I discovered Eggs Benedict on this cruise and look forward to them every morning. It’s actually a reasonable portion as long as I stop there.
The weather was beautiful today and reached about 70 degrees – it was perfect for the narrated cruise through the Middle Rhine in the morning. Castles – vineyards – towns .. repeat, repeat, repeat for the next 2 hours.

Lorelei Rock:
After lunch, we took a Moselle River wine tasting excursion. Very steep hillsides:
From a lookout point:
We stopped at Weyh Weingut to learn more. This vineyard has been in the same family for 100 years, 4 generations.
The grapes were recently harvested by hand. 15 acres of grapes will yield about 65,000 bottles of wine.
Then we tasted 4 distinctly different rieslings. (Merrilyn, I bought a bottle of Uhlen Laubach Riesling trocken for our next Th@M.)
We had a great group to visit with at dinner. Lower right is Wyn, her husband Ron took the picture, from Manassas VA. At the left, Jeff and Theresa from Durham NC. At the far end of the table, Richard and Pat from Montreal Canada.

It was a short ride from the ship to the center of town on these little “trains.”

After 800 years of flooding, this tower leans a bit:
Property taxes were based on the width of the ground floor as it faced the main street – therefore width was increased as the stories go higher.
A yellow house was a sign of wealth,
but this shade of blue indicated the greatest wealth. A rarity, the only “smalt blue” half-timbered house known to exist; it was built in 1593.
Along the Tauber River.
High-water marks over the past centuries:


We walked back to the ship for an early-afternoon departure:
A more relaxed late afternoon with a Viking promotion presentation at 5:30 where it was announced that two new ocean ships will be introduced to the fleet in about a year with destinations in Antarctica and Greenland/North Pole. Sounds a bit cold to me. For dinner it was a traditional German feast followed by “Name that Tune” in the lounge at 9 pm. Having no musical knowledge of that sort, I went back to our cabin, but Ade has a great time.

The view from our little window this morning:
Wurzburg Residenz – the Prince Bishop’s town house – his castle was further away and up a hill.
No photos allowed inside – the rooms going from opulent to more opulent. The back side of the Residenze from the gardens:


Then a walk through the rest of town.

No terracing for vineyards here, vertical planting works better:
In the evening after dinner, there was a glass-blowing demonstration by Hans Ittig.
A very good marketing technique – we will be in the town where his shop is tomorrow!

Last night at the 6:45 port talk (just before everyone goes to dinner), Richie the program director asked everyone what Bamberg was famous for. Well, Bamberg lace of course. I was wrong. It’s smoked beer, sometimes called “bacon beer.”
How the mail is delivered:
There are more than 70,000 stumbling stones embedded in the cobbled streets of over 1200 European or Russian towns. They are the largest decentralized monument in the world. Each one names someone who was killed by the Nazi regime. There are over 300 in Bamberg.
Bamberg Cathedral. Note the scaffolding between the towers, the word GOOD can be seen. At night it lights up, but one O blinks on and off resulting in the repeating phrase “GOOD GOD.”
The rose garden:

Another unique thing about Bamberg is their pretzels are white. We found a bakery that made their own and tried one. Delicious!


Fresh wreaths at the farmer’s market:

Do not step into the designated path of an oncoming bicycle – more dangerous than stepping in front of a car.

A very rainy cold day. We took a city bus tour in the afternoon with a very knowledgeable guide – so knowledgeable that Nuremberg’s 1001-year history was a confused word salad for me. We disembarked at the Imperial Palace of Nuremberg.
Careful! The red zone is for bicycles – you take your life in your hands if you interfere with a cyclist’s progress.
The first 2 (of 3) walls separated by a dry moat.
A curved uphill approach made a battering ram ineffectual.
Then an uphill tunnel with ceiling openings – great way to pour boiling oil onto intruders.
Views of Nuremberg from the top.

Where Albrect Durer was born:
In our free time, we headed straight for an indoor cafe for gingerbread – not the best from my pov, there was a chewy nougat layer on the bottom – but we were inside, dry and warm.
Still raining.
Five busloads of Viking passengers met at The Beautiful Fountain to go back to the ship.

In the morning we went on a walking tour of Regensburg, sometimes called “Italy’s northernmost city”. It was a short walk to Old Stone Bridge.
A model of Regensburg in Medieval times.

St Stephen’s Cathedral, first started in 1273, the building was considered finished in 1872. There is a mixture of styles (even on the same level) and materials used (limestone and sandstone).
The Goliath House, a successful merchant’s house built in 1260. When the painting was added in 1573, a green-coated town official would walk by every day to ask when the painting would be finished. Annoyed, the artist added a little green frog in the lower right corner. The most recent restoration of the painting eliminated the original frog’s mustache and glasses.
If you rub the little mouse, you will come back to Regensburg. Every town has been wonderful to visit, but Regensburg is one we would both like to visit again. So many large squares and narrow streets filled with little shops and cafes – all perfectly picturesque.

While we had lunch, the ship moved to a new location not far away. For the afternoon excursion we walked back into town, across Old Stone Bridge
to the basement of Ratskeller
to make weisswurst – a Bavarian specialty – made with beef, veal, pork, and seasoned with onions, parsley, lemon zest, cardamom, mace and ginger.
Everyone got to work!
Ingredients were added in a specific order along with ice to maintain a specific temperature. Parsley was added near the ended to insure green flecks could be seen in the final product.

Time to pinch and twist into 10cm lengths:
We ate the sausages we’d created in the traditional way – with beer, pretzels, and sweet German mustard. These sausages are simmered (not boiled) for 15-20 minutes because the pork casings are delicate.
To eat them, open one end and eat the filling but not the casing (delicate for cooking, impossible for chewing).

Schoolgirls on their way to Dunkin Donuts before heading home:
Walking back to the shuttle bus, I was the slowest person in the group, my ankle hurt, my feet hurt. I found out one good reason later – we walked 6 miles today – walking on cobblestones was certainly a factor.

In the morning I went on a walking tour of Passau (Adrienne took an all-day tour to Salzburg Austria – a Sound of Music-related excursion). It was quite chilly this morning, everyone was bundled up.
Since it was Sunday, most shops are required to be closed – cafes and souvenir shops are exempt.
Passau is at the convergence of three rivers as shown on this banner at a construction site. Note the different colors. On the right, Ilz, which comes down from the forests. In the middle, the Danube, which must be blue. On the left, the Inn which is greenish due to limestone sediments. Only the Danube is navigable.
Marks on a building to show height of biggest floods:
St Stephen’s Cathedral:
The pipe organ is one of the largest in the world, almost 18000 pipes, 5 separate organs, all played from one central location.

In the afternoon, I went on an excursion to Scharding. Crossing the moat (now a parking area) into the main square of town:



Next we took a little cruise on a small boat
where we had beer, pretzels, and a delicious cheese spread.

Back to Scharding:
Good news tonight: the rivers are just high enough that we get to STAY on this ship – the Gefjon – and don’t have to pack up tonight to switch to another ship for the second week!

As we motored through the Wachau Valley, there were many picturesque sights along the way – small towns, churches, castles,

steeply-terraced vineyards,
and, seriously, beauty all around us all the time.

We were back onboard in time for lunch. My salad choice today was duck with oranges:
In the afternoon, we went to Melk Abbey.

No pictures were allowed inside but there were incredible views of the surrounding town and countryside:



And we returned to the ship, it was a rainy day at times, cold and windy. But, nevertheless, lots of fun.

After breakfast we took the included tour, Panoramic Vienna.
I had to take a picture of this bookseller – Manz is my mother’s family name.
During our free time, we walked to Hotel Sacherfor a piece of original sacher torte and (neighbor Kathy: no Starbucks!) and a cup of real Viennese coffee.
Part of a display window along an avenue of very high-end shops:
St Stephen’s Cathedral:




In the afternoon, our tour was a behind-the-scenes tour of the Spanish Riding School, home of the Lipizzaner stallions. Hannah is the first female to ride horses here. When she arrived for work, these two horses knew right away and watched her as she walked over to give them each an apple.
The arena where they perform:
Another stop for coffee and pastry:

A full day of travel up the river today. The first lock of our trip (67 to go) was huge with 4 long ships. We were inches from the side wall. The fenders on this ship are built into the sides and have a very low profile.
Guests were invited to the wheelhouse this morning to observe the captain, the elaborate equipment around him and ask questions.
The program director did a presentation on the life of Mozart and the coffee houses in Vienna. There are very specific ways to order coffee in Vienna so the information was quite valuable but Ade and I might try to find a Starbucks anyway (but we’ll keep it a secret; apparently going to Starbucks in Vienna is not acceptable).
We passed by the castle in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, on the north side of the Danube:
There is open seating at every meal and we’ve been trying to sit with different people each time. L-R: Terry and Mary are from Camrose Alberta and Patricia and Richard are from Quebec. Mary is a water color and fiber artist and instructor so I found her quite interesting.
Later in the afternoon, Chef Adrian taught us how to make apple strudel. (Cousin Terry in BC, I’m thinking of you!) A very good demonstration except for the passenger he chose to help him – a “diva” who made the demo more about her being “cute” for the crowd.
Then everyone got a slice of fresh warm strudel with vanilla sauce made in the ship’s galley:
As we sat down for dinner, we’d entered a lock. Here, the lock has filled and we are about to exit.
Vienna. This picture looks funny because of the reflection from the window next to our table, but I still like it:
We rafted up to another Viking ship. A very slim fender provided cushion.
Many passengers left right after dinner for a Strauss-Mozart concert, passing through the ship next to the quay. Since we are not fans of classical music (and we didn’t want to dress up), we stayed on board. Good night.