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The typical couple featured in Viking River Cruises
ads...yikes! Perhaps they should rethink this! |
To be honest, taking a river cruise had never really been something I'd considered seriously. I thought it might be something interesting to do when I was older...much older. However, the opportunity arose to travel with a group of friends on a Viking River Cruise on the Danube River in Europe. It would begin with a 3 night stay in Prague, and then the cruise would start in Nuremburg, Germany for a one week sailing. While I was hesitant, my husband was a very quick "Yes!( he
is 3 yrs. older than me, haha!) ", so that was it - we were booked. But I can't say I was "excited" exactly...I definitely had some trepidation. From the time we found out about it in January, 'til we cruised in the fall I did a bit of research....everything I read or saw still indicated that this was a vacation for the "blue-haired" set, old-fogey's, silver-foxes, retirees...not a group of 40-something's who like to have fun. Even the commercials on TV showed older people dressed in their slacks and sweaters, staring off into the scenery. Not an under 60 in the crowd!
Our journey would begin in Prague, then we would travel to Nuremberg by bus (approx. 4 hours) to board the ship. From Nuremberg we had stops in Regensburg, Passau, Melk, Vienna and ended up in Budapest.
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| Vitava River with Prague Castle in the background. |
After a very pleasant flight (yay for upgrades, and lie-flat seats!) I arrived in Prague for the pre-stay. Our hotel, Hotel Pachtuv Palace, was perfectly located in Old Town, central to everything, and with an amazing history attached to it - it was Mozart's former home. And as luck would have it, I had been assigned a deluxe room in part of the original house - could I be sleeping in Mozart's bedroom? Prague, despite being quite chilly and me contracting a mild case of food poisoning, turned out to be a delightful start to our vacation - we walked endlessly, viewed the amazing sights, ate delicious food, and soaked in the wonderful European ambiance.
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| Grumpy Guard! |
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| Former Palace grounds, now a lovely park open to all |
The cathedral at the Prague Palace was stunning. This hand painted- stained glass window was a highlight!
On to Nuremberg...
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| Viking Embla |
The ship itself was lovely...it had only been in service since June, so everything was still sparkly-new. Our stateroom, while definitely not spacious, had everything you could need and was very comfortable. Due to the small size, the ship was super-easy to navigate...literally 30 seconds from our stateroom to the dining room or lounge. We found the food to be very tasty, with a good selection and the freshest ingredients - in fact, the chef makes daily trips to the local markets of each city and menus are created based on what he has purchased! Breakfast was a real feast, and indeed the culinary highlight for me. But, the best part of the whole cruise was definitely having a front-row seat to all of the wonderful scenery along the Danube River. At times we were mere feet from the shore as our long-ship, the Viking Embla, floated smoothly and silently along. This style of cruising felt so intimate - a vast contrast from the mega-ships floating in the middle of the Ocean which we had become used to.
Nuremberg, Regensburg and Passau, GERMANY
My first taste of Germany was in Nuremberg. We first visited the main market square in Old Town - it was market day and I loved seeing all of the fresh vegetables, fruits and tasting the homemade gingerbread - which is more cake-like than our gingerbread cookies...it was divine! It was also here that we enjoyed the first of many bratwurst we would work our way through on this trip. Dripping with mustard, it was sooo yummy, and so unlike any I'd had before. I found myself feeling as if I had stepped into a fairytale - the architecture was so beautiful and quaint and charming. Could I, who had never had a desire to visit Germany, actually be falling in love with this country so quickly?
Picture perfect Nuremberg!
The tower is at the former home of the hangman.
Idyllic!
Not so fast.....
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| Nazi parade grounds |
We were faced with the sobering reality of Nuremberg the next day on our tour of the former Nazi parade grounds, and the Palace of Justice, where the Nuremberg trials took place. It was fitting that the skies were grey and the cold was absolutely bone-chilling. My heart felt sad at all that had taken place in this very spot. We noticed that the German people had a very humble attitude when speaking of the atrocities - they are not proud of this part of their history and it was obvious in the way they told the stories. Still, it can't be ignored, and it is important for us all to remember and to ensure that this part of history is never repeated.
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| The pedestal where Hitler gave his speeches |
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| Main river on the way to the Danube |
Next stop was Regensburg, but first we had to set off on the Main River on our way to the Danube. This would be our first experience going through the many locks (18) that we would use to traverse these waterways. It was a very exciting experience and we found the whole process fascinating. We could literally reach off our balcony and touch the walls which were mere inches from our boat. Such a brilliant engineering marvel!
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| Entering our first lock |
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| inches from the edge! |
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| We could touch the walls - super-slimy! |
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| looking waaayy up! |
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| At the top!...whole process takes about 20 minutes |
To be continued....Part 2 still to come!
Despite the continued frosty temps, we really enjoyed our morning tour. We then we had an afternoon excursion booked to the Weltenburg Abbey, famous for it's dark ale that has been brewed there by the monks since 1050! This excursion was not quite all it was cracked up to be- it took a long while to get there and to be honest there wasn't much to see. But we did have lunch - including apple strudel, which made it all worth it! - and after a quick peek in the shop it was time to head back in to town. We had one thing on our minds- in the morning we had passed a Bratwurst shop which our local guide had said was the best and orginal shop, Wurstkuchl, and had been in business for 500 years!- we knew that we HAD to try the Regensburg style of Brats...the mustard used here was their own recipe -a grainy, sweet mustard, different that the yellow mustard in Nuremberg. ( however,I preferred both the brats and mustard of Nuremberg)
Our included morning tour took us to a very special pipe organ concert in St. Stephan's Cathedral. This pipe organ is the third largest church organ in the world. It was really very beautiful and impressive to listen to, but boy those wooden pews were uncomfortable - yet somehow, several of the men in our group managed to be lulled to sleep by the hymns being played... my husband included! (He claims he was closing his eyes to really "experience" the music - yeah, right)
Of course, with all of that "hard work" making gingerbread and all, we really needed to find a little something to eat...hmmm....perhaps some Bratwurst? Yes, please! We made our way to Braueri E.F.Peschl where we not only sampled their Bratwurst, but they served us a basket of fresh out-of-the-oven pretzels! Now, these pretzels were not your dry, doughy, preservative filled, movie-theater style - there were the real deal! Yum, yum - we made quick work of that meal. We were all in heaven as we headed back to the ship, which was conveniently parked right across the street. We went up to the top deck to enjoy the views, and the slightly warmer temps. and sat there and reminisced about those pretzels and how great they were - the restaurant was just across the street. And then I got a brilliant idea! I shared it with the group and everyone agreed- my husband was going to run across the street and procure a supply of fresh pretzels, to-go! Never mind that it was a half hour before the ship was scheduled to leave - we had to have just one more pretzel!!
Andrew was met with a hero's welcome and we had enough pretzels for not just our group of friends, but all of the other travellers on the top deck. We even offered one to the Captain, who had been watching the whole spectacle quite amused, but he declined. It was an epic moment, and one that we'll all remember fondly!
Of course, with all of that "hard work" making gingerbread and all, we really needed to find a little something to eat...hmmm....perhaps some Bratwurst? Yes, please! We made our way to Braueri E.F.Peschl where we not only sampled their Bratwurst, but they served us a basket of fresh out-of-the-oven pretzels! Now, these pretzels were not your dry, doughy, preservative filled, movie-theater style - there were the real deal! Yum, yum - we made quick work of that meal. We were all in heaven as we headed back to the ship, which was conveniently parked right across the street. We went up to the top deck to enjoy the views, and the slightly warmer temps. and sat there and reminisced about those pretzels and how great they were - the restaurant was just across the street. And then I got a brilliant idea! I shared it with the group and everyone agreed- my husband was going to run across the street and procure a supply of fresh pretzels, to-go! Never mind that it was a half hour before the ship was scheduled to leave - we had to have just one more pretzel!!
Andrew was met with a hero's welcome and we had enough pretzels for not just our group of friends, but all of the other travellers on the top deck. We even offered one to the Captain, who had been watching the whole spectacle quite amused, but he declined. It was an epic moment, and one that we'll all remember fondly!
