roast turkey

We weren’t sure if Thanksgiving would be celebrated or not on our Viking cruise since it is a European cruise line in Europe where that’s not even a holiday. Many of the passengers on our cruise were from the USA, with Australia second in number. Thanksgiving is not a thing in Australia any more than it is in Europe, but they did have Thanksgiving dinner food on the menu along with other options.

one of many Christmas markets in Vienna

We happened to be in Vienna on Thanksgiving so we spent the morning touring through the city. Vienna has lots of historic buildings and beautiful old churches. It also had an abundance of Christmas markets.

The menus each night on the Viking ship include a few options they serve every day, a selection of local foods from wherever we happen to be, and some items served just for that night. The one night only things served on Thanksgiving were items usually served on Thanksgiving in the USA – or in Canada because they celebrate Thanksgiving too, but not on the same day. Theirs is in October.

potato soup

The Thanksgiving offerings included corn fritters for the starter, which is not something I would associate with Thanksgiving, but maybe some people do. Or they just had to have something and thought that sounded American. The Austrian option for the starter was potato soup by a very foreign sounding name since it was in German. The soup is what everyone at our table ordered.

turkey dinner

The main course included turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and green beans, so a pretty typical Thanksgiving dinner menu. Everyone at our table ordered that including the two Aussies (Australians, not Austrians). The Austrian option was a trio of dumplings. Austria and Australia are two very different countries, but some people must mix them up because there was a lot of merchandise like t-shirts and hats and things in Austrian gift shops proclaiming that there are no kangaroos in Austria.

Sachertorte

For dessert the Thanksgiving selection was pumpkin pie while the Austrian one was Sachertorte, an Austrian chocolate cake. I ordered the Sachertorte and everyone else got the pie. The torte was delicious, very moist and fudgy. They all thought the pie had too much nutmeg. I might have liked it though. I like nutmeg.

pumpkin pie

A full roast giant turkey sat at the station in the middle of the dining room where they set up the buffet during breakfast, but it was turkey roll on the plates they initially served. Later during the meal when people were getting pretty full they brought around a plate of fresh carved turkey from that roast so people did get to try a little of it. I’m guessing that they don’t have oven space for more than one turkey and that isn’t enough for everyone because that is the only thing that makes sense for serving turkey roll as the main course and tidbits from the actual turkey later.

Overall it was a good dinner. It was nice to have a Thanksgiving dinner even though we were in a country far from home that doesn’t actually celebrate that holiday. While a full serving of actual roast turkey would have been better than turkey roll I’m guessing they did what they could and it was nice that they made the effort. As far as I know none of the crew were American or even Canadian.

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