Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

November 9, 2019

Yesterday was a full day so I didn’t even get a post written! We arrived here more than 5 hours early, again, minimal river traffic so we made good time. Our tours weren’t going to start until 1 PM, so we asked Jessie what we might explore in the morning. We walked all through the town and then, based on her advice, we went to the Wurzburger Residenz for the 11 AM tour in English. What a bonus that turned out to be! It was built to compete with Versailles, and it is pretty spectacular. Unfortunately no pictures are allowed there, but Reinhold, our guide, told us we could ask “Mr. Google!” The beautiful staircase is something to see and above it on the ceiling there is a depiction of the (in the 1700’s) 4 known continents painted in frescoes. We were glad to have a guide for explanations. In the White Room, the entire room is covered in sculptures and the whole room was completed by the sculptor in 9 months!!. Amazing.

Much of the Residenz which was commissioned by the Prince Bishop Johann Philipp when the fortress residence was not grand enough for him!

The town was 90% destroyed in March of 1945 by a fire bombing, but the staircase and some other parts of the complex survived.

Here are 60 churches in the town and we visited the main one, the Wurzburg Cathedral which is consecrated to St. Killian. It is one of the 5 largest Roman Catholic Churches in Germany. This area was the site of the Thirty Years War where more than 900 “witches” were accused and burned.

We learned that most of the roofs are the red type seen everywhere here. If you see black, it is slate which was rare and expensive back then, so it means that the building was of great importance. The churches were very important and very ornate in most cases. The cathedral here is an interesting combination of old style and new and there is a Jewish menorah as you enter, symbolizing the Old Testament. By the way, St. Killian, who is revered here, was born in Ireland and is the patron saint of rheumatism. The things you learn when you have a great guide!

Here are some other sights in the town. And yes, still cold.

It didn’t mention that on yesterday’s hike, we were on part of the Santiago de Compostela, the Way of St. James. If we had continued we would have had to hike 1000 km. to Spain where the pilgrimage ends. We saw that place in our travels previously. The route is marked by the scallop shell symbol. Sabine was our guide on that hike and she was great too.

Our guide, Stephanie, told us that the city has about 135,000 residents and 50,000 students. Medicine is one of the main focuses in the University here.

We ended the city tour on the Old Main Bridge which was modeled after the one in Prague, the Charles Bridge. It is not as long and it doesn’t have as many statues, but it is beautiful and the tradition of drinking wine on the bridge is going strong here! Norm bought two bottles and went back to the ship and I joined our next guide, Dorothea for the 5 mile hike!

The locks on the bridge are something we have seen on many bridges in our travels. They are called locks of love, and couples put them there, lock them and throw the key in the river to symbolize lasting love.

The hike was a good one, again through forests, up long and steep staircases and up to near the Marienberg Fortress. We actually ended after dark and were the last 11 people back to the ship!

Tonight after dinner they made bananas foster in the lobby and we had our dessert in the lounge. Then Jessie gave her talk about the two towns we will visit tomorrow and the raffle followed that. I won a purse!

Watch for the posts about Wertheim and Miltenberg, the destinations for tomorrow, November 10.

November 7, 2019

Yesterday afternoon we had a presentation about the Main – Danube Canal. We thought we were already in the canal, but no…we were going to approach it a bit later. Jessie told us about the history of the canal which joins the Danube River to the Main River. There were many attempts to build a canal and they all failed for one reason or another. Finally in 1960 construction was started on the existing one and it was completed in 1992. It is 106 miles long and contains 16 locks. The first set of locks raises the ship to the highest point in the world that can be reached by water – at the European Watershed. We will reach that right before Nuremberg. Then the second set lowers the ship. The ships were made to perfectly fit through the canal and it is a quite tight fit!!. These locks fill with 10.5 million gallons of water in 20 minutes. Remarkable.

We had dinner in the Bistro restaurant tonight for the first time. Dinner here requires a reservation and you can see the chefs working in the kitchen. There is room for only 20 passengers in there. We sat with another couple from UK and had a great evening with the usual wonderful food.

After dinner, there was a crew talent show with 8 different acts. It was a lot of fun and laughs. Then we had time for dancing. Nice evening.

When we woke up this morning and went to breakfast, we were surprised to find that the ship was already docked, three hours early! Gabor told us that because there aren’t as many boats this time of year, we made it through the locks in record time. We stayed on the regular schedule though as the guides weren’t available to make it any earlier.

So, after the briefing on Nuremberg where we will go at 1 PM, Norm and I took a long walk to the lock we passed through this morning. It was a nice morning for a walk. In much of the canal, the planners made one side into the transportation side with bike and walking paths and roads, and the other side is more like a park which is beautiful. Where we docked was at a shipyard and building site on the opposite side, our walk was along the river on the side next to the woods.

After lunch we had a bus tour of the city followed by a walking tour. There is a lot of Nazi history here and our guide, Margarita, did a nice job of explaining the sites. The Third Reich held court here against a background of marching fields and Hitler’s rallies. These rallies began in 1927 and continued through the following decade. After Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, they became massive propaganda events. This was Hitler’s favorite city and every September he held a 10 day rally at Zeppelinfield which we visited. The podium he stood on and is featured in many WW II movies, is still standing. Creepy.

As also saw the Colosseum which is bigger than the one in Rome. We saw the Palace of Justice where the Nuremberg trials took place in Room 600.

Margarita was very good in explaining how Hitler came to power and convinced people that life would be better for them without mentioning the atrocities that were taking place.

90% of the city was destroyed during the war. On January 2, 1945 alone 1/2 million fire bombs were launched. So much of the housing now looks like boxes – but many have gardens behind them – but some of the historic area was spared due to protective barriers that were constructed.

Margarita told us that the city is rated in the top 20 for quality of life and is a multicultural city with 40% of the population from backgrounds other than German or European. The population is 530,000. She also told us that many people think that their highways have no speed limits, but that’s the case for only 30% of them. Still a lot, I think!

We saw three lovely churches, the city market, St. John’s cemetery which is known as the most beautiful in the world, and the impressive Imperial (Kaiserburg) Castle. The castle is one of the most important imperial palaces of the Middle Ages and in a bit of trivia we learned that it was the model for the one in Disneyland. There is a large moat which never contained water but provided a barrier to intruders. Now it contains parks and community gardens.

The story is that if you can find the ring (there are two of them) on this gate surrounding the statue, and turn it, then make a wish and don’t tell anyone, your wish will come true. One ring is gold (the tourists always find it) and the other one is black and harder.  We found the black one!

There are lots of markets in the squares.  Had to get one of the local pastries at Kitty’s!

The day was another full day with good weather.  We have been so lucky.  When we return to the ship, they always have different varieties of hot tea waiting for us and there is a cookie jar filled with different homemade cookies – that never seems to empty.  Life is good on the Emily Bronte.  Here is our room and the long hallway – we are at the very end of the boat!

Heading to Bamberg tomorrow and we have now completed half the trip.

November 6, 2019

Each day in the lounge, Jessie gives us a talk about the next day’s town. We have nice maps of each city in our cabin along with a wonderful foldout type map with every town, bridge, lock and more information printed on it so we can follow along as we travel. Between Passau and Regensburg there were 8 bridges and 4 locks. We bordered the Bavarian Forest much of the way.

Today we did a short walking tour with Jessie and then spent the rest of the morning on our own exploring the town. As with most of the towns we are visiting, it was so picturesque. It is the northernmost city on the Danube and after this we will be in the Main- Danube Canal for the next part of the trip.

Regensburg seems to always be in competition with Nuremberg which we will visit tomorrow. Which has the best sausages, beer, art, etc. Can’t give an opinion yet! I don’t eat the sausages so that one will depend on someone else’s vote. But this town is beautiful. It is said to be the best preserved medieval city in Germany.

Today we did a short walking tour with Jessie and then spent the rest of the morning on our own exploring the town. As with most of the towns we are visiting, it was so picturesque. It is the northernmost city on the Danube and after this we will be in the Main- Danube Canal for the next part of the trip.

Regensburg seems to always be in competition with Nuremberg which we will visit tomorrow. Which has the best sausages, beer, art, etc. Can’t give an opinion yet! I don’t eat the sausages so that one will depend on someone else’s vote. But this town is beautiful. It is said to be the best preserved medieval city in Germany.

The famous stone bridge was something to see! It is a masterpiece that took only 11 years to build, which was almost unheard of during those times (1146). It was the city’s only means of crossing the Danube for 800 years. it opened the way to important trade routes and helped make the city wealthy and the cultural center of southern Germany. It is really beautiful. It has its own sausage kitchen, built right next to the bridge to feed the workers and it is still serving sausages today. They say they are the best but Nuremberg says theirs are best!

The Regensburg Cathedral is the finest in Bavaria. It was founded in 1273 but only finished in 1520 with the towers completed in 1872. On the inside you can see the huge stone columns. The crucifix was in the middle of the church and not on the altar, which you don’t often see. One of the oldest boys’ choirs in the world is housed here. We were able to visit and take pictures.

The buildings are all pretty gorgeous. The town hall is in Gothic style and hosted many important events in Germany.

Famous residents of this town include Pope Benedict XVI and Otto Schindler who is credited with saving the lives of 1200 Jews during the Holocaust.

We stopped into a shop that had interesting hand made jewelry. I bought a lovely pair of silver earrings. The shop keeper gave us his version of the good news and bad news. The good news is that the town and buildings are old. And the bad news is that the town and buildings are old! This means that nothing about the town or buildings can be changed. No air conditioning, etc.

The ship was leaving at 12:30 so we went back for lunch. There was an ice cream social in the lounge just after lunch, with 6 kinds of ice cream and many choices of toppings. Delicious. We watched the ship go backwards until it reached the canal since it cannot pass through or under the stone bridge.

Today will have a talk about the canal and after dinner there will be a crew talent show. It is interesting that most of the crew do multiple jobs on the ship. I had a massage and the therapist told me she cleans rooms and does restaurant and bar duty when she doesn’t have customers. She also does the hair and nails!

Our next stop is Nuremberg and we will be there tomorrow afternoon so I am sure in the morning we will learn more about it. Stay tuned!

November 5, 2019

This is our first stop in Germany. The forecast was for rain so we opted to tour the town vs going with the Walk and Discover group on the hike where we would not have visited the town. As it turned out, it didn’t rain until we were back on the ship. But the town was charming with plenty to see.

First, though, It want to mention something unique from Melk that I forgot to write about yesterday.

We saw a reusable coffin! It had a trap door that could be opened by a lever when the coffin was placed inside the grave opening. The reusable coffin was invented to accommodate a 1784 decree by Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. He ordered that bodies must be interred without clothes in linen bags to save wood and hasten decomposition. Under the decree, coffins could be used only for transporting the body to the cemetery. Joseph’s decree was so unpopular that it was never implemented. False but persistent claims that the body of Mozart, who died in Vienna in 1791, was placed in a reusable coffin are reflected in the movie Amadeus.

Passau is close to the Austrian border in Bavaria. People here actually consider themselves more Austrian than German. It is known as the “city of three rivers” because the Danube is joined here by the Inn and the Ilz. Because of this, the town has had many major floods and there is a wall that has markings that indicate the year and the water level.

Our cruise director, Jessie took us around the town- it is one of her favorites. We have the whisper system with earphones that recharge in our cabins which makes it easy to hear the guides even if we get separated by short distances.

Jessie told us about the town’s history and the manufacturing of swords here. The symbol of the town is the Wolf and it was stamped on the blades of the swords which the warriors believed would protect them.

Here is a lot of dark history here including the hangman, which pretty much every town had back in medieval times. Also Nazi history – Hitler lived here as a boy and Himmler lived here for a period too.

Most of the town is in Baroque style as a result of rebuilding after a devastating fire in 1662 when most of the city was destroyed.

We visited St. Stephen’s Cathedral (yes, every town seems to have a St. Stephen’s!) which has the world’s second biggest organ with 17,774 pipes and 233 registers. It is a beautiful example of Baroque architecture.

The Old Residence and the New Residence housed the clergy and now are used as museums. Also beautiful Baroque buildings.

The Old Town Hall has a pretty garden courtyard and interesting paintings on the outside.

We had time to walk the streets and alleys and to visit another church (there are 47 here) where we sat to listen to the organ. One of the shops had magnificent cuckoo clocks of all sizes as well as nutcrackers and ornate beer steins. It is beer country after all. Jessie says you have to have a sausage and a beer in every town! As we travel further north, it will be more wine country but Bavarian beer is the thing here!

As I write this, we are going through one of the 66 locks and it seems like the concrete wall is just inches from our cabin and its floor to ceiling windows! Very interesting to pass through so many.

Tomorrow we will be in Regensburg. We are enjoying this ship, the friendly staff and the other passengers. We have met people from Australia and the UK and just a few other Americans. Great to chat with them and, as always, learn from others.

November 4, 2019

The morning we arrived at our last Austrian city, Melk. We were divided into groups to tour the Melk Abbey. The Walk and Discover group is always #4, so we had the last tour. It is a lovely sunny day and we took a bus up the hill to the Abbey. This charming town has only 5000 residents. The highlight is the Abbey which starred life as a Hapsburg Palace. It has been a monastic school since the 12th century with a library that is world renowned for its extensive collection. It was reconstructed in the Baroque style in the first 40 years of the 18th century. The building has 468 rooms and 1365 windows! It contains a high school for 700 students. Mozart has performed concerts here.

The above picture is our cruise director from the Netherlands, Jessie.

Reinhold was our guide through the courtyard and the museum areas of the Abbey which highlight the history through the years.

The whole place was just spectacular- the library contains 100,000 documents, many rare manuscripts and all the books were re-covered to look the same. The church is the most beautiful I have ever seen and I have seen hundreds.

Unfortunately no photos were allowed but we later bought a small book with explanation and pictures. Here are two – the library and the inside of the church.

After our visit we walked through the town and through a forest area and returned to the ship for lunch.

We left this port at 1:45. We will travel next to Passau in Germany and it is fun to watch the beautiful small towns and experience the many locks along the way.

I had the opportunity to have a wonderful hot stone massage followed by tea with a special apricot Austrian dessert. Just had to try that!

November 3, 2019

After our previous 2 full days in Vienna, we were looking forward to returning, and we were not disappointed. After breakfast, we joined a one hour bus tour of the city around the Ringstrasse, the ring road that surrounds the historic section. This is where the original wall stood, encircling the old city and the ring road totally replaced it by 1960. The magnificent St. Stephen’s Cathedral is in the very center of the ring. We saw many of the sights that we had explored last week including the beautiful Opera House, which is the largest in Austria and considered one of the best in the world. Like so many historical buildings, it was largely destroyed in WW II, rebuilt and reopened in 1955. Our guide, Michelle, was a wealth of knowledge.Then we had a walking tour and we explored the Hofburg Palace with its 18 courtyards (we didn’t see all 18)! The Palace has thousands of rooms but we did not tour the inside. It is also the home of the crown jewels, relics of the Holy Roman Empire, the Vienna Boys Choir and the famous Spanish Riding School. It houses the world’s 4th largest art collection.We saw the Lipizzaner stallions in their stables and I did get some photos of them. Beautiful. The new riders start with the oldest horses to learn as the horse teaches THEM!

The city is known, of course, for music and the main composer is Johann Strauss. Every concert here includes the Danube Waltz. Vienna remains the last great capital of the 19th century ball with over 200 still held every year, some with as many as 9 live orchestras! We were fortunate to have attended 2 concerts previously and had an extraordinary string quartet on board after dinner too.

The city has 1.8 million people and it is quite large in area, 4 times larger than Paris. There are really no slums since the city has ordinary housing in amongst the beautiful historic buildings and this works well.

After our walking tour (many items covered in my first Vienna post), we ended at the Cathedral during mass. I walked in just to hear the music. Then we returned to the ship for lunch since we were on the Walk for Discovery tour in the afternoon.

What an experience that was! I wrote that it is the first time it is being offered. There were 26 of us in the group. We went on a 1 hour bus ride back towards Bratislava to a small town called Hainburg. We were met by two guides in traditional dress. The town is on the banks of the Danube and the ride here was beautiful- thousands of windmills, many vineyards and views of the river too. The wind generation of power is one of Austria’s biggest industries.

The hike took us along the river, to the ruins of the castle of Rothelstein and then into the forest and up to Braunsberg, a limestone massive rock overlooking the Danube and the views were stunning. (Posted some pics on Facebook). It was windy at the top and many families were flying kites up there. It was a strenuous walk, but the group made it! We will see how many continue on the next 4 of these special events! Our guides entertained us with history and legends all along the way. We ended with a short walk to the center of Hainburg where we heard some of the bloody history near the old city walls. Then our guide entertained us by playing the hurdy gurdy in the shadows of the ancient wall. A great way to end the day here.

It was dark on the way back to the ship and also a bit rainy- we were glad it held off all day.

After dinner, a string quarter came on board for a one hour performance which was just wonderful. Tomorrow is our last day in Austria – the town of Melk.

This afternoon I have to say we had our cell phones tuned to the NY Marathon site where our son Adam was running in his third NY! We could follow his run and were so proud of him. Congratulations, Adam.

Our other son Mark and his wife Ramsay are on the first leg of their 2 month honeymoon.

Adventures all around in our family. Stay tuned for more.

November 2, 2019

Bratislava is Slovakia’s largest city and its capital. It is only a 1 hour drive to Vienna which makes these two cities the world’s closest capitals. It is the only national capital that borders on two independent countries – Austria and Hungary.

We arrived about 1 PM today after our trip on the Danube from Budapest. We passed through one of the 66 locks that we will encounter on our trip to Cologne, Germany.

Our guide here was Maria and she was excellent.

We first took a small train to the Bratislava Castle which was a fortress in the 9th century and became a Renaissance castle in 1562. It was rebuilt in the 17th century in the baroque style, was destroyed by fire in 1811 and was in ruins until the 1950’s when it was rebuilt. It is on a hill and the wind was very strong so everyone was shivering! But we enjoyed the castle and the gardens. The statues of soldiers on the two archways have no arms or heads since the ruler at that time was making a statement against wars.

The town is a delight, with a town hall that dates back to the 14th century. St. Michael’s Gate is impressive as are the churches, opera house and Presidential Palace. We had free time and went to the oldest shop to purchase local wine and Slovak pastries. Yum!

Meet Cumil, Bratislava’s somewhat notorious sewer worker statue. Is he resting? Is he heading down to clean up your mess? Or is he peeping up women’s skirts? Debate rages on as to what this guy is actually doing as he pokes out of a sculptural manhole in Bratislava’s old town district. The odd statue was installed in 1997 as part of an effort to spice up the look and feel of the area which was traditionally marked with drab Communist-era architecture and decoration.

Now here is something we haven’t seen anywhere else.  It is a 90 minute beer bike tour through the old town.   15 people can pedal this thing while drinking beer.  And they were all singing!

Maria shared a lot of history including what it was like in Communist times – they seized power in 1948 – and took over many buildings, changing them to the stark Soviet architecture. Some still exist today. After the fall of Communism in 1989, Czechoslovakia became a democratic society. The “Velvet Divorce” occurred in 1993 and the country split peacefully into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Maria said that the decision was political and that if there was a referendum, probably 75% of the population would have voted against it.

We are on a riverboat that has almost all British passengers, so they chuckled at the mention of “referendum” given what they are going through with Brexit! There are only about 8 of us Americans on the ship!

There is a bridge with an observation area on the top that they call the UFO. We could see people above it outside, it must have been really cold up there.

We are enjoying life on board the Emily Bronte which is part of the Riviera Cruise line. We enjoyed the hot tub yesterday with the sights of Budapest at dusk in the background. The food has been excellent and Jessie and Gabor, our cruise director and concierge, are very good.

The castle by night as we left Bratislava.  Gorgeous.

Tonight we leave for Vienna and since we spent a couple of days there last week, we are looking forward to our return. We joined in an optional walking tour package in 5 ports and the first one is tomorrow after our regular sightseeing tour. Apparently this will be hiking in the forest near Vienna. This is the first time they have offered this option and will be wanting our feedback. 28 of us have signed up. Should be fun.

Every evening after dinner Jessie gives us highlights of the next port. There is also a pianist in the lounge. No casino of course, so my evenings end earlier than on the world cruises!