Our cruise on the “Romantic Danube” took a turn to the south.
After a night of suffering I scored a positive. Behold:
Finding a Positiv in your Ergebnis-Fenster is never a good thing. Especially when it is an Antigen Schnelltest for CoV-2.
Some people go to Vienna for the coffee, Others for the opera. I scored COVID there.
You expect to catch viruses and diseases in drab German towns like Feuchtwangen (“Moist cheeks”), Kotzen (“Vomit”), or Elend (“Wretchedness”). But no, no, no. Not me. It was during a night in waltzing Vienna that the symptoms struck: deep cough, tight chest, snotted nose, running wife. Vicki glided in 3/4 tempo to the reception desk and fetched a test kit.
It didn’t end well as you can see.
I was confined to quarters with no romance in the near or distant future.
Vicki decided we’d take our chances.
The tall cruise manager in red heels rang the phone and asked if she could fetch a doctor when we docked in Bratislava, Slovakia. Vicki thought it through for a second and decided we’d take our chances.
“No, but maybe some kind of medicine?”
“I know just what to get,” red heels snapped.
In Bratislava, she rang again. She had a baggie of goodies.
Vicki fetched it and returned to the cabin. It was adorned with a glossy heart and labeled “Dr Max + Club.” I was a bit surprised. I hoping for something from a drugstore, not a sex shop. Of course, you never know in Central Europe.
It could be a pharmacy.
Inside was a bottle of Stoptussin, a box of Paracetamol, and a box of the largest aspirin I have ever seen. They were definitely Max +. For the sake of convenience, all directions were in Slovak. I was once an aspiring linguist. I was pretty sure I could figure it out if I could just calculate how many kilograms I weighed (I was never an aspiring mathematician).
Inside were the largest aspirin I had ever seen. Definitely Max +.
As I lay on my bed of affliction, Vicki took the walking tour of Bratislava. She learned lots of fun things about Napoleon and Mozart and Communism. I watched algae grow on the flood wall of the city. From time to time a tourist would peek over the rail. Some took pictures of our ship. I took this as an obligation to grin and wave deliriously.
When Vicki returned from her day tour, she too gave me the wave. Romantic Danube, indeed.
Should we pull out of this current situation we hope to return to the Mediterranean in September of 2023. From the port of Athens, we will depart for Ephesus and Patmos, then sail for the Holy Land. There, we disembark for day trips to Jerusalem and the Galilee. Following these experiences, we return to Greece, via ports in Cyprus—Limmasol and Paphos—and the spectacular volcanic island of Santorini. Onboard lectures give focus to life in the biblical world. English-speaking guides will meet us at each port. We partner with Norwegian Cruise Line for a “mid-sized ship” with a “bigger experience.” For more details click the link here.