So Many Dishes

I had lots of good intentions about posting while on our trip. Unfortunately, intentions didn’t result in actions. I posted about our adventures traveling to Europe, and also about some of the food we ate. But you have all had to wait until we got home for me to write about the places we went and the things we did. Not to worry, I took lots of pictures.

We started our tour in Passau, an old German town important to the salt trade. The Danube, Inn, and Ilz rivers converge here, and it’s a beautiful medieval town. We enjoyed walking through the old, narrow streets, and climbing the hill to a tour the Baroque St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

After our formal walking tour, Ken and I explored a bit, walking to the point where the Danube and Inn converge. The water of the Inn is green because of being glacier-fed, with a much stronger current. We also walked across a bridge and back so that we could say we’d crossed the Danube. This was just lovely scenery, and we wished we’d had more time in Passau.

Day 2, for us, was an all-day excursion to the medieval town of Cesky Krumlov in southern Bohemia, in the Czech Republic, while the ship was docked in Linz, Austria. Yes, we had visited Cesky Krumlov when we were living in CR in 1993, and were interested in seeing any changes. There certainly were plenty! Where before, the entire town looked as if it needed pressure washing, now all the buildings are clean and brightly colored. I remember lots of scaffolding around church and castle towers, but those have all been restored. The town is a big tourist destination, as it’s a UNESCO world heritage site, so there are lots of shops and restaurants now. It was an interesting visit.

Wednesday was a highlight of the cruise. The morning saw our ship sailing through the Wachau Valley, one of the most scenic parts of the Danube. We found a spot on the top deck to enjoy the sights. I took just a few pictures 😂 And, because the valley is known for growing apricots as well as wine grapes, we were served apricot brandy as we entered the gorge. Quite the way to start the day.

We stopped at Krems for a late morning tour of Gottweig Abbey, a Benedictine monastery established in the 11th century that is still active today. It is quite an impressive complex that has been rebuilt several times, following fires. In the early 18th century, imperial apartments were built, and the Baroque staircase in that building has a huge fresco on the ceiling that can only be called a masterpiece. It’s breathtaking.

A river cruise is different from ocean cruising, in that the things to do onboard are rather limited. That’s fine with us. But we did attend a lecture about the Danube one afternoon, and a demonstration on making apple strudel, which has me inspired to give it a try. We would usually go to the lounge after dinner; the musician who was aboard was excellent. Our program director was a good singer, too—he had been a cruise performer earlier in his career—and he and I harmonized on a few songs. The evening highlight, though, was the night that we, along with two couples we got to know, won the team trivia contest! We enjoyed the prize the next day, before dinner.

So, reports on three ports. Three more to go. Part 2 comes tomorrow.