As the pre Christmas weather gets colder we glide downstream on the final segment of our Magnificent Europe Music Cruise continues towards Budapest as we new enter the Danube River.
Danube River
The Danube is a pretty amazing waterway. Eighteen countries make the Danube River Basin the most international river basin in the world as well as holding the record as the second longest river in Europe.
As you know from the last post, the dry European autumn resulted in very low water levels that were only just navigable in our replacement ship, Tapestry. We now know that the drought isn't entirely responsible for the low water levels - they're also caused by stream capturing. When the Danube headwaters supply less than normal water volumes, this water oozes away noisily into underground channels called the Danube Sink and ends up in the Rhine catchment.
Sinkhole in the Danube near Immendingen
The first stunning site we visited along the Danube was an Austrian Benedictine abbey. Located above the town of Melk on a rocky outcrop it is one of the world's most famous monastic sites.
Melk Abbey
Due to its fame and academic stature, it managed to escape dissolution in the late 18th century, threats to its existence during the Napoleonic Wars, and survived Nazi Anschluss.
Melk Abbey library
Sailing through the picturesque Wachau landscape midway between the towns of Melk and Krems keep us captivated although most of us didn't venture out onto the sun deck to take photos.
Wachai Valley
Plenty of ancient monasteries, castles and ruins combined with the cultivation of vines to gaze in awe.
Monasteries, castles and ruins
Our highlight filled day in Vienna, Austria, included a glimpse of the Spanish Riding School stables and a couple of the famous Lipizzan horses.
Lipizzan horse
Surrounded by the classically magnificent landscaped garden is the equally magnificent Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. There are 1441 rooms - we got to see inside 40.
Schonbrunn Palace
This was the summer residence of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and is arguably one of the most beautiful and majestic baroque buildings in Europe. The palace became the property of the new Republic of Austria at the end of WW1.
Schonbrunn Palace in summer
The Mirror Room, with its fine ornamentation, was mainly used for social events and public audiences. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played his first royal concert here (aged 6) in front of the royal family in 1762.
Inside Schonbrunn Palace
André Rieu and his orchestra performed in Australia in November to December 2008. The concert theme is 'A Romantic Vienna Night' and the set comprises a life-size reproduction of the Schönbrunn Palace facade.
André Rieu's Schönbrunn Palace set
During our tour of Vienna we were constantly reminded about the world famous New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic which is broadcast to an estimated audience of 50 million. The following clip shows the last encore is traditionally Johann Strauss I's Radetzky March, during which the audience claps along under the conductor's wry direction.
New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic
Instead of experiencing the Vienna Philharmonic first hand,we were treated to a Strauss & Mozart Concert in the Wiener Kursalon - the very place where Johann Strauss used to direct his orchestra.
Wiener Kursalon
The
Salonorchester Alt Wien is one Vienna's best-known interpreters of classical
Viennese music. This orchestra regularly presents a program of waltzes, polkas, arias and piano concerto melodies for visitors. Though not pitching the performance to classical music aficionados we thoroughly enjoyed the program's variety as well as the fun.
Strauss & Mozart Concert featuringSalonorchester Alt Wien
The final city and our destination was Hungary's capital, the beautiful Budapest. The winter weather was now affecting our tourist activities. The time we could comfortably spend outside exploring was now getting quite short and the fog surrounding the city was pretty constant. The normally panoramic views from Gellért Hill was a case in point.
Night view from Gellért Hill
Budapest's yellow line is the oldest underground transportation line in continental Europe (second oldest in the world) and still retains much of its old-fashioned charm.
There are many ways to travel through Europe, but the intimate, stylish, and sophisticated experience of this river cruise will be hard to beat.
Tapestry at her berth in Budapest
So how to sum up a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest? Historic, breathtakingly, serene and tranquil travel with all the comforts of a luxury hotel including first class dining! It will be hard to beat.
Our Magnificent Europe Music Cruise continues towards Budapest as we enter the 171 km Main - Danube canal which connects the Main and the Danube rivers across the European Watershed.
Main-Danube Canal passes through Nuremberg
This canal, completed in 1992, was designed to handle vessels up to 190 m long. It connects the North Sea / Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea.
Main-Danube Canal
The summit altitude (European Continental Divide) is 400 m above sea level. This is the highest point on Earth that can be reached by watercraft from the sea.
Main-Danube Canal near Fürth
Along the course of the Main-Danube canal are 16 locks with lifting heights of up to 25 meters.
Profile of Main-Danube Canal with an indication of the locks and their altitudes (click on image to enlarge)
The total height of the Panama Canal is only 26 m above sea level and has three sets of locks to achieve this.
Navigating through a large lock on the Main-Danube Canal
One vulnerability of any canal system is it's reliance on a regular supply of rain (or snow runoff) to replensh the water discharged from the locks.
27.7 m deep lock on Main-Danube Canal
When we first boarded the Panorama, our captain lamented the lack of rain which was a major concern to him. Water levels in the Danube continued to drop and finally a day before we were due to reach Regensburg we were told that Panorama could not navigate beyond this port.
Falling water levels
Fortunately the shallow-draught Avalon Tapestry was available and met us in Linz for the remainder of the cruise.
The only city we visited along the Main - Danube canal section of our cruise was Nurenberg, now infamous as the venue for the 10 Annual Nazi Party rallies
between 1923 and 1938 as well as the Trial of the Major War Criminals
before the International Military Tribunal in 1946.
Defendants during the Nuremberg Trials
Amongst the many highlights of our walking tour through Nurenberg, we were very impressed by the gothic church spire three-tiered Schöner Brunnen (Beautiful Fountain) which stands 19 m high in the city's market square. It's numerous figures represent allegories of philosophy, the liberal arts and religion.
Schöner Brunnen
Close to the eastern end of the canal at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, Regensburg boasts the largest preserved medieval city centre in Germany. A masterpiece of medieval engineering, the Steinerne Brücke (Stone Bridge) was built in the 12th century opening up major international trade routes between Northern Europe and Venice. The knights of the 2nd and 3rd crusade used this bridge on their way to the Holy Land.
Regensburg from the river featuring the Steinerne Brücke
The old city is surrounded by Roman fortress' walls and as you enter Regensburg, you can see the ancient Porta Pratoria, Germany's oldest stone building, dating from 179 AD. Built by the Romans, this early gateway to the city survives today as a reminder of the original Roman settlement.
The remains of the East Tower of Porta Praetoria from Ancient Roman times
There are over 1200 historic buildings in the centre of Regensburg, many built by the rich, patrician families who traded with cities such as Kiev and Venice. Building the tallest tower was the way to show your wealth. Frequently only the ground and first floors of these towers were used.
Symbol of Regensburg's wealth - Golden Tower
The highlight of our Regensburg visit was a tour into a luthier's workshop to hear and watch a little about the craft of violin making and restoration. Thomas Goldfuss is a third generation craftsman, manufacturing unique new string instruments as well as copies of historical masterpieces. He (and his father Horst) moved to Regensburg in 1985.
Thomas Goldfuss in his workshop
The Regensburg Cathedral, dedicated to St Peter, is the most important church and landmark of the city.
Regensburg Cathedral from nearby island
Appropriately, our musical themed cruise brought us to Salzburg, the birthplace of 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the setting for The Sound of Music.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Felsenreitschule, a massive Roman rock amphitheatre seemed quite inconspicuous from the street. In 1936, the festival featured a performance in this theatre by the von Trapp Family Singers, whose story was later dramatized as the The Sound of Music.
Felsenreitschule Theatre
Quite close to the Felsenreitschule is St. Peter's Abby Church cemetery filled with plots marked by black, iron crosses and decorated with flowers and candles. The graves are extremely close together and rents are due every ten years. At the edges of the cemetery are gated graves that were used as the basis for the graves in the scene where the von Trapp's hide during their escape from the Nazis.
St. Peter's Church cemetery
We also took a quick peek at the Mirabell Gardens, the most iconic scene in the The Sound of Music film, where the children run through gardens singing and skipping around the fountain with the Pegasus statue. Like numerous other palace gardens we've visited during this cruise preparation for the winter season only allowed us to imagine what it will look like the following spring.
Do-Re-Mi - Mirabell Gardens in Spring
Coincidentally, just three weeks before we visited Satzburg, "The Sound of Music" finally debuted in this picturesque city - the first time the musical has been produced live on stage in the town where the movie was filmed back in 1964.
Saltzburg featuring St. Peter's Abbey Church (extreme left) and Salzburg Cathedral (centre)
The music theme of our cruise continued into the evening with a live concert held in the parish church of Ansfelden by the 50 piece community brass orchestra Musikverein Ansfelden.
Musikverein Ansfelden concert
Our MC and host was Avalon's Director Waterways Operations, Burghart Lell - a former member of the orchestra. Their encore piece was Conquest of Paradise by Vangelis (also the cruise theme tune)
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As promised, the final Rhine / Main / Danube River Cruise post will take you down the
Danube River to Budapest. In the meantime please keep sending in
your comments and questions.
If you're unsure which stories
you've missed - look for the Blog Archive near the bottom of the page -
it's the best way to select the post you haven't read yet (or want to
re-read).
Having already completed the section of our voyage on the Rhine, Panorama takes a hard left turn onto the Main River at Mainz in the early evening of day 120 and we head towards Frankfurt. Passing Frankfurt airport around midnight reminded us how small Europe is - we'd already passed through Frankfurt once - on our way from Miami to Istanbul just 68 days earlier.
Main River
After Frankfurt we head south towards Miltenberg winding our way through Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse towards the Danube and eventually the Black Sea. Around 500 km long, the west flowing Main has been connected to the east flowing Danube since 1992 via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal.
The river has been canalised with 34 large locks (300 m long × 12 m wide).
Lock filling with water from upstream
sufficient to allow two 110 m × 11.45 m vessels joined together to navigate the total length of the river.
Bavaria 52 following Rock into the empty lock
Our magnificent river cruise ship Avalon Panorama, the newest vessel in the Avalon fleet, was only launched at the beginning of the 2011 season. Luxuriously fitted out, she is almost totally glass walled from the main lounge
Lounge looking forward
the dining room
Dining room with panoramic views
to the club lounge at the stern.
We feel a little like royalty being accommodated in such grand style. To lie tucked up under the doona and watch the morning views of the impressive European countryside was a heavenly experience.
Panorama from the Panorama
Our Royal Deck stateroom (definitely not a cabin) provided panoramic views of the countryside as we glided by (sliding door opened or closed).
Panorama stateroom
The landscape boasted gorgeous autumn tints everywhere we looked.
Autumn colours
The crisp misty mornings and glassy waterway were poetic.
Passing day tour vessel gives way
Our first port on the Main is Miltenberg. This town has many beautifully preserved timber-frame houses from the 15th to 17th centuries.
Main Street, Miltenberg
The main street also has the beautifully preserved the Hotel Zum Riesen (one of Germany's oldest inns).
Hotel Zum Riesen
If you look very closely at the photo you'll see what looks like the Star of David hanging from the hotel sign. This is actually the 'Brauerstern' (Brewer's Star) and it marks a house given the right to brew beer.
Further up the river we call into Würzburg, famous for its Residenz - a vast palace commissioned by two prince-bishops between 1720 and 1744.
Würzburg Residenz
Like thousands of visitors before us we were impressed with the world-famous, column-free vaulted Baroque staircase especially it's ceiling fresco representing the four continents - the largest one-piece fresco ever painted.
Residenz staircase
About 90% of the city was destroyed British Lancaster bombers during a WW2 air raid. All of the city's churches, cathedrals, and other monuments were heavily damaged or destroyed (Würzburg was destroyed more totally than Dresden the previous month).
The mighty Fortress Marienberg, the symbol of Würzburg, served as a home of the prince-bishops for nearly five centuries. It was captured by the US Army during the final last-ditch German resistance in April 1945. This prominent landmark on the Main river was clearly visable from our ship.
Fortress Marienberg
Alongside the river we spotted this Alter Kranen (Harbour Crane) - a rare monument of industrial architecture of the Baroque era. The crane works by "human power" with the help of a treadwheel and several hand pulley sets.
Wurzburg Harbour Crane
Wurzburg's St. Mary's Chapel (originally a synagogue), is a grim reminder to visitors of the destruction of the city's Jewish community in the 15th century. In the period of Nazi rule, nearly the entire Jewish population of Wurzburg was one again wiped out.
St Mary's Chapel apse
Bamberg, our final stop on the Main river was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site due to the city's impressive collection of diverse and impressive 12th century Romanesque through to 18th century Rococo architectural styles.
Fresco covered Altes Rathaus (old townhall)
Bamberg streetscape
The magnificent Rosengarten (Rose Garden) at the Neue Residenz provided a tremendous view over this picturesque city. By now the plants had been pruned for winter and the sculptures covered up to protect them from the snow and freezing temperatures.
Rose Garden prepared for winter
Rose Garden in summer
The Neue Residenz (New Palace) (1698-1704) was initially occupied by the prince-bishops, and by the deposed King Otto of Greece in the 19th century.
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As promised, the next post will take you along the Main - Danube Canal to Saltzburg. In the meantime please keep sending in your comments and questions.
If you're unsure which stories you've missed - look for the Blog Archive near the bottom of the page - it's the best way to select the post you haven't read yet (or want to re-read).
