Home at last.

It is said that the best part of the trip is getting to finally sleep on your own pillow. After a very long flight and a  night in Lethbridge, we are finally home. We found that it was as dry here as it was on our trip.

  We had a great time and we will remember it forever.  We tracked down a number of churches that shared the name of our local church, we found a street with my name on it, we saw more castles than we thought possible, we reached the highest height for a navigable waterway in the world, our cat tagged along for the ride, we met a lot of good people and shared a lot of laughs and stories.
  Thank you for the comments and likes. It was our intention to keep people informed as we went along rather than leaving people guessing.

Budapest for the last day

We arrived in Budapest early this morning but the rain kept us inside.

It did clear up and reached 32 by noon.  We toured both parts of the city; Buda and Pest.  Buda is the older style of the city that is famous for its thermal baths that have medicinal qualities that ar highly prized, while Pest is more modern and hosts the business district.

The rough history of the area, culminating with the communist takeover made things difficult for the people. The city gets 35% of its income from tourism.
We will be leaving early on Monday to fly to Frankfurt then to Calgary. It will be good to be home.

A day in Vienna

We spent the day in Vienna doing as we wished, and guess what, we walked. After the short downpours yesterday we are back into the heat. We decided to walk to the island between the rivers where they are having a fair and music festival.

I tried to take off my old man ears, but as much as I tried many of the bands on the smaller stages sounded like strangled cats or demented squirrels last night. As the night went on, the music did get better. Today we were too early for anything but sound checks. The fair was several Kms long and took a long time to get through. There were lots of food and beer vendors and companies wanting to sign you up for things.

There was a series of local craftsmen who would create things as you waited. We watched a sculptor create people's faces out of stone while you wait.

We are leaving this beautiful city tonight for our last stop in Budapest.

Waking up in Vienna

There was rain this morning for the first time in weeks.

We were the last boat allowed through the shallow water before it was closed. Last night we were only travelling about ten cm above the riverbed. The rain should help.

We took the subway to the outskirts of the main area to start out tour. We learned to hang on tight really quick.  There are few places with as rich a history and culture as Vienna, though it did not take long to find the most high end stores, all side by side, waiting to separate you from your money.

Melk and Krems

We entered Austria this morning and woke up in Melk.

The outstanding feature of this area is the Monk's Abbey.

It was originally built as a royal palace  in the 1100's, but was turned over to the Benedictine monks who have run it for over 900 years.
To this day there are 30 monks and they run a prestigious school for over 900 high school students.

We then left for the town of Krems where we will stop for the evening.

Leaving Germany

We are spending our last day in Germany as we are crossing the border into Austria later on.

We woke up in Passau this morning. It is located at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers. The Danube is blue and the Inn is green so they form a different colour when they meet. We found out that the colour of the building shows what the business provides; red or pink is for a butcher, green for pharmacy, yellow for beer or wine, etc.

We made it to St. Stephen's cathedral which is the largest in the area. We like to visit our namesake churches to the one in Consul. This one is a little more ornate than ours.

It is surprisingly well lit since most we have been through have been dark. They have one of the largest pipe organs in the world and they put on an impressive performance for us.

Get off the boat and go

This's the view from the boat this evening.

Climate change has hit hard. The temperatures have been above 32 for a while now and as a result the water levels have dropped to a point where the boat cannot safely travel down the river. The ship only needs 6 ft to travel. As a result they had to drop us off and speed ahead before the levels dropped too far. As it worked out we seemed to be successful.

We were in Regensburg today, a small but historic centre for early trade. Many wealthy merchants lived here and their way of life was rather extravagant.

The town is very beautiful with a lot of small individual shops, but not focussing on tourists.

Nuremberg

Nuremberg was the destination for the day.  This was of great interest because of the role they had in the Nazi party and its rise to power. 

We toured the Congress Hall that was built to resemble the greatest structures in the world. It's intended purpose was to host the party dignitaries and supporters, but was never completed. We then went to the rally grounds where thousands of supporters were stirred on by Nazi propaganda.

Because of this importance it was a prime target for bombing raids. 90% of the city was destroyed. Only one house was left standing in the downtown area, and it is referred to as the lucky house.
The thin one in the middle is the lucky house. Laurie also turned the golden ring on the fountain gate. This means her wish will come true.

Bamberg

We were driven to Bamberg today. We don't moor in most towns too long because of the cost, most of the time we moor in smaller areas and get on buses.

That way they only have to spend a small amount of time at the dock in town.

Bamberg is built with 7 hills surrounding it and each hill has a church on it.  It is a university town with a lot of students. They built it around 2 rivers that divide it into 3 parts. They have numerous small bridges as a result. It is a well developed medieval town.
We went searching for St. Stephan's and finally found it.

Of course it was on top of one of the highest hills.  We did make it back and had supper with a couple of Canadians tonight. Nuremberg in the morning.

A Lesson in Decorating Overdone

This morning we were off to Wurtzburg to tour the Prince Bishop's Residence. Just when we thought things couldn't be more overdone, we'd go to the next room and there it was.

Huge fresco paintings, detailed tapestries, Venetian glass chandeliers, gold leaf detailing, and stucco carvings adorned every room. It was next to a beautiful garden with lush trees, grass and flowers. In a city of about 100 000 people there were over 40 churches.

After supper on the boat we had trivia night. Our team kicked butt - our American friends were in awe of how smart Canadians are!!

Locks, Locks, Locks, Lo.....

We spent most of the day going through locks, about 20 so far. We will eventually will go through 3 that will each raise us over 25m.

We stopped in Miltenberg for our tour today. The town was built on the river and there is a great risk of flooding. To counter this they have built large walls that can stop all but the highest levels. The houses have stone for the first floor that won't rot and the next floors are made of wood which was free to the homeowner. A classic German town, interesting shops and structures. It served as a transit point for trade from all over the southern territory to the north. They would charge tolls for passage which made the area extremely rich.

We did have a hard time getting our 10,000 steps in since the top deck has to be folded down so we can pass under the very low bridges. Sometimes we a less than a foot clear of them with everything folded and the steering house lowered.
Laurie insists on dancing tonight, we will see.

Castles on the Rhine

Our tour today was at Marksburg Castle. It started with us forgetting the radio headsets we have to wear to hear the guide. Marc RAN back to the ship and returned to the bus with time to spare. When we got to the site we climbed 120 stairs to get to the start of the tour.

Throughout the castle we were either climbing more stairs or walking up uneven rock and cobblestone.

Apparently the nobility that used the castle never walked the steep rocks. They got their horses to carry them up instead. It is the most authentic castle in Germany because it was never attacked and therefore was never rebuilt. All stone and wood is original.

Furnishings have been rebuilt in the styles of the time. It took hundreds of years to build the original castle.

We will try to load pictures that show the kitchen,

bedroom, dining room, bathroom, and blacksmith shop. One of my grade two kids (Mac) would have LOVED this tour! I saw cannons and armour and tools used to get criminals to confess (right up his alley)!

After returning to the ship we headed off down the Rhine and saw many more castles - every town has at least one. We're now on the Main River and are heading through over 60 locks to the Danube.

A very large cathedral

We took a bus to Cologne today and the tour started in front of one of the largest cathedrals in the world.

It was one of very few buildings that were not destroyed in the city during the war. Some say that it was on a list of sites that people agreed would not be attacked, but some RAF pilots said they did not destroy it because it served as a landmark for bombing missions.
We then toured the old parts that were not completely destroyed and the new sections that replaced the rubble. They also produce a special beer here that is much different than that found in other areas.
It was fairly warm today so we spent the afternoon on the deck and some time in the lounge area where it was cooler. Just finished a classical music performance after supper.

Unfortunately the pictures are not transferring well over the very slow wifi, we will try to get them up in time.

Windmills Everywhere

We woke up in Kinderdyke this morning.

Jet lag has had little effect on us and the time shift has not been a problem. This is great because our tours start early most mornings.  Kinderdyke is a heritage site where they still have working windmills that date back to the 1700's.

None of them do any grinding of grain, they only move water to prevent flooding. One of the famous families raised 13 kids in one of them. We had a great guide that made it interesting.

 Spent the rest of the day cruising on the river and taking it easy. Looking forward to Germany tomorrow.

On the Boat!

After a long flight from Calgary to Frankfurt and then a shorter flight to Amsterdam,  we are on our boat and will be moving on down the river at midnight (3:00 pm for Consul). We're both happy to off the plane and out of airports for the next two weeks.

There were more people on the plane with us than kids and teachers in Consul School.  It's fascinating being in Holland and picturing Marc's Dad's family growing up here. The number of bikes on the roads is astounding to this girl from the prairie. We have a meeting tonight with the ship's crew and then supper with captain.