2

a delightful time.
Three mornings in
succession we took
gondolas and hired
a boat load of
singers and went
down to the Rialto
to hear them sing.
We spent Christmas in Vienna staying
there altogether ten
days, going to the Opera
almost every evening
and seeing one of
the best Opera company's
and Ballets in the
world. At Bucharest
we spent New Year's day
starting on the fifth
of January at five in the
morning for Varna
reaching the Danube
at about five at a place
called Giurgevo (you must
know that for 10 days
every thing had been
blocked with snow)
there we took sleighs
and drove over the
ice to a small island
where two open boats
were waiting to take
the passengers across
the river between
the floating ice for
about a mile where
at Roustohouk the train
for Varna was waiting