After leaving Vienna, we made a brief stop in Bratislava, Slovakia. Formerly communist and now a city where they produce more than a million cars a year for many of the big auto companies, has low unemployment and a solid economy. My takeaway from our brief visit to Bratislava is that it reminded me a bit of Prague, which is not that surprising, given that they were once one country. While it is a charming small city that may aspire to be like Prague, it doesn't quite measure up. For anyone...

This is our second river cruise, and it's also our second with AMAWATERWAYS. Our initial trip with them was on the Rhine in September 2022, traveling from Basel to Amsterdam. Now, we're spending a week on their newest and largest ship, the AMAMagna, cruising down the Danube from Vilshofen, Germany, to Budapest, Hungary, with stops in Austria and Slovakia.   The AMAMagna is significantly wider than the previous ship, and we booked one of their “junior suites,” which was just perfect. There...