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Guptill cruises down the Danube

This past August, in the city of Vienna, Austria, Martha Guptill turned 88. The city was the second-to-last stop on her 10-day river cruise, and in a recent conversation at her home on Oak Hill Road, she said it came as a surprise to be there on her birthday. But it was perfect because Vienna was one of the places on her trip that most impressed her. “It is still a city of great wealth, and it looks it,” she said.

When I heard that Martha had gone to Europe by herself, I was so impressed I wanted to talk to her about how she got the gumption and how she had made all the arrangements. I was particularly interested because I’m more and more hesitant to take a two-hour car trip in my own country, let alone a seven-hour flight to a foreign continent. I wanted to know how she had done it.

Martha Guptill. (Courtesy photo)

It was 10 years in the making. Martha said she kept receiving brochures for Viking river cruises, and for a long while she would think, “Wouldn’t that be lovely!” and toss them in the trash. But she kept thinking about it and began to imagine actually going. She had always talked herself out of it because it was such a long trip and she didn’t think she should spend that much money. Then, when she felt she could afford it, she asked a couple of friends if they were interested. No one was. Martha used to travel a bit with her husband, but he has been gone for 15 years. She knew there were group trips she could pursue, but she had begun to picture herself going alone.

I know Martha to be a friendly, outgoing person, but I still couldn’t imagine her braving a trip like that by herself. She explained that she knew she would always be with a group of other people and that she wouldn’t eat alone but at a table with others. “You have to be a bit bold. You have to put yourself out there and start the conversation,” she said. “No one’s going to say, ‘Oh, you look alone, come join us.’ No, you go up to a group and ask if you may join them. What are they going to say, ‘No you can’t’? If they do put you off, you can’t take it personally. You need a bit of a tough skin.”

A helpful travel agent

So, having decided she could afford the trip and feeling confident she could go on her own, Martha faced the real hurdle: how to go about it. “I’m totally illiterate to the new world,” she said. She would know how to use the phone to reach an airline, get a paper ticket, find a porter to take her bag, and ask someone to assist her with directions. But she had no idea about all the electronics and other machines—going online for a ticket, checking in at some kiosk, finding her way around the airport. “I don’t know how to do all this. No one my age should have to try to figure this out by themselves.”

The figuring came from a travel agent in town. The agent did everything, from A to Z, Martha said. Over several visits, all the arrangements were made. She had nothing to worry about. Martha would be driven to the airport, checked in online, her baggage taken care of, and she would be pushed in a reserved wheelchair—“Everyone my age had a wheelchair”—to the place where she would wait until told to board the plane. And it all went as planned. “I was babysat the whole way.”

When she landed in Nuremberg, Germany, she was met by a representative from Viking who put her on a bus that went directly to the departure point. On the longship, Martha had paid extra for a room with a veranda. Throughout the trip, she loved sitting out there, looking at the river, watching the scenery go by. It wasn’t one of those huge ships; there was no casino, no photographer snapping your picture and trying to sell it to you, no hair salon. You could have your laundry done—for an extra fee. The meals were wonderful, and beer and wine were included in the package. Martha said she likes a cocktail, though “basically a one-drink person,” so she had paid extra to have cocktails, “and they weren’t half water, either.” She said almost all of the people on the trip were over 60 and they were in couples or small groups who already knew one another. But she said she never had trouble being welcomed. Her only complaint was that you had to use euros on the boat, and the only money exchanges were on land.

Evenings there was entertainment on the boat, a piano player or singer. There was a planned trip every day, and you could sign up for special side trips. The medieval villages were quaint, with castles and little shops, and “the churches were beyond beautiful.” She recalled an ornately decorated cathedral in Germany that was “huge and ancient” with a golden altar and an organ resounding throughout the vast space. “Everyone else was always taking pictures. I have it in my head.”

 In Vienna they saw the arena where the famous Lipizzaner stallions dance. Unfortunately, they did not see the white horses perform but had to settle for a visit to the stables, where they got rear-end views of the horses in their stalls. Names, like Ferdinand, designated each horse’s stall, and fancy reins and halters hung on hooks. After sightseeing in Vienna on her birthday, Martha was feted back on the boat with a small cake like nothing she’d ever seen—it was a “creation” of frosting.

In Budapest they had Hungarian goulash and were entertained by dancers in traditional costumes, “jumping and stomping.” The day before departure they visited a monastery known for its 500-year-old apricot orchards. Of course there was a gift shop, and Martha, by her own admission “not much of a shopper,” spent $50 on five bottles of apricot liqueur as souvenirs for friends at home. Each bottle had a small jar of apricot jam attached.

A long time, but in time

Rather than putting the bottles in her luggage, Martha put them in a canvas bag to carry onto the plane. That turned out to be a problem. At customs, the man checking her through called someone else over, who pointed at the bottles, finally conveying to Martha that they were too big. Martha said she was sure she’d been told about that but it hadn’t registered, and the woman who sold her the bottles hadn’t asked her about shipping them, which might have given her a heads-up. Martha tried to get the man to give her one of the bottles to drink, saying she was thirsty, but he told her, “Oh, no. These are confiscated.” They let her keep the jams. She said she imagined her friends getting their little jam jars—“Here’s what cheapskate Martha brought back to you.”

Martha said she was so glad she took the trip when she did. “I waited a long time, but I went in time.” You have to be in pretty good shape, she said. There was more walking than she had expected, and a lot of it was rough going on cobblestone—she was glad she had brought her cane. She didn’t much care for the seven-hour flight, and said she might take a shorter trip in the future, this time with a group. But for the Viking cruise on the Danube—it was well worth the cost. “I don’t regret a dime or a day.”

The Hungarian Parliament Building towers over the Danube River in Budapest. (Courtesy photo)

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