Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

November 8, 2019

After breakfast today we headed out to tour Bamberg. I chose to do the Walk and Discover and Norm stayed with the city tour group. Luckily here we also had the city tour with the Walk and Discover group so we didn’t have to miss anything, we just did not have the free time that the other groups had. But the tour was wonderful and well worth it! Great guide as all have been on this trip.

Bamberg is a UNESCO world heritage city and it is just lovely. Only about 5% was destroyed in the war so the buildings are original and charming – medieval in style. The city was designed by Emperor Heinrich II during the 11th century and he planned it to be as grand as Rome. It never became as large as Rome but it has many lovely buildings and a stunning network of canals like Venice. In fact one section along the river is called Little Venice. The town is built on 7 hills like Rome.

We started off at 9 with a 5 minute bus ride to the town and then each went with our respective groups and guides. My group hiked up the hills, through forests and vineyards to the St. Michael’s Abbey which is empty now except for a restaurant but quite beautiful. Then we went on to the Altenburg Castle at the top of the highest hill in the city. 5 miles of hiking all together and another 2 once we reached the town.

We learned that education in the public universities is free. The students pay a small administrative fee of 100 Euros a semester which includes the public transportation! Taxes are about 40 % here and there is an additional 8% church tax. If someone doesn’t want to pay the church tax they can apply for it it be dismissed but then they would not be able to have weddings, funerals, baptisms, etc in the church. It is strange because most people here are not religious. Guess that is why they need the tax.

As unusual feature of this town is the old town hall which is situated in the middle of the river!. It is really a beautiful sight.

The Bamberg Cathedral (also known as the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Georg) is a Romanesque building in the center of town. It has 4 grand towers that guide you there from any direction. It was founded in 1004 and inside, you find a statue of the Bamberg Horseman, the symbol of the city. Many of the buildings have scaffolding around them and are being repaired. This cathedral will be under construction for 14 years (7 more) and cost 50 million euros! The beautiful painted walls were all erased because when it was restored after a fire King Ludwig thought it should be returned to its”original” state, so the walls are plain sandstone. Our guide thought that was a rather stupid move!

The town is known for its smoked beer, Rauchbier. This is the only place in the world where you can find it. Norm tried some and said it was good!

Unlike some of the towns we have visited along the rivers and canals, there is no flooding here any more. They now have the canals which has solved that problem.

We arrived back at the ship for a 12:45 departure. There was a Bavarian buffet for lunch and all of the servers wore hats and aprons in Bavarian style. There was a roast pig, many specialties and of course, large pretzels. We sat with a new friend, Howard, who is from the UK and surprisingly had never had this type of pretzel. They are pretty much like the ones in Philadelphia which of course were brought there by the Germans.

Tomorrow we will be in Wurzburg . The scenery along the river is really pretty. In some places the fall colors are still nice and it is relaxing just to sail smoothly along.

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 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.

Some photos are on Facebook if you follow me there and again, I promise to blog them when we return as I realize the narrative is pretty dry without the visuals.

Heading to Bamberg tomorrow and we have now completed half of 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.

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, I will post a whole section when I return. In the meantime, some are on Facebook.

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 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.

Reinhold was our guide through the courtyard and the museum areas of the Abbey which highlight the history through the years. Unfortunately no photos were allowed but we later bought a small book with explanation and pictures. I put two on Facebook along with pictures I took of the outside and the views.

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.

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!

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! We have heard there might be one other American couple but we haven’t met up with them yet.

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 only disappointment is the wifi, as I have mentioned in a previous post. So I have posted some pictures on Facebook when we are on shore and I can get fast wifi. Too cold and too packed of a schedule to add photos here though, my apologies for that. I will try to fill in when I can.

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!

November 1, 2019

We were glad that we had 3 previous days in Budapest because today was a national holiday and a lot of places, including all shops except those run by families (very few) were open. Even the City Market was closed and it is something to see, we had 2 meals there. CNN rated it one of the best markets in the world. Hungary is known for paprika and goose liver pate and there are many shops that sell both.

The tour with the cruise was an excellent one. Unfortunately the WiFi is still too slow to post pictures but I will give a narrative of what we did and what we learned, and add pictures at a later time (maybe even when we return home!)

Hungary is now 1/3 the size it once was and has a population of 10 million of which 1.7 million live in Budapest. This capital is really 2 cities, Buda and Pest pronounced Pecht. 2/3 of the population lives on the Pest side and our hotel before we got on the river boat, was on that side overlooking the Buda Palace across the Danube River. The Buda side is richer.

Our guide spoke flawless English and said that she learned it in secret under the blankets of her bed in Communist times…. From Michael Jackson! English was not taught and was forbidden to learn in Communist times. It is said that Hungarian is the second hardest language in the world after Chinese.

The tour was by bus and ended at Buda Castle, which we had explored a couple of days ago. we still walked around that area as it is huge and beautiful. The buildings are all museums now. We wanted to see the Hospital in the Rock, but it was closed so we only saw the outside. 2/3 of this city was bombed and destroyed so much has been rebuilt since WW II.

The synagogue here is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world. It was designed by Catholic architects and because of that it has an organ which is not typically part of synagogues. Outside of the synagogue is a cemetery and a tree of life in silver commemorating the 600,000 Hungarian Jews that were killed during the Holocaust. There are 600 leaves each engraved with the name of a family member killed. We revisited the synagogue and had a guided tour on Wednesday. It can hold 6000 people, 3000 sitting and 3000 standing!. And it is beautiful inside and out. It was rebuilt with generous donations from Tony Curtis and Estee Lauder both of whom were born here.

Hungary has the richest geothermal springs in the world and there are 24 spas here. They have to actually cool the water before it can be used in the pools!

Like in Vienna, coffee shop culture is big, dating back to the times when people lived in very small apartments with no heat or electricity and so they went to coffee shops for much of the day and evenings. Most buildings had a coffee shop in those days and it is still very popular.

As really had a chance to see so much of the city in our 4 days here. We enjoyed their food, wine and hospitality. We planned to do the hop on hop off bus on Wednesday but the concierge at our hotel advised against it because Putin was coming to Budapest and the traffic would be bad. So we walked everywhere that day. And we got stopped along the street for about 30 minutes because his motorcade was going to pass and the police would NOT let us cross. We have never seen so many police in a city before- they were everywhere.

So we did the hop on hop off on Thursday after taking our bags to the riverboat. It was fun and we did have an overview but our guide on Friday was much better.

it am writing this as we travel the Danube on our way to Bratislava, Slovakia. We just passed through a lock. There are 66 locks on our way to Cologne!

I will write more from Bratislava. On we go!