Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 3: Frozen Edition (Grand Finale)

Days 9 (12/24/2024) and 10 (12/25/2024)

Where We Have A Lazy Day In Linz And Then Freeze On A Short And A Bit Uninformative City Walk On Day 9

Followed By A Wonderful But Frozen Day In Salzberg

Day 9 Linz (December 25)

December 25 was a lazy day for us; other people went into Linz to attend church services at one of the two old churches. Spoiler alert: the services were in German, so the people who did attend didn’t necessarily get a whole lot out of it.

We had originally booked a private walking tour of Linz, because there was nothing offered by Viking. But just a few days before we sailed, suddenly there was an included (“free”) walking tour, so we decided to do that instead.

The challenge was: the tour started at 3:00 p.m., and it starts to get dark at about 3:30 with sunset at 4:15 p.m. The high for the day was around 35, and would soon start to plummet as the sun went down.

Ok the other challenge was getting off the ship: there was another ship between us and the dock, and it wasn’t a Viking ship. Therefore, we had to first climb up to Deck 4/sun deck via a flight of 13 outside steps (the elevator is only between Decks 2 and 3), and THEN walk across to the other ship and walk down 19 steps, and THEN walk down a steep ramp to the street. This was not fun at all.

But we did it, and met our tour guide on the pier. I don’t think we ever got his name. He was a little odd – his English was ok, but he spoke quickly and maybe a little mumbly. Even with the ear pieces he wasn’t 100% intelligible.

We were in the “leisure” group, so we were walking slowly. That was great, but we were also seeing not much of anything, mostly office buildings. I suspected that we were missing out on the actual interesting stuff because we were the “leisure” group. It looked like Linz was falling into the same situation as Bratislava: a 2-hour late-afternoon tour that did not do the city justice.

We stopped in the town square with the remnants of the Christmas Market:

In front of the Cafe Glockenshpiel, we were served mulled/heated wine in souvenir mugs – while standing outside. I had really hoped we’d be inside while doing this, but alas, no. The warm wine did little to defrost my toes; since I don’t like wine anyway, it basically went to waste. Janet had a better idea – to ask for the keepsake mug without the wine.

We now had “free time”, but considering everything was closed, it was getting dark, and we were all completely frozen, most people just headed back.

Side note: Tom sent me his photos of the Holocaust memorials that he saw in the not-leisure tour. In this photo you see a square delineated on the pavement. It’s the footprint of a house once owned by Jews who were murdered in the holocaust.

This is a memorial to the Linz Jews who were murdered.

Continuing on our way back to the ship, our tour guide did tell us that Linz was known for steel (manufacturing) and art:

Steel artwork along the road to the ship

Of course, we had to retrace our steps to get back onto the ship. It was even harder to climb the 19 steps up and 13 steps down while totally frozen.

We warmed up for a bit, and then it was time to get ready for dinner. Since it was also the first night of Hanukkah as well as Christmas Day, we wore our Hanukkah shirts/sweaters. Mine blinks! I had brought along a tiny electric hanukkiah. A couple of our new ship friends asked to be included when we lit it.

To our delight, our ship’s chef remembered our request for latkes for tonight’s dinner. We had asked about it back on Monday, and had no clue whether he’d actually do it or not. He did! and they were great latkes! We shared the 3 huge latkes between the 5 of us.

Day 10 Passau/Salzburg (December 26)

The Salzburg excursion originally was an optional (not-free) tour, that I don’t even remember seeing listed when we were signing up for excursions. For this cruise, Viking decided to convert the optional tour to an included tour (people will be refunded), because the Christmas market in Salzburg was still open.

It was a 2-hour drive through freezing fog:

The countryside and small towns were still scenic:

And then there were the Alps:

There was no “leisure” option for the 2 1/2 hour walk through Salzburg. Amazingly enough, this became a challenge for us to keep up.

First we walked through the Miriable gardens, where scenes from the Sound of Music were shot:

Down the street was the house where Mozart lived with his family until he moved to Vienna at the age of 25. This house was partially destroyed during WWII; it was carefully reconstructed after the war. The photo next to it is the house where Mozart was born. No surprise that Salzburg promotes itself basically as “Mozart-Central”.

If you look carefully, you can see the pale white vertical line just to the right of the door. To the left of that line is original house; to the right is reconstructed.

Salzburg also lays claim Christian Doppler (of the “Doppler Effect”)

Salzburg is just an incredibly scenic city. You could easily spend several days here to see everything.

Church with Christmas Market that we didn’t get to visit after all

Stumbling Stones commemorating Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust

The tour ended at the restaurant where we had lunch. The restaurant was located in the monastery, and reputed to be the oldest restaurant in Europe.

Of course, this meant that there was a full flight of stairs to climb, which was mighty painful after a couple of hours of toddling on cobblestones.

We were treated to a short review of Sound of Music songs – pretty much the same performance we saw on the ship the other night, even with a couple of same people.

After lunch, we had about an hour before our meeting time with our tour guide. First, we needed to buy more Euros, and then we were determined to buy original “Mozart {chocolate} balls”. We had to find our way back to the store that sold it. The store is so tiny, only a couple of people can fit in it at one time; therefore there’s a line. Luckily it moved quickly.

Any German readers out there, feel free to translate this.

At this point we knew we needed to get ourselves to the meeting point – Google maps to the rescue!

After another 2 hour drive back to the ship, it was time for our final cruise dinner, and pack up.

I don’t yet have the traditional photo of our table with our wonderful wait staff, but when I do, I’ll update this blog.

Thus concludes Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 3: Frozen Edition. I am sitting across from our gate at the Frankfurt airport. Our flight doesn’t leave for another 2 1/2 hours. In retrospect, I don’t know why we didn’t have a non-stop back from Munich to Dulles. I booked these flights so long ago, I have no clue. There must have been some reason?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this blog. I don’t always finish them, but this layover gave me a great opportunity.

G0d willing, there’ll be another Excellent Adventure on the Danube in May, 2025. Stay tuned!

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 3: Frozen Edition – A Bit Of Day 7 and All Of Day 8

December 23 and 24

Where We Heard A Wonderful Concert And Had No Issues With The Elevators At The Melk Abbey

Day 7 Part 2 December23

When we arrived at the concert venue, there was a bit of confusion. Mario told everybody who was taking the elevator up to hit the button with the biggest number. A bunch of us landed on the 4th floor, which was obviously wrong. At some point Mario appeared and apologized – he should have told us floor “2”.

We were still seated in plenty of time. Very nice program – a flute, piano, 3 violins, a bass, and a cello. The first half was Mozart, the second half, mostly Strauss waltzes.

I did manage to get lost after the program – I found a bathroom on the 2nd floor with no problem. It was all the way down the hall on the other side of the building. But when I came out of the bathroom, the hallway I came from was blocked by a closed door. I ended up taking the first elevator I found and exited the building – around the corner from the bus. Eventually Mario found me and the bus pulled around. Always something.

Day 8 December 24 Melk

The morning was scenic sailing until we arrived in Melk at about 11:00. Mario told me that the abbey had reported to him that the elevators were all working!

When we docked in Melk, we were ready to go – it was a 10 minute walk from the ship to the bus parking lot.

When we arrived at the Abbey, the elevator was indeed working – but there was still quite a bit of walking to get to the Abbey entrance. Most of the surface was either small cobblestone, which was not suitable for the transport chair, so I did my best to get myself there.

The Melk Abbey is about 1,000 years old – one of the first abbeys established in Europe. There are 21 monks still living in the abbey.

We were not allowed to take photos inside the abbey museum or the abbey itself. The museum exhibits showed items from baroque to modern times, including an example of a reusable coffin that Franz Joseph I instituted as a cost saving method. I found this photo out on the interwebs:

There was a 16-paneled painting – 8 on one side telling the story of the crucifixion, and the other 8 telling the story of Jesus childhood. Below is a post card of one of the baby-Jesus panels

A postcard image of one of the panels of the 16-paneled painting

At some point we were outside on a terrace, where we could take photos of the view.

The Abbey library is stunning. It’s still an active library. There is one book that is almost 1,000 years old.

The room where Maria Theresa did her entertaining had a trompe l’oeil ceiling that looked differently depending on where in the room you were standing and the angle.

In this postcard photo, if you follow the marble columns up into the ceiling, the painted columns on the ceiling appear foreshortened. When you stand in the middle of the room on the grating, the columns on the ceiling appear much taller

The Abbey’s sanctuary is beyond stunning. Here’s two postcard photos.

One of the side walls with the sarcophagus of Saint Coloman, the patron saint of Melk

Once we were done with the abbey, we retraced our steps back to the bus.

On the way out through the gift shop, I took a photo of this thing that I’ve not been able to identify. Looks like a clock.

We were back in time for lunch, where we were able to watch a lock go by.

We had more scenic sailing for the rest of the afternoon. The sun sets around 3:30 in this part of the world.

Dinner this evening was a celebration of Austria! Which meant: mostly pork. Fortunately, there were alternatives. I had the char (a salmon relative), and Andy had the “taste of Austria” minus the pork sausage.

After dinner, there were assorted Christmas Eve activities. The best part (for me) was Mario showing us his ventriloquist talents!

Our Motley Crew. Doe we look cold? We’re cold.

Tomorrow: Linz

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 3: Frozen Edition

Days 5, 6, and most of 7 (December 21, 22, & 23)

Where I Ended Up With An Accidental “Day At Sea” (But Still Had Strudel), We Froze In Bratislava, And Saw A Snippet Of Vienna

Day 5 (December 21) – last day in Budapest

Originally 4 of us were booked for the 8:00 a.m. Budapest city tour. Andy was booked on a castle hike excursion. When Susie, Janet, and I thought about it, we realized the Viking excursion was almost the same as the tuk-tuk tour we took the other day. So we decided to skip it to avoid having to get up at oh-dark-thirty. Plus, Susie and Janet had the thermal bath excursion scheduled for the afternoon, and we were all booked for the included 2 hour walking tour to the Christmas Market at 5:30 in the evening.

This was all fine. It was a nice relaxing day.

To make a long story short: when Andy and I were all bundled up and ready to go to the 5:30 Christmas Market tour, we found out that there were many, many steps involved, making it impossible for me to go. Would have been nice to know that.

So Day 5 for me wound up being an accidental day “at sea” (at river?). Not the end of the world, just a little annoying.

Janet and Susie enjoyed the baths.

Here are some highlight photos of excursions I did not go on (from Andy):

View of the Chain Bridge from the Buda side – the ship is our ship, the Viking Tor

View from Castle Hill/Fisherman’s bastion

Lady of our Buda Church / Matthias Church

The good news is that Mario, our Program Director, brought me back a cheese strudel that I would have gotten if I’d gone on the excursion. Sorry, no photo. It’s already long gone.

Day 6 December 22 Bratislava

Unfortunately for us and Bratislava, we had a weird time slot. We docked at 2:00 p.m. with all-aboard for 11:00 p.m. Considering the sun starts to set at 3:30, we had all of an hour of daylight.

The weather was already threatening when we started our walk into the old part of Bratislava – it was very cold and felt like rain.

Also unfortunately, none of us really remember much of what the tour guide said.

Bratislava is old
It’s had many names (it still does)
Earlier generations spoke multiple languages because Slovakia has been shuffled around assorted empires
There are some Jews left in the city, but not many (we couldn’t find the big menorah she talked about).

There was this guy:

We stopped by a church to listen to a Christmas organ concert. Somehow in our minds, we were picturing a huge pipe organ with magnificent sound. It was a small church with a small organ. I was on the wrong side of the sanctuary to get a photo of the organ.

Church Altar. The organist and singer were off to the right

The organist and singers performed for about 20 minutes maybe? Their CDs were available for sale for 10 Euros or $15 (the exchange rate Euro –> USD is not 50%). It was pleasant enough, but somehow not what we were expecting.

When we came out of the church, it started to rain – at first just a drizzle. We started our walk around the Christmas market.

As we walked around the market, it started snow/raining harder. Even with my umbrella, I was getting pretty wet.

It was raining hard enough that we just toddled as fast as we could back to the ship. Andy did go back out in the rain to do some (successful!) shopping. I’m sure Bratislava has a lot more to offer than 2 hours in the cold, rain, and dark.

In the evening on board ship after dinner, we watched a performance of a local (male) chorus singing Christmas carols – from traditional Slovak to modern/familiar tunes.

December 23 Vienna (part 1)

We still have a Mozart/Strauss concert this evening, but I figure I can tack that on to the next blog.

We were on the bus by 9:00 a.m. We were in the “Leisurely” group, which meant that we missed St Stephen’s cathedral. G0d willing we’ll be back in Vienna on our next cruise in May, so we started a list of things we know we need to see.

It was gloomy and cold, but at least it wasn’t raining!

We drove around “the ring” road that circles the inner city. Many impressive buildings, many of them built by Franz Josef, who ruled as emperor for 68 years (out done only by Queen Elizabeth II). A couple of his fun innovations: reusable coffins (bodies were put into a coffin, taken to a cemetery, then the body dumped out the bottom into a mass grave), which is why nobody really knows where Mozart is buried; and all plays had to have a happy ending – re-written as needed.

Truly impressive buildings:

We walked through the courtyard of the Hofburg Palace, originally the seat of the monarch, and still used as a seat of government.

We passed by the stables of the Lipizzaner stallions. A couple of them stuck their heads out to say hello!

Many impressive statues as well.

Our tour guid gave us a brief intro to Hitler’s early life, and showed us the balcony where he announced the completion of the Anshluss. An unsettling feeling, if there ever was one.

The statuary in Vienna is amazing. This is Maria Theresa, the last empress of Bavaria. She had 16 children, 10 lived to adulthood, all of them in arranged marriages for political purposes. I’m sure some of her children married some of Queen Victoria’s children.

Unfortunately, we didn’t take any photos of the market as we wandered around.

Originally we thought we might take the shuttle bus back, thinking there’s probably a shuttle every hour or so. So we walked back to a big square that had a souvenir shop where we could get the requisite items. It was about 12:20.

And then we looked at the shuttle schedule and saw that the next shuttle wasn’t until 2:45! Oh no, that was too much time to be wandering around in the cold.

In a mad dash, we “zipped” back to the bus that was literally pulling out as we caught up to it – luckily, Janet asked them to stop, and we were spotted by Mario and our tour guide. Phew! Leave it to the Austrians to be so prompt – it was exactly 12:30!

We came back to the ship and had lunch. We’ll be having an early dinner so we can attend the Mozart/Strauss concert at 7:30.

Good thing we have plans to be back in Vienna in May 2025. This was barely a glimpse!

Tomorrow is Krems/Melk. The issue of the 65 steps up to the abbey has not yet been resolved.