As we approach Vienna, we spot the tallest building in town
To whom do you think it belongs?
It’s cold and it’s wet. This is no way to see Vienna. But we head off on our walking tour anyway
Vienna does not feel like the City of Music today.
We wonder if this had anything to do with Mozart’s erratic behaviour
We admire Marie Theresa, Queen of the Habsburg for 40 years from 1740. The only female ruler, but I think the real reason she is on a pedestal is because she had 16 children.
It’s not easy to see the sights of what is clearly a beautiful city in these conditions. But our tour guide understands that. So she takes us to the shopping centre.
We divert
And take ourselves off on a non talkie, non shoppy self tour.
We find a flower stall
And the Opera House
Traffic appears to be a problem to some
We have noticed graffiti everywhere we have been in Europe and the Viennese have allocated this section of wall for graffiti so that they are not tempted to deface old buildings
Apparently there is enough confusion to warrant this
We are in Vienna, and so we feel it obligatory to have a coffee and cake. We resist these
And settle for a Sachertorte. Delicious
This afternoon Cherrie heads off on an excursion to Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Habsburg rulers for generations. Ironically, ‘Schonbrunn’ means ‘beautiful spring’. Lost in translation today.
Cherrie particularly wanted to see the gardens
but she was not allowed to go alone so she had to spend more time in the Palace than she would have liked, and less in the gardens. She took this from inside the Palace, but alas no time to get there
But, she did get to a little section of the gardens. This photo shows the front of the Linden tree hedging and the reverse side showing the huge trunks
Some are clearly allowed access, just not Cherrie
And so our time in Vienna has come to a soggy end. This is a wealthy city and back on board our onboard entertainment director tells us about a man who went into a bank with a very large bag. He goes over to the teller and whispers “I’ve got a million euros in cash in this bag”. The teller replies “No need to whisper sir. Poverty is nothing to be ashamed of”
It’s cold this morning. Colder than ever. Over breakfast we watch the digger dredging the Danube. Apparently this is an ongoing thing, because the river is particularly shallow here
Cherrie braves the cold and goes up on deck. Where she meets only sleet. No one else is stupid enough to be out in this. Even the locals can’t comprehend this weather. But the photos she takes warrant the challenge
We dock in Krems, a small Austrian town, at the eastern end of the Danube, at 10.30am. The boat has forecast “Chance of Rain, 6 degrees”. An hour after docking we head off on an excursion to Gottweig Abbey, constructed in the 11th Century, and boasting 5300 hectares which includes 26ha of vineyards. And 40 monks.
The weather gods following us on this journey have not heard of spring. That beautiful temperate season between winter and summer. We have had miserable weather since we arrived in Berlin, wet and cold. But today takes the torte. As we approach the Abbey
we get a hint of what is to come.
Yes, folks, that’s snow. It’s chilled the wine
And the tourists
The literature we are given states that the most impressive room in the Abbey is relatively small library, filled to the ceiling with 130,000 volumes. It’s closed to visitors.
The Abbey houses the largest private collection of engravings in Austria, more than 30,000. It’s closed to visitors.
We decide against taking a seat
We think about walking through the snow kissed gardens. But they’re not open to non-monks
So we head into the warmth of the Chapel
We climb the stairs of Abbey, which are low, gentle steps. Built so as to cover the women’s ankles, back in the day. The day when women wore crinolines, with their bosoms falling out but their ankles covered. Ankles were considered the height of obscenity, and so the effect was of the women levitating up the stairs. Having checked our socks were up, we proceeded up the gentle staircase to see the friezes we were allowed to see
Outside again, we get some chilling information
Briefly, very briefly, the rain stopped for us to catch (as it were) a corner of the Abbey
But to remind us it was spring, it just kept snowing
The literature we are given describes the slopes of Krems as being bathed in sunlight all day, and thus create some of the best wines in the world. We are yet to see the sun or indeed taste anything that even comes close to a good wine.
To warm up, we return to the boat. Then we walked into Krems, a small university town which reminded us of Tallin, the capital of Estonia, which we briefly visited last November.
The snow has eased but the rain persists. However, we are resigned to it now and can still raise a smile
We met some of the locals, who were also cold
Cherrie was pleased to see these flowers
And we were both very pleased to discover the museum, to get out of the cold and the rain
We docked at 9pm last night, having passed through two lochs. This is the first one.
And this is how far down we go. Long way.
Another 12 lochs between here and Budapest.
We sail by the Bavarian Forest
Linz looks more spectacular at night than during the day.
Another cold day but the temperature rose to 7 degrees eventually. The rain stayed at bay. We joined a walking tour, with our walkie no talkie again. Today’s leader talked more about himself than the city of Linz, which is the capital of Upper Austria. Hitler was brought up here. Not a good upbringing I reckon. This is the balcony from which Adolf made his famous 1938 speech announcing the union of Austria and Germany. A crowd of 250,000 cheered him on
Not a lot to see here and as it’s Monday the museum is closed. So we walked.
We chose to eat lunch in the Cafe Glockenspiel rather than return to the boat. We point at the menu items to order. Not sure what we ate but it was palatable enough.
Linz is where Anton Brukner was born and so the Brukner Music Academy is here. To celebrate his music there is a little on-board concert at 9pm with two local musicians, a flautist and classical guitarist. They open with Eine Kleiner Nacht Music. They play nothing by Brukner as far as I know.
I neglected to mention our delight in Dresden at the proliferation of white asparagus. It’s the season to consume this delicacy and we love them. Fat, white and delicate, they are delicious and we eat them as a main course. Yum.
Today we fly from Dresden to Munich, and once others had arrived we were bussed to Passau to board our Viking cruise on the Egil, 137m long. We have a very comfortable room with a little balcony. Unfortunately it is pissing with rain and 2 degrees. I did not pack well, but at least my raincoat sleeves reach my wrists.
On the bus we pass a nuclear power plant
which has been decommissioned. It shut down last year after a decision by Government, under Angela Merkel, to halt the use of nuclear power, following the Fukushima disaster. But Germany does not produce enough power to service the country and so they buy nuclear power from France!
We drive past beautiful black soil plains, which remind us of Cherrie’s family seat in Quirindi
To make up for the use of nuclear power, there are lots and lots (but not enough) of solar panels.
Not much use today though
We drive through Bavaria and past the BMW factory. I did not know that BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works. Did you?
And we drive past a white asparagus farm
As we pulled into Passau, we are reminded of Bergen
The tours start tomorrow but following a late lunch on board we take the shuttle bus into town to have a nose around, as the rain has stopped. Coinciding with our leaving the bus the heavens open with a vengeance. We re-board the bus and return to the boat, quite wet.
An orientation, a talk from the over verbose ‘Hotel Manager’ and a few wise cracks from the Entertainment Manager, we are required to put our hands up when our country is mentioned. No hands are raised for England, Wales, Scotland, 188 hands raised for USA and 2 for Australia. We are on an American tour, with food to match, owned by the Swiss.
Sunday 21 April 2024
We join one of those tour groups we said we’d never join. The ones led by the man carrying the paddle with a number on it, and us with an ear piece and a walkie talkie Our boat carries 190 passengers and I reckon all of us were out on this walking tour, in several groups. It’s very overcast but no rain today. Very cold though, 1 degree. We were led by an English speaking Greek who had all the jokes. But at least he wasn’t in costume.
Passau is known as the City of Three Rivers, because this is where the Rivers Inn, Ilz and Danube meet.
Back in the day, that is the medieval days, Passau was the heart of the salt trade, the white gold, transported from the Alpine salt mines.
St Stephens Cathedral
Was built in the 1600’s and is not quite finished yet. You see, a tax is applicable once building works are finished, and the Catholics have not finished this one. Good tax dodge eh?
St Stephen’s is home to the largest cathedral organ in the world, with 17,974 pipes. Most of which have been removed for restoration. Of course.
The tour finished in the town square
Passau feels like a wealthy town
We might have bought a hat if the shop weren’t closed
We wandered the narrow streets before returning to the boat
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