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

[jpalbny]

Saturday, April 16 - Passau, by morning

 

We headed down the hill to the Danube side of the Altstadt, where the Rathaus is located, and saw the 2013 high water mark that had caused our prior Danube cruise to be canceled. It boggles the mind to think that the river could get this high!

 

 

As another reminder of our canceled 2013 cruise, the date on the high water mark is June 3, 2013. That's the exact day when Avalon canceled our cruise. I still have the e-mail from our TA with the "bad news" though in truth, it ended up working out very well for us.

 

We headed through the art district, and back up the hill to the center of town, towards St. Stephen’s Cathedral, stopping at the Bishop’s residence on the way. This fountain is in the middle of Residenzplatz.

 

 

The Bishop's Residence sits on one side of Residenzplatz. It was extensively remodeled in the 1700s because the old residence wasn't fancy enough, apparently. Nowadays, it's mainly offices for the Diocese, but there's a museum and a treasury there. We didn't visit inside.

 

 

You can see the edge of the Cathedral on the right side of this picture. We went into the Cathedral, which is quite impressive. We wish that we could have heard the organ, but the concerts don’t start until later in the season.

 

 

After the Cathedral visit, our guide left and we had free time, so we headed out on our own for the climb to Oberhaus Veste on the other side of the Danube. On the way, we got a picture of the "Wild Man" hotel - apparently, there is a Glass Museum on the ground floor. Even stranger, it was opened by Neil Armstrong - yes, that Neil Armstrong! And Sisi stayed there once, though Passau doesn't seem exotic enough for her.

 

 

In the previous picture, on the left you can see the water level marks on the Rathaus. These buildings must have been badly flooded in 2013. One last shot of the Rathaus; it's mobbed by other tourists so any picture from here is going to be full of people. Hm. Some of them are eating...it's 11:45 - should we stop?

 

 

In the foreground of the picture of the Rathaus above, you can see a sign that says Veste Oberhaus - that's where the bus stops and you can buy a fairly cheap ticket up. We decided (of course) that we should exercise a little before lunch, so we'll walk the steps up.

 

Off we go - we need to get back in time to grab lunch before our hike along the Ilz River at 1:30! It doesn't look far, but it will probably be steep, so we better move it.

Edited May 16, 2016 by jpalbny

[dusty1117]

Thanks for an amazing journal and photos. 2 days to go before we go to Budapest. Is there anyone on board you would like me to say hello too? Any quick tips. My friends who are occasional travelers told me they were taking 2 suitcases a piece plus carryons. I had a good laugh. Now she is wondering what to take out. I told her she can wash.

[gafrank12]

jpalbny,

 

Thanks for posting your pics and experiences. We just returned from our first river cruise...first cruise period, for our Honeymoon . We did the same itinerary as you. We left Budapest on 4/11/16 and cruised to vilshofen then spent 3 days in Prague. We traveled on the AmaSonata.

 

We had such a fantastic experience that I have spent more time than I'll admit looking for our next cruise. We're thinking Douro??.

 

Thanks again for your posts. These boards are great

 

Gafrank12

[jpalbny]

Thanks for an amazing journal and photos. 2 days to go before we go to Budapest. Is there anyone on board you would like me to say hello too? Any quick tips. My friends who are occasional travelers told me they were taking 2 suitcases a piece plus carryons. I had a good laugh. Now she is wondering what to take out. I told her she can wash.

 

Glad to give you a preview of your upcoming cruise. IIRC, you're on the charter group, right? Have a great time! Hard to rank the "best" tip for Budapest because there wasn't anything that we didn't enjoy. You will enjoy it too, I hope.

 

I'm sure nobody on board would remember our names by now, but if you see Greg and Margaret (the musical duo) please pass along our regards. They might remember the couple that danced a lot when they played. So many other great staff on board. You're in for a treat there.

 

Your friends who pack too much will eventually learn...or not - nothing for you to do about it. We used to overpack too. We learned. You can show them the picture in the first post of this thread, of our two rollaboards and backpacks, for the cruise, plus 2 nights pre and post-cruise. But it has taken a long time to get to that state of efficiency.

 

First, you have to realize that you can make do with less. Then, you have to let go of your fear that you'll need something that you left home, and if worse comes to worse you can buy it! Once you master the art of packing light, though, it is really tough to go back! :D

 

jpalbny,

 

Thanks for posting your pics and experiences. We just returned from our first river cruise...first cruise period, for our Honeymoon . We did the same itinerary as you. We left Budapest on 4/11/16 and cruised to vilshofen then spent 3 days in Prague. We traveled on the AmaSonata.

 

We had such a fantastic experience that I have spent more time than I'll admit looking for our next cruise. We're thinking Douro??.

 

Thanks again for your posts. These boards are great

 

Gafrank12

 

Congrats on the Honeymoon and the excellent choice of where to spend it. I see that you're making your first few posts here, so welcome to CC as well. I can't remember if we saw the AMASonata along our route but we must have been in Budapest together.

 

If I've missed something from Budapest, or any of the other stops that we shared, feel free to chime in on this thread. Would also enjoy hearing some of the differences between Uniworld and AMA.

 

I wish that our weather had been a bit nicer for Budapest, but you can't have it all, can you? At least the 11th was a nice weather day for our sailaway.

 

I haven't done the Duoro cruise yet and haven't looked at it enough to comment. I've read some reviews here, so if you search around hopefully you will find information to help you decide if it's right for you. It seems that the Duoro itinerary has some differences that distinguish it from other river cruises.

[jpalbny]

Saturday, April 16 - Passau, Veste Oberhaus

 

From the Rathaus, we walked down the Danube and crossed over the Prinzregent-Luitpold-Brücke. The town looks pretty from this vantage point.

 

For orientation purposes, we're in the middle of the Danube looking back at the Altstadt. The river bank visible here is the Right Bank of the Danube, which is flowing towards us (or top right to bottom left), and you can see all the boats lined up on that bank. River Beatrice is on the other side of the bridge, further downstream, to the left.

 

 

Once across, we could see stairs ascending the hill towards Veste Oberhaus. We started climbing and after a few minutes, came to a fork in the road, so we took it.

 

Actually we decided that we'd take the longer, (hopefully) more panoramic, route up, and then we'd take the quicker way back down. So we headed off to the left, gradually climbing through forest for about 10 minutes before the panorama started. The whole Altstadt spread out below us, and it was an excellent excuse for a breather! There's a little Danube visible at the bottom of this picture, but the Inn is visible on the other side of the Altstadt.

 

 

Maybe another 5 minutes to the top of the hill... There was another strategically placed rest stop! Chris is hardly breaking a sweat. No fair!

 

 

The hike had taken us diagonally up the hill without any switchbacks, so we had walked beyond the location of Veste Oberhaus. From here, it was time to turn back towards our target. We walked along the edge for a few minutes until we came to the real attraction - another scenic overlook with many people enjoying the view of the Rathaus. From this angle you can actually see it without all the people in the way!

 

 

It was about a 20 minute climb (counting the photo stops) from the bridge to here. So we enjoyed the view of St. Stephan's Cathedral while we rested. A wedding party, dressed in their finery, was posing for pictures along the pathway. So we waited a few minutes for them to take their photos in peace, without two American tourists photobombing them.

 

 

From the viewpoint, we headed downstairs to the outdoor terrace restaurant with a nice city view...just kidding! Yes, we headed towards the restaurant but we didn't stop for lunch. In retrospect, I look a little unhappy about that! In this picture you can see the viewpoint where we took the last few pictures - it's on the top right, where you see people lined up along the fence.

 

 

Time to see what else there is to see here, so we can get back to the boat in time for lunch!

Edited May 17, 2016 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

Saturday, April 16 - Passau, Veste Oberhaus

 

We headed from the restaurant to the Oberhaus, and behind it we found the entrance to the Aussichtsturm. We debated whether to bother climbing it for the view, figuring that it wouldn't be much different from what we'd already seen. But in the end we decided it was only €1 each, so we'd do it. Glad we did!

 

After paying, you climb some steep stone stairs to a terrace with thick stone walls and a few cutouts, where you can catch a glimpse of the surroundings. Then you climb a few flights of wooden stairs to the top of the tower. The view of the three rivers confluence is worth the climb, though!

 

 

We were convinced that from this vantage point, we could distinguish the three rivers by the differing colors of their water. It is hard to capture in a photograph due to the lighting, but starting from the bottom and moving to the top you can (maybe) appreciate first the blackness of the thin strip of River Ilz water, then the Danube, and finally the Inn on the top. The division between the Inn and the Danube almost seems more of a difference in reflectivity than color but the line separating them is visible to me in the middle.

 

 

We were pretty excited to have seen the difference between the waters of these three rivers, especially after missing it this morning! Here's the Veste Oberhaus itself, with Passau beyond.

 

 

And another shot looking back over Passau and the River Inn.

 

 

Time to head down! We had scoped out the correct pathway from our vantage point, so we were back down the hill, across the bridge, and back on the boat in about 15 minutes. Here's a map of the trail up and down. We walked roughly clockwise in a loop, starting from the bottom of this map.

 

 

Back on the boat, the lunch buffet that they put out today was awesome! Lots of different kinds of Wurst, so I had to try all of them, and then seconds...just to confirm which was best. The Wurst were served with sauerkraut, potato salad, and plenty of wine. We were well fortified for our hike through the Ilz valley coming up shortly!

Edited May 17, 2016 by jpalbny

[acwmom]

Saturday, April 16 - Passau, Veste Oberhaus

 

We headed from the restaurant to the Oberhaus, and behind it we found the entrance to the Aussichtsturm. We debated whether to bother climbing it for the view, figuring that it wouldn't be much different from what we'd already seen. But in the end we decided it was only €1 each, so we'd do it. Glad we did!

 

After paying, you climb some steep stone stairs to a terrace with thick stone walls and a few cutouts, where you can catch a glimpse of the surroundings. Then you climb a few flights of wooden stairs to the top of the tower. The view of the three rivers confluence is worth the climb, though!

 

 

We were convinced that from this vantage point, we could distinguish the three rivers by the differing colors of their water. It is hard to capture in a photograph due to the lighting, but starting from the bottom and moving to the top you can (maybe) appreciate first the blackness of the thin strip of River Ilz water, then the Danube, and finally the Inn on the top. The division between the Inn and the Danube almost seems more of a difference in reflectivity than color but the line separating them is visible to me in the middle.

 

 

We were pretty excited to have seen the difference between the waters of these three rivers, especially after missing it this morning! Here's the Veste Oberhaus itself, with Passau beyond.

 

 

 

 

And another shot looking back over Passau and the River Inn.

 

 

Time to head down! We had scoped out the correct pathway from our vantage point, so we were back down the hill, across the bridge, and back on the boat in about 15 minutes. Here's a map of the trail up and down. We walked roughly clockwise in a loop, starting from the bottom of this map.

 

 

Back on the boat, the lunch buffet that they put out today was awesome! Lots of different kinds of Wurst, so I had to try all of them, and then seconds...just to confirm which was best. The Wurst were served with sauerkraut, potato salad, and plenty of wine. We were well fortified for our hike through the Ilz valley coming up shortly!

 

 

Oh man, I can't believe we missed a tower! Cool pics of the different water colors.

 

Robin

[dusty1117]

Will send regards. Not on a charter but 23 in our group. I'll see them Sunday. Don't know everyone. Thx again

[jpalbny]

Oh man, I can't believe we missed a tower! Cool pics of the different water colors.

 

Robin

 

No worries - you still got to climb to Burgruine Dürnstein! :(

 

But we were really excited to see the different rivers mixing (or not mixing, I guess). Funny that the contribution from the Inn looks more voluminous than that of the Danube.

 

Will send regards. Not on a charter but 23 in our group. I'll see them Sunday. Don't know everyone. Thx again

 

Oops, sorry. I mixed you up with another poster from the All River Beatrice thread. The other poster has a charter of the ship next year. Safe travels and have a fantastic trip!

Edited May 18, 2016 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

Saturday, April 16 - Passau - River Ilz Hike

 

After our lunch we filled up our water bottles with water (we should have filled them with Grüner Veltliner, but we decided to be good) and met up with our hiking guide at the gangway. Funny enough, her name was Heyka!

 

We walked a few minutes to the bus, then it was about a 10-minute ride to the trailhead along the Ilz, just outside of the town of Hals. We crossed the River Ilz on a footbridge and hiked along the river to a big bend where the river made an "S" shape. Here, we cut through a tunnel in the rock that joined the ends of the oxbow, and came out to a nice viewpoint.

 

 

This footbridge will be part of our return path, but for now we left it behind and continued on the other side of the river. The River Ilz is more wooded and wilder than the Danube. Its black color comes from tannins that leach into the water from the surrounding forest.

 

 

We hiked a good 2km along the river, stopping occasionally to enjoy the views, until we reached Oberilzmühle, where there was a dam creating a nice lake called Ilzstausee Oberilzmühle.

 

 

It sprinkled a little bit at this point, but stopped quickly. We continued back down the other side of the river.

 

 

Heyka let us go at our own pace so we strolled along enjoying ourselves among the beautiful surroundings. The bright green foliage and colorful flowers contrasted nicely with the dark water.

 

 

Finally we made it back to the bridge from earlier in this post. Here we could see nature, hard at work reclaiming some old pylons from a previous version of the bridge.

 

 

We headed back towards civilization, a bit reluctantly, but happy to have spent an enjoyable hour or so here.

Edited May 18, 2016 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

Saturday, April 16 - Passau - River Ilz Hike

 

One last shot from the bridge before heading back to civilization. It was very quiet and peaceful here, though perhaps not as quiet as it appears...you can see plenty of parked cars on the right side of this photo. There's actually a little hotel at the far end of the bridge called Zur Triftsperre, and they have a Biergarten that looked like a nice place for a stop. You can see the hotel in the first picture of my previous posting.

 

Heyka did offer to stop for a minute to celebrate, since we'd made such good time hiking, but nobody else was interested. Oh well...we can find plenty of liquid refreshment on our boat.

 

 

As we approached town, the water was smoother. The landscapes and the houses reflected nicely in the dark water.

 

 

Within 15 minutes, we were back in the small town of Hals, and Heyka called for our bus. This town was also heavily damaged in the 2013 floods because high water from the Inn and Danube caused the Ilz to also overflow its banks. Unlike Passau, this small town does not have as many resources to rebuild, so the process has been somewhat slower and less complete so far.

 

 

This Burgruine was not caused by the 2013 flood. Heyka said that the grounds and castle are for sale, though! Nice location but definitely a fixer-upper.

 

 

Back to the bus and then the ship, only a 10 minute trip this time. Here's a map of our hike. It shows why the village of Hals is so vulnerable - the River Ilz is on both sides! It flows down the map, curves around and passes Hals once, then does another 180 degree turn where we crossed through the tunnel, and passes Hals again. So Hals gets flooded from both sides.

 

 

The bus dropped us off at the Prinzregent-Luitpold-Brücke, where it was a short walk back to the boat. One last shot - we're standing under the bridge, looking downstream along the Danube. The Ilz joins in just beyond that white tower. We drove through those little tunnels on our way to and from the hike.

 

 

Well - we're done with the hike and it's barely 4:00. Time to drop off our jackets and see what else we missed in town!

Edited May 18, 2016 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

Saturday, April 16 - Passau, an afternoon by the River Inn

 

Since the climb to Veste Oberhaus and the hike along the River Ilz weren't enough, we decided to head out along the Innpromenade for a relaxing stroll this afternoon. We walked through Dreiflüsseeck and turned upstream, walking along the River Inn, where there is a nice wide promenade with pretty views of the river and the opposite bank.

 

The scenery was beautiful in the evening sunshine. Here, we've walked up beyond Schaiblingsturm (from this morning) and we're looking back downstream towards the confluence.

 

 

A little further on, there was a nice park with spring flowers in bloom. We even saw the same bride and groom who had been at the Veste Oberhaus for pictures earlier today! We walked much further upstream than we had in the morning, enjoying the views and the spring flowers. There is also a Memorial in this park - Mahnmal für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus.

 

 

Another view from the park. A very pretty setting on a Saturday afternoon/evening. The little church on the opposite bank is the Church of St. Gertraud.

 

 

From the park along the River Inn, we cut directly across town to the Danube. This river bank was was less park-like, and many river boats were docked here. You can buy tickets for short sightseeing cruises, ferries, etc. Still, a nice relaxing riverside stroll.

 

Back at the ship, we decided that some more formal relaxing was in order after all that walking! So we parked ourselves on some chairs out on the top deck, relaxed with a Weißbier and a glass of wine, finished our guest satisfaction surveys, got a little sprinkle of rain, and a nice double rainbow at the end.

 

This first picture is to show at least some of the top deck of the ship. After the cruise, we realized that we had taken even fewer pictures of the ship itself than usual...essentially, zero!

 

 

This one emphasizes the rainbow more clearly.

 

 

We lost track of time watching the rainbow...it was time for the Captain’s farewell in 10 minutes! We changed like lightning and made it on time. A few hors d’oeuvres were served, along with some more wine, then time for dinner. It was the gala farewell dinner tonight! We settled in and looked at tonight's menu.

 

 

Tonight (as often) we were at a table for 2, but we were right next to a table of six. As we were intermittently chatting with them throughout the course of dinner, and the wine flowed, they asked us an odd question..."Do you two work for Uniworld?"

 

Apparently the six are part of a larger group of twenty-some travelers, led by a TA from the Philly area. The TA had been on our Rhone cruise last year and had recognized us on the first day of this cruise. He'd come up to us at the very first lunch buffet and introduced himself, but we didn't know he was with a large group.

 

Because we really like ballroom dancing, we are out on the dance floor almost every night. Given that the TA had seen us doing this in the previous cruise as well, the group has become convinced that Uniworld hires us to come on the cruise to get people out on the dance floor! Wow - if that job exists, where can we sign up! Unfortunately, we had to disappoint the group (and ourselves) by dispelling that rumor.

 

It was a nice dinner, even if there was seemingly a surplus of shrimp on board. The conversation was a lot of fun as well. Food pictures to follow.

Edited May 18, 2016 by jpalbny

[stonepebble]

Hi JP,

 

I'm still following along and copying & pasting almost your entire report.

 

While doing so I've been writing down a million questions to ask you!!

 

I hate to ask them all on the thread (& some of them are probably ridiculously dum!).

 

Would you mind emailing me so I can ask away?

 

My email is diamondplusstone@gmail.com

 

If you prefer I'll ask away on here!

 

Chris

PS-I promise it's not so many you'll need days!

[jpalbny]

Hi JP,

 

I'm still following along and copying & pasting almost your entire report.

 

While doing so I've been writing down a million questions to ask you!!

 

I hate to ask them all on the thread (& some of them are probably ridiculously dum!).

 

...

 

If you prefer I'll ask away on here!

 

Chris

PS-I promise it's not so many you'll need days!

 

stonepebble - thanks again for following along.

 

No worries; feel free to ask away on this thread. No matter how silly your question may seem to you, it's quite likely that someone else has, or had, that question too. So if the answers are here, others may benefit too.

[jpalbny]

Saturday, April 16 - Last dinner on board!

 

So we had a great time at tonight's Gala Farewell Dinner. The food was very enjoyable, and the conversation with the table next to us was a lot of fun.

 

Here's the amuse bouche, fried cheese with a tart berry sauce - either cranberry or lingonberry, I think.

 

 

The shrimp cocktail was next. Interestingly, though two cold appetizers were listed we were not asked to choose one or the other. So we figured they would bring both - but that was not the case. Tasty enough.

 

 

The soup, a mushroom cappuccino, was quite delicious, though soup is rarely very picturesque. So, it's best remembered by its taste.

 

Next was the hot appetizer, more shrimp. By then we figured it was too late to get our fix of asparagus. No worries; 'tis Spargelzeit in Germany and we'll find some sooner or later, hopefully!

 

 

I had the veal tenderloin, which was fork-tender, beautifully cooked, and not overcooked, with nicely done sides. The presentation was quite attractive too.

 

 

Chris went with the halibut; understandable because in addition to being one of our favorite fish choices, it also was a welcome change from all the Wurst and meat that we've been eating the past few days. We each ate half of our entrées, then switched plates so we could sample both dishes. Did you notice that there was more shrimp here?

 

 

Dessert was picturesque, though Baked Alaska is not our favorite dish. The festivity counts for something, and we were not terribly hungry anyway. No shrimp were served with the dessert course, luckily.

 

 

Tonight, there were two interesting German wines being poured with dinner. The white was a Silvaner, and the red was a Dornfelder. We know both of these grapes reasonably well and thought that they were good choices; in fact we had mentioned to each other earlier today that they hadn't yet poured a Silvaner. We've enjoyed many a tasty Silvaner while traveling in Franconia, so we were pleased to see this.

 

The Dornfelder grape is occasionally grown in the Finger Lakes; it's a colorful red, yet to me it tastes milder with fewer tannins, so it did not overwhelm the very lean, delicate, veal tenderloin.

 

After dinner we were ready for some dancing to burn off all of those calories, but the music duo never showed up, so that plan was squelched. Probably better for us after all the walking we did today - my phone said 25000 steps, 10 miles, and we will need to save some energy for touring in Salzburg tomorrow. Plus, after all the tasty wine with dinner, we really didn't need to stay up and have any more. The bar staff will keep your glass full if you're not careful!

 

We decided to leave packing for tomorrow - off to bed!

Edited May 18, 2016 by jpalbny

[Got2Cruise]

stonepebble - thanks again for following along.

 

 

 

No worries; feel free to ask away on this thread. No matter how silly your question may seem to you, it's quite likely that someone else has, or had, that question too. So if the answers are here, others may benefit too.

 

 

 

Exactly. I'm taking the same similar itinerary in July on AMA. I need all the help I can get :-). Never get tired of photos of the river

[jpalbny]

Saturday, April 16 - Last-minute business in Passau!

 

I neglected to mention one other very important part of our afternoon. We started the cruise with €126 each in onboard credit, but we'd only used €69 each for the concert in Vienna. That left us €57 each and we didn't want to waste it...so before we headed up on deck this afternoon to relax with our drinks, we stopped by the bar to examine the premium wine list.

 

We ordered a Weißbier and a glass of Weißwein, and perused the menu. Limited, but several interesting choices and I am sorry that I didn't take a picture of the premium wine list. Bad blogger...:mad:

 

We picked two bottles of wine that came to €106 - one was a bottle of 2007Hungarian Royal Tokaji, 5 Puttonyos sweetness level, for €50, and the other was an Austrian red blend of Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch (Lemberger) called Pannobile for €56.

 

 

When we came down to get ready for dinner, the wines were already in our room. Before dinner, we completed our shopping spree at the front desk with a souvenir map of the Danube for €7, and only left €1 on the table. Not bad!

 

 

Now, back to the normal sequence of activity!

Edited May 19, 2016 by jpalbny

[Host Jazzbeau]

The only bottle of Tokaji, 5 Puttonyos that I have seen was the color of mahogany -- does your picture mean that you have already enjoyed it??? :D

[jpalbny]

The only bottle of Tokaji, 5 Puttonyos that I have seen was the color of mahogany -- does your picture mean that you have already enjoyed it??? :D

 

Sadly, the bottle was already empty when I took that photo. :(

 

But we did enjoy it with some friends. It was lighter and less syrupy than a Sauternes; also, the flavor and sweetness was less intense. But it's still hard to drink much more than a few ounces at a time, so you need assistance. :D

[stonepebble]

Oh My,

I can't wait to get on our ship! We are primarily California wine drinkers so it will be such fun to try all these different wines!

 

Ok JP here goes...

 

I'm not adept at google maps and did play around with them a bit, but when I looked at downloading regions it said something about picking the size...Can you give me any advice about that?

Did you download the region for each port on your itinerary? Any other areas?

Did your maps with the locations marked (the pretty gold stars!) propagate into the downloaded maps? (I think you may have said that they did)

 

Just being curious and I don't want to sound like we haven't traveled, but I'm always open to good ideas...What is on the index cards and how does Chris arrange them? By day? By sight?

 

In Budapest I want to see the M1 Underground and I think we will probably take it back from City Park but if we don't can I pop down at any of it's stops or is there a particular one that I should choose?

 

How did you know what was on the banks of the Danube as you sailed? Including towns, sights, structures. Did you have any guidebooks for this? Did the ship provide anything?

 

What was Hans doing in Bratislava? We met him in Copenhagen!

 

Vienna...so sad! So we will be there for the typical 2 nights and have never been there before...I'm thinking about going over with the am tour and venturing off on our own if they aren't doing what we want. I did read your blog re your previous visit to Vienna. So with our limited time would you recommend Schonbrunn? It seems to you two did a little off the beaten path stuff there...St. Charles instead of St Stephens?

 

We do go to Nuremberg/Roth...on your blog it sounds like you really didn't do too much in Nuremberg. Our ship does a guided tour to the rally grounds or a walking tour of Roth. I know you wouldn't want to tell us what to do here, but as opposed to our other ports I really can't decide. It just doesn't seem that there's much to see in Roth and I have mixed feelings about seeing the rally grounds...Any advice?

 

In Passau we are going to go to Cesky Krumlov (I know it's far). But I think we will probably have a little time when we return (and like you two, we rest when we're at home). Will I have trouble finding the starting points hike along the Inn or the one up to Veste Oberhaus or is it obvious?

 

That's it for now...hope I'm not being too much of a bother! Your blog has been so helpful!

Chris

[jpalbny]

Wine, round two

 

Had to move some photos around online and it seemed to mess up the links. The pictures keep disappearing and reappearing, so who knows if they will stay where they're supposed to. Here are the two wines that we bought:

 

 

Google photos is really a pain in the neck. I miss the old Picasaweb albums.

Edited May 19, 2016 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

Oh My,

I can't wait to get on our ship! We are primarily California wine drinkers so it will be such fun to try all these different wines!

 

Yes, that is a big part of the fun. Because I grew up near the Finger Lakes in New York, Chris and I visit there often for wine tasting. That region has a similar climate to Germany and Austria, so some of the more obscure German grapes are actually grown in Upstate New York too. Thus they aren't unfamiliar to us - but the Hungarian ones were new to us. If you're only used to the standard California varietals, the wines on this trip will be very different!

 

Ok JP here goes...

 

I'm not adept at google maps and did play around with them a bit, but when I looked at downloading regions it said something about picking the size...Can you give me any advice about that?

 

Sure, when you go to the menu in Google Maps, then hit the plus sign in the lower right corner to download a new offline area, it displays the map and highlights an area for you to download. You can move the area around, zoom in or out, until you have "enough" of the map within the highlighted area so you're confident that all your points of interest will be included. My advice is to mark your POIs first with the gold stars, and then the size map that you need will be pretty obvious - just make sure your stars are included.

 

It won't let you download an area that's too big, so if you get that error message, zoom in and try again. The area is usually sufficient for a large city though. And don't worry about losing detail if you zoom out too far - the detail is still there.

 

You shouldn't run out of storage space on your phone but if you do, you can delete the areas that you've previously used. Google keeps any offline map data for 30 days unless you nuke it sooner.

 

Did you download the region for each port on your itinerary? Any other areas?

 

Yes, though I did some of them on the fly using the ship's WiFi on the morning that we arrived. Particularly, when we were in Linz - once I found out where the cider farm was located, I downloaded that part of the map as well. No real need to do that, but I am a bit of a map nerd. You can also download the map areas at home before you depart if you want. I downloaded Budapest from home; that way, we would know where to go as soon as we landed.

 

Did your maps with the locations marked (the pretty gold stars!) propagate into the downloaded maps? (I think you may have said that they did)

 

Yes, that is the very cool thing about Google Maps. You can enter the locations (POIs) on either your PC or phone (as long as you are signed in to your Google account - be sure that you are). Once you update the map on your PC, the additional POIs will migrate to the phone app, as long as your phone has an internet connection, and your offline areas are set to automatically update. That is true even if you've already downloaded the offline area - Google Maps is helpful enough to update your offline areas with new POIs as you add them.

 

Just being curious and I don't want to sound like we haven't traveled, but I'm always open to good ideas...What is on the index cards and how does Chris arrange them? By day? By sight?

 

Chris takes notes as she reads guidebooks and websites prior to leaving. Then she arranges the sights that we want to see on index cards. Since we don't buy guidebooks any more - we borrow the from our library - we can't take notes in them, so thus the index cards.

 

They're usually geographically organized; for example, in Budapest she had one card for Castle Hill, one for Northern and one for Southern Pest, one for Margaret Island, etc. The cards are basically a list of sights to see, with a few basic notes such as opening hours, cost, and some symbol if they offer discounts with a tourist card. She's done this for a few years now and it's handy; plus they make a good bookmark for your guidebook while you're out and about. We save them and refer to them for subsequent visits.

 

In Budapest I want to see the M1 Underground and I think we will probably take it back from City Park but if we don't can I pop down at any of it's stops or is there a particular one that I should choose?

 

The station (IMO) was more interesting than the actual cars running through it. We popped down into the station by City Park (Hosok Tere, maybe?) and looked around. The car that ran through looked no different from any other so we never rode the M1 line. One tip - the Metro ticket checkers seem ubiquitous at the entrances to the stations - except I don't remember seeing them here. But if they are there at the entrance, you'll need a ticket. Since you say you'll be riding the Metro, I assume that's a non-issue.

 

How did you know what was on the banks of the Danube as you sailed? Including towns, sights, structures. Did you have any guidebooks for this? Did the ship provide anything?

 

Different answers in different places. In Budapest, for example, we had been there a few days already so we knew the major sights. I am a map nerd, as previously stated, so I study our destinations pretty carefully before we get there, and sometimes even use Google Street View to get a preview.

 

In other towns where it was less familiar (Bratislava) I identified them after the fact using the geotags that our cameras put on photos, combined with Google Maps. There are still a few that I haven't figured out yet, and may never figure out (until we go back). :D

 

For the Wachau Valley cruise, the CD told us what we were seeing as we passed by. I marked the sights down on Google Maps as he told us about them, so I could remember weeks later. When we were cruising on our own, it was easy. If the phone is connected to the ship's WiFi, the Google Maps app will tell you exactly where you are and what is there.

 

What was Hans doing in Bratislava? We met him in Copenhagen!

 

Apparently they love him because he made some comment about Bratislava being a perfect fairytale city.

 

Vienna...so sad! So we will be there for the typical 2 nights and have never been there before...I'm thinking about going over with the am tour and venturing off on our own if they aren't doing what we want. I did read your blog re your previous visit to Vienna. So with our limited time would you recommend Schonbrunn? It seems to you two did a little off the beaten path stuff there...St. Charles instead of St Stephens?

 

Yes, we definitely stayed off the beaten path for our second visit to Vienna. If you've never been there, it's hard to not recommend Schönbrunn. If the weather is crummy then just visit the palace; if the weather is fine, then the gardens are gorgeous and worth an hour at least.

 

You are right; I don't think we ever went inside St. Stephen's on our last visit either. We climbed the tower in 2013 but never went in. We may have been in church overload mode that day...ABC (another bloody church?)...

 

If you're comfortable riding the U-Bahn on your own Vienna is a snap. The station is 5 minutes from the boat. Schönbrunn involves a change to the U4 line.

 

We do go to Nuremberg/Roth...on your blog it sounds like you really didn't do too much in Nuremberg. Our ship does a guided tour to the rally grounds or a walking tour of Roth. I know you wouldn't want to tell us what to do here, but as opposed to our other ports I really can't decide. It just doesn't seem that there's much to see in Roth and I have mixed feelings about seeing the rally grounds...Any advice?

 

We did not tour any of the Third Reich sites in Nürnberg, true. They are outside the Old City and we weren't terribly interested. We wandered the Old City one day and tried to see the castle but it was closed for renovation. Still, it is beautiful and memorable, so if I were choosing - I'd take the walking tour over the rally grounds. We used Nürnberg as a base for day trips to Bayreuth, and to Regensburg. Hm. You're right!

 

Now Rothenburg is a very cool place, though it's overrun with tourists. Liked it, and I see why it's popular, but if we visit again I'd arrive late afternoon, stay over, and see things after the bus tours leave. I thought Nordlingen was just as pretty, possibly more so, and way less crowded. I don't know that I'd bother with the ride to Rothenburg if the boat is already in Nürnberg. Tough choice!

 

In Passau we are going to go to Cesky Krumlov (I know it's far). But I think we will probably have a little time when we return (and like you two, we rest when we're at home). Will I have trouble finding the starting points hike along the Inn or the one up to Veste Oberhaus or is it obvious?

 

The Innpromenade is impossible to miss. It starts at the tip of land where the Inn meets the Danube, and runs right along the river. You can start/stop anywhere you'd like. The park where we ended our walk is just beyond the first bridge.

 

To get to Veste Oberhaus, cross the first bridge over the Danube (other side of Altstadt Passau), then when you get to the other side of the bridge you can see the stairs up the hill. Cross the street and start climbing. At the fork, if you go right it's a shorter distance but if you go left, there are a few viewpoints.

 

Cesky Krumlov looks neat. Post some pictures when you return! Would love to visit there some day...though I wonder if it's too much like Rothenburg - crowded...

 

That's it for now...hope I'm not being too much of a bother! Your blog has been so helpful!

Chris

 

No bother at all. The only thing I like more than talking about vacations is going on them. Since we don't have any planned for a few months, this is the next best thing! Enjoy.

 

And before someone asks...I don't work for Google either! :)

[jpalbny]

So...I'm having a bit of blogger's block about our post-cruise trip to Salzburg and Munich. To get inspired, I'll try to summarize a few things about the cruise. So, here you go...

 

 

Final thoughts on the cruise:

 

River Beatrice:

 

An older Uniworld ship, as opposed to the Super Ships that we've been on in the past. Similar layout though, so it felt familiar. Nicely decorated and it did not at all feel over the top. Perhaps more subtly stated than some of the newer ships but still felt luxurious.

 

We did not miss the swimming pool that we'd had on Antoinette or Catherine. We only visited the aft lounge once, for the alternative dining on the night we were in Vienna. The main bar and lounge seemed to have sufficient space whenever we were there, and the dance floor was big enough for several couples at once. I counted 5 or 6 at once on occasion, so I guess we were doing our job! ;)

 

The top deck was spacious and there were plenty of seats. The cloth canopy is only a thin sunscreen and is not waterproof; keep that in mind if it rains. A very pleasant place to park yourself and watch the scenery go by.

 

Room - we splurged on a suite this trip, because the Cat 1 rooms are about 25% smaller than a comparable room on SS Antoinette/Catherine. We probably could have managed but figured what the heck.

 

The room had plenty of space, though the large vanity/countertop was occupied by a few things that probably could have been decluttered - there were 3 crystal flasks of bourbon, whiskey, and Cognac that we never touched. There was a tray of glassware. We had a bottle of red wine that was a gift from Uniworld, as well as a bottle of complimentary Champagne from AMEX - at least they disappeared in a few days...:D There were two EU outlets and two North American outlets on one end of the counter so plenty of room to charge stuff.

 

Bathroom was not spacious but maybe a touch bigger than a Category 1 room on the newer super ships. L'Occitaine toiletries, though the shower gel and shampoo are in large bottles attached to the shower wall. So no samples to take home. Chris reminds me that there is no outlet for a hair dryer in the bathroom so she had to come out to the countertop vanity and unplug our electronics to dry her hair.

 

Lastly, there is a cute little alarm clock in the room but there's a trick that we discovered last time! There's no on/off switch - instead, you flip it over to set or turn off the alarm. One side says ON and the other side says OFF. If the side that says ON is up, the alarm will go off. Turn it over so it says OFF, otherwise you just might be woken up for the previous passenger's 3AM transfer home.

 

Food:

 

Breakfast was a standard buffet with occasional substitutions. On the days that they served Weißwurst, it would have been even better to have sweet mustard - all that was displayed was hot mustard, and everyone knows that you need süß Senf, not scharf.... The breakfast specials, on the days that we ordered them, were very nice.

 

Lunch buffets were good, with a few entrees, plenty of salads and side dishes. I was able to control my tendency to eat a piece of everything by coordinating and sharing with Chris. The only time that the lunch buffet wasn't great was the first day, but I can't fault that since it was almost 3PM by the time we arrived. The lunches where they served Wurst and all of the accompaniments were particularly memorable. In fact I am still seeing signs of it when I try to tighten my belt... :p

 

Dinners - I've posted a number of menus and food pictures, so I think that this speaks for itself. Plenty of interesting choices, food was well-presented and tasted as good as it looked. We usually dined at a table for two and service was efficient, not hurried, but it didn't drag out all night. I can't think of anything that we didn't really like.

 

Wine - the included wines were local varietals, all wines that we were interested in trying. The only one that I remember not being impressed with was the Austrian Cab Sauv that they served after the concert in Vienna, but as I said in the review, that may have just been a poor match for a sausage with hot mustard. They served a few rosé wines as well, at least one Hungarian and an Austrian one. We often had these for lunch and/or pre-dinner drinks.

 

No matter how little we tried to eat we both came home feeling heavier than we left. Oh well. It was yummy and we enjoyed it!

 

Service:

 

Overall very good to mostly excellent. The bar staff was incredibly responsive and it was hard to empty your glass when sitting in the lounge or even at dinner. The wine steward, Arber (Arbi) was out there with his crew, pouring wines, talking about them, very approachable and friendly. He'd give an overview of the day's wines every evening before dinner, right after Tamas gave the daily briefing. He even offered to e-mail a list of the week's wines to anyone who was interested in the specifics.

 

Dining room staff was great as expected. Never an issue with our orders other than the minor, odd issue with the Farewell dinner that I mentioned previously (two apps, not asked to choose). We never had to ask for something to be sent back or had any other issue so can't tell you how they responded when there was a problem.

 

The butlers seemed less visible than I'd seen on Catherine. Last year we did not have a suite, but a couple who was in a suite befriended us and we ate dinner at their table every night. The two butlers were there at dinner every night keeping an eye on our group, helping serve dinner, making sure that wine was always poured, etc.

 

This year, I hardly saw the butlers at dinner, except on the night of the special dinner at the aft lounge. I wonder if that's where they were every night? They brought snacks to the room on afternoons when we were there which was nice. They also got us some gifts at the end of the cruise - a tie for me, and a pashmina for Chris, plus a nice box of chocolates. No complaints about the butlers because we don't like to be fussed over, but if you do like to be fussed over...be aware that we didn't see much fussing.

 

Itinerary:

 

Nice mix of small towns and large cities. I'm very glad that we had extra time in Budapest pre-cruise, and that we'd been to Vienna previously - otherwise we'd have been disappointed with the short visits.

 

However, it was a bit disappointing that Bratislava was such a drive-by. Similarly, there was minimal time allowed in Dürnstein. An extra hour or two in those locations would have been much better. I wonder if there is more time allotted in those towns when the ship is sailing downstream?

 

Tours:

 

We did a mix of ship tours and our own. Overall we enjoyed the ship's tours; guides were personable, knowledgeable, and there was never a problem understanding them. The optional tour was nice, but you could probably do it cheaper on your own. I looked at some concerts last time and you can find them for €30-40. It was a freebie for us so not an issue. I didn't hear anything about the other optional tours.

 

One of these days we have to take the bikes out. We always intend to, but we are just too busy doing other stuff and run out of time. I felt bad for the poor folks who did the biking tour from Dürnstein to Melk. The weather was miserable and it did not look like fun. The Budapest biking tour looked quite fun; we saw them while we were wandering around Margaret Island.

 

Miscellaneous:

 

Laundry service was efficient and they did a nice job with our clothes. Put the laundry bag out before dinner, and it's back by early afternoon the next day. We used it three times during the cruise I think. Forgot to snag a price list, because it was included with the suite. So I never bothered to look at it.

 

Embarkation was lightning fast. Disembarkation was smooth and our taxi was there when expected. I was a little disappointed that Uniworld uses out of the way piers for embarkation and disembarkation, but I understand why. The locations of the piers in the center of town, at least the ones we were docked at, would make it very challenging or even impossible to pull up a bus and load / unload luggage.

 

Uniworld does have a no-tipping philosophy and nobody was looking for tips. We did see some people tipping the tour guides at times; this seemed like the minority of folks. But it's not expected.

 

Summary:

 

Uniworld continues to put out a great product that we have enjoyed very much on our past three cruises. We will definitely look forward to cruising with them again.

 

We are thinking someplace more exotic next time. Chris is looking at their India trip for next year. We shall see where that leads us!

Edited May 19, 2016 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

Sunday, April 17 - Disembarkation and on to Salzburg!

 

After dinner last night, the boat had moved from its very nice location in the Altsatdt, to a more industrial pier in Lindau, which is about 5km out of town.

 

We were up early and managed to pack. We tried to organize our stuff, and keep all that we'd need in just one bag, but it was a challenge given the 3 bottles of wine we had with us. But, our bags had not been full when we arrived so there was room, and we didn't even have to expand the bags.

 

We put our bags out at 8:00 as requested, then headed to breakfast. We had the usual with one last Mimosa, and also shared a Belgian Waffle. After breakfast, we grabbed our carry-ons from the suite, made a final check and emptied the safe, then headed to the lounge to wait until they kicked us off the boat.

 

We hung out in the lounge for an hour or so; Chris labeled pictures and I caught up on my notes for this blog. We got up to check on our cab a few minutes before 10:00, and the driver was there waiting for us, so we said our goodbyes to Tamas and the rest of the crew before heading out a few minutes early.

 

There was no traffic on Sunday morning, so we got to the train station with 30 minutes to kill. The fare from the dock in Lindau was €14, which we thought was reasonable. The train was remarkably a few minutes early, and there were plenty of seats. From Passau we went to Wels, then hopped off to wait for the connecting train – amazingly, that part was easy. It turned out that there was no need to even change platforms! Off to Salzburg we go!

 

We arrived in Salzburg on time and went to the tourist information office to purchase our Salzburg cards. That took a minute or two extra because I went to the wrong office first; there is one for train information, and one for tourism information. The agent at the TI office was happy to tell us how to get to our hotel using the buses, which was very helpful because as much as I'd tried to figure this out beforehand, I was stumped.

 

We left the station and crossed to the bus terminal, where we waited for the #1 bus to our hotel. I realized that I had stolen the TI agents pen, so since it was still a bit of a wait for the bus, I ran back and returned it to her, much to her amusement. After a bit of a wait, we caught the bus which took us to within a few feet of our hotel. The bus wasn't too crowded and it wasn't much of a step up with our bags. Public transport was included with the Salzburg Card.

 

We were staying at the Hotel Goldener Hirsch on Getreidegasse, which is a Starwood property that we'd booked through AMEX platinum. In addition to an included breakfast, the booking also included a dinner for two, and a room upgrade. For just a one-night stay, that was a pretty good deal! We had been having a terrible time trying to find a restaurant that was actually open on Sunday night in Salzburg before the trip - we'd found four or five that we were interested in, but they were all closed on Sunday. So we gave up and just booked this hotel so we wouldn't have to worry about it.

 

We set out under gray skies to explore Salzburg. Rain in the forecast today, so we had to get moving, but first things first - we made a lunch stop for a Wurst platter and a Wiener Schnitzel, along with some local beer and wine.

 

After lunch, we headed down Getreidegasse to the Alter Markt. The skies look quite ugly! Wonder if we'll get anything done here, or will this be a bust?

 

 

We toured the Old Residence first, which is a museum with artwork, historical exhibits, and some State Rooms - the latter were mostly closed today due to a concert going on. Also, no pictures once you enter. So we took a few pictures before stashing our cameras and backpack in a locker for the tour. Not sure who this guy is clubbing... And the door looks quite sturdy!

 

 

For part of the tour you step out onto an outdoor platform which connects the Residence with the Cathedral. The view of Residenzplatz from this platform was nice, even in the grey light. The building on the right is the New Residence (now the Salzburg Museum), and the church on the left is St. Michael's Church.

 

 

Weird, from the platform you actually enter the upper floor of the Cathedral, and you can view it from the choir loft. So it's a free tour of the Cathedral - the Old Residenz ticket was included with our Salzburg Card.

 

On the Cathedral side of the tour, there were exhibition rooms with religious artifacts (some of them quite old), a portrait gallery, a treasury, and eventually you work your way back to the Residence proper for the state rooms. There were a number actually open so it wasn't a bad tour. And, we could hear the music coming from the concert hall so I think we did OK here. The tour took about 90 minutes, and an audioguide was included.

 

On the way out, a few more views of the fountain in Residenzplatz. First, from the courtyard, then a closer up view.

 

 

The wind was whipping the fountain spray around. We ducked into the Salzburg museum at the New Residence (also included with the card) for an hour to see what was there. They had some interesting displays of historical musical instruments. You could pick up a set of headphones at each exhibit, and listen to people actually playing the instrument that was on display. It was fun to hear these archaic instruments play familiar melodies.

 

After 5:00 now. Time to head for a few more outdoor sights before the weather gets any uglier. We have a 7:30 dinner reservation to get to as well.

[mimmy52]

Catching up on your report and loving it. Our electric was out all day yesterday and I felt lost not being able to use the computer.

 

Since you don't mind answering questions, I have another. Are the tram/bus stops in Budapest well marked? I'm having a bear of a time trying to figure out the transportation map.