Uniworld River Beatrice, 4/10/16 Budapest to Passau

[jpalbny]

Thursday, April 14 - the church at Melk Abbey

 

We had a brief tour of the library, with its beautiful ceiling frescoes, but no pictures were allowed. There are some descriptions of the library on the Abbey's website (http://www.stiftmelk.at). On the way out we passed through a small room with a nicely decorated spiral staircase.

 

 

On to the church - an overwhelming display of gold and marble.

 

 

Again, impressive ceiling frescoes here.

 

 

Two altars - the first is the main altar, with the two topmost figures being the saints Peter and Paul. The second altar holds the sarcophagus of St. Coloman. He was martyred in 1012 and his remains brought here in 1014.

 

 

One other relic, the skeleton of St. Freidrich, a gift to the church from Maria Theresa. There is some controversy about these "catacomb saints" whose remains were taken from Roman catacombs and distributed to churches throughout Europe. Nonetheless, it's certainly an interesting display!

 

 

At this point our guided tour is finished, so we headed back outside to check the weather. We have to decide whether to take a leisurely stroll back to the boat, or just take a bus ride.

[jpalbny]

Thursday, April 14 - Playing Tourist at Melk Abbey

 

So the weather didn't look too bad when we exited the church. The exit puts you out one level down from the balcony (two posts back) so of course, we had to do the tourist thing and take some more pictures...

 

 

We headed back to the exit and were delighted to find the inner courtyard completely empty! A great photo opportunity.

 

 

Despite the somewhat bold bright colors, it really is a pretty structure with lots of nice decorative elements. It was definitely a nice place to see.

 

 

We have to make sure we have all permutations of this picture covered.

 

 

And one more overview for good measure, on the way out.

 

 

OK, time to head down. It's 5:15 and we've been here a little over an hour. Looks like there is no rain coming anytime soon, and it should be a nice walk back. We don't have to be back on board for some time, as we don't leave until 7:30. So we may as well have a relaxing walk through town.

[jpalbny]

Thursday, April 14 - Melk

 

We left the Abbey and headed out.

 

 

It was a short downhill on cobblestone streets and stairs, until we got to Rathausplatz. I liked the golden lion with a key; it's the symbol of the city and appears on the coat of arms.

 

 

A little further on was Hauptplatz, with a little church on the edge of the square.

 

 

From here, we went through the right-hand gap in the houses which led to the bridge spanning the Melk River, rather than staying on the road that goes off to the left, away from the boat. The main road following the Melk River is right through that right-hand gap, and if we turn right along that road, walk to the next bridge, cross and continue walking, that's the official way back to the boat.

 

 

We thought we'd be bold and take a more interesting way back to the boat, rather than walk along the (boring) road. After all, we'd already seen it from the bus. Plus, from looking at my handy map, if we take the other bridge, it should be a shortcut! What could go wrong with a plan like that?

Edited May 10, 2016 by jpalbny

[acwmom]

Thursday, April 14 - Playing Tourist at Melk Abbey

 

So the weather didn't look too bad when we exited the church. The exit puts you out one level down from the balcony (two posts back) so of course, we had to do the tourist thing and take some more pictures...

 

OK, time to head down. It's 5:15 and we've been here a little over an hour. Looks like there is no rain coming anytime soon, and it should be a nice walk back. We don't have to be back on board for some time, as we don't leave until 7:30. So we may as well have a relaxing walk through town.

 

Wow, except for those goofy people in the pics, I would have sworn you hacked into my computer:D

 

Let me see if I can post some of mine, from Durnstein.....

 

Robin

[jpalbny]

Thursday, April 14 - Leaving Melk

 

We crossed to the pedestrian bridge over the Melk River, and the scenery was quite nice. This swan obliged and made a perfect reflection in the river for our photographing pleasure.

 

 

The view of the Abbey was quite nice from the bridge as well. The tower on the far left side is supposedly the oldest part of the structure. The two church towers would look nicer without scaffolding; oh well! The library is just to the left of the towers, and the marble hall to the right. Finally, some perspective as we're far enough away to appreciate the whole structure.

 

 

I was hoping for something more interesting than pavement, and this route obliged. We had a nice hike though the woods, on the small peninsula separating the Melk from the Danube.

 

 

Since we were following my GPS map it was impossible to get lost; we were barely 1/4 mile from the river when we went into the woods. Within a few minutes we broke out of the woods onto the bank of the Danube, with our ship in sight. There is a nice bike/walking/running trail paralleling the river here, and we had an easy stroll back to the ship. There was even a little evening sunshine to make it more pleasant!

 

We briefly considered taking the bikes out for an evening ride, but decided that a pre-dinner drink would be far more attractive at this time. This also allowed us to catch the pre-dinner show, entitled "Meet the Kaisers." The show was actually pretty funny! Two of the crew dressed up in period costume, and played Franz Joseph and Sisi. They really got into the roles, acting out some of the more dramatic moments in their history, and asked a few audience members to participate as well.

 

We signed up for a few more choice excursions today - these are the ones that you don't pay extra for, but need to sign up a day or two in advance so that they know the number who will participate. We signed up for a Linz city tour and cider farm visit with cider tasting tomorrow, as we are not doing the long bus ride to Salzburg. We had decided well in advance that 4+ hours on a coach didn't appeal to us. Luckily we were able to add a few days after the cruise, and we'll visit on our own. We also signed up for a nature hike along the River Ilz in Passau for Saturday afternoon.

 

So with the rest of the trip pretty well planned out, we headed over for dinner. Tonight's menu had a few Austrian specialties.

 

 

Only a few food pictures tonight. We were both all over the signature dish, Wiener Boeuf ala Mode - it was as tasty as it looked! It reminded me of a dish that Chris' parents used to make - a cold potato salad with peas and carrots, topped with beef slices. Same ingredients here, and even better when accompanied by Grüner Veltliner from Nikolaihof - the place we had visited just this morning. We really appreciate how Uniworld will get local products to make our meals that much more memorable.

 

 

I went with the lamb tonight for my entrée, and it was very tasty. The dish was accompanied by a Blaufränkisch (Lemberger) that went well.

 

 

After dinner, time for the usual dancing in the lounge before bed. We have a comparatively easy day tomorrow as our tour doesn't leave until 9:00. The poor folks going to Salzburg have to be on the bus by 8:15! Maybe we can sleep in a little...

[jpalbny]

Wow, except for those goofy people in the pics, I would have sworn you hacked into my computer:D

 

Let me see if I can post some of mine, from Durnstein.....

 

Robin

 

Ha, true. I bet many of our pictures look the same...same scenery, different tourists!

 

Now I'm off to find your pictures to compare. Looking forward to it!

Edited May 10, 2016 by jpalbny

[happy taveler]

This is a photo of the Library in Melk I took in 2005 when there were no restrictions on photos.

[eyeu]

Here is a photo of the library...last fall pics were not allowed as well..but this is a pic of the post card for sale in the gift shop....pretty amazing place

[eyeu]

[jpalbny]

happy taveler (is there a typo in your name?) and eyeu, thanks for the pictures!

 

eyeu, the link works just fine. Not sure why the image won't show up in your post, but I fixed it here - at least it is showing up on my laptop... I had to right click on the picture and copy the picture (not the link). Slightly different url.

 

NB: Credit to eyeu for this picture:

 

Edited May 11, 2016 by jpalbny

[eyeu]

Thank you, JP...not sure what happened but you certainly fixed it.

Rick

[happy taveler]

JPalbny There is a misspelling for my name as when I signed up for Cruise Critic I misspelled it. I went back to try to correct it but then found out that someone else was already using that name so I just left it the way it was. I enjoyed looking at your pictures as they make a lot of good memories of the times that I have visited those places. I will try to post a picture I took inside of the Library in 2005 as no one said that we could not take pictures then. I sent it in before but I never saw it post so maybe I have to brush up on how to do it in a reply.

[jpalbny]

Thanks for the picture of the library, happy taveler. It shows up better on the mobile app than it does on the desktop version. You will be happy to know that my autocorrect keeps trying to fix your name back to what you intended it to be!

 

**

 

Friday, April 15 - Linz

 

Are your taxes filed? Yes, we had taken care of that before we left...

 

Today was a stop in Linz, which was used as a gateway for a visit to Salzburg by the majority of passengers. We have planned an overnight in Salzburg on our own after the cruise, so we didn't have to get up early and make the 8:15 bus. As a result, we had a restful morning, and casually strolled out to breakfast right as everyone else was scrambling to get off the ship.

 

Our tour doesn't leave until 9. It's a mishmash including the Opera House, the Linzer Schloss, a tour of the cathedral, walking tour of downtown, then a ride out into the country for cider tasting and lunch, returning around 3PM. Quite an eclectic mix! They do give you the opportunity to do either half of the tour if you don't want to do the whole thing, but we figured we'd do all of it.

 

After a relatively leisurely breakfast, we headed to the bus and rode a few km to the new opera house. It's right next to the Volksgarten. There are some picturesque statues nearby. By the way, snakes aren't supposed to be able to do this!

 

 

The building itself is quite modern. It looks very different from those that we've seen in Budapest, Bratislava, and Vienna!

 

 

Inside, we toured the main concert hall. I liked the circular lighting fixture overhead. It's supposedly infinitely adjustable, to provide just about any amount of lighting.

 

 

Here's a poster showing a cross-section of the whole building. Pretty cool! We were just in the main concert hall, which in this poster has brown walls, and is just to the left of center. The area to the right of the main hall is the backstage prep area. It's even bigger than the concert hall! All the props and sets are brought here and readied for the main stage, so that they can be ready when needed.

 

 

We got to see the backstage area as well - very dim lighting here. I had to hold my camera against the wall and do a 1 second exposure. I have a few blurry ones that didn't make the cut.

 

 

A few more rooms to tour and then it was time to leave. One more picture of that funky statue at the front of the building before heading back to the bus.

 

 

From here we took a circuitous route through a park-like area on the outskirts of town, passing by the municipal stadium, until we came to the Linzer Schloss. Do they serve Linzer Torte? Let's see!

Edited May 12, 2016 by jpalbny

[ewizabeff]

I very clearly remember my husband eating two full portions of that lamb dish. :)

[notamermaid]

Hello jpalbny,

 

I love following your review. Thank you for the great pictures. Brings back memories from my Danube cruise. The library in Melk is stunning, it has been my dream for many years to if I ever have a huge house to turn one room into a library.

 

I was intrigued by the snake statue as it says in it "Der Ring de..." and just had to look it up. And I thought right: it represents "Der Ring des Nibelungen", the opera by Richard Wagner. I guess that is the connection to the New Opera House.

 

I Linz I did a short tour and just went shopping...clothes, classical CD and some Linzer Torte. :)

 

notamermaid

[jpalbny]

I very clearly remember my husband eating two full portions of that lamb dish. :)

 

And I desperately tried to eat less on this cruise. The dinner portions are reasonably sized so usually that isn't a big issue. For me, it's the lunch buffets that are killers because I like to try some of everything. For the first half of the cruise I was doing OK at lunch, making only one trip to the buffet...until they started serving different types of Bratwurst! Then all dieting plans went out the window!

 

Thus, our suitcases weren't the only things that came home with some extra weight. :rolleyes:

 

Hello jpalbny,

 

I love following your review. Thank you for the great pictures. Brings back memories from my Danube cruise. The library in Melk is stunning, it has been my dream for many years to if I ever have a huge house to turn one room into a library.

 

I was intrigued by the snake statue as it says in it "Der Ring de..." and just had to look it up. And I thought right: it represents "Der Ring des Nibelungen", the opera by Richard Wagner. I guess that is the connection to the New Opera House.

 

I Linz I did a short tour and just went shopping...clothes, classical CD and some Linzer Torte. :)

 

notamermaid

 

Thanks so much for looking that up! I had no idea why there would be a snake at the opera house. Now it makes sense to me.

 

Mmm...Linzer Torte! We'll have to see if we can find some!

[jpalbny]

Friday, April 15 - Linz

 

After driving through a pretty park-like area, we arrived at the Linzer Schloss. It's a museum now but we weren't going inside - at least not on this tour. We headed out beside the Schloss for a scenic lookout. The spring blossoms made for a pretty walk.

 

 

Along the way, there is a monument to Kepler, one of the famous former inhabitants of Linz. He was an astronomer who (among many other things) described planetary laws of motion in the early 17th Century.

 

 

A little further, beyond the Kepler statue, we came to a scenic viewpoint. The Danube was below our feet, and more of the city was visible on the other side. The hill is called Postlingberg.

 

 

Here is a closer view of the church atop Postlingberg. There is a railway that runs up the hill. It's on our list but I doubt that we'll have time.

 

 

Another picturesque view of the town and the Danube. Our ship is further to the right, just past the bridge. A convenient location for later.

 

 

This Biergarten looked inviting. I can't remember if the yellow building was something important or not. The structure in the background is a huge government complex.

 

 

After soaking in the view, we headed back to the bus to go into the Old Town for our walking tour.

Edited May 12, 2016 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

Friday, April 15 - Linz

 

We headed back down into town on the bus, and after a short ride, it let us off right at the New Cathedral. It's way too huge to get the whole building into one picture frame from here.

 

 

We headed in and I saw a strange sign off to the right of the doorway - notamermaid would know this right away, but I wondered...what exactly is a Turmeremit? And he must be fit, if he has to climb 395 steps...

 

 

Soon our guide explained - there is a tiny apartment in the church tower that you can rent out, if you'd like to pretend to be a "Tower Hermit" for a week! Just in case you want a preview, without climbing 395 steps to check out the real thing, there's a replica of the apartment in the church. It looks tiny!

 

 

Even smaller than the rooms on River Beatrice! Nobody in our group signed up...but here's information if you'd like to try it! Apparently this started as a temporary project in 2009, but proved so popular that it's still going on today.

 

We took a few pictures of the fine stained-glass windows in this church before leaving.

 

 

Now, as it's already 11:00 and it's been over two hours since breakfast, some food must be in order. We left the cathedral and headed back out into town, where the next stop would be a cafe serving Linzer Torte! Yum. Maybe we should have climbed those steps!

Edited May 13, 2016 by jpalbny

[caroak]

JP & Chris, I'm so enjoying following along especially your Budapest posts and pics. We're leaving on Sunday for a land trip to Rome, Budapest, Vienna and Amsterdam. I believe your cruise ended in Vienna so look forward to those posts and also Salzburg since we are planning a day trip from Vienna. Thanks for taking the time to share your journey with us.:)

 

Carole

[jpalbny]

JP & Chris, I'm so enjoying following along especially your Budapest posts and pics. We're leaving on Sunday for a land trip to Rome, Budapest, Vienna and Amsterdam. I believe your cruise ended in Vienna so look forward to those posts and also Salzburg since we are planning a day trip from Vienna. Thanks for taking the time to share your journey with us.:)

 

Carole

 

Hi caroak, our cruise started in Budapest and finished in Passau, so Vienna was a port stop, not the end of the cruise. My Vienna posts are a few pages back...we had been there previously, so we visited some places off the beaten path this time.

 

We went to Salzburg on our own after the cruise ended, rather than endure the long trip by coach from Linz. I have to finish a few more posts from our day in Linz, then the full day in Passau, before I get to the Salzburg posts. I will get there eventually - thanks for following along!

 

You've chosen four great cities to visit on your trip - I hope that you have enough time in each of them. We've been to all four, and we still have things left to do in each city. Have a great time! Safe travels!

[caroak]

JP, sorry for the senior moment!:confused: At this point, I'm on information overload and I'll be at it right up until the 11th hour. We've been to Rome many times, and it's our favorite city, but this is our first visit to Budapest, Vienna and Amsterdam so lots of planning for those. Since we only have two full days in Budapest we booked a private half-day tour with a van. We have four full days in Vienna so we should be able to hit the main attractions. We'll decide on the day trip to Salzburg once we arrive depending if we're up to it and also the weather. We had considered an overnight but we're doing a lot of moving around as it is so didn't want to deal with overnighting. We'll have three full days in Amsterdam. Lots to see and do there but we're leaving some time to just wander around and enjoy the charms of all those scenic canals.

 

Carole

[notamermaid]

Hello jpalbny,

 

Turmeremit, I had not heard of that. I could not read the sign in your photo in detail, so I looked this up. The "Linzer Turmeremit" was a project as part of Linz being Culture City of Europe in 2009. A person would live in the room in the tower of the Cathedral dedicated to Mary for a week without telephone, etc. for prayer, silence and "inward reflection". A diary was to be written by the hermit and then passed on to the next one, and so on. The project proved so popular that it ran into 2015. The hermit would get its food supplied by a local hotel, so he or she would really be alone! The hermit would take part in the daily lunch prayer in the cathedral and there was a certain time allocated for visitors to come and pray with the hermit in his little room. By February 2015 173 hermits had been in the room for a week each. The sign in your photo says "tower hermit - 395 steps into solitude".

 

Looking forward to your photos of Passau.

 

notamermaid

Edited May 13, 2016 by notamermaid

[jpalbny]

JP, sorry for the senior moment!:confused: At this point, I'm on information overload and I'll be at it right up until the 11th hour. We've been to Rome many times, and it's our favorite city, but this is our first visit to Budapest, Vienna and Amsterdam so lots of planning for those.

 

Carole

 

No apologies needed! I have enough trouble keeping my own travel schedule straight, let alone remembering the details of others whom I only know through Cruise Critic. Planning certainly is more convenient now, but the downside to having all this information readily available on the web is that there can be almost too much information out there! For compulsive planners like us, who feel that we have to read it all, it's almost a full-time job...:rolleyes:

 

Have fun, don't try to do *too* much, and I'm glad you're leaving some time to just wander around and enjoy the ambience in these cities.

 

Hello jpalbny,

 

Turmeremit, I had not heard of that. I could not read the sign in your photo in detail, so I looked this up...The sign in your photo says "tower hermit - 395 steps into solitude".

 

Looking forward to your photos of Passau.

 

notamermaid

 

I was able to interpret the part saying "395 steps into solitude" using my ever-handy Google Translate. :)

 

I only post small pictures on my reviews - I take the photos at full resolution but I reduce the picture sizes down to 800x600 for posting. So on my full-size picture, I can read the entire sign (not that I can understand it... :D), but it doesn't come out as clear on this website. Thanks for looking up the rest for me!

 

I should get to my posts from Passau within the next few days. Have to finish up Linz first. I will say that it was a beautiful morning when we sailed into the city, and the buildings reflected in the river made for some great scenery!

[jpalbny]

Friday, April 15 - Linz, continued

 

We left the Neuer Dom (Mariä-Empfängnis-Dom, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Mary's Church...), which is actually quite new. It was finished less than 100 years ago! We walked a block or two to a local cafe.

 

 

Wikipedia says that the Cathedral was finished in 1924, so this cafe isn't much newer. Once we arrived, they had tables set up for us in the upstairs part of the restaurant, so we filed up and grabbed seats. We had coffee and a nice individual Linzer Torte. I was too busy chatting with our table-mates to bother taking a picture of the food, but trust me, it was delicious.

 

We were sitting with a couple that we hadn't met yet, and discovered that we were both Pulmonary docs, so we were too busy swapping stories about people that we knew in common to take pictures - small world! After a nice relaxing stop, we headed further into the Altstadt, passing above the ruins of a Roman bridge just outside the Landhaus.

 

 

Inside the Landhaus, there was a group of schoolchildren making funny poses with this fountain, and taking each other's pictures.

 

 

We watched their antics for a while and then headed out towards the Alter Markt. As we exited, I looked back to take a picture of the ornate gate of the Landhaus, but I was more intrigued by the rivals - BMW and Audi - parked there, side by side. I'm always distracted by nice-looking German cars, and those of you who've read my other blogs might know of our trips to the Audi factory recently...one sad thing about visiting Europe is that we see all sorts of nice Audi models that they don't import to the USA.

 

The second picture is of the Mozarthaus in Linz. He lived there for a time, and composed both the Linz Symphony and Sonata in this building - in less than three days! I don't know much about Mozart other than what I "learned" watching the film Amadeus, but the more I learned about him on this trip, the more impressed I became with his musical genius. Quite a talent! No wonder he is still celebrated here.

 

 

We continued on, deeper into the Altstadt. So far, the guide was doing well and had hit many items on our to-do list. So we were glad to walk with her and learn more about what we were seeing.

Edited May 13, 2016 by jpalbny

[stonepebble]

Hi JP,

Wonderful report! Thank you! I've read bits & pieces for awhile, but have devoted today to the whole report!

 

We are sailing on Avalon 8/24 Budapest to Prague. Not sure what I'm gonna do about Regensburg, Roth, & Nuremberg without you!! ha ha

 

Questions about Budapest-Castle Hill...it seemed you took the bus up one time & the Funicular the second...is that correct and was there a reason?

Do you think we really need to purchase tickets to Parliament ahead?

We will be there for 3 days (going before). It seems as though you found the Budapest card well worth it...We are planning on cabbing from the airport and most of the sites look close to me (within walking)...would you still recommend it? We're planning on doing Castle Hill area most of 1 day. Pest 1 day and Parliament area the day we get on the ship. So furthest transportation will be to Margaret Is. (we plan on going there in the late evening) and City Park (which we may go to for dinner or skip altogether).

 

Not just pertaining to Budapest-Did you print pics of buildings ahead and take them with you or figure it out afterward?

What were the maps you used with stars on them? Was that so you could click on them while traveling?

 

Anxiously awaiting Passau!

 

Chris