EUROPE 2015 ISSUE IV

Door Handle

The last issue of the Avatar was difficult to write, while this one seems to have written itself.  It may have something to do with the fact we are now in Groby, and there are not nearly so many things to keep you entertained.  So apologies in advance if it seems that these are coming a little more quickly than seems reasonable.  

Street signs

As a point of interest, one of the surprises, on our shipboard adventure, was the loss of the walking track on the top deck.  It was an absolutely delightful spot for photography while floating past all the Rhine castles.  If photography is not your thing, the majority of the deck space was available for sitting in deck chairs as the sights rolled by.  It was really quite decadent to be able to sit and be served “cocktails” (non alcoholic) and hot towels . . . visions of the QE II.  What wasn't set up for comfort had a "walking track" of about a 1/10th of a mile.  Not a bad place to walk off the extra wine and desserts.  

Towel Elephant

Once we hit the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal (Main is pronounced “mine”) say it again to yourself Rhine-“Mine”-Danube, quite mellifluous,wouldn't you agree.  So, as I was saying once we hit the Rhine-Main-Danube that as the end of the walking track.  As its name would indicate it is a canal, which means locks, and locks and more locks (Wikipedia says 16 of them.)  And locks mean sitting in black hole, looking directly at the cement sides of the lock no more than a foot from the edge of the boat, while the water level is raised until you can sail out the other side.  Naturally enough once the water level is raised you can actually see countryside.  It also means that all the infrastructure on the top deck is flattened. . . no more chairs, no more sun awnings, no more railings, no more walking track and most importantly no more bridge.  

Remote command Docking

The bridge, you know that place where the captain sits and steers the boat, is on a scissor jack and collapses down in to the body of the ship when passing through locks and under bridges.  There are actually remote command centers on either side of the ship on a level with the bridge that come up out of the deck to allow control of the ship when the bridge is collapsed or while moving in to a dock space.  Made me think of Captain Kirk and Star Trek or possibly a remote for Nintendo or x-box. 

There is another, more significant, downside to these tightly engineered locks besides the inconvenience of not having a top deck/walking track or being able to see anything out your window.  When water levels are low some of the ships cannot pass down the canal at all; they will scrape the bottom.  This is what happened with the Viking Ingvi, the Captain determined that he would not be able to pass through the canal between Nuremberg and Passau and as a consequence we would need to change (actually swap) ships.   

Stylish Common Toilet

Kudos to Viking, they made this very simple.  Pack your bags and put them out in the hall by 9:00 a.m. with the already prepared tags.  When ready to go out for the daily tour take whatever you would normally take with you, nothing more, nothing less.  When your tour is finished hop on a pre-arranged bus, sit back and enjoy the scenery.  When we reached the other end, the Viking Alsvin was waiting for us and our belongings had been delivered to the same stateroom as the previous ship.  Unpack and it is back to our original routine, everything looked the same with the exception of the crew.  They did send along our original Program Director and Concierge but the rest of the staff remained with the ship.

Passau Church

This resulted in two nights in Passau and an unscheduled bus ride to Regensburg, but it was handled flawlessly.  More than that, it meant another welcome cocktail party with our new Captain and free concert in Vienna as compensation for the inconvenience.  The concert, of Mozart and Strauss pieces, had been an optional excursion with a 60 euro charge. 

Regensburg Borrowed Image

Regensburg, I think this was the place where we discovered just how Catholic Germany is.  Sunday morning, a guided tour around the city center and no one was there.  Picturesque little place but nearly everything is closed.  A few shops selling tourist trinkets, a few restaurants selling the ubiquitous sausages, potatoes and kraut or for a change, schnitzel, cabbage and potatoes and the churches.  No museums, no shops and no people to create a sense of place, quiet.  In Germany touring churches is always free and nearly all of them are Catholic, as is most of the population (61%).  We spent our free afternoon wandering the streets and climbing the hill (it’s a bUrg not a bErg) and stumbled on his delightful church and hardly anyone was there.  

Passau

Monday, it must be Passau, this does feel a bit like “Tuesday it Must be Belgium” which I admit to having never seen.  But, it is Monday, and it is Passau, which should have been called something berg.  There are some really steep alleyways leading from the city center to the waterfront which actually have stairs.  The streets are narrow, mind you I did not say one way, but they ought to be.  Passau’s biggest claim to fame is St. Stephan’s Cathedral and its pipe organ.  

St Stephens Organ

Germany it would seem did not have many artisans specialising in designing and building these mammoth and extremely ornate Baroque structures.  My sense is that everywhere we go Italians are credited with being the architects and artisans who built these churches and castles and St Stephan’s is no exception.  Its major claim to fame, its organ, is the largest outside the United States and the largest cathedral organ in the world.  So for those of you who might understand something of what this means, there are 17,774 pipes and 233 registers (whatever that may mean) and five carillons (bells?).  Carillons may also speak to the fact that the organ is divided up into five separate pieces spread throughout the building, and all of this is played from a single console composed of multiple keyboards.  More than you ever wanted to know I suspect.  Is it a great organ? I am not the person to be the judge of

that.  I will tell you that the sound was pretty amazing.  It filled the space and you could almost feel the music in your bones.   It didn't hurt that the pieces by Johann Studen, J. S. Bach, Percy Fletcher, Jacques Lemmens, and Sigfrid Karg-Elert covered the gamut of styles from classical to contemporary, all played by a 21 year old Bastian Fuchs. 

On to Austria next.  Some of my pictures got deleted, so some of the images need restoring.  As a consequence be prepared for pictures that don't quite belong with the text.  Until next time.