Here's our ship, the ARTISTRY moored at MELK. Sylvia and I began our cruise on June 10th in Nurnberg and ended 14 days later in Otenita, the port for Bucharest. We collected many immigration stamps in our passports as we passed through Germany, Austria,Serbia,Bulgaria and Romania. We visited 15 towns and cities. It sounds like a whirlwind coach trip, but it was so comfortable to go back to the same accommodation very night instead of living out of a suitcase. While we slept, we were transported to our next port of call. Sometimes we sailed during the day. The highlights of day-time sailing were: viewing the Wachau Valley from the ship, and sailing into Budapest, standing on the sundeck listening to a full commentary by our cruise director.It was wet in Nurnberg! I wasn't in a photo-taking mood, so the camera stayed firmly in my backpack as we first visited the sites related to the Nazi period (pretty grim way to start a tour!)and then stretched our legs with a walk up to the fortress. We were left to our own devices in the main square but there was little we could do except buy some gingerbread (Nurnberg specialty) and other souvenirs.
We left Nurnberg after lunch and set off for Regensburg. The excitement on that leg was to watch the ship go through the locks of the Danube Canal. This Canal joins the Danube to the Rhine, thus enabling ships to sail all the way from the North Sea to the Black Sea. It is a feat of engineering that took several decades to complete.
There sure were plenty of locks! All afternoon, and all through the night the crew manoeuvred through them, while we worked our way through coffee and cake and dinner. Stefan, the ship's chef was quite a character. He is from Slovakia and is nearly 7 ft tall. Instead of the chef's toque, he prefered a bandana and sported a dark tan cultivated during off hours on the sun deck.
Sylvia and I spent a lot of time sleeping off our jet lag, having arrived from Singapore only 48 hours earlier.
Regensburg came into view at dawn the next day (dawn being at 4am!). Somehow, everyone was eager to get off the ship to stretch our legs. Our guide, Rainer, gave us copious amounts of information of this formerly wealthy town, now left with an imposing Cathedral, elaborate Town Hall, and several italian-style
villas built by wealty merchants. We also visited the Thurn and Taxis Castle, very glad to get out of the rain that suddenly poured down halfway through our visit of the town.Early the next morning we docked at Passau, the town at the confluence of the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz. Sylvia went off with a fair number of the passengers, on a bus trip to Salzburg and the Austrian Lake District. I went with Inge's group for a fairly dull tour of the non-descript town.
The deck chairs were finally out as we left Germany behind and entered Austrian waters. We reached Linz late in the afternoon and I rushed off the boat for a "run" around town, aided by the tourist train which was helpful in providing a quick overview, including the house where Mozart wrote the Linz Symphony. After dinner, Sylvia and I went for another walk.
