Passau and The ship Part 2

 

           Beautiful sky over the Nunn River.   We have only posted a tiny part of the pictures we have taken.  I think, so far, we have 11,843 pictures, so if you want to see more, not all, let us know when we get home.  Maybe we should put together a slide show…….just bring your sleeping bags 

A lovely narrow street leading to the Nunn   

Of course we visited a church, or two, or

                                                               

 

     

You can see why we keep taking pictures of churches and why we don’t see the need to see museums or palaces.  Some of these churches have no rivals.

For two nights we went through swarms of Mayflies, yes, in August.  So does that make them Augustflies?   There were so many of them that they set off the motion sensors that control the sliding doors.  So, in effect, they let themselves in……the crew was vacuuming them up for days.

                                     

The sill outside the sliding door in our cabin was totally full of dead flies.

We were visited, on occasion, by swans looking for handouts.

 

                                                                      

Melk, Germany 8 25

 

When we arrived in Melk, we encountered some soft rain.  I think it is the first time for us.  Can you believe it, we have been on the road since May 6th and this is the first rain.  So we dug out the rain gear that we have been carrying forever.  It turns out my clear rain slicker did just fine, Duane on the other hand, found that his yellow slicker was actually just a yellow plastic bag.

Doesn’t he look cute?   I think he always looks cute…..

Melk is another old town.  It does have a big story.  But first, here are some general pictures

    

                     You can identify a shop by the icon hung out front.

We went through the palace and the museum

        

 

 OK, the story about this time.  During the crusades, Richard the Lion Hearted got into an argument with the king of this area.  The king captured Richard and imprisoned him in the castle above the town and required a ransom for his release.  He was held for over 3 months.  The story goes that a minstrel of King Richard’s court travel around Europe singing the first verse of the king’s favorite song, listening for a response.  He heard the king sing the second verse, and knew he had found him.  He is said to have returned to England to get the ransom for his release.  Some even say that Robin Hood was collecting money for his release.  Anyway, he was held in this castle. 

This is another town where there is not enough room for cemeteries, so they use a bone house.  That means that when you die, you get buried then after you have been reduced to just bones, your bones are removed and put in the bone house, and someone else can then be buried in that spot.

This is what the bones look like.

On the boat this evening, we had a show put on by the crew.  It was cute, not good, but cute.  One thing that was really funny was when a guy came out lip sinking a  song and then these guys in bathrobes and flashed………….

                                                                 

                                                                   us with this…………

 

                                                                   

                    Every time they moved their knees they hit the frying pans with wooden spoons to the music. 

                                                               Good thing they didn’t miss the pans !!!!!

On the way to Melk, Germany 8-25

 

We left Vienna and sailed to Germany.  Our first stop is Melk.  On the way guess what we saw……right, castles.

   Gorgeous isn’t it.

                                                              See it?

 

More                    

 

                                   

           

                                                                 

                      

 

           

                                                                    Our home away from home.

Vienna, Austria August 23-24 Part 1

 

We boarded our boat in Budapest at 3 pm on the 22nd and set sail, so to speak, at 5.  We traveled most of the 23rd and arrived in Vienna at 4 pm.  On our way to Vienna we retraced our steps by going past Bratislava, Slovakia and Devin Castle.  It was interesting to see the other side of the castle.

                              

And of course there are other castles 

We had no idea but the Danube has MANY locks.  One day we went through 8 locks.  Each lock is a power generator and some required us to lower the sun deck roofs. 

  some of the locks are so small that there is only about 6 inches on each side between the wall and the boat.  The boat has rubber wheels and bumpers on each side, so it can get as close to the wall as possible.

        Later on the cruise the locks and bridges get so low that the side rails had to be removed as well.  The wheel house where the captain sits is lowerable.

We arrived in Vienna in the evening, so after dinner we went for a walk to an amusement park.  It is huge.  The big wheel is very old and still runs.  It was made from steel sent from England and the cages are actually old train cars.

                                                       

              

                                                                                  

Doesn’t this look like Cinderella should get married here?   This is the most amazing looking church, right across the river from where we docked.  The inside is not nearly as nice, so just dream about what you think the inside should look and we’ll let you keep that vision, and not ruin it for you.

When our boat docked here in Vienna, we did not tie up to the dock, we tied up to another boat.  Right, we had to walk through their boat to get to the dock.  Strange we thought.  That was until the third boat docked onto our boat and their passengers had to pass through 2 boats to get to shore.  Guess that is what you have to do when space is limited.

When we came back to the boat after a walk, we found that the boat that was tied to the dock had pulled away and our boat was sitting off shore.

                                                          

We wondered how we were going to get back on board.  We watched in amazement as the two boats, still tied together, moved sideways right into the dock and tied up there.  So we became the first boat.  Later another boat tied up to the 2 of us.  Interesting.

 

 

Vienna, Austria Part 2

 

Vienna is full of beautiful buildings, as you probably know.  We went on a tour by bus and then walking.  Here are some of the things we saw:

                                              

And St. Stephen’s Church

 

           

                                                                 

 

              

We came across a square that had this sign and these sculpture.

 

                                                                       

What it says is:

“This was once the site of Philipp-Hof, an imposing apartment block built during the prosperous final quarter of the 19th century.  It was destroyed in an air-raid on March 12th 1945.  Hundreds died who had sought refuge in its cellar.  The exact number of the dead has never been verified as bodies could not be recovered from the rubble.  For this reason, it was deemed during the commemorative year of 1988, to be an appropriate site for the City of Vienna to place a Monument against War and Fascism.

The Gate of Violence stands at the front of the square:  It is constructed from Mauthausen granite, identical to the stone that thousands of prisoners were forced to carry up the Steps of Death at Mauthausen Concentration Camp.”

                                     

In front of the Gate of Violence is a statue of man coming out of the violence.

In the evening we had a performance by a couple of performers from Vienna.  They played music from Hungary and Germany and other places, but no Viennese waltzes.  I was sad about that, but many of the passengers had gone to a concert the night before, so we didn’t get to hear Strauss.

So, on we go.