Day 6. Into Germany

      It started sprinkling as we were in the lock right at bedtime last night. Because of more locks on the overnight passage, with the associated noise, I put in ear plugs for sleeping. I did not hear any noises and slept through any locks and missed the heavy rain overnight. We woke up to rain and more was forecast. Along with wind and cools temps. Oh well. The locals were amazed by the spell of very hot weather (90s) but now that's over. 

     We got to Passau about 0700 and, after a quick breakfast [0730-0815], we were off the boat by 0845 for a walking tour of Passau, Germany. Yes, we had crossed into Germany, at some point, but we were still very close to Austria. The Czech Republic is very close, too, but we did not go to there. I already have a Prague tee-shirt anyway. 

     This first part of the tour was to the tip of the peninsula that Passau is on. 

The lower photo is from a sign on the tip of the peninsula. Inn to the left. Danube in the middle. Ilz to the extreme right and much smaller. Upper photo is looking east from the very tip. Note the water color differences.

     Passau is on the south side of the Inn (left) and the north side (right) of the Danube but the main part of the city is on the peninsula, in the middle. It is almost all cobblestone streets and very hilly. A lot of history, too. 

       In this photo the houses are in Germany (Passau) but the top of the hill is in Austria. In the previous map photo, the Czech Republic is not far away. Also the Black Forest. 

     This shows some high water marks through history. The second highest mark is from 2013. The top of the arch of the doorway is about 15 feet. The Inn River comes from the Alps and the glaciers there. In cold winters with heavy spring rains the water has no where to go once it joins the Danube and it backs up. Very high. Until some taming for hydroelectric power the Inn was very rough and swift. The name does not refer to lodging but comes from a Romanian name meaning 'wild'. 

     The cathedral of Passau was not as large or ornate as Vienna but the paintings on the ceilings were stunning. 

     We had very light rain or mist at times during our 90 minute tour. No heavy rain periods but the cobblestones remained slippery. We had to walk carefully and slowly. Being in a group of old people meant we would do that anyway. Walking so slow also kept us from getting tired out. We also wandered about the shopping district after and made a tee-shirt purchase. Considered a high-end shopping area, the prices were not out of line. High, but...

     We headed back to the ship, had lunch and very quickly headed out on another tour. This one involved a bus to Scharding, a walk around the town, a stop to learn how to grind salt and spices together and then a cruise on the Inn along Bavaria. The cruise involved drinking a lot of beer, eating large, soft pretzles and taking shots of Jagermeister. It's been a very long time since we drank this much. We were lucky as the rain held off during the walk, poured very hard while on the boat under cover, then stopped when we had to disembark to the bus for the 40 minute trip to meet the ship again. The ship had moved again from Passau to Vilshofen while we were off her. 

     We learned a lot about salt mining in the region, the area's dominance in salt until the 16th century and more about the affects of the Inn on the region, both positive and destructive. Plus our guide, an Italian living in Bavaria, was hilarious. Great fun!

     The colors of the buildings indicate its purpose. What kind of shop it was.

     Higher high water marks than in Passau. Scharding is on the Inn River.

     Photos of recent floods. Not the highest levels ever.

     Besides mining salt they also quarried granite. We went to a granite museum. 😏 

     The Inn. 

     The boat we took on the Inn.

     Standing with one foot in Germany, one in Austria (left foot).

     5 bottles of beer for 4 people. Plus shots of Jagermeister. The original version. The real Budwieser is there, too. Much better. From the Czech Republic.

     Our table. Folks from New Hampshire.

     The town of Scharding from Austria.

     

     Our guide's comedy show continued on the bus to the ship. We were only aboard for a few minutes before departure. Then the evening information talk on the next day's activities followed by dinner. For the first time I did not have wine with dinner. Carol, of course, did. We did not stay up for the trivia contest. A long but fun day. Alcohol may have been involved in increasing our enjoyment. 

Day 5.

 This was the balcony Hitler gave the speech mentioned in my previous posting. Not the one shown. They kind of all look alike after a while. Whoops.

     We got underway from Vienna about midnight. We don't know the time for sure because we were asleep. We were advised to be out on deck around 0815 because that would be the start of some very scenic areas on the river. I thought the passage from Budapest to Vienna was very beautiful but the cruise director pooh poohed that notion. We shall see. 

     At about 0450 we were awoken by a large bump. We thought we had bumped the bottom of the river (we have heard that sound before 🤫) but we had entered a lock. We tried to go back to sleep but the noise and curiosity led us on deck. The noise was the slightly smaller river cruise boat next to us in the lock with its thrusters pushing against us pretty much at our cabin area. A loud swishing sound. We had bumped the lock wall at some point while entering. Very narrow with two ships but wider than our previous lock which could not have had two vessels side by side. It was beautiful on deck but only one other guest joined us. A fellow boater. By the time we got out there we were at max water level, the exit gate was open and we were waiting for the okay to depart. 

The other ship left first. Some high, thin clouds above us but it was mostly clear. Except for the lock area it was very dark with plenty of stars. Orion was high in the heavens with Jupiter near by. Did not spend much time identifying other stars or constellations. Out of practice. Although there were hints of the coming false dawn, we went back to bed. First breakfast was 90 minutes away. I say first breakfast not because there are multiple seatings (only one) but because today we will have multiple breakfasts 😁 🤫 🤐. 

     We fell back asleep and got up a bit late, 0740, but still got some breakfast in before the scenery jumped up to the level of amazingly beautiful. They say being on the Rhine is going to be even more beautiful but it is hard to believe it is nicer than the Wachau gorge (or valley). We will be coming into the ABC area. ABC translates into Another Beautiful Church or Another Bloody Castle. They say we will get bored with the views. We'll see. 

    Terraced vineyards 2 photos above. Famous for their dry, flinty reislings. We're told. 

     Above 2: Weisenkirchen. Remember, W is pronounced 'vee' so it's 'Veese' church.

    Those are rabbits on the roof of the church. Frozen there because of a blizzard ages ago. They will be unfrozen when the snow reaches that level again and they can hop away. Hasn't happened again. Yet. Above the zoom-in is the whole view of the church. Middle-ages battles here. 

    ABC... can't remember all the names of the castles or churches. 

     We tied up at Melk just before lunch and had a tour scheduled for 1245. We were rafted with 2 other Viking ships so it was quite a hike to get to shore. Up two extra levels (above our normal exit), across our ship then across to the next ship. Then down to the level of their exit across to the next ship which was actually tied to shore. We had to go up to their top level then go ashore but down to the dock level. After that was a climb to the top of the dike to the busses. We had travelled maybe 45 meters in a straight line but double that in actual walking. We were 30 meters from the boat and already exhausted. 🥱. It was a very short bus ride back to the Melk Abbey. We had passed it just before we had tied up. The Abbey was amazing. It was founded about 1500 years ago but did have more recent additions. Recent: about 500 years ago. This doesn't include ongoing maintenance and remodeling. No photos were allowed to be taken inside but I have a few pics of the exterior. The interior of the church was breathtaking. Had to sit down after our initial gasp. We bought a souvenir book to have photos of the interior. Will give that away to someone who will appreciate it. If you are not M&C, it's not you. Sorry. 

     After the tour we reboarded a bus and travelled about 30 minutes upriver. While we were gone the ship moved about 2 1/2 hours upriver to be where we drove to in 30 minutes. Ybbs an der Donau. Ybbs on the Danube. 

     We boarded and got underway quickly. Another lock with a hydroelectric dam was very close upriver and clearing that took some time. It took almost 30 minutes before we saw another castle. 

     This hills come right down to the water and a curve to port just beyond the other cruise ship. 

     After a talk about the next days activites and itineraries we had dinner with two new-to-us couples. Interesting conversations. One half of each coule were psychologists. We then entered the first of several overnight locks on this passage to Passau, Germany. We are not getting up for any more. 

     A long walking only tour tomorrow and a cruise on a different boat on a canal off the Danube is on the schedule. Rain is forecast. 😖

 

     

Wien. Day 4

     This entry was accidently deleted just before posting and had to be rewritten from memory. Memory? What's that?

     After our late afternoon arrival yesterday we had a Vienna orientation talk then dinner. We dined alone for the first time. We then went on a walk to a very large park (bigger than Central Park in NYC) with exciting amusement rides. We did not ride anything exciting (or scary). We did, however, ride the Ferris Wheel. The oldest in the world, built in 1897. It is no longer the largest.

     It was a late night (for us).

     

     We had an early bus departure, right after breakfast, to take us to the center of Wien (how Vienna is spelled in German), pronounced 'Veen'. Maybe with a hint of saying Vee - en. 

     We are taking a number of bus tours (combined with walking) on this river adventure. We once looked down on bus tourism but back in the 90s we went to England, exploring on our own for about a week. Our hotel offered a free bus tour of London and we joined mostly old people on the bus (we were not old then). Loved it. It was very informative, gave us a great overview and we learned a lot. It helped with our own personal explorations while in London. 5 or more days in a city or an area is much better but unless you have that kind of time a bus tour with an expert guide is the next best choice. We no longer disparage bus tours of cities. 

     Our tour of Wien was great. Vienna has a lot going for it. It is clean, vibrant, historic, well maintained, has wonderful public transportation and extensive bike lanes. There are also many no cars areas. We are not world travellers by any means but we have been to cities in foreign places like England, Spain, Belgium, Ecuador, Caribbean islands, Florida plus many cities in the United States. Vienna is number 1 so far. We would definitely want to come back here to spend a lot more time. Maybe even before going to other foreign (to us) countries. 

     Yes, a horse is playing the accordian. 

     Hitler gave a speech here after annexing Austria. Many supported him here. At the start. That changed rapidly. I wish that more could learn from this instead of believing fascist leaning politicians around the world. Near and far. 

    Above: scenes of central Vienna including cathedral of St. Steven. Also Hapsburg palaces.

     Swarovski's. Fancy sparkly stuff. Did not upgrade our tiaras.

     McDonald's menu. A bit different. And it had a coffee shop. Of course. It is Vienna. All automated ordering. 

     Above: street scenes.

     Across the river from us. The wavy building is meant to represent the waters of the Danube.

     After our tour, lunch and a nap, I went for a walk along the waterfront. Cleverly disguised as a walkway, a bike path and a linear park is a fairly high dike that has protected Vienna from flooding since the late 1970s. I walked below the dike along the riverside outbound and on it or on the inland side on the way back. It's called the bunny walk because of the many, many rabbits on the dike. Not quite tame, a little wary, but tolerant of people. Mostly. 

     Next was a talk on tomorrow's sailings and tours and the schedules and other things to be aware of. The ship sails at midnight tonight and arrives in Melk about noon. We disembark for a tour of a nearby abbey while the boat leaves and moves on. After the tour we drive to where the ship has moved to reboard and get underway immediately. Very complicated and more on that in my next posting. To wind up our 4th day, at 2100, we had a 45 minute lecture from a local professor on the 1000+ year history of Austria. From a tiny country to a huge empire to a tiny country again with its current regrowth only about 40 years old. A brilliant, interesting and skillfull presentation. 

    

     We hope the departure noises do not wake us.