Wednesday June 7 was another two-stop day. In the morning we docked at Durnstein,
Austria for a couple of hours. We took a
nice walk through the little village.
The more adventurous passengers took a hike up the hill to the Durnstein
Castle. The program described it as
"strenuous and fast paced", we opted for the easier walk, which still
involved some steep inclines. Durnstein
is a lovely old town with a few winding passage ways, but pretty
straightforward and hard to get lost in.
The only difficulty was that there were at least 4 river cruise boats
docked at the same time and it was hard to get around some of the bigger
groups.
We spent the early afternoon sailing through the Wachau
Valley with commentary by one of our tour directors.
Later we had short stop at the village of Melk, Austria,
where we toured an embarrassingly opulent Benedictine Abbey. No photos were
allowed inside, but the gold leaf, frescoes, relics, organ, etc. were the most
spectacular we have seen (and we have seen many, many churches, chapels and
cathedrals.) In some ways these ridiculously ornate showcases of the wealth of
"the church" are starting to disgust us. Think we'll pass on any more chances for such
tours...
An RV Park near the boat dock!
Our on-board entertainment tonight was a classical
"concertino" presented by a lovely young Austrian trio.
Thursday, June 8, we entered Germany (12th Country--If I
haven't lost track). We passed many
lovely German villages, guest houses, and RV parks, etc. along the river, and
passed through several locks. We
continue to be on the Danube, but will be changing rivers soon. During a
briefing this morning we were advised that many of the locks and bridges will
be very low, and we will be restricted from going up on the top deck for several
days. The railings and furniture on the
top deck will all be folded down and the wheelhouse will be hydraulically
lowered to ensure safe passage.
In the afternoon we arrived at the village of Passau, where
we took a guided walking tour of the town and visited a glass museum (which we
deemed a waste of time), and another Cathedral (St. Stephens--we tried not to
look).
Rollin' on the River...
R
For dinner we enjoyed the special French Dinner Menu with
four of our travel buddies. (Helen and Willem from Australia and Rosemary and
John from the UK. The menu included
escargot, French onion soup, choice of fish with champagne sauce or veal and
chicken with veggies served in a pastry.
Dessert was crepes suzette.
Friday, June 9, before arriving in Regensburg, Germany we
passed Walhalla, which is a German landmark and memorial. After docking in
Regensburg, we took a lovely walking tour through the town and the Enteram
Palace, home of the Thurn and Taxis family that apparently "invented"
the postal system in Germany in the 1500's and also "invented" their
royal family heritage. The 12th Prince of Thurn and Taxis is Albert, he is
currently 33 years old, a race car enthusiast and driver and reportedly the
wealthiest bachelor in the world. (We didn't meet him, but we did see his photo
and racing tropies.) We also saw (from the outside) the city hall, where they
perform weddings about every half hour on Thursdays, Fridays, and
Saturdays. We saw several small bridal
parties either entering or leaving after their ceremonies. Paper butterflies
were floating in the air, and newlyweds were posing for photos in front of the
city hall and other city landmarks.
Walhalla
The Old Stone Bridge
The shop of the hat-maker who made the hats for Johnny Depp. (The ones in the movie were computer-generated...these were made to be worn on publicity tours)
We returned to the ship for a barbecue lunch on the sun
deck. This will be our last use of the
sun deck for 5 days as it must be closed off for safety reasons due to frequent
passing under low bridges.
This afternoon we are set to have a lecture about Germany as
we continue our travels up the Danube.
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