I realize my readership has fallen off precipitously since Connie has started posting our trips day by day on Facebook. So now there will be fewer photos, fewer complete sentences, and more info I feel like I need to be able to find to remember the specifics of each trip.
Monday, Sept. 7- arrival in Budapest, walk across the river on the chain bridge, around to St. Stephen's Basilica (named for the King Stephen who brought Christianity to Hungary about the same time as Vladimir brought it to Russia) then to Dohany Street Synagogue and the Jewish quarter, then up Andrassy Avenue past Alexandra book store without going to the top floor (a mistake), and to Hachipuri Georgian food restaurant for dinner.
Tuesday, Sept. 8- castle area tour with Sonja, meeting with Adel from ALB and Miklos from TG. Sonja teaches Jewish history at the University (not the one funded by George Soros). We covered the sieges, the Kings, conversion to Christianity, St. Matthias and that church, the architectural details worked into the newer buildings, the two countries/ one king idea for Austro Hungary, the relation of 896 to 1896 and the surge in building in Budapest to rival Vienna.
Back to the hotel for my meeting and then more walking- toward Parliament to see Shoes on the River memorial (see the 1985 or so movie "The Music Box" with Jessica Lange about WWII, the Budapest Jewish population, what the shoes stand for, and the Arrow Cross Nazi sympathizers) and found the Attila Joseph statue (popular 20th century Hungarian poet who committed suicide at 32 by jumping in front of a train) then a long search for the Carl Lutz memorial (Swiss consul during WWII who rescued a number of Jews like Raoul Wallenburg of Sweden and the local papal legate Alberto Rotti) by giving them exit visas- now among those called "Righteous Among the Nations" by Israel.
Back to the hotel for my meeting and then more walking- toward Parliament to see Shoes on the River memorial (see the 1985 or so movie "The Music Box" with Jessica Lange about WWII, the Budapest Jewish population, what the shoes stand for, and the Arrow Cross Nazi sympathizers) and found the Attila Joseph statue (popular 20th century Hungarian poet who committed suicide at 32 by jumping in front of a train) then a long search for the Carl Lutz memorial (Swiss consul during WWII who rescued a number of Jews like Raoul Wallenburg of Sweden and the local papal legate Alberto Rotti) by giving them exit visas- now among those called "Righteous Among the Nations" by Israel.
Wednesday, Sept. 9- communist tour with Kata, heads still spinning from the details of Hungarian history and revisions going on, then to the ship. I had to make diagrams about the spectra of politics here. The communist tour also was an architectural tour. It seems like Hungary is heading backwards politically, more intolerant, more nationalist, more autocratic, like the Putin model in Russia.
To the River Princess in the afternoon.
Thursday, Sept. 10- Budapest Do As the Locals Do walking tour- two metros (oldest and newest), two trams, two markets (locals mostly for food, and tourist one for souvenirs and food), Szamos coffee and chocolate shop.
Friday, Sept. 11 Captain's lecture about the ship
25 locks, 16 on main Danube, 9 on Main- Danube Canal
Booking for stays complete for 2016, starting on 2017
River Princess built in 2001, in Netherlands
Trip is 865 km from Budapest to Nuremburg
Upriver ship has right of way
Fuel capacity about 25000 gallons
Water making about 80000 gallons
2 Deutz 1100 hp engines
No charts, only computers
Constantly monitoring water level- ship's bridge can go up and down to get under low bridges
Draft about 2 meters; country border is middle of river
Sewage treatment- 4 tanks for the plant
Uni World 12 ships, newest is Maria Theresa 2015
Viking launches 10 ships per year; Viking moving to Longships, which are 135 meters vs about 100 meters. Creates docking problems.
Friday, Sept. 11- Vienna
It took a full 24 hours to get from Budapest to Vienna.
We went on the Vienna Arts City tour and stopped at the Belvedere to see a lot of Klimts, a Van Gogh, and a Munch. We saw The Kiss and a couple of portraits plus a Judith, and then several by one of his students who was an expressionist. The Belvedere was a Hapsburg palace, one of 5 Prince Eugene owned but did not spend much time in.
After that we had a short drive to the Kunsthammer, the national museum, which holds lots of Old Masters including Rembrandt, Reubens, Brueghel (the battle between Carnival and Lent) and a Vermeer- The Art of Painting.
Connie and I then decided to work our way back to the ship on our own. We walked thru a huge park/plaza where Hitler held a rally for 600,000 people, by yet another giant baroque palace, onto a pedestrian shopping street to St. Stephen's Church (named for the martyr, not the Hungarian king) where an organization called Caritas was holding a fund drive for the Syrian refugees. We went up in the tower by elevator, then walked to the metro for a couple of stops to get back to the boat.
Plenty here for another day, especially with a private guide.
We skipped the Mozart and Strauss concert at a local abbey.
Saturday, Sept. 12- Spitz, Melk Abbey, and the Wachau Valley
After landing in Spitz we left the ship for the main event of the day which was a visit to Melk Abbey, a Benedictine monastery famous for the baroque decor, its library, and as the location for the movie called Name of the Rose. One enters down a staircase of 66 steps into a series of courtyards. To the left there is a 200 meter passageway with the former imperial (Babenburg then Hapsburg kings) apartments. In these apartments now is an educational suite showing off some of the relics and videos of the even more precious and therefore well hidden relics-the usual jaws and ribs of saints and a famous bejeweled cross with a compartment holding a splinter of the original cross (!).
From there one walks across an open way with a view of the Danube or at least the old channel of the Danube in both directions and enter the famous library. There are books not library scrolls like one thinks of in a monastery but this monastery is not from the Middle Ages. There are thousands of books in each room. We saw a room with 9000 and one with 6000 but there were more rooms. At one time there was a fire and so the next renovation included bookcases doubling as doors to let in natural light so no candles would have to be used. After going down a spiral staircase with a mirror in the curve so visitors can appreciate the full spiral, we entered the church itself. The only way to describe the baroque style we have seen in Budapest, Vienna, and now Melk is "totally over the top". There is no way to capture how ornate and gold everything seems to be. It also had some hints of the macabre- there was one side chapel dedicated to a "so-called" saint, named Clemons but no one really knew his name, where one sees his skeleton decorated with green paint and feathers(?).
From there one walks across an open way with a view of the Danube or at least the old channel of the Danube in both directions and enter the famous library. There are books not library scrolls like one thinks of in a monastery but this monastery is not from the Middle Ages. There are thousands of books in each room. We saw a room with 9000 and one with 6000 but there were more rooms. At one time there was a fire and so the next renovation included bookcases doubling as doors to let in natural light so no candles would have to be used. After going down a spiral staircase with a mirror in the curve so visitors can appreciate the full spiral, we entered the church itself. The only way to describe the baroque style we have seen in Budapest, Vienna, and now Melk is "totally over the top". There is no way to capture how ornate and gold everything seems to be. It also had some hints of the macabre- there was one side chapel dedicated to a "so-called" saint, named Clemons but no one really knew his name, where one sees his skeleton decorated with green paint and feathers(?).
The patron saint of Melk is Coloman, an Irish monk in the 1500s who tried to walk to Jerusalem but was thought to be a spy and hung. His memory is now meant to be a warning against xenophobia, which they have needed but not heeded in this area in the past.
After Melk we returned to the ship and Connie and I went for a walk around town. We ended up in a beer garden for bikers enjoying an outing along the path by the river. I could not believe how tall the beers were or how many the sparse crowd drank.
Wachau Valley reminds me of the Rhine Valley- castles, villages, parish churches. The Danube here is similar too. Water level very low.
In the afternoon, Christian Basel, a guest lecturer from Vienna, gave a special lecture on the Jews in Vienna and Austria from 1780 to the present. Although we had heard a lot about Empress Maria Theresa, mother of 16 children in 20 years, mother of Marie Antoinette, in Vienna, the Vienna guides did not tell us about how anti-Semitic she was.
I wish I had a copy of Herr Basel's slides- he talked about Cristallnacht in 1938, about the growth and then shrinkage of the Jewish population, about the synagogue that survived because the Nazis knew it contained the genealogical records, about the numbers of doctors, lawyers etc, and the famous Jewish families and individuals in Vienna.
Sunday, Sept. 13- Engelhartszell to Passau, from Austria into Germany
Today we (Connie mostly, and I decided to test myself) opted for a 16 mile 24 km bike ride along the river. The ship left us at Engehartszell and went on upriver to Passau. Worrisome feeling watching it go.
It was a beautiful day and the biking was ok- I really liked the hand holds and the gear shift but the seat got uncomfortable halfway along. It was a little worrisome to watch the ship with clothes, passports and everything else pull away. I probably caused the one mishap on the ride when I startled a guy I was trying to pass ("on your left") and he screeched his brakes and then hit the side wall. Lots of traffic from recreational bikers and the fully Italian bike shirt types.
It was a beautiful day and the biking was ok- I really liked the hand holds and the gear shift but the seat got uncomfortable halfway along. It was a little worrisome to watch the ship with clothes, passports and everything else pull away. I probably caused the one mishap on the ride when I startled a guy I was trying to pass ("on your left") and he screeched his brakes and then hit the side wall. Lots of traffic from recreational bikers and the fully Italian bike shirt types.
In the afternoon in Passau we did our own tour wandering around and into yet another St. Steven's church.
The church was most famous for a Madonna called Mary with a Cherry. Remember we had just seen the Madonna with Strawberries back in Switzerland. This Mary and Baby Jesus have the same hair line.
Elizabeth Von Trapp, the granddaughter of the baron came on board in the late afternoon for some singing and guitar playing.
Monday, Sept. 14- Regensburg, with the best guides so far.
Guide used a carpenter's wooden ruler 2 meters long to describe 2000 years of history in Regensburg beginning with the Romans. Connie went on the Jewish tour and though the town is very compact, somehow she and I only managed to see a couple of the same things.
Salt and spices, height of tower measured one's wealth; if in debt, one could take down a couple of floors and give them to one's lender.
Random thought- we are on the same latitude as Newfoundland or the 49th parallel.
Our bus guide Hans is a friend of the Von Trapps and yodelled for Maria on her 90th and 95th birthdays.
Today we learned our fate, which is that the water level is too low to go by boat thru the Danube Main Canal to Nuremburg, and in fact we can't get to Regensburg so we stopped at Vilshofen. I heard from the guide on the bus second hand that no ship has gone beyond V for 4 weeks. So much for full disclosure.
Tuesday, Sept. 15- a day of R&R in Vilshofen
Walk around town. Took a photo of the 4 ships stacked up here because they can't go further, yet we did see a Tauck ship, the Jewel, go by in the opposite direction- wonder how it got thru?
In the afternoon Connie and I went for a short bike ride along the Danube. The bike paths here are great! The bike path we used had an exhibit of the solar system with a marker for each planet proportionally placed. We got just past Saturn.
So far on this trip I have to say Connie and I have been pretty good about watching our food intake. Only 2 nights of dessert (key lime pie and apple strudel), minimum wine and beer, and sticking with cereal at breakfast.
Wednesday, Sept. 16- a long, long day starting early by packing up for the move to Prague, then a 2 hour bus ride to Nuremburg. Connie went on the town tour to learn about N as the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, under Charlemagne (?), while I went on the WWII N tour.
Then a four hour bus ride to Prague.
Well, it was a longer day than predicted. Connie and I separated for the first part of the day because we were on those different tours. My group's bus ride to Nuremburg, while showing us beautiful countryside, took much longer than expected due to road construction.
In Nuremburg we first pulled up to the Documentation Center which is the museum about the rise of the Nazis and WWII. We next went to Zeppelin Field where an early Zeppelin did land but it was the coliseum like structure used for several party rallies. Now it is a park and race car track. Next to it is the ruin of the Nazi Congress Hall, which was going to be a Superdome like structure with cantilevered roof but the war interrupted construction.
The Doc Center was interesting but crowded and we were rushed. There were lots of German school children- they are required to learn about the Nazis so history doesn't repeat (although it seems to be trying, as we heard in Hungary).
We were supposed to go to visit Room 600 in the Palace of Justice but it is an active courtroom used for murder trials now and there was one going on. In the 1946 trials 24 were indicted but Hitler and two others committed suicide. Goring was the biggest fish on trial. I think 15 were sentenced to hang but Goring got some cyanide somehow ahead of the date. Hesse got a life sentence but then killed himself in 1987 at the age of 93.
Our tour rushed to town to meet the others and get some lunch but we were still a half hour late so I never saw Nuremburg except from the bus (which, in my opinion, is a terrible way to see a place because you can't tell what the guide is pointing to and half the views are above the roofline of the bus so you can't really see them). However I did meet Connie so we got to ride together for the 4 hours to Prague.
Thursday, Sept 17- Prague, 1.8 mm people, lots of traffic and spread. But, in the castle area and toward the town one does get the feeling one has been dropped back a century or more.
Our tour went to the castle area (more churches including Saint Vitus which has sponsored stained glass windows!), walked thru the site of the "defenestration of Prague" which started the 30 Years War, and then the Golden Lane, where I bought a copy of Kafka's Country Doctor which he wrote while staying in that very house (more like a cubby hole). Connie came back with me there and figured out that the bookseller knew and loved Russian so as she and Connie were chatting her line of customers backed up.
After the castle the group walked the long descent back to the Old Town Square thru Venice of Prague, across the famous Charles Bridge (noting the statue of Saint John Nepomook (took the queen's confession and wouldn't tell the king so he was thrown off the bridge and acquired a halo of 5 stars while falling), by the house where Kafka was born, and then right by the old Jewish Quarter. Connie had another tour so we needed a quick lunch and decided on Thai food. Why not, we were in Prague?
Friday, Sept 18- home without a hitch, even 5 pm DC traffic wasn't too bad.
Wednesday, Sept 30- I did not do so well on the concept of fewer photos.
Wednesday, Sept 30- I did not do so well on the concept of fewer photos.
