with the Trident Grill on Crystal Symphony and Serenity it serves a few items found on those ships. It also has some items that are not served at Trident Grill such as the one we had which was Cobb Salad. It also is table service. We've included a photograph of the menu. Because Waterside was closed there were two or three items added to the menu.

We are posting early as we are getting ready to take a tour for the rest of the afternoon and will post about that tomorrow.

Blue menu followed by some photos at Blue.