John and Elizabeth Lucas
In 40+ years of friendship with Debbie Heath and Kevin Kelley,
we had never taken a vacation together. The Kelleys had taken
Viking river cruises in recent years and wanted us to join them
for a voyage. We agreed if it would be a substantial one -- in
the event, the Viking "Grand Tour" from Amsterdam to Budapest by
water with a extension by bus to Prague. We chose a late
September sailing to avoid the summer heat. What we didn't take
into account was the extremely hot and dry summer that Europe
experienced in 2018. Some locations had not had rain since
April.
And so, the answer the question posed by the subtitle is -- a
river cruise isn't a river cruise when there's not enough water
in the rivers to permit the ships to move. Viking and all the
other cruise ship operators had ships stuck all over Europe in
patches of rivers deep enough to float the ships. The fleets had
become something like chains of floating hotels. We did
manage to sail up the Rhein and down the Danube, though we had
to wait a half day or so for rain in Switzerland to arrive in
the Middle Rhein, enough to let us pass the Lorelei with but 3
inches (8 cm) of water under the keel. We knew before we left
that we would be using a different ship than the intended one
(as it couldn't get to Amsterdam and we never did see it). As it
turned out, we had to change ships in mid-voyage as the
Rhein-Main-Danube canal was impassable. We also couldn't sail
the Danube from Vienna to Budapest so we had to be taken by bus.
Of course, none of this was anything that the tour companies
could control. Viking did a tremendous job redefining
pickup/dropoff times and places for each day's coaches and local
guides -- long hours on mobile phones and internet each night
for the people responsible for logistics.
Wikipedia
articleA very small sample of typical Amsterdam
Yes that brownish building above is tilting!
(Left) Many of the major museums are located in the same area called the Museumplein. The Concertgebouw is also there, one of the great concert houses of the world. We didn't attend a concert there on this trip, but and his father did attend an all Brahms choral concert here in 1970; (Right) The Van Gogh Museum did not exist in 1970. At that time, its collection was housed in the Stedelijk Museum (of modern art) and much of the Van Gogh material was on tour in the US!
The Rijksmuseum focuses on the arts and history. It is the most
visited Dutch museum and the largest art museum in the
Netherlands. It is most famous for its collection of Rembrandt
and Vermeer paintings. Because of the low light levels and the
number of visitors (sometimes 10 deep in front of the most
famous paintings), we could not make acceptable photographs.
The following four photographs of paintings are from Wikimedia
Commons. (See articles on Rembrandt and Vermeer and their
respective galleries of photos.) There were too many heads in
the way and the light level was low enough that hand-held
photography of acceptable quality was impossible.
The
Night Watch (1642) by Rembrandt and Syndics
of the Drapers' Guild (1662) by Rembrandt. These are large
paintings -- The Night Watch is 17 feet long.
Wikipedia
article
The ship left Amsterdam in the late afternoon of September 28th
and we awoke on the 29th already docked at Kinderdyck, a group
of still-active windmills. As with many of the sites visited on
our tour, Kinderdyck has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage
Site.
With the exceptionally dry summer in 2018, there wasn't any
excess water to remove so all the windmills were inactive at
this time.
And this is what Kinderdyck looks like in early morning.
Wikipedia
article
Cologne is on both sides of the Rhein River with a population of
more than a million inhabitants. It was founded in the 1st
Century AD by the Romans. IT was almost completely destroyed by
British and US bombers during WW2.
Cologne
Cathedral has several distinctions:
During the Second World War, the cathedral was bombed but
survived (chiefly because it served as a landmark for flattening
the rest of the city).
Wikipedia
article
Koblenz is situated on both banks of the Rhein at the confluence
with the Moselle River . Like Cologne, it was founded by the
Romans and almost completely destroyed during WW2.
We docked at Koblenz after cruise during the night from Cologne
and past Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. While we
waited for the buses for our morning excursion, we strolled to
the nearby park at the confluence of the rivers.
Even the Moselle showed some signs of the drought. There was a
statue of Emperor
William I (1797-1888), a member of the Prussian
Hohenzollern dynasty and the first head of state of a unified
Germany. Until that time, the region was highly fragmented by
small principalities, duchies and the like, leftovers of the
Holy Roman Empire. With the reunification of Germany in this
century, William I has gotten more recognition. He was the
grandfather of "Kaiser Bill" of World War One.
South (upstream) of Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein, the river runs through a gorge with towns, two railroads and networks of highways as well as dense river traffic . On the heights every mile or two is a castle or palace. Most were constructed 1100-1300 and served two purposes for the local nobility:
Castles may be ruins, private homes or hotels (burghotels).
While we were still docked in Koblenz, we took an excursion to
the Marksburg
Castle, about 10 kilometers upstream on the eastern side
of the river. The castle was built c. 1117 and was never
destroyed, although heavily damaged in World War Two. It is the
headquarters of the German Castle Association.
The parking lot is at the ridgeline at the left. Touring the
castle includes ascending 100 feet or so by stairs or a lane and
then confronting difficult walking conditions in the lower parts
of the castle. But the effort is well worth it.
Arms and armor; medieval string and wind instruments
Wikipedia
article
At Mainz, we turned away from the Rhein and began to ascend the
Main River past Wiesbaden and Frankfurt am Main. Although we
were able to make good time between locks, the time it takes to
go through a lock drastically lowers the average speed.
There are a lot of locks, but they helped to keep the water
level close to peak levels on the Main.
At Würzburg, we did not have a city tour, but did visit the Würzburg Residence, a palace built 1720-1744 for the Prince-Bishops. We could not take pictures inside so to view the opulent-to-excess interior, including the world's largest fresco, see the link for the residence in this paragraph.
Front facade:
Rear facade and gardens:
Wikipedia
article
The city has about 11,000 inhabitants (2000 in the old town) and
is one of the best preserved medieval towns. It was founded in
1170 , and besieged in the 30 Years’ War, 1631.
Several films have used Rothenburg: parts of Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm,
and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 and 2. It is
said to be the inspiration for village in Pinocchio. It
was a must-see feature of our trip.
Klingentorturm and town wall
Central market square and an obvious spiral staircase
Fountain showing St. George and the dragon; town gate and road
leading down to the river
Panoramic view along the town walls; the view down to the Tauber
River and the medieval bridge
Wikipedia
article
Bamberg is situated on the Regnitz River , and like many cities,
it controlled the trade on the river (the principal highway at
the time). It was first mentioned 902 AD.
(Left) The neighborhood on the right bank was called Little
Venice, as it was the home of fishermen and watermen. An 20th
century entrepreneur acquired a Venetian gondola to capture
tourist euros.
Wikipedia
article
At this point we had to transfer to another ship in the Danube
River basin as the Rhein-Main-Danube Canal was impassable. So
packed our bags (which went by truck to Passau, Germany) and
left the Viking Lif, having a city tour of Nuremberg
and lunch before continuing on to Passau and boarding the Viking
Embla.
Although notorious for the pre-WW2 Nazi rallies and post-war
war crime trials, Nuremberg has a long political and cultural
history. It was a major medieval trade center. Most of city was
destroyed by Allied bombing during WW2 (including the castle)
but has been rebuilt and reconstructed where there were
sufficient plans of what had stood.
The bus tour of the city did not stop anywhere until we reached
the castle, but we saw parts of the city including the surviving
Nazi
structures. The picture below is the inside wall of the
Congress Hall, a semicircular domed structure that was never
finished nor even roofed. We also saw the Zeppelin Field where
the massive rallies took place, but the bus didn't stop to allow
pictures.
Nuremberg
Castle had its origins about 1000 AD and went through
several periods of construction over the next 300 years. It was
ruined in the Second World War and took 30 years to reconstruct.
The photo on the right shows the view from the castle over the
city. Almost everything in the view has been (re)constructed
since WW2.
Regensburg dates from Roman times. Unlike many Germans cities,
it was largely untouched by World War Two. For about 150 years,
Regensburg served as an unofficial capital of the Holy Roman
Empire as the Imperial
Diet met there in the town hall.
The Stone
Bridge is Regensberg's most famous feature. It was built
1135-1146, a thousand feet long in 16 arches or spans. The
bridge served as a model for other contemporaneous bridges in
London, Dresden, Prague, and Avignon. The Second Crusade used
the bridge just after it was built.
(Left) Crossing the Stone Bridge to the town. The building next
to the clock tower is the salt store -- a medieval warehouse
serving the salt trade comidown the rivers. Partly seen to its
left is the tiny Regensburg
Sausage Kitchen; (Right) A closeup of the Regensburg
Sausage Kitchen, perhaps the oldest continuously open restaurant
in the world. (This photo is by Manuel Strehl, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=804637)
When we were there you couldn't see the building for the hordes
of people, tourists and townspeople alike. So I had to borrow a
photo to show you.
(Left) A surviving fragment of the 179 AD Roman wall; (Right)
The Regensburg Town Hall. The Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman
Empire met in this building.
Another street scene in Regensburg. Note the wall painting of
David and Goliath on the left.
While ship was anchored at Passau, Germany, we took an all day
bus trip to Salzburg, Austria. (Other passengers chose the
Oktoberfest in Munich.) Salzburg was part of the Roman Empire in
15 BC. Today, it's famous as the location of the story of Sound
of Music (hundreds of thousands of tourists come each year
just to visit the film's outdoor locations). But Salzburg was
also the birthplace of Wolfgang Mozart, Christian Doppler
(Doppler effect), and Josef Mohr (Silent Night, first
performed 200 years ago this Christmas Eve in nearby Oberndorf)
Mirabell
Palace was built about 1606 for the Prince-Archbishop and
his mistress (!) until he was deposed in 1612. The gardens were
the film location for the song Do-Re-Mi. Our local guide
told us that when she first started doing tours, she attempted
to sing and dance around the fountain as Julie Andrews had in
the film. Unfortunately, she fell in! She apologized for not
giving us a performance. (Right) The gray building on the left
is the Mozarteum
University Salzburg (a world famous music conservatory).
In the distance is the Hohensalzburg
Fortress.
(Left) Salzburg has a "lock bridge" like Paris and some other
European cities. A newly engaged couple places a lock on the
bridge and throws the key into the river symbolizing their love.
Many of the locks are heart-shaped or have initials painted on
them (like carving initials in a tree). Our guide said she would
trust a fiance who used a combination lock! (Right) The building
in which Mozart was born; during his teenage years, the
family lived at another location (also a museum) before
eventually settling in Vienna for the rest of his short life.
(Left) We looked in the Petersfriedhof
or St. Peter's Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Salzburg. John
was looking for the graves of Nannerl Mozart (his elder sister),
Michael Haydn (younger brother of Joseph), and Heinrich Biber.
Unfortunately, we did not have the locations of the crypts or
graves for any of them. (Right) The Petersfriedhof lies directly
below the Hohensalzburg Fortress.
We ate lunch in an historic inn while four students from the
Mozarteum performed excerpts from The Sound of Music.
They were good as expected, but John at least would have
preferred Salzburger musik (Ländler, waltzes, mazurkas,
polkas) rather than American Broadway.
A final view of the Salzach River, the town and the fortress.
Coat
of arms of the town not the abbey.
Wikipedia
article
Melk Abbey is a Benedictine monastery, founded in 1089. The
monastery and school are still active. The abbey sits on a high
bluff overlooking the Danube River and the town of Melk (5257
inhabitants, first mentioned in 831).
Interior photography is not permitted, so please do follow the link to the Wikipedia article for a gallery of photographs.
(Left) Melk Abbey from river level; (Right) the entranceway to
Melk Abbey. We took the bus up to the abbey, but walked back
down to the ship.
(Left) The Prelate's Courtyard; (Right) Melk Abbey gardens, the
orangery or conservatory
(Left) The view back toward the abbey from the orangery; (Right)
One of several groups of decorative ravens (?)
A view in the town of Melk. Note the abbey above and behind the
cafes.
As the pictures of Melk Abbey show, the day dawned dark and gray, but by the time we walked back to the ship, it had cleared nicely. The afternoon was devoted to cruising the 25 mile gorge of the Danube between Melk and Krems -- it was a glorious afternoon: clear, slanting golden later afternoon sun, warm (for October), and only a light following wind. Absolutely perfect photography conditions!
The Wachau Valley is not as precipitous as the Rhein Gorge, but
like the Rhein, the Danube does have castles (intact and in
ruins), picturesque towns, and vineyards.
(Left) Schloss
Schönbühel (c.1125, privately owned?); Aggstein
Castle (c.1125, ruin)
(Left) Schwallenbach; (Right) Hinterhaus (near the town of
Spitz)
(Left) Wösendorf; (Right) Weißenkirchen
(German language)
Two views of Dürnstein.
In the photograph on the right, Dürnstein
Castle (ruin) is seen above the town. This was one of the
castles where King Richard I of England (Lion-Hearted) was held
for ransom by Duke Leopold V of Austria after the Third Crusade.
Benedictine Abbey of Göttweig
in the distance (perhaps 12 miles, 20 km) behind Hundsheim. We
think we could just see the abbey from Vienna, perhaps 25 miles
(40km) away and on the horizon.
2.6 million people in the metro area, almost a third of all
Austrians. It was part of the Roman Empire, from 15 BC. It was
heavily damaged in WW2 around railway station and bridges.
Vienna is judged to be one of the most livable and prosperous
cities in the world.
The Hofburg
is the former winter residence of the Habsburg dynasty and the
present home and office of the president of Austria. See the
article for the floor plan and description of the various wings
and buildings. (Left) Hofburg, Imperial Chancellery Wing;
(Right) Hofburg, St. Michael's Wing
(Left) A few of the 68 Lipizzan stallions. The Spanish
Riding School (an organization) uses the Winter Riding
School (a place in the Hofburg) for performances in Vienna.
There is also a summer used in July and August. We did not see a
performance, but these horses were being moved from their
stables (pictured) to the Winter Riding School.
St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna dominates the skyline of the
center city.
This, believe it or not, is not a church -- it's the city
hall of Vienna. The Roncalli Circus was occupying the
square in front of it.
The "summer place" of the Habsburgs was the Schönbrunn
Palace, a mere 1441 rooms. As for many of the other
buildings, see the corresponding Wikipedia articles for the
interior photographs. (Left) Schönbrunn Palace, front facade;
(Right) Schönbrunn Palace, rear facade
Scenes from the gardens of the Schönbrunn Palace. The Gloriette
(left photo) is just an ornamental structure, akin to the idea
of a "folly" in a British garden.
As with Vienna to Austria, so Budapest is to Hungary -- the
capital and home to a third of the country's population. We were
supposed to cruise from Vienna to Budapest, but the Danube was
closed on that stretch because of the water level. So we
traveled by bus, throwing the schedule out of kilter again, and
this time, Viking had no ships in Budapest so we had to be put
up in a five-star hotel, the New
York Palace Budapest. As in Vienna, one of our excursions
was canceled -- this time because of the bus travel. We did have
a city tour which did stop in several places.
Budapest started as Buda (a town mostly atop the bluffs
overlooking the Danube) and Pest (a town across the Danube
facing Buda and mostly flat). The two were finally united in
1873.
Buda
Castle was first completed in 1265 but the present
structure dates from the middle of the 18th century. It now
houses the national gallery and history museum.
Also on the bluffs near Buda Castle is the Matthias
Church (Our Lady of Buda)
The Hungarian
Parliament Building is probably the most famous site in
Budapest. It is claimed that the building is
This view is from the Buda side near the Matthias Church
Another famous Budapest site is the Széchenyi
Chain Bridge (built 1840-1849, blown up by the Nazis in
1945, and reopened in 1949).
Looking upstream of the Danube River (blue for once), the Margaret
Bridge and some of Pest.
The Kelleys and we were among the 10 people from our ship (and
another 10 from another Viking ship) who chose to extend their
trips to include Prague. This was always scheduled to be an
all-day (at least 500 km) bus journey and not a river cruise.
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic,
part of the former Czechoslovakia, and earlier the Kingdom of
Bohemia. Prague is a very popular tourist destination, 8.5
million international tourists in a country of 10 million
residents. It seemed like they were all in Prague the week we
were there.
Like the Hofburg in Vienna and the president of Austria, so Prague
Castle is the office and residence of the president of the
Czech Republic. We followed the inevitable red lollipop as we
toured the courtyards within the castle but none of the
interiors.
(Left) A well cover in one of the castle's courtyards; (Right) A
statue of St. George and the Dragon
Within Prague Castle is the Metropolitan
Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert, built
1344-1929 (with interruptions)
The Charles
Bridge has special significance in our family -- our son
Alex proposed to our daughter-in-law Renee on this bridge. If he
had tried it while we were there, he'd have been trampled by the
hordes of people. It is a pedestrian bridge, built 1357-1402,
with 16 arches (like Regensburg). (Left) The Charles Bridge and
the Vltava (Moldau) River looking toward the Old Town; (Right)
Charles Bridge, four of the 30 statues, Malá Strana Bridge
Tower, and the St. Vitus Cathedral on the bluff behind the tree.
(Left) Status of Emperor Charles
IV (1316-1378), after whom the bridge is named; (Right)
The Old Town Bridge Tower (Old Town end of the Charles Bridge)
(Left) The Old Town Square with the Church
of Our Lady before Týn, the Old Town City Hall (partly on
the left) and Prague Astronomical Clock; (Right)
Detail of the Prague
Astronomical Clock, the oldest (1410) astronomical clock
still operating. See the article for a detailed explanation of
the clock. The crowds in Old Town Square were waiting for the
hourly display, with the skeleton tolling the bell. The clock
was under reconstruction during 2018 and only resumed operation
two weeks before we arrived.
Note
the heraldic beasts holding miner's tools with their feet!
These towns are about 50 miles east of Prague, more or less in
the center of what is now the Czech Republic. Sedlec is a town
on the plain surrounding the Sedlec
Abbey (built 1142, burned 1421 by the Hussites, dissolved
1783, restored 1854-1857). Sedlec also contains (Left) the Church
of the Assumption of Our Lady and Saint John the Baptist,
in its present form completed in 1706 in a unique style called
Baroque Gothic; (Right) The Sedlec
Ossuary, Catholic chapel housing the bones between 40,000
and 70,000
people.
Ossuaries aren't unusual; there are catacombs under many older
cities including Rome and Paris to name just two. What is
bizarre, macabre is what has been done to the remains. What was
supposedly a project to "put the bone heaps into order," turned
into this, a chandelier made from at least one of every bone in
the human body (John wonders about the middle ear and the hyoid
bone). Other "furniture" and decorations as well, including the
"artist's" signature! We found this mildly upsetting, not for
the bones themselves but the "playing" with them in a
commissioned project!
Kutna
Hora lies on a ridge perhaps two miles from Sedlec. It was
founded more or less at the same time as Sedlec Monastery, 1142.
Within a century, silver was being mined under Kutna Hora. For
300 hundred years or so, silver was extracted, making this blue
collar town a rival for Prague in wealth and political power.
The boom times came to end by 1546 when the richest mine
flooded. Other catastrophes were Thirty 30 Years' War, repeated
epidemics of plague, and finally in 1770, fire.
Nonetheless, Kutna Hora is unusual because it is a medieval
town built in stone. Elsewhere, on the very rich could
afford to build in stone. (Left) the Church
of St. Barbara and Jesuit College (and an ancient vineyard
on the side of the hill); (Right) A figure from inside the
Church of St. Barbara, the patron saint of miners. The church is
unusual that the statues and wall paintings often portray the
common people at work and not just religious themes.
The Jesuit College
The Church of St. James
We ate our final lunch on this European tour at the Restaurant Dačický, the
last of many historic restaurants we visited.
That evening back in Prague, we had a dinner with performances
of traditional Czech music (violin, bass and cimbalom plus
singers and dancers). (No pictures taken)
And so we flew home with more than 3000 photographs taken in
three weeks, about the weekly average for our major trips.