cruise ships or boats?

     I opted to take the ferry out of Vienna to Bratislava the weather was rubbish, from what i had read in the guide book the section for cycling that distance was uninteresting except for the final 5 kilometres, this hydrofoil from the centre of the city looked like the fun way to do it and i was on my holidays working to a time scale, my brother in Bulgaria was texting me trying to gauge arrival and offering a pick up from anywhere but also would i spending time there and which days flights home would be? all of which i had no idea i decided to move on Vienna was just another big city anyway which can be a cold place sometimes, If the city is too big
   

  A work colleague of mine goes holidays all the time, we had a discussion at work because he has booked on a cruise up the Rhine and had previously taken a cruise along the Danube, I spoke to him of my experience on the Rhine, but I wanted to know about his experience of the Danube, I had seen many of these cruise boats along the river Rhine and docked in cities along the way of the Rhine, sure enough from a fair bit back up the river there has been plenty of these cruise ships on the Danube also, Robbo told me what his itinerary was for the Rhine fly to Basel Switzerland cruise down river to Amsterdam( there must be a way to bypass Rotterdam) stopping at six places along the way a week long cruise, i was surprised at how much he would miss, I decided cycling was a better way to see the river in my opinion but there would be no way Robbo would be cycling! And he didst have any useful info for me as regards my cycle down the Danube his cruise company (viking tours)sorted his itinerary and his memory of where when and what didn't help a cyclist,
       

     Its certainly a popular way to travel up and down these big rivers on these large barge like cruise ships, its not really my thing but i see the attraction, and on this day i had an opportunity to give the whole luxury boat travel A mini try? I went for it and paid my fair for me and the auld dear to do an Danube cruise on a super fast hydrofoil. I had two hours to kill before departure which i chose to do a bit of sight seeing as i didn't want to unpack the bike or leave it locked up with the luggage unsecured,
       

 the downside of this was my sightseeing ended quickly and i had two beers waiting on departure again fine! where it not for the fact that when I boarded after a brief discussion/Debate about leaving the panniers on the bike, i went to the bar ordered a beer and they shut the toilets for twenty minuets while the boat left the Danube canal and got out on to the Danube proper by which time i was bursting,

    there was some great street graffiti on the river bank out of the canal, then loads and loads of fishing huts that had big square nets on a jib, then we hit the Danube proper and the hydrofoil opened up its speed which was cool it slowed as we passed sites or towns and gave a brief talk of what it was we were passing with some facts, then we sped up again and i was under the UFO bridge and into Bratislava very quickly, two quickly i fact as the announced they had shut the toilets again as we approached! NO damn them beers
     

  I loved Bratislava i had a wonder around town found a great place to stay, £35 off my app for the room once there i had one euro seventy tourist tax ( Slovakia is in the euro zone and is economically strong enough to be allowed the euro as its currency) then when i asked about my bike it was five euros to store it in the garage for the week no daily rate, when I offloaded the panniers i noticed one slack back spoke! a buckled wheel would be the end of the trip!  I had to check the other spokes it seems to be just that one the wheel wont need truing yet, it was a cheap but new apartment and very functional that could sleep four it had a kitchen area also with a big fridge, there was a tesco over the road and i got water and chocolate almond milk fruit juice vegan biscuit bars and a bunch of grapes then went out for a walk around town
     

  In a very compact area Bratislava has some amazing good things to see ancient churches castles winding medieval closes opening out to ornate places lined with bars and restaurants with a tram network that looked very busy with old and new trams regularly circling the centre, i really liked it I went to the loch ness Scottish bar but it wasn't very Scottish no brown beers! and nae banter I ended up on the wheat beer and moved along to the Irish bar that had Guinness and a band on, and i got into a bit of banter at the bar