Part II

After returning to the boat around 1:00 for our departure to Würzburg we had a briefing in the lounge. Rainer, our historian, had lots of information and details regarding the trip which were important for the questionnaire which was later collected. Distance from Main to Danube 677 km; distance from Black Sea to North Sea 2015 km; where we would reach the Continental Divide; boat length 110m (357 ft); 56 locks between Mainz and the Austrian border; 120 bridges between Bamberg and Kehlheim.

We arrived in Würzburg on Friday night. After breakfast we took a bus tour to the castle which sits up on the hill, the Marienberg.

We had a nice tour of the interior where we were told that one of the golden rooms was completely destroyed, but using drawings was restored to its original design. What an architectual and artistic feat! The walk back to the boat was enjoyable, only a short distance over the Ludwigs bridge.

Our next stop was Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a medieval walled town which we had previously visited a few years back. It has many interesting sightseeing attractions, churches, stores, market square. We noticed that this must be a mandatory stop for all buses carrying oriental visitors. We thought we were in Japan walking down the streets. Our friends who came with us enjoyed this place tremendously.

On the boat that evening we had a Franconian meal consisting of pork, cabbage, potato dumplings and cheese cake with raspberry sauce. It was typical to that area.

The next day, Saturday, we arrived in Bamberg and took a bus tour to town, it was too far to walk in the time we were allotted. The town is located on the eastern branch of the Regnitz river and marks the beginning of the Main-Danube Waterway.

We visited another castle as it seems every town has one. I know some people said "See one castle and you have seen them all", but this can be disputed as each castle has a different history and design. If you like European history, you can learn a lot from these tour guides. The weather was still cooperative and so far we had not had any rain. Almost unheard of!

We did not cover a lot of distance because of the many locks we had to pass during the next hours. The locks were getting deeper and took longer to pass, some were water saving ones where 2/3 of the water displaced is being pumped back into the reservoir.

Today we also reached the halfway mark of our cruise, timewise.

This is Sunday and we planned an early trip to Nürnberg. The tour took us by the building where the Nazi war crime trials were held. It is located behind a high iron fence and looked empty. Don't know if it is still being used. We also visited a beautiful cemetery with every graveside decorated with real flowers and plants. We noticed one marker showed the name Fleischmann and pointed this out to our friend, Mort, who thought that there may be one of his relatives buried. We also visited the now desolate area where during the Nazi regime many outdoor meetings were held and you could almost feel the eerie atmosphere that hovered over the place. Many movies and documentaries which were made from that era use footage from these meetings which were mostly held at night with torchlights adding to the mystique.

After lunch of Sauerbraten and Spätzle we went up to the top deck. We passed a place where the canal actually goes over the main highway below. This was a very strange sight which you have to see to believe! The locks at some places were now 75 ft. deep with water being pumped on both sides and being actually only inches away from the walls.

We will be going through two more locks soon, one at Leerstetten and one at Hilpoltstein. In the afternoon we had a lecture by Guido on German taxes, cost of living, health care and pension systems. At 5:55 we reached the summit the Great Divide.

After dinner we went briefly on top again to take in the scenery which is now constantly changing. Guido promised us that the show with the singer he hired was worth attending. So we went to the lounge to watch her. She made a grand entrance in a stunning glittery gown and lots of stage makeup. When she began singing in her deep throaty voice she reminded me of a singer from earlier times in Germany, Zarah Leander. I asked her about her style and she said that she was an admirer of Zarah and tried to emulate her. She also sang songs in French, German, Italian and Hungarian. Her French songs were reminiscent of Edith Piaf, the "Sparrow of Paris", as she was called. Now I am really dating myself!

We stayed overnight at Beilngries before heading towards the Altmühl Valley on Monday. This is perhaps the most scenic part of the canal, more hilly and rocky, with vinyards along the banks. We were now passing many more castles and bridges, one of was the longest wooden bridge in Germany near Essingen. 15 minutes later we passed the Walhalla and Liberation Hall, a structure with 18 figures surrounding it, greeting us from atop a mountain on the right side of the ship. There is a lot of mythology connected with these two structures.

This morning we will be feasting on Weißwurst and beer served on deck. When entering the Danube many people were disappointed that it was not blue, like the songs say it is. But it has changed through the years and it does look a lot more blue when there is a blue sky above, the reflection, I guess. We were also entertained by Gabriel our musician who played beer drinking songs for us and encouraged everyone to sing along. Tunes like "In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus", "Anneliese" and "Tulpen aus Amsterdam" seemed very appropriate. The singing attracted many people who now joined us on the upper deck where we also had Sauerkraut and Pretzels to go with our Bavarian meal. (Greg said the Sauerkraut was not as good as mine. I felt flattered!)

That afternoon I turned in my questionnair to Rainer who glanced over it briefly and said it looked good. I hoped to win one of the prizes at an evaluation tomorrow night.

We will be docking at Regensburg this afternoon around 1:30 below the Iron Bridge. We set out to visit the market and the oldest sausage stand in Germany at the end of the bridge. This means that fast food was invented there! This is also the end of the Main-Donau-Kanal. Our excursion lasted two hours and included a beautiful church where we were fortunate to listen to an organ rehearsal.

Tuesday morning we landed in Passau, the 3-river city. We went on a bus/walking tour to the city with a stop at the magnificant cathedral. We passed many small shops and beer gardens and climbed up to a place where we had a beautiful view of the entire city and the confluence of the three rivers, each having a different color: Danube (bluish-gray), Inn (green) and the Ilz (dark gray). After returning to the boat for lunch we planned our afternoon's activities on shore. We had to have our passports with us. Our guide was very knowledgable, but the trip did not live up to its advertisement. Most of the people were disappointed when we were told that the guide would not accompany us through the abbey. Also, the beer garden where we were going to stop was not open. However, the tour of the cathedral was definitely worth it.

Returning to the boat at 5:35 we were cheered by the entire crew telling us to hurry up, that we were late. We had misunderstood their instructions that we had to be back at 5:30 for a 5:45 departure, when we were actually scheduled to cast off at 5:30. I am sure they can make up the few minutes somewhere. At 6:50 we passed Jochenstein Schleusse (lock) and were now in Austria. Also approached the great U-turn, called the Sling of Schlögen.

After dinner we gathered in the lounge for the "Board Quiz" results. I won a set of small wine tasting glasses with pictures of some of the castles we passed on our trip. I had all of the questions answered correctly. There were also three other prizes given out.

Earlier Guido gave a disembarkation briefing in the lounge.

On Wednesday we were heading for Melk with its famous abbey. We took a bus to the abbey and climbed down 64 steps to the courtyard where we were divided into three groups. Our guide took us through the abbey and explained the different paintings, relics and treasures which were housed there. We also toured the very extensive library with hundreds of books on shelves all around us and all well preserved. After our guide dismissed us we went on our own through the adjoining shops and restaurants and then reboarded our bus to return to the boat casting off at 11:00 am for our next stop at Vienna. On the way we saw Dürnstein castle which is now a ruin. The stretch between Melk and Krems is called the Wachau and is considered one of the finest landscapes in Europe. Wine growing is abundant on both sides of the river.

That afternoon we had a winetasting provided by the Saahs family and the Nikolaihof winery which is the oldest winery in Austria with a nearly 2000 year history. One of the spokes persons explained the different types of wine and I tasted three kinds, one of them a Riesling. The crew served some snacks consisting of cheese and lard spreads on rye and wheat bread.

We arrived in Vienna a half hour earlier than scheduled and docked across from the United Nations Center of Vienna, a fairly new building. We were allowed to go on land for a short while before supper. Afterwards a group of people went on a tour to the city and we ventured out again by ourselves with our four friends in tow. We took the subway (U-bahn) to St. Stephan's Square. We had coffee and a piece of the very famous Sachertorte. Looking for a pharmacy we ran into the ship's doctor. He gets a free trip, he said.

Then we promenaded around town like the locals. It seemed like all of Vienna was out walking through the streets, window shopping. Returning at 11:30 pm we were just in time for late night refreshments.

We stayed in Vienna overnight, but changed docking places from dock #1 to #8 after some of the cruise ships had left earlier this Thursday morning. We took a bus tour to the inner city. We had a tour guide who did not want to be photographed or identified by name. (Perhaps she was a fugitive from the law?) We visited Belvedere castle, the summer residence of the earlier rulers and the Hofburg with a museum of the silver merchants commerce department.

Again, we decided to break away from the group and headed towards St. Stephan's Square. Passing along many cafes, shops and restaurants, we decided not to return to the boat for lunch. Instead we had something from the menu at an outdoor cafe, Brötchen and Wurst. Our friends had a tasty chicken salad. Later we had more coffee and Sachertorte and passed the famous Sacher Hotel downtown Vienna. We also made a few more purchases before returning to the boat via the U-bahn. We were now using Austrian shillings although DMs and $s are widely used.

We relaxed in our cabin and prepared for the Captain's Dinner at 7:30 with formal attire requested. I went to see Emma, an English beautician, downstairs next to the souvenir shop and had my hair done. Our friend, John, impressed me with his newly learned German words reading from a brochure he had. Later on I found out that he was reading the English version on the back of the brochure. Nice try, John! He was still trying to say: "Das hat gut geschmeckt"(that tasted great) when we were through eating, but never quite perfected it.

Earlier I had talked to Rainer who let us use one of his maps of the city so we would find our way around a little easier. We learned that Vienna is divided into districts numbered 1 through 8 and you can recognize the district you are in by the prefix on the house numbers (l. Kärntnerstrasse 12 means the house is located in district 1.

This evening we had our farewell dinner, a formal affair, with follow-on singing in the lounge.

The crew put on a show for us, some comedy acts, and sailor songs from years past. Guido introduced the entire crew to us: 5 Filipinos, 2 Germans, 3 Czechs, a few Hungarians and some other nationalities.

Some people took an evening tour into town which also required formal wear as they went to a concert. We passed on that.

We will be leaving Vienna tonight and head toward Budapest. Soon the Danube breaks through the foothills of the Alps and Carpathians to enter into the Hungarian plains.

We arrived Friday morning at 11:30 in Budapest. The city is divided into Buda, meaning water, and Pest, meaning above. Buda is on the lower side and Pest on the higher side. A bus took us on our tour at 2:00. We had a very knowledgable guide, but were sometimes unable to understand him in back of the bus, he was up front with the driver. We went across the bridge to St. Matthew's cathedral and past Heros' Square.

The square had a large monument with horsemen and figures of past Hungarian rulers. We also watched the young soldier guards go through their exercise rituals, all very serious and disciplined. We then walked up some steps across a bridge where we had a beautiful view of the city. Four young girls were playing string instruments and singing songs. We donated some of our change. The currency in Hungary is the forint. We were advised earlier that forints cannot be bought or sold back on board. We had to use the official exchange places ashore. However, leftover DMs or Austrian shillings could be used to buy gifts or food in town. After returning to the bus we went up to the cathedral from where we had another nice view of both sides of the city. I bought a hand embroidered table cloth from a lady who looked like she was homeless and needed the money. Also bought a souvenir paprika bag with a wooden spoon attached. We saw a lot of beggars, both men and women, on the streets asking for a handout. Greg was not feeling too chipper all day, but made it back to the boat o.k.

We returned at 5:20 and rested up until dinner time. We were to have a Hungarian string quartet at dinner playing gypsy music. The Captain and his personnel all thanked us for taking this cruise and hoped we thoroughly enjoyed it. He mentioned that we did not have any rain on the entire trip, something almost unheard of.

We were settling our debts and divided up the money for tips for the crew and Guido. Also, we could reward anybody who was especially nice and helpful to us on our cruise, like our maid Sandra. Our purser, Angelika, confided in me that she and Rainer were engaged to be married next year. How nice! They sure have a lot in common. Both very nice people.

We did not sign up for the evening tour and stayed on the boat, packing our things for tomorrow's departure.

Here we are, on our last day of the cruise. It is Saturday morning and we had ordered a taxi to pick us up for the Keleki train station at 9:30. After breakfast we said good-bye to the crew and our friends, exchanging addresses and phone numbers promising to keep in touch. We will be taking the train to Munich for our extended vacation in Germany with relatives, friends and former class mates of mine. While waiting for our taxi I had a chance to speak to some of the crew in German. Some of them were heading home for a short visit before returning for another cruise on this or another boat owned by Peter Deilmann. They told me that the two young ladies adorning the bow of the boat were representing Mr. Deilmann's two daughters. The crew came from many different places in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the Balkan countries.

I wish to finalize these experiences by congratulating the crew and the directors of this cruise for a job well done. The entertainment, meals and side tours were outstanding and will leave many wonderful memories with us.

Auf Wiedersehn! Erika