Dori’s Travel Adventures

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

I hear the hills calling–off to Salzburg we go! This by far was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to go on the Danube Waltz and why we picked August.  At 8:30 we boarded our  bus for our  hour and a half trip to Salzburg, Austria.  Unfortunately it was raining again when we left.   Figures!

In spite of the rain we saw so beautiful emerald green hills and mountains,just as I had imagined.

Salzburg is the fourth largest city in Austria.  It is known for Mozart’s birthplace and the area where  The Sound of Music was filmed.   Our guide pointed out places throughout the town were scenes were filmed.

salzburg got its name because salt is mined in the hills around the town.  Salzburg means salt town.   It the Middle Ages salt was worth its weight in gold.   Salt is still mined here today and is used in many industries.

With our Austrian guide, electronic earphones in place , and umbrellas over our heads we trumped all over the old town fighting the crowds and umbrellas as we went.   There was a musical festival going on and together with our tour groups, getting around was a bit tricky.

 

We saw Mozart birthplace.  There was a neat castle on top of steep cliffs.  Built somehow on the sides of the cliff were cave like houses.  Monks would go there for meditations and prayers.

 

How often do you get to have lunch in a restaurant that was built in 141o?   And to order my first taste if the famous Sacher torte to boot.  What a heavenly culinary delight!

Tonight a classical singing group came on board to perform for us with a “Taste of Austria”. They were great and performed many songs from The Sound of Music.  Leading selected members of the audience, these performers danced with folks from the audience.  Lauren and Judy danced like pros.  Sure was glad I did not have to put my dancing skills to such a test!

Great scenery, delicious Sacher torte, a superb classical performance-wow!  In spite of the rain, the day was filled with a lot of firsts!

August 11, 2014

Today was the first day of touring with our cruise.   It was raining and so all we departed for our tour of the town we were surrounded with a sea of red umbrellas.

Passau is located where threes rivers converge- the Danube, Inn, and Ilk. The old part of the city gets flooded often, the last time was just a year ago. You could see the very high water marks in some of the buildings. It is amazing that they keep restoring the buildings. A lot of their art shops and student housing for their university is in this area.

St. Stephen’s is a 17th century cathedral in which we got to listen to an organ concert after our tour. They have the largest pipe organ in Europe

In the afternoon, Sharon, Judy, Lauren, and I went back to the Old Town to do some exploring on our own. We walked along the Danube to the point where it joins with the Ilk and then the Inn. The currents in the rivers were very rapid. I can only image how destructive the rivers must be during the floods.

We explored a grocery store. It is fascinating to see all the different items they have to offer, even in their fresh produce. There were peaches in the shapes of short, squat tomatoes and huge green grapes. Sharon and I also drooled over the yummy looking pastries, pretzels, and breads at the bakery, but had the will power to resist buying any. Sharon was sure Malcolm would have had to sample a pretzel.

Our tour guide shared that the important buildings in the Old Town are always painted the same colors so that everyone would know which was the bakery, pharmacy and grocery store no matter what language the spoke.

Our day ended with another delicious meal and pleasant conversation amongst our group. Tomorrow we had to Linz and then Salzburg, Austria. I can just picture Julie Andrews singing on the mountain top “The hills are alive with the sound of music…” Rain, rain go away!

Left Prague this morning.  Our driver took us two hours south to a town called Cresky Krumlov. It is in the Czech Republic close to the Austrian border.   It was a walled castle town which has been very well preserved.   The town had a combination of baroque and renaissance buildings.   Many of the foundations of the buildings were from the 12th century.

 

The Krumlov Castle is the second largest in the Czech Republic.  It even has a bears den and a baroque theatre inside.   We saw the bear’s den but no bears.  Probably too hot for them in the sun!  The town and castle are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I could have spent a whole day here.  it was like being at a Renaissance Fair on steroids!

The Vltava River makes and s turn here.  It starts here in the south and is  much smaller than it is in Prague.  You could rent kayaks  and rafts to go around the town.   I so wanted to do this but could not find an accomplice.  Could have used daughter Kate at a time like this.

We left the town around 2 and headed west along the river to get to our ship in Passau, Germany.

After settling in our cabin on the Viking Prestige, we found Judy and Lauren who were joining our group for the cruise.  We had a fantastic dinner.  I had mushroom dishes galore.  It is mushroom season in Germany.

To my surprise while we were enjoying coffee, the wait staff brought my a flaming birthday cake.  While I was talking to Malcolm, she whispered to our waiter about my birthday.   Of course by then I had a some wine and beer, so the deed was pretty easy to accomplish. Thank you, Joyce!  Fortunately it only had one candle so my age still remains a secret to the others.

All in all, we had another great day with lots of new experiences!

 

 

 

 

 

This morning we were off to see Terezin which is a Nazi concentration camp about an hour north west of Prague.  The Nazi’s took over Terezin which is  a town made up of two fortresses.  In the bigger one they housed Jews and made them work, gave them little food and separated families.  They put the children in a children’s barracks, and the adults in men’s  and women’s barracks .    There were not gas chambers here.  Many got transported to other camps  to be exterminated.   While they were in this camp, a lot of artwork, drama and poetry  went on.  It was so moving to go through a museum that displayed the artwork and  the poetry.  The opera Bundebar was written and performed by the children in the camp 53 times.

The smaller fortress was a prison before the Nazi invasion.   We got to tour this prison. Some Jews  from the concentration camp were sent here if the Nazi didn’t like something they did like finding the paintings of their life at Terezin which was deemed “horrifying propaganda”.   In fact, the Nazis themselves glorified the camp to use for a Red Cross inspection in 1944, showing the official how wonderful everyone was treated!

This just was not what I was expecting. It was a whole town.  Today people do live and work here.   We toured three museums.  This tour was unforgettable.

This evening we took a river dinner cruise.  It was a beautiful summer evening with incredible scenes of Prague from the Vltava River.  The cruise ended with fireworks in front of the castle.  What can I say?  This was indeed was a very memorable way to celebrate my birthday!

 

 

We saw so many interesting  sites in Prague today I almost don’t know where to begin.   All six of us went with a driver and a tour guide for a four hour tour.  We started out at the Vysehard Castle which had beautiful views overlooking the Vltava River.

We went on to the Prague Castle district and even saw the changing of the guard which is done every hour.

The Old Town Square withe the astronomical Clock from the 15th century was pretty impressive as well as the Charles Bridge.  We went back to the Jewish Quarter this afternoon.   In the Old Jewish Cemetary we saw old tombstones that were so crooked.  It was the only Cemetery Jews were allowed to be buried in.  So many graves were put on top of each other, sometimes 7 or 8 deep.  This went on from the 1400 until 1787.

Also in the Pinkas Synagogue were handwritten name of the 77,000 Czech Jews that were killed in the concentration camps.   I felt like I did when we toured the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Here are some other interesting sites from our day.

August 7th, 2014

Yesterday and today blurred together.  Out flight left Philadelphia around 9:30 last night.  It was a little over seven hour flight, but as soon as we were airborne we were instructed to move our clocks ahead six hours.   Easy to do on your watch, but not quite as easy to do with your body’s internal clock.   

After dinner on the plane, we were given a pillow, thin blanket, a blindfold and ear plugs.   All of the window shades were pulled down and the overhead lights were turned down    This was to give you the idea it was sleep time.  Out of the six of us, I was the only one who slept soundly most of the time to Paris.   We had about a three hour layover and then finished our travel with arriving in Prague around 3:30 pm.  All in all, we figured most of the group had been awake over 30 hours as we ate our dinner tonight.  Frank is already asleep and snoring as I write this entry.   

Our hotel is close to the Old Town in Prague. I am sure after a good night’s rest, we will be ready for our city tour tomorrow.   Can’t wait!  

This afternoon we head for the Philadelphia Airport to begin our adventure to Prague, a Viking River Cruise on the Danube and Budapest.   Who knows what adventures await us?   Follow along.   We hope you enjoy hearing about our adventures!