Danube River Cruise

We've spent the past week on the Danube River sailing out of Passau Germany, through Austria and Slovakia, and then into Budapest, Hungary.  The Viking Vilhjalm riverboat below - one of the longest boats you'll ever see on a river! 

If you come to the Danube you will see plenty of longships.

We spent the first night and the next day in Passau, Germany.   Another charming, walkable downtown with cobblestone streets, public squares, historic churches. The views never get old.

Saint Stephen's Cathedral

We visited St. Stephen's Cathedral which has the second-largest cathedral organ in the world - almost 18,000  pipes.  And we enjoyed an organ concert. Or at least the first songs of an organ concert - we cut out a bit early as some of us were getting bored.

Passau is where three rivers meet - the Danube, the Inn and Ilz.  

There's a park on the point where the rivers meet.

The next day we sailed into Linz, Austria. Just one more beautiful European city along the river.

The modern art museum in Linz on the bank of the Danube.

In the afternoon we went on a tour of the Voëstalpine Steel Factory - one of Europe's largest steel producers. We were offered a guided tour of the museum on the corporate campus and then a tour of the factory. Voëstalpine recently opened a steel plant in Corpus Christi, Texas and the display about this in the museum featured many cartoon cowboys. 

We yawned through the museum tour - and were wide awake when it came time to watch the hot molten pig iron made from hematite and coke flowing like a river in the factory.

After another night of sailing, we docked in Melk, Austria.  We roamed around town, and then visited the gardens of the 900 year old Melk Abbey - high up the hillside with a view over the river.

Beautiful drinking fountain

Melk Abbey from below

We left Melk in the early afternoon and took in the views along the river.

Later in the afternoon we arrived in Dürnstein, Austria - a tiny river town with a population of 500. Many of the homes here date back to the 16th century. Vineyards line the hillsides.  It was a short stay, but enough time to get in a picturesque hike up to the castle - mostly in ruins. 

The Kuenringerburg Castle is high up on the hill in the distance.

View from the castle

Next stop - Vienna.  We spent the day on our own touring the city.  Highlights were the Schönbrunn Palace and Gardens, the Vienna Zoo and a stop in one of the traditional coffee houses of Vienna.

The Schönbrunn Palace.

The gardens and greenhouse.

The Vienna Zoo. We missed the Panda bears back in Bejing and were hoping we would have another chance on the trip. Turns out they have Pandas in Vienna!

A traditional coffee house in Vienna - very formal.  I don't believe we saw a single Starbucks in Vienna!

Another day, another stop along the river.  Bratislava, Slovakia. They keep you moving on these cruises! Carol and the kids took a trip to a small village outside of Bratislava where they met a family who had lived on the same farm for quite a few generations. Prior to World War II, through the Russian occupation, and today. It was interesting to learn how life has changed here over the decades.

Our host and her husband come from a long line of ceramics artisans and they made and sold ceramics full time for most of their lives. After the "Velvet Divorce" dissolved Czechoslovakia in 1993, Slovakia has changed. Her husband now works at the Kia auto plant. They make ceramics only as a hobby now. They also use wax and paint to make beautiful eggshells. Here's Cameron learning how.  

I loved this manhole cover.

Back on the ship we enjoyed traveling through many locks along the way - the largest lock below.  Notice the depth change - we started up at the top of those concrete walls before dropping about twenty feet.

We also enjoyed some shuffleboard on the upper deck. We learned that the shuffleboard equipment is called "biscuits and tangs".  So much useful information we're learning that will come in handy when we get back home!

Notice Allison's score. She had the yellow biscuits. 

We were  fortunate to sail into Budapest, Hungary at about 9:30 on Friday evening.  The city is lit up like no other at night.  Every historical building (and there are lots of these) are glowing on both sides of the river as you sail in.  Quite a sight!



We did spend one more day on the ship here in Budapest. It was nice staying in one room for seven nights but all in all, we'd probably choose to explore places like these by car on our own. Even though we might not see as many things, we wouldn't be rushing through to the next place. One thing we've discovered on this trip is that we'd rather settle in fewer places and miss a few things than zip through trying to see everything.

We're staying here in Budapest on our own for four more days after we leave the ship - so our next post will fill in the Budapest details.