5 July
Farewell to the Emerald Sky
7:00 – All bags had to have coloured tags and be placed outside the cabin doors.
This meant an early start and breakfast. Some people were making their departure arrangements; some were taking the extension to Prague by bus. We were going home to Melbourne, but our flight was not until 7 p.m.
It was time to farewell our fellow passengers at breakfast and then move to the Horizon Lounge to kill time until 4 p.m. We checked out of our cabin before 8 a.m. and returned our keys. Our suitcases were placed near the cruise director’s desk.
12:00 – Lunch was available to us for 6 euros. We had tried a local pancake shop nearby, but it was unpalatable, so we ordered the BLT sandwich on board, which was delicious. Others who ordered fish and chips were also happy with it.
The ship does not rest; the new group of passengers doing the cruise in reverse began to arrive throughout the day. There was a new captain, engineer, cruise director and some new hotel staff. We chatted with some of the new passengers and gave them some tips.
16:00 – We were collected by the shuttle for the transfer to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD), which is still called by its old name, Ferihegy, by some people.
Flight 1: BUD-FRA
We had a short flight on Lufthansa LH1341, which left at 7 p.m. and landed at Frankfurt at 8:45 p.m.
Flight 2: FRA-SIN
The next flight was on Singapore Airlines SQ325, which left Frankfurt at 10 p.m. and arrived in Singapore at 4:25 p.m. The economy class dinner wasn’t particularly exciting, but the seats were good, and we slept well.
6 July
Flight 3: SIN-MEL
The final flight was on Singapore Airlines SQ227, which left Singapore at 9 p.m. and arrived in Melbourne the following day at 6:20 a.m. This flight was also fine.
The End
This was a fantastic holiday of a lifetime, and a collective review of the Amsterdam-Budapest cruise is on this page. We hope you also have a similar grand vacation someday.
Day by day
- Days -11 to -15 – Singapore
- Days -4 to -10 – UK
- Days -1 to -3 – Paris Extension
- Day 1 & 2 – Amsterdam
- Day 3 – Cologne
- Day 4 – Rhine Gorge – Rudesheim
- Day 5 – Miltenberg – Wertheim
- Day 6 – Wurzburg – Rothenburg
- Day 7 – Bamberg
- Day 8 – Nuremberg
- Day 9 – Kelheim – Regensburg
- Day 10 – Passau – Salzburg – Linz
- Day 11 – Melk – Durnstein
- Day 12 – Vienna
- Day 13 – Bratislava
- Day 14 – Budapest
- Day 15 – Homeward Bound