Two good friends reconnect and decide to take a river cruise together. They are headed down the Danube, to Budapest. Middle Eastern Europe is a part of the world which was sequestered behind the infamous "Iron Curtain" for most of their lives. So, these rapidly maturing ladies boldly go to see, while the going is good.
The dames are not disappointed. The architecture is all that people said it would be, and more, with gorgeous detailing from a time when exquisite ornamentation and craftsmanship was the rule, rather than the exception. In awe. Susan took hundreds of photographs, which became the corner stone for this work.
The people were so warm and filled with mirth. It was hard to fathom their recovery and ebullient grace after fifty years of such oppression.
The excursion was well worth all the exasperation inherent in any international travel, especially in this world filled with 21st Century gadgets. The insights gained can be priceless. How lucky to be able to ride a Viking Longboat into a new world, to be treated like queens, and to return home to good old Missouri, with a new appreciation of what it means to be free.
