Day 17 Passau - Regensburg

Leaving Passau we cruised to Regensburg, passing many locks and low bridges on the way, we are unable at the moment to use the sun deck as the bridges are too low. Just before lunch we passed the Walhalia a Greek Temple built by King Ludwig 1as Hall and Fame..arriving at Regensburg we left to have the usual guided tour but this time there was a sausage tasting..Regensburg is in the state of Bavaria, and located in the southeast of Germany.it is a preserved medieval city on the banks of the Danube, and we are told its charm lies in its many narrow alleys, quaint squares, and all the cobbles, all the streets etc are cobbles..we are getting used to walking on these now...Today 34deg ...everyone who was not at the medieval festival or the markets were outside at the resturants eating etc...we had the sausage tasting not sure how to describe the taste on that one...Regensburg has the oldest bratwurst (sausage) kitchen in Germany, and was spared destruction in WW11.... It was also home to Oskar Schindler, remember Schindlers list the film...Pope Benedict XVl was born here, and his brother is a Priest here.. the BMW factory and the University are the largest employers...Tonight we sail the Main Danube Canel crossing the  Continental Divide in the morning..tonight a great evening of 60's-70's-80's. 

Sausage tasting 

Narrow streets & alleys

Drug shop

Cathedral of St Peter

Walhalia..Greek Temple .......sun deck nearly all folded down ready for low bridges

Day 16 Melk -Linz - Passau

Arriving in Linz some passengers disembarked to do day tours, while we opted to have a rest day on the ship as we cruised to Passau...the scenery as always is wonderful and today was very warm in the thirties...(sorry just had to put that when we hear that you are all so cold!!) the farmers are all busy with harvesting and hay making, it is interesting watching them working every slope they can, no wastage every little but of land grows something..going through the locks and watching how hard the crew work on those ropes is something, tonight there were four ships in the last lock plus we had to wait quite awhile before we could use the lock, the four ships, two were cruise, two were iron ore ones, a busy river...Docking in Passau, it was off the ship and into the usual guided tour, steep narrow paths and the majesty of St Stephans Cathedral, also the height of last years flood really interests us...the people who own the shops/buildings in some areas are not allowed to use the bottom floor now..Passau is a frontier town between Germany & Austria and is known as the town of three rivers. The junction of the Danube, the Inn and the smaller river Itz, also very prominent is the Oberhausen fortress,,the city has a 2000 year old history....sailing all night tonight and tomorrow arrive at Regensburg

Closing of the lock behind us

    Farming

Cathedral at Passau...the ceiling

Flood levels 2013 the second from the top..

Day 15 Vienna - Durnstein -Melk

Arriving at 7.20am in Durnstein we soon disembarked to walk around ...what a really lovely town this is, and we could easily have spent another hour here, it was picturesque and the views fantastic....no real estate agents here as you are not allowed to sell, all homes are passed to family..quite a few were under restoration and looked like new, one we walked past the owner said he was just finishing after a few years, the house looks nice and they had a lovely garden as well...the fruit trees are laden and I know a couple of people who tried the apricots that were overhanging the path!!! The verdict ...delicious....who brought that crowd along!!!! The streets were narrow, one car width, and the  paths  all cobble stones...in case you don't know Durnstein was were Richard the Lion-Heart was imprisoned in 1193...Durnstein would have to be the pearl of the  Wachau Valley, and protects this most famous stretch of the Danube...there are less than 1000 people living here but the hotel looked great....from here we then travelled on to Melk and with thunder around we thought we would be missing out on the views but with only a light shower we were able to visit the Abbey.

The Abbey was the residence of the Babenberg family but since 1089 it has been a Benedictine Monastery, today it is also a day school for 900 pupils...the monastery has over two thousand hectares of land which is in real estate, grapes, apricots and they rent out land for forestry...tourism however is where most of the money comes from...for all of that it is very impressive, the library, church, and now they have also found when they were doing some work some ancient archeological sites..

     Sunrise

      Durnstein 

     Danube from Durnstein 

    Looking back to Durnstein 

    

     Monastery at Melk

    One of the courtyards at the Monastery

Two cruise ships in the lock at dawn

Day14 Vienna

A very interesting day, travelling to Slovakia and spending the day in the capital Bratislava..the history astounds one with all the changes they have had and how young their democracy really is, the history of the Country and only now are they starting to renovate homes, and other buildings, so many of which are UNESCO heritage listed...the Castle is a huge building with a strong  stone wall surrounding it, the view fantastic....a lot of

wind power and a lot more just ready to be put up..we could learn so much...from here we returned to the ship,a cocktail, dinner  and a relatively early night...

Day 13 Vienna -cont..

An interesting day, starting with going through the second lock of the voyage this time in daylight...to docking alongside 2other cruise ships and walking through them to get to the buses for the tour of Vienna...once more so much information and history...but one very interesting fact is that they burn 70tonnes of rubbish every hour and this is turned into power which helps run the city...where is ours..Queensland????  and our Govt hasn't paid us to come on a fact finding mission!!!!  Another interesting part are the water stations, dotted around the city centre...an excellent idea...after visiting the main square Cathedral etc.and passing the stables housing the mares and foals of the Spanish Riding School(..this is in the middle of the city!!) We headed to the schnapps museum and yes you guessed correctly sampling of the same!!! Lyn saved some money today she never had to pay for a toilet stop!!!! It was then onto the bus and back to the boat in time for a late dinner. Arriving at our cabin only to find another cruise ship docked beside us!!!

The lock..nearly there

Taking on fuel

Waiting for the green light

Cathedral in the main square

Schnapps Museum

Vienna

Highest building in Austria just opened this year

Ship docked beside us & the drinking water for free

Day 13 Vienna

Arrived & docked Vienna 1pm,,now the rest of our day!!

 

Dat 12 Budapest - on the Danube

Once again we were on the coach for a tour of Budapest, some walking as well..what an interesting city and so much to learn about these countries..the impressive Heroes Square at the end of the 'grand avenue' Andrassy Boulevard, which is longer than the Champes de Élysées in Paris and some say better, of that I'm not sure but it is certainly impressive. We then went to the Castle district on the Buda side of the river, and the views of Pest and the Danube from this height were great...

a quick return to the ship and in no time the ship moored onto us had moved out and we were free to glide away and start our journey, very smoothly and on time!!!  It was nice to have a leisurely afternoon relaxing on the sun deck before the daily briefing and then the Captains cocktails and dinner...another lovely day..

Cruising up the river feet first!!