Christmas on the Danube Cruise on the Viking Egil
12/8/22 to 12/17/22
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Page 1 – Preface, Ship, Ports of Call: Budapest, Hungary Days 1 & 2
Page 2 – Ports of Call: Budapest, Hungary Days 2, 3 & 4; Vienna, Austria Day 1
Page 3 - Ports of Call: Vienna, Austria Day 2; Krems, Austria
Page 4 - Ports of Call: Passau, Germany; Regensburg, Germany
Vienna, Austria (Continued)
Day 2
For our second day in Vienna, we would have a very full day. I had booked a private tour for the four of us in the morning and we had booked the optional Mozart & Strauss Concert for the evening. When we looked outside, we were thrilled to see the sun shining brightly. This was the perfect day for it. It was still going to be a cool day in the upper 20’s to low 30’s but having the sun shining would make a huge difference.
I found a wonderful guide on TripAdvisor.com. He had glowing reviews and I have added mine to them. Walter Schindl ((https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g190454-d2041233-Reviews-SCHINDL_Local_Services_Day_Tours-Vienna.html) was such a pleasure to be with.
He knew what we had seen on the Viking tours, so he didn’t repeat them. He also didn’t try to tell us all the history of Austria, since he knew that we had already heard it all. What he did tell us was interesting information about places we hadn’t visited and general life in Vienna. The name of the tour he gave us was Hidden Gems of Vienna. There were a couple of the gems he couldn’t take us to due to renovations. The one I was most disappointed that Cathy wouldn’t get to see was the Austrian National Library. It is considered to be one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. But Walter showed us plenty of other wonderful places we wouldn’t have seen without him.
Walter uses public transportation to get around, since it is very inexpensive and efficient. We met him at the ship and walked to the closest metro stop. Next to our ship was a Tauk ship with a Santa Claus hanging from it. Kind of cute. There were lots of river cruise ships lined up along the Danube.
We could also see the tallest building in Vienna, DC Tower 1 at 250 meters or 820 ft. tall, including the tower. There was supposed to be a second one that kind of reverse matched the curves, but funding disappeared.
The metro station was very nice as were the cars themselves. It is very inexpensive to use the metros. Residents can buy annual passes for 365€. A Euro per day is very cheap. Seniors get a break and only have to pay 240€. We paid about 1.5€ to ride the metro in the central zone for about 4 hours. Quite a deal.
Our destination was to Belvedere Palace. When we arrived, we were most impressed with the beautiful gate. Walter took our photo in front of it. There were two mean looking lions guarding it.
Belvedere is composed of two palaces. The upper one that we would walk around was completed in 1729. The lower one was competed in 1716 and is smaller and across the garden area. Going through the gates we got our first full view of the upper palace. I tried to imagine what it would look like in the summer without the snow and plant life blooming.
There was so much to take in on the building. There was beautiful statuary all over the palace.
There were some Christmas market stands on the grounds, but they weren’t open yet. We walked further into the grounds and could see all of the harpy statues. There were a lot of them. I liked that they had different faces on them too. We, of course, needed a photo with a harpy.
Looking down to the lower palace, it also looked like a nice place, but not quite as opulent. It did look nice with St. Stephen’s tower behind it.
There were statues throughout the garden in front of it.
When we walked around the side of the palace, I was surprised that the palace wasn’t that deep. Walter told us that since it was a palace and not a residence, it didn’t need as many rooms.
The back of the upper palace was also nicely done.
After leaving Belvedere, we jumped onto another metro to go to our next destination closer to the city center. We stopped outside the beautiful Austrian Parliament building. It was completed in 1883 and covers 145,000 sq ft. A very large building. And gorgeous to boot.
The stunning Pallas Athene Fountain in front of the Parliament is most impressive.
There was so much beautiful artwork on the building. It’s hard to take your eyes off it.
We had been walking around for almost 2 hours, so we were ready for a rest. Walter recommended that we get some coffee at the Café Landtmann. This was Sigmund Freud’s favorite coffee house. Our guide had told us about it yesterday, so I was thrilled that we would get to experience the place.
The interior had a nice, elegant feel to it. Walter recommended the hot chocolate with rum. It turned out to be another winner. The Irish coffee was also great.
We enjoyed the R&R and general conversation with Walter. He is such a pleasure to chat with. I was so glad that we had found Walter for our tour. I had to take a photo of the girls at the café.
We were there about a half hour and back out on the streets exploring soon after. Close by was the Burgtheater. It is the national theater of Austria. It opened in 1741.
We then walked down to the Vienna City Hall. It was completed in 1883 and is just a lovely piece of architecture, whith so many gorgeous statues and releifs covering it.
It was a bit challenging to see the whole building having to look around the very tall Christmas tree in front of it as well as the market stalls.
After walking around the market stands and taking all the photos I wanted, Walter took us over to a very cool place. In front of the city hall, they have a very large ice-skating trail. It looked like so much fun.
We walked into a park and came to the Theseus Temple. It is a Greek style temple that was built in 1829 that is now used for small exhibitions. It was quite a change from what we had been looking at for the last two days and quite attractive.
Walter took another photo of our group in front of the temple. The ghostly looking brown bags are protection for the trees under them.
When we walked by a section of the Hofburg that we had seen the previous day, I had to take some more pics of the beautiful objects with the sun illuminating them. I was quite amazed that we had been walking around all morning and this was the first time that we actually passed by something that we had stopped at the previous day. Walter knew how to keep us from repeating what was on the Viking tour.
Our tour was almost over. Walter was going to take us to an area where we could have lunch after the tour. He walked us through a type of shopping mall with an attractive fountain in the middle.
When we got to the area, he walked us to his recommended restaurant, but there was no room in it for us. He pointed out some other places that we could try. He said they were all good. We thanked him for the awesome tour he had provided and said our goodbyes. We could not have been happier with our tour.
We went to a café that only had light fare called Bar Campari. The items we ordered were just outstanding. The girls were raving about the place for days after. It was kind of funny, since the place is mainly a bar, but they did a good job with the few food items they sold
We were going to return to the ship in a Bolt car, so we walked to an area where we thought it would be easier to find us, a hotel. For some reason, even though the car was close, he couldn’t find the front of the hotel that I was texting the info about. Apparently, his map app wasn’t accurate enough. I finally just cancelled that ride. While looking for our Bolt, I noticed that there were Uber stickers in some windows, so I just requested an Uber. This worked out great and we were on our way back to the ship in no time. On the way there, I got a nice shot of the Ferris Wheel in the sun.
I was also able to capture a pic of the Monument to Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, a 19th century Austrian Admiral. It is an unusual looking monument.
We were very glad to get back to the ship around 2:30 PM. It would give us time rest a bit before dinner and our evening tour.
We left the ship for the theater where the Mozart & Strauss concert would be held, Palais Auersperg. It was a nice small theater.
My only complaint was that the chairs did not have much padding, which became uncomfortable as the night went on. The musicians were just outstanding. The small instrumental group sounded like a much larger group of musicians. The two vocalists had very good voices and the two dancers put on a lovely show for us. The pieces were mixed very nicely to keep our interest. Having been to one of these in 2009, I kind of knew what to expect but this show way exceeded my expectations. I have put in some photos from the show to remind us of the performers.
I had read in the daily brochure that we would be having goulash when we got back from the concert. Having not been that impressed with the thin Hungarian goulash soup we had previously eaten; I wasn’t that excited about getting any. When I went up to the Aquavit Lounge to see what else they had, the goulash looked very good. It was much thicker. The chef said that is because it is Austrian goulash, not goulash soup. I could have OD’d on that stuff but knew better. It was late and we would have another busy day tomorrow. It had been an outstanding day
Krems, Austria
We had been cruising all night on our way to our next stop, Krems, Austria. We would only be in town until noon, when we would head to Passau, Germany. We were taking the included Gottweig Abbey Tour. The girls opted for the optional apricot dumpling preparation where they showed them how to make them for an additional $19 each. They would also get to eat one of the large dumplings that were made.
On our drive up to the abbey, we got a glimpse of the abbey on top of the mountain.
After entering the abbey, we walked through some arched hallways to an open area where we watched a short film about the abbey.
We then met our guide Peter, a nice young man and very good guide.
He first walked us over to a viewing area where we could look down on Krems countryside. It is a shame that it was overcast and foggy. My Lightroom software helped to take out some of the haze, so I was able to include these pics.
Peter took us around the grounds so that we could see the various buildings in the complex, before entering the abbey.
It is a large complex as you can see from the model in the abbey lobby. The current building has been on top of the hill since the mid 1700’s. Previous versions date back to 1072 AD.
After telling us about the exterior buildings, Peter took us to the abbey entrance. There was a nice statue over the door.
We then walked into the beautiful chapel, where Peter had us sit down to listen to information about the abbey and the chapel itself. It was more comfortable to hear about it in the warmer temperature of the chapel than outside.
The use of so much blue in the church was very calming and quite a nice look. I believe that Peter said something about them wanting it to look more like the sky.
The altar was quite beautiful with its blue highlights.
I liked the massive ornate organ at the back of the chapel.
After leaving the chapel, he told us that we could go down into the crypt. I never pass on a chance to enter a crypt. It was a dark, multi-arched room, with an illuminated area in the front of it containing what looked like a nicely decorated burial vault.
There was also a side room containing a casket of someone that appeared to be a religious figure.
There was also a glass enclosed gold case containing what looked like some kind of religious relic; but I don’t recall if Peter told us what it was.
We then left the building to see more of the exterior, which I was pleased about since the weather had cleared up some and I could get some better photos. They also had a different model of the abbey outside
We then reentered the building to ascend the Emperor’s Staircase. This was a staircase that was reserved for only the most important people. Queen Maria Theresa and Emperor Napolean ascended this very staircase.
On the ceiling is a massive fresco of King Charles in a chariot and Maria Theresa reclining in a red robe. Peter described all the characters and told stories about them.
There were statues all around the room making it even more elegant.
The reason for ascending the staircase, other than to appreciate its opulence, was to tour a couple of the rooms on the upper level.
One of the pictures on the wall showed how much larger the abbey had been prior to its reconstruction after a fire in the early 1700’s.
After this part of the tour, my tour was done. The girls went for the apple dumpling class. Here is a photo of the dumpling.
I walked around looking at the shop, restaurant and anything else I could find. In one section they offered sample of three different wines. They were quite good, but there is no way I am going to drag bottles of wine home from Europe.
I must say that Gottweig Abbey has done an excellent job of monetizing their facility. In addition to the tours, shop, wine sales and restaurant, they also rent out rooms for guests to experience the abbey. They also have a large vineyard on their property. They have found ways to make ends meet which should allow them to maintain the abbey well into the future.
I then walked out onto the terrace area which had a nice view of the surrounding area. I am sure that it is a great outdoor dining venue in the warmer months.
When it was about time to join the bus, I went back downstairs. I was surprised to see grapes growing all over the walls. They must be a hardy variety.
When we got back to the Krems dock, two Viking long ships were docked next to each other.
The Egil was all by itself, since we would be leaving shortly after everyone was onboard to cruise to Passau, Germany.
I went up to the Aquavit Buffet to go outside to take some photos of the town of Krems. The quick lunch items looked appetizing, but I needed to take some photos and waited for the full lunch.
With this being the day that we would be cruising through the lovely Wachau Valley, I didn’t want to spend too long at lunch. Edina told us that she would be narrating the cruise and that we could hear it in the lounge and outer decks. Since I would be in the restaurant, I had to keep my eyes watching out the windows, so I didn’t miss anything. I wanted Cathy to see one of the highlight cities along the Danube, Durnstein, Austria. The tall blue steeple is shown on all the Viking River Cruise ads. I had been able to tour that city during my 2009 cruise, but the best view is from the river.
We sat down for lunch and placed our orders. Since we were sitting near the back of the restaurant closest to the entrance, it was easy for me to jump up from the table if I saw something I wanted to take photos of. There were exterior sliding doors on both sides of the ship that made for great photo opps.
I kept watching and could finally get a glimpse of the town of Durnstein. Above the town, is the Durnstein Castle. This is where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned in 1192 AD.
As we got closer, we could see more of the charming town and impressive blue and white tower of the Durnstein Abbey. I had to take photos from all angles.
As we passed by the town, I could see the stairs going up to the castle ruins. It didn’t look like an easy climb.
I was then able to come back into the dining room and eat my appetizer before going back outside to see more of the valley’s beauty.
After lunch, I pretty much stayed on the sundeck until Edina finished her narration. It is a beautiful place to cruise. I will put a bunch of photos showing the towns, churches, vineyards and anything else that caught my eye.
At one point Cathy came out to join me. She also loved watching the towns go by, but she preferred doing it from inside the lounge.
After the narration ended, it was time for a strudel demonstration and tasting. It was a good break from being outside.
Right after the strudel, I saw a building that looked familiar on a hill. I went outside and sure enough, it was the Melk Abbey. I could only see the top of it, but it brought back memories of my visit to that beautiful place.
After dinner, there was some entertainment in the lounge. It was a type of music trivia game. Before the game, musician Gigi played a tune on his bassoon.
We didn’t stay for the whole thing, since we were tired and knew we had a very full day the next day.
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