Monday, June 10, 2019

Munchin' in München,




Our last stop on our River Cruise was Regensburg, a small city that is both a UNESCO historical site and one of the oldest cities in Germany, being founded by Romans in the first century. The city did not sustain much damage during WWII and the center of the town retains many of its medieval buildings. They have a very old stone bridge, 1137-1145,  that is so low that the cruise ships stop here so Regensburg is usually the start or end of cruises on the Danube. 

many of the wealthy had towers built adjacent to their homes.  These were not used for anything other to to show their wealth.

The Goliath Haus mural is about 5 stories high, painted in the 12th century (retouched many times since) on one of the largest city mansions in Regensburg.


We next took a train and spent our last few days in Munich, sampling the many breweries & biergartens, touring the great Marienplatz with the famous glockenspiel clock that have moving figures during the chimes.  

the Hofbrau Haus brewery.  I was here 50 years ago!

the famous liter mugs, or Maßkrug holds a Maß (Mass)-most biergartens serve the beer in these and you have to ask specifically for a smaller amount. 

this is the "new town hall" built in the 19th century!

We took a day long bike tour through the city with Mike's Bike Tours.  They describe this tour as the best balance between fun, edutainment and history, covering a lot of history from the period of the Nationalsozialismus.  Hitler's rise actually started in Munich.  







Our group learning about the historical events that formed Hitler's Third Reich in the Odeonsplatz square
 slack line walking over the Isar River.  The Globetrotter World Slackline Masters takes place in Munich


 Surfing on the small channel of the Isar River that runs through Munich's large park.  Since the 1970's people line up to try their skill on the continuous, ice-cold ONE wave that rolls through the channel. 



The Chinese Tower- or Chinesischer Turm- is the second largest beer garden in Munich in the English Garden.  We stopped for beer and sausages here



We finally have true veal schnitzel at yet another outdoor beer garden

Well our travels have come to an end for this trip.  After 2 months it's time to head back.  This has been a great trip that took us to some countries where we were exposed to different religions, cultures, wars, languages and peoples.  I think what we learned was that the people who live in these central European countries are very proud of their ethnicity and cultural traditions.  Borders and countries change but the people remain strong to their culture. 


 guess it was time to end our travels with a hold in my walking shoes!





Good-bye - heading back to the USA on three different airlines.....
















Friday, June 7, 2019

U cruisin'

King Leopold I depicted on the Vienna Plague Column, a mercy to ending the 1679 plague


Leaving Budapest, we boarded the Danube River Cruise, "U" by Uniworld headed to Regensburg, Germany.  We found this cruise online and it looked intriguing because it is new, lower price and marketed to the younger (or young-at-heart) traveler.  At our first peak at the all-black sleek ship to the lack of classical piano music, we knew it would be different!

"U" ready for us to leave


Sail-away party on the upper deck

Karen joined one of the bike rides in Budapest
The ship carried 50 bicycles that had to be carried on and off for the bike rides
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The ship is mid-sized (120 capacity) but we only had about 80 people and while the youngest person we met was 21 and the oldest was 85, I think the average age was around 35.  The schedule & activities reflected this demographic-only 2 meals a day (brunch- for sleeping late and dinner-early enough to still go off ship), late night DJ and Silent Disco (each person moves to the sounds of their individual headphones), daily bicycle and hiking excursions and late-night walks and clubbing at our port stops. The crew, including the two captains, were casual, engaged and really seemed to enjoy customers closer to their age.

Our good-natured Dutch Captains were extremely experienced with 35 years each

We sailed through 14 locks, sometimes at night, but many during the day.  Usually the locks were big enough for two ships at once.  Each lock took about 20 minutes with an average of 10-12 meters difference and some of the "gates" rather than swing open slid down into a cement bottom under the water. We also went under many, many bridges and the wheelhouse and the "ice bar" on the upper decks had to be lowered to fit under.


(videos compliments of Mike on board with his drone)



Flag poles and anything high was also folded down

Collaping or folding down the "ice bar" to fit under the bridges

We visited three capital cities in three countries on the Danube-Budapest, Hungary; Blatislava, Slovenia; and Vienna, Austria. 

The Danube Rive

Hungarian Parliment in Budapest is right on the river's edge

Bratislava is the only national capital that borders two sovereign states-Hungary and Austria (the borders run down the middle of the Danube River) - In 1993, Slovakia separated from Czechoslovakia.  
The Executioner's House- apparently at one time Brastislava had the only executioner in the region, so he needed to identify his house for anyone needing his services!
Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising in Brastislava-or locally known as the UFO Bridge because of its observation deck
 - we were stumped at first when when our guide called it "the oo-foo bridge"



St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna-completed in 1160


this Byzantine style icon of St. Mary came from a Hungarian church when the Ottoman Turks invaded Hungary.  After claims of two miraculous incidents in 1696 when the mother in the picture shed real tears, Emperor Leopold I ordered it brought to St. Stephen's Cathedral to protect it. 

Each day we had several activities to choose from.  We mostly did the hikes to more castles, abbys and vineyards. A few evenings we went on the "pub crawl" but we usually came back early...ha ha.
Why are castle always up on hills??  In a small charming town of Durnstein, Austria that is known as the "Pearl of the Wachau" which is the valley around Durnstein.  The town is famous as the place where Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) was imprisoned by Leopold V. Duke of Austria



All along the Danube, the Bavarian towns had a May Pole in their town squares, a tradition going back to the 16th century.  The poles often have real trees attached to the top with ribbons decorating wreaths.  Some poles have carved figures that identify the various craftspeople in that town.  In some more rural towns, the tradition of single men placing a small may pole in front of their sweatheart's front door still occurs around May 1st.





the pole is often stripped of the bark so agile young men can climb in a contest.
We ended the cruise in Regensburg where we found a local beer fest and tried some local brews.  Beer is always plentiful along the Danube and we visited many beer gardens!