Amsterdam to Budapest - the ABC (another beautiful castle/cathedral/coach trip) of cruising


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June 20th 2011
Published: June 20th 2011
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The bus trip from Paris to Amsterdam was uneventful, going through mostly flat land with forest on the side of the road at times. Oh, one event does stand out in our minds. At the first morning tea and wee break the line to the ladies went up two flights of stairs and was at least 25 minutes long. Most people were queuing patiently, but a large group of Indians - men, women and children walked up the stairs ignoring the queue, much to the mutterings of the Aussies. When the women realized that the queue was for the ladies they promptly went into the men’s, much to the consternation of our Aussie men at the urinals. There is no going through borders, in fact we didn’t even know until the guide said “welcome to Netherlands”.
We arrived at the ship about 5pm and unpacked – bliss no more rooting about in suitcases. No, not what you are thinking! We had welcome drinks, introduction to the crew and a talk about what we were to do the next day, warned severely about smoking in our cabins or on our balconies and then dinner. We just sat at tables with unknown people and ended up having an absolutely hilarious meal with an English couple, who had lived in Cyprus for 25 years and a couple from WA. We had such a long dinner Geoff missed going out to the red light district, poor man.
Day two of the cruise saw us into a bus and then a barge cruise around Amsterdam which we thoroughly enjoyed. Our guide was fantastic and most informative and on our exit from the city, he pointed out the third ‘red light’ district. In the first window, Geoff caught a glimpse of a very well fed lady in white granny underwear advertising her wares, a vision that sent shivers through his entire body and made him truly thankful that he had not gone out the night before. The ship had continued to cruise on and we met it later on that day further down the Rhine River. Before dinner the Captain made an announcement that several people had ignored his instructions not to smoke in the cabins (there is one area at the back of the ship where one can legally smoke) and said that if it happened again the rules were that he would be forced to call the police at the next stop! There were some guilty looking people. The captain’s Gala dinner was on that night and so to party. Such hard work! After dinner a group of three musicians, two violins and a guitar (part of a larger group called La Strada) and they were wonderful. Needless to say our suitcases are now two CD’s heavier.
Day three of the cruise saw us in Cologne on a walking tour. Geoff had elected to go on a rather long bus trip to Maastricht (Andre Rieu’s home town) after the walking tour which Marg did not want to do. So Marg had some free time after the walking tour without Geoff’s company. What could she do? Of course she had to look at the shops and couldn’t resist buying some sandals (evening) and a lovely top for evening wear. Had to smuggle them back on board and into the wardrobe and then introduce them to Geoff once he had discovered the receipts for them the next day. Bugger – should have hidden the receipts as well as the gear. After another delicious meal, much wine it was late to bed again.
On day four we cruised a really beautiful part of the Rhine Gorge full of castles and very pretty towns, the Lorelei Rock accompanied by a running commentary about them all. It was a rather cold day with a stiff breeze blowing on the upper deck so there were blankets to wrap around you up there together with coffee with brandy in it to warm us up. We could really get used to this. In the afternoon we stopped at Rudesheim and had a tour of Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet museum, given by a Chinese man called Dimitry with a German accent, speaking in English. We had thought we would not go to it, but it was fascinating with early organ grinder machines and some machines that were huge and that had violins, drums, banjos, tambourines inside the cabinets with piano as well and sounded like a band. That’s what you call a one man band. At the end of this we quickly hopped on a cable car and went to the top of a hill behind the town which had a beautiful view over the river and town. This is a wine growing area – Riesling mainly and we have taken photos of the vineyards (Rob) where the trellises run up and down the side of very, very steep and terraced hills. The thighs of the grape pickers must be like tree trunks, heaven help any of them who dropped their basket because it and its contents would end up down in the river.
We have been fascinated to see caravans and motor homes parked in many areas all along the river banks. There are no facilities and every van, no matter how small, has its own toilet and shower. We left the Rhine which was very busy with barges passing all the time and train lines on either side of the gorge and are now in the Main River which is much smaller and at times you feel you could stretch out your arms and touch the banks. We see people swimming as I write this and a lot of fisher people. There are a huge number of swans, long necked ducks (at least that’s what we think they are) and this afternoon as we passed close to the banks we could hear birdsong. It really is quite beautiful. One of the options for this afternoon was a 30 km guided bike ride and I think we have stopped to pick up the riders. There were quite a few of them. This is in preparation for the longer bike ride tomorrow which is 45km. Not for the fainthearted. Geoff did not go – he said it was because he only had his bathers to ride in, and instead did the tour to Wertheim.
Located where the Main and Tauber rivers join, Wertheim is a quaint little town dominated by a C13th castle high on the hill behind the town. The castle suffered 2 fires, the first started by a maid who (accidently) set fire to her room with a candle she took to bed. Unfortunately her room was near the gunpowder store and she blew the castle to bits! It was rebuilt and later caught fore again and is now used as a restaurant. The buildings in the town have dates around the mid 1500’s inscribed on them, but sadly the area is prone to flooding from melted snow and many of the building have markers showing the flood heights for the respective major floods. One has to ask the question why they did not move to higher ground. I guess they must be either great optimists or dedicated masochists.
The rest of the river trip goes like this. Arise for breakfast, board a bus for a tour of a castle, cathedral, palace or do a walking tour of another beautiful medieval city. Although very interesting these tours tends to blur into one town after about 10 of them.
Some interesting facts stand out.
We have had several interesting and good entertainers come on board in the evenings including a singer who did Piaf to Puccini amongst many others – oh dear, another CD in the case to come back with us. Two nights later we had a pair of opera singers – singing some of Mozart’s operas as of course Austria is his birthplace and some of the popular “Sound of Music” type numbers. We have had a couple of trips off the ship after dinner to cellars for wine tasting, but much to Geoff’s disgust they have been mainly whites, but he did find a rose that was acceptable to both of us. Geoff did a tour around Nuremburg looking at the sites Hitler used for his rallies and hearing some of the history of this era, given by German guides. They gave the details as if talking in the third person, almost as if it was another country they were talking about. He felt the whole thing has past the real history and now we are having the homogenised/sanitised version of those events.
Geoff did a 10 hour tour from Passau in Germany to Cesky Kromlov in Czechoslovakia. What an amazing place, dominated of course by the obligatory castle – which had a very colourful history dating back to around the C13th. The town was rather small and I was able to get a great many photo’s from the walls of the castle, seemingly every couple of metres opened up another vista that was not to be missed.
The next day we travelled a fairly short distance from Melk to Durstein - so short that they offered a bike ride as an alternative to staying on the ship. Only 2 passengers took the option and Geoff was NOT one of them this time. Instead he opted to save his energy for the climb to the ruined castle above Durstein while Marg tested all the varieties of Apricot liqueur. History tells us that Richard the Lionheart was captured and imprisoned here and the guide gave us the true story – one which will require you to ply Geoff with many drinks to find the real truth! The day was capped off with a wine tasting to the refrains of a piano accordion and sing-along. What a way to end the day.
We awoke in Vienna the next day; not sure what was in the wine, but it sure helps you to travel! Geoff tried something different and took the same tour that Marg had nominated… The day did not look too bad from the dock, but when we alighted from the bus we instantly regrated not taking warm clothing. I think Vienna would be right up there for the title of the windiest city – well on Sat 18th June it was. The focal point of the city is arguably St. Stephens cathedral which was difficult to photograph from the outside because the streets do not allow you to get far enough away to get all its features into the one shot. The roof is covered with ceramic tiles in a mosaic pattern and inside they have used coloured plastic sheeting over the plain glass windows to create a beautiful rainbow effect throughout the interior. Vienna also has the huge Hoffburg Palace and to our great delight there was a brass band in period dress marching through the main gates and into the central courtyard where they performed several numbers.
We are in Bratislava at the time of sending this blog, and have only 2 days more on our cruise. APT have wisely got everyone preparing for departure and we think with everything else going on, it will be best if cover the last 2 days in the next blog. It really is all go on these cruises… Tonight the bill arrives for all the items we signed for - i.e. Geoff’s €65 massage, all the bar drinks, not looking forward to its arrival 😞




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12th August 2011

River Cruise
Read your blog with great interest. We are looking forward to doing this trip next year.

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