CRUISING ON THE DANUBE by Maureen Sargent

Finally we were on our way to Budapest in Hungary where we were joining a cruise with Avalon Waterway along the Danube.   We arrived just in time for the briefing and cruise welcome.   The Cruise Director provided us with lots of valuable information during that briefing as well as throughout the cruise.

On the next day we did the included tour of Budapest which took us to Heroes’ Square, and also up to the Matthias Church and Fishermen’s Bastion.  This was our first use of audio equipment used by tour guides which allowed them to communicate to everyone through their own individual headsets.

The next day we again chose to take an optional tour to an active Horse Stud farm on the Hungarian Plain.  On arrival we were given apricot schnapps and small scones.  We took a carriage ride around the perimeter of the property and then watched the horse show.   Now it was time to board our ship, the MS Poetry.  We found our luggage waiting for us in our room.   Once unpacked it was time to go on deck and watch as we set sail from Budapest. It was very beautiful as we sailed out of that city.  The food that night for dinner was wonderful, and set the scene for the days to come.   The service in the restaurant was always excellent and the wines were very plentiful and palatable.

The first stop was Vienna, that night we went to a traditional Austrian dinner at a Tavern in the Vienna Woods, another optional tour.  The next day we arrived at Durnstein in the heart of the Wachau wine region and we had a guided tour of that small town.  Above the town are the ruins of the castle where Richard the Lionheart, King of England, was imprisoned in 1192.  Our next stop was Melk and we had been looking forward to visiting the Melk Benedictine Abbey.  Day 7 saw us arrive in Linz, this was a very full day, which saw us cross borders from Austria to Czech Republic and then finally into Germany.  Cesky Krumlov is a marvellous little town (more like a village), full of little shops and restaurants and the youngest building is about 300 years old!  Regensburg was our next stop and the smell of cooking sausages near where our ship was berthed was extremely tantalising and many passengers succumbed (even though lunch was provided on board).  That afternoon we did a tour by steamer up the Danube Gorge to the Weltenberg Abbey.   One of the amazing features of the cruise along the Danube was the locks. Cruising on the Danube is only possible because of these locks.   Some lifted the ship up to the water level, and after we had reached the “summit” point the ship was lowered to that level.

And all too soon our cruise was at an end.  We disembarked in Nuremberg where we had undertaken a guided tour the afternoon previously.  We then travelled by coach for three hours to Prague, the golden city.   We stayed at The Hilton in Prague.  That night we attended the Opera, and saw “Rusalka” by Antonin Dvorak.   The next afternoon we did an optional tour to Terezin Concentration Camp which was out in the country.  The exhibition and film were very revealing and were followed by a visit to the Cemetery and fortress.  We saw the shower room which had been used to fool the Red Cross when it inspected the various prisons.  We also saw the actual shower rooms that the prisoners used.   There was quite a difference.

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