<< Before River Cruise started
The Danube river rises in Germany’s Black Forest and flows through or
along the borders of 10 countries. Danube cruise ships wander through
scenic old-country villages, stop at fairy-tale-esque castles, medieval
fortresses, churches, museums, concert halls and more.
Our cruise started in Passau, Germany, and went into
Austria through Linz, Grein, Melk, Durnstein, and ended in Vienna, for a
total distance about 300km.
Day 7 (10/17) ...
- Passau Sunrise
Woanyu and I woke up early and walked up to the Veste Oberhaus across
the river for the sunrise. With 65,000 square meters of built-up
area, the 800-year-old Veste Oberhaus is one of the largest surviving
castles in Europe. The mist and fog gave the sunrise some mysterious
atmosphere around this medieval fortress.
- Passau
Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as
the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") because the Danube is
joined there by the Inn River from the south and the Ilz River from the
north. In 1662, a devastating fire consumed most of the city.
Passau was subsequently rebuilt in the Baroque style including its
Cathedral of St. Stephen.
We decided not to join the guided walk
tour. I took my parents to walk through the Passau old town with
our own leisure pace. We walked through the narrow, cobble-stoned
street is called the
Höllgasse, the
alley of the artists, which is full of artisan shops.
- St. Stephan Cathedral, Passau
Since 730, there have been many
churches built on the site of the current cathedral. The current church,
a baroque building around 100 meters (328 ft) long, was built from 1668
to 1693 after a fire in 1662 destroyed its predecessor. The
Passau Cathedral has one of the largest church organs in the world (in
fact, it is the largest cathedral organ in the world and the largest
organ in Europe). It happened to have an organ concert at 11AM, and
there is no better way to admire the cathedral and its organ in an organ
concert!
- Danube Cruise
After lunch the ship started to cruise on the
Danube. The Danube flows through a succession of narrow valleys, only
occasionally interrupted by plains. Quite a few fortresses and Baroque
abbeys line its attractive course. This part of the Upper Danube is made by some truly delightful scenery and landscapes scarcely
marked by human intervention. It was a joy beyond words to be part
of this scenery.
The gradient of the river is rather steep here, and
this has to be balanced out by numerous locks. It was quite
interesting to see how the lock worked and see the water level changed
behind the lock.
We arrived in Linz during dinner after it already got
dark, and I felt a little bit too drunk to go out for a night walk after
dinner (I did
not even notice that the modern Lentos Art Museum was just beside our
ship...).
Day 8 (10/18) ...
- Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of
the state of Upper Austria. Linz has always been an important
economic metropolis, and the city has a long tradition as a center of
steel production. It has also developed into one of Europe’s leading
cultural capitals: Mozart wrote his Linz Symphony (no. 36) while
here, and Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony was composed during a stay; Franz
Schubert and Anton Bruckner lived and worked here for some time, too, as
did the mathematician and astronomer, Johannes Kepler. Adolf
Hitler was born in the border town of Braunau am Inn and moved to Linz in
his childhood. Hitler spent most of his youth in the Linz area, from 1898
until 1907, and Hitler considered Linz to be his "home town".
Again we
walked around Linz after breakfast with our own pace. Linz's main
square, Hauptplatz, is just a short walk from the river dock. We
walked through the plaza and visited the
Old Cathedral (Alter Dom,
built between 1669 and 1683 in Baroque style, and served as cathedral of
the Diocese of Linz from 1785 to 1909), and the
New Cathedral (Linzer
Mariendom). Construction plans of the New Cathedral were started in
1855 by Bishop Franz-Josef Rudigier. With 20,000 seats, the
cathedral is the largest (130 meters long, and the ground 5,170 square
meters), but not the highest, church in Austria. The originally-planned,
higher spire was not approved, because in Austria-Hungary at the time, no
building was allowed to be taller than the South Tower of the St.
Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. At 135 m, the New Cathedral is two meters
shorter than the Viennese cathedral.
It's been quite a walk for my parents in the morning.
But a good thing to be in an European city is that we can always find a
rest stop in a church :-)
- Danube Cruise
We started to sail again during lunch time.
This section of the Danube is as picturesque as yesterday. We quiet
glided through mirror-like reflection of the landscape in a calm and
perfect weather.
- Grein
Grein is a very small old town (a short main street with a
handful of shops). Grein’s Old
City Hall houses the oldest civic theater in Central Europe preserved in its original form and which is still in use. It was
constructed by and for the town’s inhabitants in 1791 and is still the
venue of professional productions. We walked up to the Greinburg
Castle where it provides a nice view of the old town, rolling hills, and
the Danube.
Day 9 (10/19) ...
- Melk
We were sailing during the night and arrived in Melk in the
early morning. Melk is best known as the site of a
massive baroque Benedictine monastery named Melk Abbey. The
abbey was founded in 1089 when Leopold II, Margrave of Austria gave one
of his castles to Benedictine monks. A monastic school was founded
in the twelfth century, and the monastic library soon became renowned
for its extensive manuscript collection. Today's Baroque abbey was
built between 1702 and 1736 to designs by Jakob Prandtauer. Due to
its fame and academic stature, Melk managed to escape dissolution under
Emperor Joseph II when many other Austrian abbeys were seized and
dissolved between 1780 and 1790.
- Danube Cruise
Luckily the sky started to clear up when we
departed Melk at about noon, and it was another nice cruise day that we
sailed through the famous Wachau valley. The Wachau flanks the
Danube for about 20 miles (32km) of its course with monasteries, castles
and picturesquely sited villages, amid steep terraced vineyards and old
orchards – this is a landscape that is a joy to visit. The
region’s mild climate and its favorable soils ensure that Wachau wines
are both highly distinctive and of outstanding quality. The majority of
vineyards are used to cultivate grapes varieties suitable for white
wines. It comes as no surprise that the UNESCO has added the
whole region with its many cultural facets to the select list of World
Heritage Sites.
- Dürnstein
With just 800 inhabitants, Dürnstein is one of
Austria’s smallest towns. The most immediately striking feature of what
is undoubtedly the best known town of the Wachau is the blue tower of
the Collegiate Church of the Augustinian Convent. High above the town,
the ruined fortress, the Kuenringerburg, was established in the 12th century.
Destroyed by Swedish troops in 1645, this fortress is famous for the
fact that the English king, Richard the Lionheart, was imprisoned here
in 1192.
After an easy stroll around this small town, we took
my parents back to the ship, and Woanyu and I decided to hike up to the
ruined fortress. It was a steep climb for about 20 min, and it has the
incredible panoramic
views of the river, valley, and vineyards.
Day 10 (10/20) ...
- Vienna
Vienna is Austria's primate city, with a population of
about 1.8 million (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one
third of Austria's population), and its cultural, economic,
and political center. In 1440 Vienna became the resident
city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the de
facto capital of the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural
center for arts and science, music and fine cuisine.
We rode the bus
together with the tour group and had a city tour driving through a few
landmark buildings along the Vienna's Ringstrasse, such as State Opera,
Parliament, City Hall, and numerous museums. After a short group
tour around Hofburg and St. Stephen's Cathedral, we started our own city
walk to explore the Vienna old town center. We found a popular
(and crowded) cheese store which had many different cheese samples to
try, and we ended up buying a lot of cheese as our take-home
gifts/souvenirs. After some random walk around the city center and
a nice afternoon coffee/desert break, we were ready to head back to our
ship and we got a Tesla taxi
as our ride!
Day 11 (10/21) ...
It's time to disembark the ship to end our Danube Cruise tour, however,
our trip did not end yet as we will stay in Vienna for one more day for a
couple of special events I have planned. We had reserved a taxi at
9:30AM to take us to Vienna Grand Hotel where we will stay for the
additional night.
- Spanish Riding School
The
first event I planned for ourselves was to attend a horse performance at
the Spanish Riding School. The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, is
a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses,
which perform in the Winter Riding School in the Hofburg. The
riding school was first named during the Habsburg Monarchy in 1572, and
is the oldest of its kind in the world. Performances at the
Spanish Riding School were originally only presented to guests of the
Court. After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918, the
school opened up regular performances to the general public.
Today's program is much expanded than a hundred years ago. It
contains 5 parts: 1) Young Stallions, 2) Pas De Deux (2 horses in
total mirror symmetry), 3) Work In Hand & Schools Above The Ground, 4)
On The Long Rein. and 5) School Quadrille (consisting of 8 riders
working in formation at the walk, trot, and canter, with accompanied
classical music).
After the horse show, we had a simple pizza/pasta
lunch. Since it was getting cold (and had drizzle from time to
time), we decided to walk back to the hotel so my parents could take a
break and stay warm indoors.
- Hofburg
After a
short break at the hotel, Woanyu and I walked back to Hofburg to visit
the museums there including the Silver Collection, the Sisi Museum, and
the Imperial Apartments.
For over 600 years the Vienna Hofburg was
the residence of the Austrian sovereigns. Over the course of the
centuries it developed into one of the most important centers of
European history. It was from here that the Habsburgs reigned from the
13th century, at first as rulers of the Austrian patrimonial lands, from
1452 as emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, and finally as emperors of
Austria from 1806 until the end of the monarchy in 1918. Today it
fulfills the same role for the democratic Republic of Austria. The rooms
now house the offices of the Federal President, the ministers of the
chancellor's office and the secretaries of state.
-
Musikverein
Another event I planned for our Vienna stay was to attend a concert at
Musikverein in the evening. The "Great Hall" (Großer Saal), due to its highly
regarded acoustics, is considered one of the finest concert halls in the
world, along with Berlin's Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam,
and Boston's Symphony Hall. With the exception of Boston Symphony
Hall, none of these halls were built in the modern era with the
application of architectural acoustics, and all share a long, tall, and
narrow shoebox shape. It was really a treat for both visual and
acoustic effect in the concert hall.
The program today: Slovak
Philharmonic conducted by Leo Svárovský; Bedrich Smetana: Symphonic poem
from the cycle "My Fatherland"; Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 8 in G
major, op. 88.
Day 12 (10/22) Going Home ...
We were extremely lucky for the trip this time: 10 straight sunny
days with very mild temperature in October (as my parents always worried if it
might be too cold for them); summer drought and low water level did not
affect our Danube River cruise itinerary (as we heard many other river
cruises were unable to navigate and proceed further); every day's activities has been
executed as planned and were well within my parents' limits; every meal was
so nice (either onboard or on our own) that even I did not miss any Chinese
food after so many days of Western cuisine. I am really glad that I have
convinced my parents to accept my gift to have the trip with us. It's
a different fulfillment to take care of our parents and to understand what
they need.
We left our hotel at about 9AM so we had plenty of time
at the airport shops and lounge to catch our flight at 12:30PM. After
the 12-hour flight, we were back to Taiwan (TPE Airport) and brought my
parents home safe and sound. Well, we only handed them to my father's
driver at the airport and did not really go "home" with them since Woanyu and I
will continue our 2nd leg of flight (another 12 hours) to return to our home
in California. After 31 hours of drive/wait/fly/wait/fly/drive, we
finally concluded our Danube trip with a perfect ending.
[Danube Gallery]
[Back to Photo Page]
