TRAVEL + L E I S U R E / M AY 2 0 1 7 55
FROM ABOVE: RENÉ VAN BAKEL/ASABLANCA.COM/COURTESY OF SPANISH RIDING SCHOOL; DAGMAR SCHWELLE
In many ways, Hannah became
the star of the AmaViola and its
mostly Serbian staff. They had never
met a passenger who could speak
their language, and I swelled with
pride every time she ordered our
lunch or dinner—multi-course
aff airs that included beef consommé
and Hungarian goulash as well as
surprises like perfectly prepared
pho—in their native tongue.
Every night, as we retired to our
warm little cabin with its windows
overlooking the splendid cities
on the shore, Hannah researched
what we would do the following
day. Armed with intelligence
from Hannah’s new friends in the
crew and suggestions from the
Adventures by Disney tour guides,
who encouraged us to go off the
offi cial grid of daily activities, we
decided to take in the Albertina
Museum in Vienna, where my
daughter made a beeline for the
indie galleries.
“I love contemporary art,” she
whispered as we made our way past
paintings by Gerhard Richter and
Andy Warhol.From above: Vienna’s
Spanish Riding School,
where passengers on
the Adventures by
Disney cruise can see
a performance; the
Benedictine Abbey
of Melk, in Austria’s
Wachau Valley.
Opposite page:
Vineyards in the
Wachau.Who knew?
By the time the AmaViola docked in Budapest, the last port of call,
Hannah’s requests were even more surprising: Could we go to the
House of Terror on Andrássy Avenue?
The House of Terror?
During World War II, it was the headquarters of the Hungarian Nazi Party.
To d ay, t h e s p l e n d i d B e a u x-A r t s s t r u c t u r e , wh i c h i s t u c ke d i n t o a f a s h i o n a b l e
neighbourhood in central Budapest, is a museum. In February 1945, when
the Soviets took political control of the country, they used the building to
house dissidents. Hundreds were tortured in a network of underground cells
that stretched over a city block. Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who had
saved tens of thousands of Jews from Nazi persecution in Hungary, shared
a cell here before he disappeared into a Soviet gulag. “The basement smells
like death,” Hannah told me, as we took the tour. Although the exhibits were
diffi cult to stomach, it was important that Hannah was now getting a close-up
of what life was like for opponents of totalitarianism.
After the House of Terror, we strolled down Andrássy Avenue before
stopping at the chandelier-studded Alexandra Bookcafé, located on the
second fl oor of the former Paris Department Store. We sipped steaming
lattes and ordered an array of billowy Hungarian pastries. While she
sampled each of the sweets, Hannah had another epiphany.
“You know, Mom, I think I want to come back to a place like this to study,”
she said. “History just feels so alive here!”
That night, our last on the ship, I climbed to the upper deck as we sailed
past the Hungarian Parliament, lit up in all its neo-Gothic splendour.
I looked down at my phone as a text came in from my daughter, who was
packing in our cabin below.
“Thank you Mom for an adventure of a lifetime,” it said.
Followed by three heart emojis.Seven-night cruises from US$4,349; adventuresbydisney.comDuring World War II, the House of
Terror was the headquarters of
the Hungarian Nazi Party. Today,
the splendid Beaux-Arts
structure, is a museum.
TRAVEL + LEISURE / MAY 2017 57