R1908 – No ginger snaps

In my last post, R1908 – Sausage organ, I described our visit to our first two German ports of call, Passau and Regensburg. We set sail from Regensburg late in the afternoon sailing up the Danube, and later that night we entered the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, in order to reach our next port of call, Nuremberg.

The Rhine-Main-Danube Canal is 171 km long, and connects the River Main (a tributary of the River Rhine) and the River Danube across the European Watershed, running from Bamberg via Nuremberg to Kelheim. Along the course of the canal there are 16 locks with lifting heights of up to 25 metres. There are 115 bridges along its route, and it cost some 2.3 billion Euros to construct.

Progress through all the locks is of course hard to predict, sometimes if traffic is heavy there can be a considerable wait before a ship or boat can enter a lock. I was therefore not altogether surprised when a tannoy announcement after breakfast called us to a special meeting in the Panorama Bar, where the Cruise Director told us that instead of reaching Nuremberg at lunchtime as planned, we would not arrive there until between 4 and 5pm that afternoon. She told us that they had arranged a brief stop at Roth, where coaches would pick up people who were booked on the afternoon tour of Nuremberg, and also provide a shuttle service into the city. Meanwhile the ship/boat would continue her voyage through the canal to her moorings in Nuremberg, and the coaches would return passengers to the the ship/boat there at around 5:30pm.

We were due to remain in Nuremberg all the next day, which was the change-over day between the second and third cruises of the four we are doing back-to-back. After a discussion Carol and I, and our friends Darian and Brian, all decided we would remain on board for the sail up to Nuremberg, and be content to go and view the city the next day. To be honest we were all quite glad to have the equivalent of “a day at sea” – one thing about river cruising is that it is quite relentless with new ports to explore day after day after day, and we were starting to get a bit of old building overload! Of course it also gave me a chance to sit and compose another blog post, and to actually get up to date for once.

The point near Roth at which the passengers were transferred to the coaches looked as if it was in the middle of nowhere. It was not long before we were on our way once more.

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Our moorings turned out to be on a slight bend in the canal, with motorway bridges close to us, and also curiously a Mississippi Riverboat moored up across the other side. Once we were safely moored up and we could access the decks once more, Carol and I went outside to get some fresh air. We stood on the canal side of the ship/boat for a while, and had only just moved around to the bank side when we witnessed a traffic accident on the motorway slip road that runs very close to our ship/boat. A van braked sharply due to a queue of traffic ahead, but the car behind failed to react in time, and slammed with a load crash into the back of the van, spinning them both around, and almost blocking the road. We were very relieved when the two occupants of the car and the occupant of the van got out of their vehicles uninjured. Members of the crew who were busy loading stores onto our ship/boat ran to see if help was needed, but they were not required.

We thought we would stay and watch for a while to see what happened – for example would the police get involved. After a while I put up a deckchair for Carol to sit on while she waited. A couple of minutes later the Captain came past, and pointed out that I had not put it up correctly, corrected my mistake, then got and put up a second chair for me to use! Once again another example of the great service we get on this ship/boat.

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When we got the Daily Times for the next day we were surprised and disappointed to see the shuttle bus times to go into Nuremberg the next day. Allowing for the time to walk from the drop-off point into the old town and back, they meant that if we took the only morning shuttle bus into town, we either had around an hour to see the sights (too short), or around 6 hours (way too long). We later found out that this was all due to it being a Public Holiday in Nuremberg, and it was difficult for them to arrange any shuttle busses at all.

In the end Darian, Brian, Carol and I decided it would be best if we all shared a taxi into the old town, and took another one back to the ship/boat when we were ready, this also had the advantage of cutting out the long walks from the coach drop-off point to the old town and back.

Before we caught our taxi there was just time to pop up onto the sun deck and take some photographs of the still canal water reflecting the nearby buildings and the Mississippi Riverboat.

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The traffic was very light as we drove into Nuremberg, and our taxi dropped us right in the Market Square, and we took the driver’s phone number so that we could call him back when we were ready to return to the ship/boat. At this time the town was very quiet (just as we like it) – presumably because of the public holiday, and the fact that virtually all the shops where shut for the day.

Our first stop was the Catholic Church right beside where we were dropped. We particularly liked the unusual ribbons above the altar.

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Carol and I then set off independently from Darian and Brian – we learned later that they were able to take a road-train around to see the sights without having to walk very far. At first we went to see if the gingerbread shop was open as Carol was keen to buy some – but alas it was closed – so no ginger for her today! Instead we walked back the way the taxi had approached the Market Square, as I wanted to photograph an old timbered building that I had seen from the taxi.

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We then walked along a path alongside a river, which was very pretty with the old buildings reflected in the water. We had stopped at a viewpoint to look out over the river, when a lady from an American couple asked us if she could use my camera to take a photograph of the two of us, as she thought we looked so romantic together there!

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Reaching the next road we turned left following the sound of the loud bells filling the air – the source of which turned out to be St. Lorenz Church. Opposite the church I noticed two different sundial designs on the side of a lovely old building.

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As we walked back towards the Market Square we came across a Steiff Bear shop with a very cute window display. I then captured various statues, a fountain and some more river scenes before we returned to the Market Square, where they were busy setting up for a beach volleyball tournament, which alas was not starting until the next day!

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Crossing the Square we walked past the Old Town Hall to St. Sebald Lutheran church, which we were able to enter.

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Our final stop was a very nice souvenir shop on the corner of the Square, where we bought one of those ornaments that have concentric offset squares, which spin on the breeze and make lovely patterns.

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By now the Square was much busier than when we had arrived – we were so glad that we had got there early when it was still quiet. We met up with our friends there, and phoned the taxi for our ride back to the ship/boat.

On the way back our friendly and helpful driver asked if we would like to make a small detour in order to see the “Colosseum”, and stopping closeby, I was able to step out of the taxi for a minute in order to catch a snap of it. This building is actually the Kongresshalle (Congress Hall) which is the biggest preserved Nazi monumental building, located on the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. The outside of the building was modelled on the Colosseum in Rome. A little further on the taxi driver also pointed out a huge chair outside a warehouse.

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We returned to our ship/boat in time for the light lunch being served in the Panorama Bar for those of us staying on between the cruises – there are 21 of us doing so once again, and around 80 new passengers will be boarding later in the day. Around 9pm we are due to set sail for our next port of call, Bamberg, which is also in Germany. Our adventures there are likely to be the subject of my next post.

Despite the trials and tribulations of first reaching Nuremberg and then getting to and from the old town, we both very much enjoyed our time there – despite no ginger(bread), I took plenty of snaps!
Postscript

It is only natural that we sit up and take more notice when a place we have recently been to comes up in the news, and in the last day or so this has happened twice, both for sad reasons. First of all the funeral of the Formula 1 legend Niki Lauda was held at Vienna Cathedral, which Carol and I had visited only a couple of days earlier. Then last night came the news of the tragedy in Budapest, where so many lives were lost from a pleasure craft viewing the lights of the city in the late evening, just as we had done two nights in a row when we were there a week or so ago. We know only too well just how high and fast the River Danube is flowing at the moment, and it doesn’t bear thinking about being suddenly plunged into that torrent in the pitch darkness. Obviously our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this tragic event.

R1908 – Sausage organ

In my last post, R1908 – Nearly quackers in Wachau, I described our visit to two villages in the scenic Wachau Valley in Austria. We left the second of those villages around 6pm that evening, setting sail for our next pair of ports, Passau and Regensburg, both over the border in Germany, which we would visit on consecutive days.

We were due to arrive in the first of these ports, Passau, around lunchtime the next day. Immediately after breakfast I saw that we were approaching a lock, and went up on deck to watch us transit through it. In my previous post I described how we had passed some nudists sunbathing on one of the banks of the river, and how our friend Brian’s eyes nearly popped out when he saw them. He put me on secret orders to photograph any more that I saw, but I am not sure whether the statue that I saw close to the lock entrance qualifies! There were also two more sedate ones on the opposite bank, which I also managed to snap as we passed by. The bridge across the lock was the first of a series of very low bridges that we will have to negotiate before we reach the River Rhine (but very much not the lowest), and so the sun deck fixtures and fittings had been flattened, and the wheelhouse lowered so that the ship/boat could safely pass underneath – of course passengers are banned from using the sundeck during this time. While I waited for the lock water to lift our ship/boat up to the next level, I noticed the young children watching our progress from another bridge, an unusual bicycle rack, and a large tanker lorry being lifted up on a crane and across the lock.

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Our new Cruise Director, Amalia Dumitru, announced that there would be scenic cruising during the morning before we arrived in Passau, but for most of the way it was the usual tree-lined banks to watch, so it gave me another chance to catch up with writing my blog. Things got more interesting just as we approached Passau, so I put down my work and went on deck to watch our approach to the city.

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Passau is also known as the City of Three Rivers as it is where the River Danube is met by the River Inn from the south and the River Ilz from the north. The old town, where we docked, is located on a narrow promontory of land between the rivers Danube and Inn. As usual on this cruise, Carol and I were not booked on a tour, instead we just wanted to explore on foot by ourselves. We set off after lunch, and at first made our way through the old town to St. Stephens Cathedral, which our port notes told us houses the world’s largest cathedral organ, with 17,974 organ pipes, 233 stops and 4 carillons. What we weren’t prepared for was just how absolutely stunning the inside of the cathedral would be. As we entered the cathedral the first thing that struck me were the wonderful paintings all over the ceilings, but very quickly I also spotted all the amazing carvings and statues. We were both completely blown away by the whole building, despite the renovation work still in progress in parts of it. It was such a contrast to the Cathedral that had disappointed us so much in Vienna a couple of days earlier.

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Once we reluctantly dragged ourselves out of the Cathedral we wandered back down the main street, looking inside a number of the little shops along the way. At one point my well-trained photography assistant Carol spotted a very unusual bicycle, with integral shopping trolley! One of the shops we stopped at was a bakery, where Carol bought a slice of sacher torte, something she had hoped to have tried in Vienna. By now the thought of eating her very chocolatey cake was overwhelming Carol’s thoughts, so she decided to return to the ship/boat for a cup of tea and her cake while I carried on exploring the town on my own.

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Initially I went up onto the bridge close to where our ship/boat was moored, so that I could get a view down onto the cleared sundeck. I then walked to the end of the promontory where there was a little park overlooking where the three rivers actually met.

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I thought it would be interesting to continue my walk along the shoreline on the other side of the promontory to where our ship/boat was moored, but I soon found this was only just possible. We had been seeing how very high the water level in the River Danube was over the previous few days, and also how fast the water flow was and how many tree trunks, branches and other debris were being swept downstream. Here the water level was almost up to a building, and the path between it and the river was very wet and silty, meaning I had to walk very carefully along that part.

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After a while I headed back inland up a steep cobbled pathway which brought me back out onto the main street. Here I walked on past the Cathedral and some more little shops until I reached a large Catholic Church, which curiously had a small road tunnel running under it. Inside the Church was completely different to the Cathedral, but still quite striking to see.

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Time was ticking on by now, so I thought I had better start making my way back to the ship/boat so that I got there well before we were due to sail. I walked back along by the water towards the ship/boat, and as I passed the Rathaus (City hall) I remembered that at the port talk we were told about markings that had been painted on the wall of the building to mark the depth of various floods over the years, so paused briefly to photograph those.

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Returning to the ship/boat, I rejoined Carol, and we decided to go out onto the foredeck to watch us sail away – the sundeck was still closed, but we did briefly pop up there before we actually set sail so that I could take a couple of photographs of the flattened deck. As we sailed out we could see more of the lovely pastel painted buildings and also a hotel which was intriguingly in the shape of a person lying down in bed!

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We continued our voyage up the River Danube overnight, reaching our next port of call, Regensburg around 9am the following morning, where we were due to stay until around 5pm. Here there was not the usual metal landing stage to moor against, instead we were just moored against a stone quayside.

When Carol and I opened our curtains that morning we saw that the weather had changed, and that quite heavy rain was streaming down. By the time we had finished our breakfast it was still raining quite steadily, so we decided to bide our time on board in the hope that the weather would improve. Around an hour later the rain had stopped, so we decided to head out for our exploration of the old town. We walked along the riverside for a while, past several other large cruise ships/boats, before striking inland. Once again our first target was the Cathedral, and having been so blown away by the one the previous day in Passau, it was probably not surprising that we were not that impressed by this one. The main feature this time was its stained glass windows, and probably if the sun had been out and shining through the glass then we would have been more impressed.

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Leaving the Cathedral we found a maze of narrow little streets, just what we love to explore. A lot of the buildings were very tall with 4, 5 or 6 floors, and they reminded me of buildings I have seen previously in various places around the Baltic.

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After a while we made our way back down to the river, and I went up onto a modern footbridge to get a view downstream to the Steinerne Brücke or Old Stone Bridge. This was built in the 12th century and is Germany’s oldest arched stone bridge, and has 16 arches. I noticed that the modern bridge I was standing on had loads of padlocks attached to it, and as always I wondered how many of the couples that had faithfully attached a padlock were actually still together. We walked downstream to the Old Stone Bridge, and closeby found the Wurstkuchl, or Sausage Kitchen. This is said to be the oldest sausage kitchen in the world, built originally to feed the construction workers for both the Old Stone Bridge and the Cathedral. On the wall of the Sausage Kitchen were several marks depicting the height of floods there. Still full from my breakfast I managed to resist the temptation of trying the sausages. Instead we continued our walk downstream to where our ship/boat was moored, where we rested for the remainder of the day, and I continued to catch up with these blog posts. In the afternoon the rain set back in, so we were glad that we chose the time we did for our exploration of the city.

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One feature I did notice as we walked around the old town were several examples of the old pictorial shop signs.

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It was still raining intermittently when we set sail from Regensburg. Cruise ships/boats like ours are far too big to pass under the Old Stone Bridge, so instead we had to reverse downstream (I was surprised how fast) to where another part of the river went the other side of two islands before recombining to form one river once more, on the far side of the Old Stone Bridge.

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From Regensburg our voyage continued via the River Danube and then the Main-Danube Canal towards our next port of call, Nuremberg, which is also in Germany. Our adventures there are likely to be the subject of my next post.

It had been interesting to compare and contrast the first two of the many stops we will be making in Germany on this extended cruise – the first with its fabulous cathedral with its huge organ, and the second with the famous and historic sausage kitchen.

 

Postscript

A couple of days ago we decided it was time the clothes we had been wearing so far were laundered. Unlink Fred. Olsen’s ocean cruise ships, there is not self-service laundry on board Brabant, so any laundry has to be bagged up and sent to the ship’s laundry.  We were absolutely amazed when that very same evening there was a knock on our cabin door, and there was our laundry returned, all beautifully washed, pressed, and hanging on individual hangers. First class service!!

R1908 – Nearly quackers in Wachau

In my last post, R1908 – A day not at the opera, I described our very disappointing day in Vienna, Austria. We had been docked in Nussdorf, about a half hour drive from the centre of Vienna, and sailed from there late that evening.

We expected the next day to be a very busy day, as we were due to stop at two ports of call, one early in the morning and the other later afternoon, with scenic sailing between them.

The tours book describes our first port of call, Dürnstein, which is located in the scenic Wachau Valley, as a small town. However at the port talk we were told that there was just one attractive street to explore (apart from a ruined castle up on the hill), so to us it seemed much more like a village. We imagined that we would have a lovely peaceful time wandering along this little street, but those illusions were soon shattered when on arriving just before breakfast we found that we were one of six river ships/boats docked up that morning.

As is so often the case, Carol and I were not booked on a tour, instead we just wanted to explore on our own. We thought we would be clever and head out straight after breakfast to try to beat the rush of people from all those ships/boats. To start with as we walked along the riverbank it looked as if this strategy was ok, but when we reached the narrow hill that led up to the main street, it was completely blocked by several big groups of people on walking tours. Realising it would be pointless to try and go that way, we carried on along the riverbank until we reached a small parking area below the Abbey.

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We then retraced our steps back to the narrow hill, and to our relief by then it had pretty much cleared of people. The main street was indeed very pretty, with lots of little shops. As that was also fairly clear of people we walked right through to a viewpoint overlooking the river, where we paused to enjoy the views for a while.

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As we walked back along the main street we popped inside several of the shops, which were virtually all selling various souvenirs. We did find one lovely shop selling locally made Christmas decorations, and we could not resist buying one for our own Christmas tree.

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We made our way back to our ship/boat the same way as we had come, past some of the many vineyards in the area.

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We had to be back on board by 10:45 as we set sail upstream at 11am towards our next destination. I immediately went up onto the top deck so that I could take photographs of the village as we sailed past. It was good to get some good views of the Abbey, and of the Castle up on the hillside, and I could see quite a few people had made it up the steep slopes to reach there. Not far from the village we passed the statue of Richard the Lionheart and his French aide, Blondel the Minstrel. In the 12th century, Richard the Lionheart, King of England, was imprisoned near there for showing disrespect to the Austrian flag. Blondel is said to have helped negotiate his release, which cost “a kingly ransom of 35,000 kg of silver.”

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A little later we passed the village of Krems with a pretty church, and on the opposite bank was a four-meter high concrete nose, which is supposed to be part of a giant sleeping beneath the ground. Later we passed the fortified church of St. Michael, which has seven hares on the top ridge of it’s roof. Legend has it that these hares took refuge on the church rooftop during a particularly bad snowstorm, but could not get down off the roof once the snow had thawed. Just before lunch we reached the old market town of Spitz, which is dominated by the ruins of the 12th century Hinterhaus Castle.

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Soon after lunch we passed Aggstein Castle, perched some 300 metres above the river at the Wachau Valley’s narrowest point. This castle was once home to robber-barons who plundered passing ships. A bit late Carol and I suddenly noticed some people sunbathing on one of the banks of the river. I commented to Carol that they did not appear to be wearing very much, so Carol took a look with the binoculars and reported that they were indeed naked. Just at that moment our friend Brian appeared, and when he looked through the binoculars his eyes were on stalks and his jaw nearly hit the ground! One look from Carol told me not to try to take any photographs though. We did notice that our ship/boat took a course in the middle of the river at this point, whereas two others steered very close to the bank in question! Later we passed another castle, Schloss Schönbühel, in another imposing position overlooking the river.

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Not long later we arrived at our second port of call for the day, the tiny village of Emmersdorf. There was one tour available from Emmersdorf, which was to visit Melk Abbey, located some distance away on the other side of the river. Carol and I had not elected to book this tour, which in hindsight was perhaps a mistake, as people we spoke to returning from the tour all said how stunning the Abbey was. Instead we walked into the village, but it was tiny, and being a Sunday nothing was open except for a pub which did not interest us. We very quickly returned to the ship/boat.

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Around 6pm we set sail for our next port, Passau, which is located just over the border in Germany. I managed to get a couple of shots of Melk Abbey as we passed by it, and from the lock that we passed through a short time later.

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One thing I had noticed both in our first stop, Dürnstein, and in several other villages that we passed on the river, was what looked like a Christmas tree on the top of a very tall smooth pole. Curious as to what that was, I did some research on Google later. They are part of the May Day celebrations in the area. Young men apply sticky sap to their hands and feet, and then race each other to climb the pole – around 20 metres high – and be the fastest to retrieve a ribbon from the top.

The excessive crowds in Dürnstein (we do recognise we were part of the problem) and the quietness of Emmersdorf nearly sent us “quackers”, but the beauty of the Wachau Valley on a lovely sunny day left us feeling very relaxed and contented.

 

Postscript

Regular readers will know that two of our cruising friends, Darien and Brian, are also doing the same four back-to-back cruises as us. We have been dining together at the same table, and have endeavoured to choose a table where one of the waiters, Yadi, is serving. Yadi has been brilliant, so helpful and efficient, and we have been able to have a bit of fun and banter with him. One evening he asked Carol if there was anything else she wanted, and Carol replied “just George Clooney”. Yadi responded by saying that he was George Clooney, and made as if to peel off a facemask to reveal his true identity. Since then all four of us always call him by the name “George”.

Carol and I discovered that our friend Brian was having a significant birthday on board only after the cruise had started. We managed to buy a card and small gift in the various ports we had called at, and also some balloons and ribbon. Carol enlisted the help of George, who did an amazing job of decorating our table for Brian’s birthday dinner that night. As usual on a Fred. Olsen cruise, the waiters brought Brian a birthday cake, and sung “Happy Birthday” to him while he blew out the candle. Carol and I would like to thank everyone involved, and especially George, for helping to make Brian’s birthday so special.

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R1908 – A day not at the opera

In my last post, R1908 – Hat’s off to a man at work, I described our visit to the lovely Bratislava in Slovakia. We left Bratislava late in the evening as there was just a short overnight sail upriver to our next port of call, Nussdorf in Austria. You may well not know the name Nussdorf – we certainly didn’t – but it’s just outside Vienna, meaning this port of call was to our third capital city in a row (Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna).

We woke up bright and early to another bright and sunny day, and on opening the curtains we were greeted by an array of shipping containers slipping by on the shore. Needless to say I did not bother to rush up onto the top deck – in time the containers gave way to offices, warehouses and the occasional tower block.

To be fair our mooring point at Nussdorf was more attractive than I was expecting, with plenty of trees lining the bank. A footpath led along the bank towards a carpark where we would board the coaches later, and behind that was a railway line which was quite busy.

Once again we were due to be moored up until late evening, giving us all day to explore Vienna. Unusually on these river cruises Carol and I were booked on a tour, called Sites and Sounds of Vienna. The tour was due to take us to the world famous Vienna State Opera House, where we were due to see not only the outside, but also the inside – both in the theatre and backstage – and gain (and I quote from the tours book) an insight into how the magic of an opera is brought to life. This was to be followed by freetime in Vienna before returning to the ship (or boat as it says in the tours book!) (see the comments about ship vs. boat in the Postscript in my last post R1908 – Hat’s off to a man at work).

Unfortunately a couple of days before we arrived in Nussdorf we received a letter in our cabin to say that we would be unable to visit the Opera House as the local tour provider had received late notification of it’s closure as a rehearsal for an anniversary concert had now been scheduled. The letter stated that we would instead visit the Konzerthaus, a concert hall opened in 1913, and the Haus Der Musik, a museum of sound and music opened in 2000.

At this point we had received no information about how we would get to Vienna if not on a tour, and so we reluctantly accepted this change to the itenary, which with hindsight was a huge mistake.

There were two coaches making this tour, and the local guide on our coach was informative and quite funny. As we drove away from the river he first pointed out that the local name for Vienna is Wien, but we should be careful not to miss-spell the word as wein, as this means wine. He then pointed out that actually this was quite appropriate, Austrians grow and produce a lot of wine (he pointed out vineyards on the hillside) – the only problem was that they drink twice as much as they produce!

The route into the centre of Vienna was not that interesting – I only snatched a couple of photos – a distant one of the statue of Mozart in the city park, and the other of the monument to the Russian unknown soldier.

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The passengers on our coach visited the Konzerthaus first, whereas those on the other coach visited the Haus Der Musik first. We were dropped very close to the Konzerthaus, and on entering the building our local guide handed over guiding duties to a lady from the venue, who led us through to a very large foyer. She told us that there were events going on throughout the building that day, and in front of us a stage had been erected and some musicians were setting up under the watchful gaze of a very large statue of Beethoven. We were also told that there were originally three concert halls created in the building, one large, one medium, and one small, and we were shown each of those in turn. The largest one was quite attractive (but we are sure not a patch on the Opera House), the others were very uninteresting. Finally we were taken down to the basement where a fourth hall had been created during fairly recent renovations – this one had a clever system of boxed sections of flooring that could be raised or lowered at will, so that a raised stage could be created at either end, or even in the middle of the hall as required. It perhaps says it all that the thing that most caught my eye, and of course my camera, was a stand in the foyer with a tower of glasses balanced in it!

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We left the Konzerthaus feeling extremely underwhelmed, and our original local guide, now back in command, told us that it would be a “short walk” to our other venue, the Haus Der Musik. However in reality it was far from a short walk, and our guide showed little understanding for the mobility challenged within our group with the pace he kept up. By the time we eventually reached the second venue several people had had more than enough, and collapsed exhausted in the foyer, declining to walk around the exhibition there.

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Carol decide to stay in the foyer with our friends Darian and Brian, while I went around the exhibition. Quite frankly they didn’t miss much at all – a few small rooms in semi-darkness with a few pictures and exhibits about a number of famous musicians associated with Vienna in turn. Our local guide did tell us some facts and anecdotes about each musician, but like the first venue it totally failed to capture my interest or enthusiasm.

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Returning to the foyer we collected the remaining passengers in our group, and then the local guide led us on another “short walk” at a brisk pace, this time back to the coach, which was waiting for us close to the Opera House. While our friends gratefully climbed aboard the coach to return to the ship/boat, Carol and I elected to remain in Vienna, intending to catch one of the shuttle busses back to the ship/boat later in the day.

By now it was almost lunchtime, so our first priority was to find a café where we could have a rest and a light lunch. We found one close by that was part of a souvenir shop, where we both enjoyed a tasty toasted sandwich.

Refreshed and replenished we set off up the main shopping street towards the Cathedral. While there were a few older buildings, most of them seemed to be very modern, and that combined with the crowds of people out on a Saturday afternoon, left us feeling once again very underwhelmed, especially in comparison to Budapest and Bratislava which were fresh in our minds. We reached the Cathedral, which was crowded with people both outside and inside. We struggled through the throngs to go inside, but we could only access a limited part of it without paying for a tour. We were underwhelmed by what we could see, and were puzzled by all the objects hanging down. Later I found out from the internet that they were an installation by the contemporary artist Peter Baldinger called Sky full of stones – 1332 stones (which are made of paper) are attached to the ceiling at a height of 6.5 metres for the duration of Lent.

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We then decided to walk towards the Hofburg, or Imperial Palace. Our route took us past some nice older buildings, and the outside of the Palace was very impressive.

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By now we were both feeling rather tired and fed up with all the crowds, so we set off intending to return to the Opera House in order to get a shuttle bus back to the ship/boat. However a slight error in navigation brought us instead to the Natural History Museum and Art History Museum, two equally impressive old buildings that face each other.

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A quick check on our map set us on the correct route back to the Opera House.

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We were expecting there to be about a 35 minute wait for the next shuttle bus, but to our delight they must have been running late, for there was a bus ready, waiting and about to leave – we were delighted! The shuttle bus took a completely different route out of Vienna, and I managed to snatch as few snaps as we made our way back.

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Carol had been expecting Vienna to be the highlight of all the four cruises we are doing back-to-back, and like me she returned to the ship/boat bitterly disappointed. Quite frankly the revised tour was a huge let-down – in no way did it match up to what we had booked and expected to experience at the Opera House. In addition the letter about the changes did not make clear how much walking was required on the new itinerary, which meant our friends really had to struggle to get around an uninteresting tour which with better information they would never have attempted. With better information we would have cancelled the tour and just used the shuttle bus to explore the city on our own. As for Vienna itself, the revised tour did not show us anything much at all, and exploring on our own we found that between the vast crowds and many modern buildings neither of us took to the city in the way that we had done in our previous two capital cities.

Around 11pm we set sail for our next ports of call – a small town and a tiny village both still in Austria, which we were due to visit the next day along with some scenic sailing between them. Our adventures there are likely to be the subject of my next post.

R1908 – Hat’s off to a man at work

In my last post, R1907 – Hungary for more, I described our half-day visit to Kalocsa, and two-and-a-half-day visit to the stunning Budapest, both of which are in Hungary. We left Budapest just after lunch, continuing our voyage upstream towards our next port of call, Bratislava in Slovakia.

We arrived in Bratislava just before breakfast the next morning, where we were due to stay until 11pm that evening. It was a lovely bright clear sunny day, and we were moored close to the old part of the city, making our plans to explore that area on foot very easy. Before we went ashore Carol and I went up onto the top deck to orientate ourselves, and from there we had good views of the river rushing past the ship in full flow, with lots of logs, branches and other debris being swept rapidly downstream. We could also see the Most SNP bridge in the distance, which is the world’s longest bridge to have one pylon and one cable-stayed plane. At the top of the single pylon is the famous UFO restaurant and viewing platform.

As we went ashore and headed inland towards the old quarter, it was soon very apparent how lovely the old buildings are, and how this was again going to be very much our kind of place, give or take the numerous large groups of tourists being guided around.

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We headed first for St. Michaels Gate, which dates back to around 1300, and is the only preserved city gate. We heard about the Gate in the previous evening’s “port talk”, and that you could climb to the top for good views over the city. I always love the chance to get aerial views, but Carol is not good with heights and elected to remain firmly on terra firma.

It was a job to start with to see how to access the Gate, which also serves as a military museum. It was quite a climb up a steep staircase to reach the viewing platform (pausing part way up to pay the modest entrance fee), and from there I took lots of photographs of the views across the rooftops and of the ground far below.

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Making my way back down I set off to find Carol, who was people-watching from the comfort of a bench in the town square next to Mirbach Palace. After resting a while with Carol, I set off on my own once more, on a quest to view St. Martin’s Cathedral. Initially I took the wrong route, but found myself in a rather nice tree-lined square with fountains. Just outside the Cathedral there was an old building with its many windows boarded over. Both the door and the boarded windows had paintings on them, in a similar vein to those which Carol and I have seen and loved in Funchal, Madeira on previous ocean cruises (see W1702 – Funchal Fun and L1836 – Back to the Beginning).

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Walking around the outside of the Cathedral I was pleased to find that it was open for viewing inside. After doing so I made my way back to Carol using a different route.

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Carol and I then set off together to explore the old city further. Alas the market stalls that Carol had spotted were just selling the standard tourist souvenirs to be found in the numerous souvenir shops we had already passed. In the “port talk” we had heard about two popular statues, one of a man with a hat greeting passers by, and the other of a “man at work” appearing out of a man-hole in the road. Both of these were very popular with fellow tourists, and I had quite a wait to be able to snatch shots of each of them without anyone holding or rubbing them.

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As always as we walked around we were on the lookout for anything else quirky or unusual in the shops or on the buildings as we went past them.

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We took a meandering route back to the ship, which we reached just in time for our lunch. That afternoon I had planned to go ashore again, this time by myself, in order to climb up to the Castle which dominates the city. However I could feel my eyes getting heavier and heavier, and it wasn’t long before I was sound asleep! When I eventually woke I thought it best to take the hint and cancel those plans, and instead conserve my energies for the next potentially very tiring day ahead, which would be in Vienna, Austria. Our adventures in Austria are likely to be the subject of my next post.
Postscript

While we were sat at dinner, Linda Reyes, the hardworking and lovely Hotel Manager on board, came up to me and told me she had a bone to pick with me about my blog. I immediately wondered what I could have said to cause this complaint, which turned out to be that I have been calling the vessel we are sailing in, Brabant, a boat rather than a ship. I apologise Linda, no offence intended, and will endeavour to use the right terminology from now on!!