Category: New Adventure – Venice, Budapest, Danube and Prague

Prague is widely considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world, its called the Golden City. The variety of architectural forms is an extraordinary harmony, the city can watch all directions and styles, where Romanesque and Gothic buildings,   built in Renaissance and Baroque whimsically combined with more recent trends: modernism, cubism. It will take several days to experience all the splendor of the Czech capital.

On our way into the city, we passed by this building – called The Dancing House, or Fred and Ginger, is the nickname given to the building designed by Frank Gehry – that’s right the same architect who designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.

 

We arrived at the Art Deco Imperial Hotel just a few blocks from the Old Town Square.

After getting checked in, we went down the street to a burger place and had a wonderful lunch (with a couple of brews) and chatted up locals at the adjacent tables. It is amazing to me that English is so common in Europe and yet we don’t speak other languages. O’well, maybe I start classes at PCC.

 

After lunch we walked along the river ultimately finding our way to the Old Town Square passing interesting restored buildings, the Astronomical Clock. This was installed in 1410 making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still operating. We were there in time for the 4 o’clock strike where all the movement operates – really something to see.

  

After another break for a beverage we went to our dinner spot – Wine O’Clock Shop.   This was a small place with basically small plates available and lots of Italian Wines. It appears Veronika, the Owner, likes Italian wines and imports them from a small region along the eastern coast down by the boot. As part of our small plate dinner, Veronika made this really wonderful blue cheese dish.

After finishing we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the next day in Prague.

As the river would not allow the boat to go further along our path, UniWorld arrange a Coach tour into the Bavarian Forest.      This was a nice alternative and included a site seeing tour along the route, a horse drawn coach adventure through the forest, a visit to a glass museum, a glass factory and a lovely lunch.

After we returned we packed up for tomorrows trip to Prague and had the Captian’s Farewell Dinner.     All and all a very nice day.

Regensburg is situated at the confluence of the Danube, Naap and Regen Rivers  and is the 4^th largest city in the State of Bavaria in Germany. The medieval center of the city is 2,000 years old having been originally settled by the Romans. Many of the buildings have been restored and the entire city is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and thus is protected from any changes being made.   We visited this city during our last adventure to this part of the world and I was looking forward to returning for a visit.

Between 1135 and 1146, the Stone Bridge (so called as it is made of stones across the Danube was built. It is undergoing a renovation to restore the road surface and walls so we could not walk the entire length of it only a portion. This bridge opened major international trade routes between northern Europe and Venice and this began Regensburg’s golden age as a residence of wealthy trading families as it provided a major access point across the river.  

Wealthy merchants would build towers to impress – not for any other function. There are still a number that are evident throughout the city.

After our guided tour we stopped in for a nice lunch – with beer of course.

   

Along the banks of the Danube is the oldest Sausage Kitchen originally felt to have stated with the building of the Stone Bridge around 1146 – and is notable as perhaps the oldest continuously open public restaurant in the world. We stopped for a Sausage prior to rejoining our group for the return to the boat.

Just before we got to Passau, we had a lock to pass and a spillway – which I believe is a generating power plant. This lock was about the separate from Austria to Germany.    Once we docked, I noticed this canoe group bailing out the rain water that was making their trip quite an adventure.    Why you would want to canoe on this river is beyond me.  Altho, there was a group of our fellow passengers who decided to do a bike adventure – 17 miles – from our last port of call to Passau arriving just before lunch.  Gloria, our friend from North Carolina was part of this group – it rained virtually the entire time of their ride.    Again, not sure why this group did this but they all said it was fantastic and thAfter docking in Passau, which is situated in Germany along the Austrian border and lies at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers. Known as the Three Rivers City, it is overlooked by the Veste Oberhaus, a 13th-century hilltop fortress housing a museum and observation tower. The old town below is known for its baroque architecture, including St. Stephen’s Cathedral, featuring distinctive onion-domed towers and an organ with 17,974 pipes. We arrived late morning and after lunch boarded the bus for a tour of the city.

From the hilltop fortress we could see down to the city and the various buildings and see how the rivers converge on this city.

After returning to the boat we learned there was a significant high water issue and we may not be able to proceed further. Time will tell on this issue – tomorrow we head to Regensburg.

 

We motored along the river, passing lovely little villages like Durnstein

as we found our way to Spitz for a day tour of this little village.

  We started off with a visit to a nautical museum – showing the various boats used on the Danube over the years and how they moved these boats both down stream – easy of course – and upstream – very hard for sure.  

To bring the boats back up river they would use horses to pull them – and depending on the size of the boat there could be up to 100 or so horses all linked together. Needless to say, not a rapid process of moving along.

They even built a large sailing ship in an attempt to work their way up and down the river.  This model included the ‘poop’ deck at the bow.

  

After our tour, we walked through the little village of Spitz – fortunately it was Sunday so all the shops (of which there were very few) were closed. It was interesting, however, how the Village has created a wall they can install along the river bank to protect them from flooding As you can see by this picture, they have had a bit of a problem with high water over the years.    The high water marks along this building were very telling – we were about 5 feet above the current water level of the river already.  To try and save the village they created a barricade wall they can install along the bank of the river.  This is a removal iron wall that takes a couple days to install but certainly makes a difference in the safety of the village.

  This is the starting point of the wall and insets between the concrete column in the above picture along the curb wall along the river.

Once completed with our adventures in town we returned to the boat for a little wine tasting of local wines. The primary wines are all whites – with Gruner Veltlier being the primary varietal. This was a pleasant tasting and had the wine shop been open I would have picked up a bottle or two. The wines we tasted are only available locally.  

 

For lunch we enjoyed a light repast on the Sun Deck of the ship – very pleasant.