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Published: August 24th 2022
NUREMBERG
Beautiful spots all over the cityAll went well getting from Nuremberg to Vilshofen, on the buses by 8.30a.m. to do a tour of Nuremberg, first stop was visit to Hitler's Party Rally grounds, The Zeppelin Fields - you just think of the awful ideas that came from here, the area itself is pretty unimpressive and it looks a bit dilapidated. Then onto the courts where the Nuremberg trials took place. Most of this city was completely destroyed in World War II, the historical buildings were rebuilt using the same stones. Nuremberg is a thriving town with about 500,000 people. Our guide was a guy born and bred in Nuremberg, he was very good and took us on a walking tour of the medieval part of the city. Interestingly he teaches English and also teaches German to refugees from Ukraine, lots of Mums and kids are refugees in Germany and do not know if they will ever get back to Ukraine or see loved ones. Once we did the tour of the old town we had an hour and half free time and our guide was able to suggest places to get the traditional Nurnberg sausages, which was lovely with potato salad served the traditional way on
NUREMBERG
Such a pretty spot right next to the shopping strip a tin plate of course washed down with a nice cold German beer. 1pm transfer to Vilshofen with a toilet stop enroute at a chocolate factory arriving at the new ship Amavenita around 4.15pm. Chefs table first night on the boat and we had a great night with beautiful food, I think we have ascertained already the food is better on this one. There are 8 Indonesian staff on this one some from Bali and one is a chef so he is going to cook us Nasi Goreng and Beef Rendang for Thursday night. Thursday 18th a walking tour of this little town as we missed Regensberg this time because of low water, we crossed the Danube a couple of times on the bus and in one spot in particular we could see the rocks on the bed of the river, nearly completely dry in spots. Beaut little town where Pilsner Beer was invented, so of course our tour included touring the underground beer cellars, very interesting and lovely beer made here included in the tour, at 930a.m. hahaha! Friday we had a choice of Salzburg or Cesky Krumlov, already been to Salzberg so chose Cesky Krumlov, had a beautiful
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Part of the old Berg castle built 11thcentury ride through the forests from Passau to Cesky Krumlov, we just loved this town and will have to come back and explore the Czech Republic a bit more. John was very impressed with the beer and the price of it 500ml glass of beer about $2.25aud. The town itself is on the Vitava River behind a huge facade and the palace, it had such a beautiful feel to it, our guide gave us a really good tour for about and hour or so, then we could explore on our own, have some lunch etc. Bus took us at 4.15pm back to the ship which was in Linz Austria! Just got to Linz and it poured rain for about an hour, next to our ship is a carnival, though it was effected by the rain, the rain did stop and there were lots of bands etc playing so we went up on the top deck after dinner and listened to the music, the first song we heard was John Farnham's Your the Voice, now hearing he has cancer all a bit weird;..... cannot get away from our Aussie Music. Ship set sail for Melk about 10.30pm. Sat a tour of the
NUREMBERG
Berg Castle tower, there were 126 of them Melk Abbey, it has probably the most spectacular church we have ever seen, unfortunately now no photos inside, we were allowed in 2009 to take photos! People using their flashes has stuffed it up for everyone else. Melk has been an important spiritual and cultural centre in Austria for 1000 years, Mark we were only a few klms from Steyr where we visited in 2016! The Abbey still has 26 monks living their and it is a 900 pupil school, 1978 their were major restorations done to meet needs of the school and also guests for cultural events, flashing across one wall in the museum we saw that James Morrison has played here! For the very fit a 35klm bike ride from Melk to Durnstein at 12.45pm (which John and I did in 2009) Saturday....not for us we are going to admire the Wachau Valley on the top deck! Great hour and a half sail through the Wachau Valley, nice scenery as we did steps around the top deck. Vienna we opted for the Schonbrunn Palace Tour which was magnificent as were the gardens, trouble is people did not refrain from using flashes so cannot take photos inside the palace.
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St Lorenz Church The rain has started but we managed to do the the whole tour without getting wet. Vienna is not what I remember it to be, loads and loads of graffiti everywhere, looks a bit grubby! Though all the magnificent architecture is still there. Sunday night we were treated to a a private concert by the Viennese Palace Orchestra at Liechtenstein City Palace, welcome bubbles in the reception room then to concert hall for about 10 pieces, just 70 odd of us, the glitz and gold was unbelievable, very enjoyable day had by all. Today late at night we sail to Esztergom, Hungary....early morning tour of their Basilica which is the largest church and tallest building in Hungary, then over the border to Slovakia onto the small town of Szob where we board The Grand Empress Steam Train, the locomotive nicknamed Buffalo which took about 2 hours to get to Budapest, wow it was fantastic, a beautiful lunch with loads of different wines. The dining cars are all different which have been collected over a number of years and restored. Then a wander through the railway open air museum when we arrived in Budapest. Our guide Dora then took us back
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Quirky statues all over town with a story to the boat via Heroes Square for a walking tour, before rejoining our boat for the night for the captains dinner which was quite a lavish affair. Tuesday morning we have Dora again for tour of both the Buda and Pesh sides of Budapest.... she is a fabulous guide that you never get bored of.... so funny with lots of light and shade in her descriptions. Walked around the Parliament, Churches and the shoe statues on the Danube River, OMG the shoes!!! We all had goosebumps as she told the story of the shoe statues, she also said no matter how many times she takes people here to explain she also gets goosebumps, this spot is where the Germans rounded up Jewish people over a long time and lined them along the river and they were asked to take their shoes off first, then the Germans shot them and they tumbled into the river, the Germans saying their shoes were worth more than their souls, true stories like these are why we love guided tours! Dora lived under Soviet rule for some years and she was very passionate about her beautiful Hungary, I mean its only since 1990 that they
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On our walk lovely bridges have been independent! Another great day and sadly Wednesday morning is the finish of our river cruise which has been fantastic and we were lucky we only had small disruptions, made the most of every minute. Now for an extra day in Budapest before John and I get the train to Prague.
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Rhonda
non-member comment
Hi guys
So fantastic to watch your trip…..you are a legend Glorsy! It must have been confronting to understand the Shoe Statue but these stories of such horrific things must be told. I loved looking at your photos of Vienna….such a beautiful city! Thanks again for your blog xxxx