Vienna in the fog…

by | Dec 14, 2023 | Photography

Vienna, Austria, is known as the city of music…and a few other things. When we first arrived here, I thought they should name it the City of Fog. As you can see from my photo above, upon arrival in Vienna, it was shrouded in clouds. But that was OK; we were on vacation, and at least it wasn’t raining, and there was no snow or ice, so after breakfast, we were off on our “included” Viking overview of Vienna.

Viking gives you one excursion per port as part of your cruise fare. I kind of find it funny that they usually call that excursion “panoramic” something (insert name of where you are. here). I keep trying to figure out how driving to someplace, getting out and walking for two hours is “panoramic.” But today’s was a little different as our “luxury motor coach” took us on a drive, not only into the city but around Vienna’s Ring Road, which pretty much encircles all the places you want to see. I should note here that in Vienna, you do not dock anywhere near the center of the city (unlike many of the places we have visited so far). The river itself is about a one-hour walk from the old town section of the city. So a ride on a “luxury motor coach” is a must.

After we drove around the entire Ring Road (which runs the exact route that the old city wall used to be built on), seeing all the incredible Hapsburg Empire buildings, you stop and get out with your guide, and you are off on a walk into the center of the old town to see St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Well, the outside of the cathedral, anyway. It is interesting to me that Viking’s included tours always seem to take you to a cathedral or church but never into it. You are left to return and go inside if you want to. That’s OK as I have my buddy Mike’s pictures of the inside of every church in Europe (or maybe the world) to look at. For instance, if you would like to see what the inside of St. Stephen’s looks like, click here to see it on Mike’s website. His pictures are gorgeous. We had 30 minutes of free time, and that was not enough to get to the restrooms, buy a souvenir and take pictures of the outside of the cathedral. If we wanted to see the rest, we would have to come back later. And if you read yesterday’s post about my feelings on the opulence of churches, you know that going inside was not high on my list of things I “have to see.”

After walking the square around the cathedral, we were walked back to the bus (Kathleen and I were taking the “easy” tour) and we drove to…a Christmas Market! Oh boy! I will say that this one was much nicer than any we had seen before—more homemade crafts, better-looking food, etc. But it was still the same thing. So far, we have been to eight Christmas Markets, and we have not spent a cent in any of them—just nothing we want or need. We kind of made a vow that after cleaning out the houses of deceased parents, we would continue to get rid of things rather than add new ones. (At this point, a little voice in my head is saying, “Shut up Jim…you are the one who took a Christmas Market cruise.”) 

After an hour at the Christmas Market (where I walked around, but Kathleen was able to keep warm on the bus), we headed out of the fog-shrouded city back to the ship for lunch before we were to embark on our afternoon tour of  “festive Schönbrunn Palace.”

Of course, I took some photos while we were walking around the old city so here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Our afternoon tour was at Schönbrunn Palace. This was the summer home of the Hapsburgs and (probably) another wonderfully opulent place to visit. Kathleen decided to stay on the ship and read while Steve, Jamie and I went to the Palace. I had almost convinced myself that I would stay behind as well, but Kathleen said I should go because I might find something cool to take pictures of. So the three of us boarded our “luxury motor coach,” and off we went.

Our guide started the tour as we drove away from the ship with three rules for the Schönbrunn Palace. I don’t remember what the first two were, but when he got to the third one, I got off the bus. Seriously, when he said, “No Photography is Allowed,” I asked if I had heard him correctly, and he said yes, so I asked the driver to pull over, and I got off the bus. I am sure the other people on board thought I was a total nut job, but Kathleen had talked me into going because I might grab a great photo or two, so if I can’t take pictures, why go?

You probably think I am nuts as well, considering this is an optional excursion and, therefore, an excursion that we chose to go on and paid additional money to take, and here I was, just giving up a $149 excursion because I couldn’t take pictures. And Kathleen had skipped it as well so we were out almost $300. But we weren’t, and we really didn’t choose this excursion. You may remember that back when I started this trip, I mentioned that this was a trip that we had planned and paid for in 2018 to take in 2020 and then got canceled because of COVID. Well, Viking offered us either our money back or 125% of our cruise fare to use on another cruise in the future. That’s kind of how most of the cruise lines survived. Enough people were willing to do that, and we were two of them (actually four of them).

But there was a catch to their 125% offer. You had to use it all on one cruise. You could not use part of it on one cruise and the rest of it on another. You also had to spend it just on the cruise itself. It did not convert to onboard credit that you could spend along the way. Any part of it that you didn’t spend before the ship left the first port reverted back to Viking. This meant that we had a lot of extra money to book optional shore excursions. Shore excursions we would not have taken it without having that extra 25%. In fact, I just checked, and the only optional shore excursion we booked on the original cruise was a visit to the Spanish Riding School here in Vienna to see the incredible Lippanzer Stallions (more about that tomorrow because we saw them yesterday). So, any shore excursion we walked away from was not really costing us money.

At this point, I am off the bus and walking back to the ship. Thankfully, the bus had just been getting out of the riverside area, so I didn’t have far to walk. Once I got back, I decided what I really needed was to take a long and FAST walk. When you tour, you walk slowly, stop and look at things, and then you walk slowly again. You might take two hours to walk a little more than a mile. At home, I walk somewhere between five and seven miles a day for exercise, and I walk them at a 16-minute-per-mile pace. So, really, I have gotten no real exercise for a week, and at that point, I didn’t realize how it was affecting me. When we do ocean cruises, I always find time to do at least a four-mile walk onboard the ship on sea days.

I know all of you have heard of endorphins. You know, the chemicals that your body produces when you exercise that can produce an “analgesic effect.” At home, I get those all the time, and it certainly improves my mood by about a thousand percent. But this week, I have gotten none of them, so part of my lethargy and tiredness comes from having done a lot less exercise than I usually do. I should add that it has also been the reason my clothes are getting tighter by the day (Viking’s food has been outstanding). So I changed into my sweats, and I was off for a quick four-mile photo walk (I never walk while traveling without my camera) and sure enough, I was right to have taken it along because I got some photos I truly like. You can see them below. Sorry, no churches, cathedrals, government buildings or Christmas decorations of any kind. Just some photography that I can experiment with and some wildlife that I encountered. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

I also wanted to experiment a little with black and white. I hardly ever shoot with the intention of creating black-and-white shots as the final product. But on this day, with the flat sky and the fog, I thought it might work. So here’s my study of the banks of the Danube in black and white. If you aren’t a fan of “artsy” photography, you can skip this slide show. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

I think that about covers the day. When I got back from my walk, we changed for drinks and dinner, and then it was back to the stateroom for bed before our second day in Vienna. See you tomorrow.

Vienna is a handsome, lively city, and pleases me exceedingly.
—Frederic Chopin

Sailing the Wachau Valley and seeing an Abbey

by | Dec 13, 2023 | Photography

Yesterday was a big day. We did a bunch of stuff that basically wore us out. And we had even more scheduled that we ended up canceling due to my getting a horrible headache and not being able to get warm.

First, the Valley

Our schedule on Tuesday morning was to sail down the beautiful Wachau Valley. This is a stretch of the Danube with some pretty amazing villages, castles, monasteries and low bridges. The best way for me to take you there is to show you my photos and have you read the captions, so here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

The village of Krems

We reached the end of the valley early. It was like we had gone through at jet speed, and as the Captain explained, we kind of had. Because of the rapid snow melt and the rain, the river was running very fast, so we were being pushed much faster than normal. He even told us that, at one point, he was running the engines in reverse to slow us down. We were supposed to arrive in the village of Krems just in time to board the buses that would take us to Gottweig Abbey, high above the valley. But because of the river’s speed, we were docked in Krems almost an hour early. So they let us get off and wander the town.

I decided to take a walk because the sky was finally clearing up. Besides, I wanted to see if those were two churches or one. It turned out to be two, as you can see in my photographic journey in Krems. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

High on a hill was the Gottweig Abbey…”Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo” (think The Sound of Music—I couldn’t resist)

Our afternoon tour (for pretty much the entire ship) was a visit to Gottweig Abbey, which sits on a very high hill above Krems. It is really a pretty impressive place. While we toured Gottweig, the ship moved downstream to Tulln, where we would meet up with them later. More about that after I tell you about Gottweig in photos. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After Gottweig, we had a bus ride to meet the ship in Tulln, where they would pick us up for about a two-hour sail into Vienna. We were scheduled to go to the Opera House to see a performance of Mozart and Strauss. But by the time we left Gottweig, I was starting to feel incredibly tired and strangely cold. I also had a really bad headache. This morning (while writing this), I had to ask Kathleen about that 45-minute bus ride because, to be honest, I slept through the entire ride. We got on board, and I went to bed, hoping that a nap in a warm bed would help. I got up for dinner an hour later, feeling slightly better, but by the time dinner was over, I was done. We had to skip the concert, and I went to bed at 8:00. Slept for almost a solid 12 hours (which is really out of character for me), and that’s why I wasn’t up and writing yesterday to get a post online. Sorry.

Later, I figured that I must have been zapped by all the time I had spent standing on the upper deck taking photos as we sailed down the Wachau Valley. I got so cold I just never warmed up. It was the temperature as much as the wind chill. What a guy will do for his art ?.

One final thing…

Something has been bugging me on this trip. The trip to the Abbey really helped me to figure it out. I want to say up front that I know that the beautiful cathedrals, incredible abbeys, and marvelous churches represent the art of the times they were built, but frankly, they bother me. The amount of money, time and effort that went into building them at the expense of the poor who had nothing while the rich (and sadly the churches) drained the economy to build these edifices just ticks me off. And the amount of money that is currently keeping them going while the poor and homeless are starving in the cold…I have no words. When I heard the guide tell us that this HUGE abbey with hundreds of rooms was “overbooked—we have too many monks here now for what our facilities can handle,” my first thought was, “there must be hundreds of monks living here—good for them for taking in so many. Then she said there were 34. THIRTY-FOUR???!!! That was it for me. This abbey, with more than 30 buildings and hundreds of thousands of square feet, can’t hold 34 monks. Are you kidding me? Someone asked her why that was overcrowding, and she said it was because in the sacristy nave where the monks sit during church services, there are only 30 chairs, and having an extra four monks means that some have to sit on regular chairs—the height of arrogance. These people are supposed to be serving their god. They took an oath of poverty. Sure, they don’t drive fancy cars, but their lifestyle is pretty good. All day, they can contemplate heaven, pray for hours, and drink the wine that others make in their abbey…sounds like a pretty good life to me.

And it’s not just that. When we went into Vienna yesterday and heard about the things that have been built just since WWII, and I think about the homeless or just the number of people who are killing themselves working 12 hours a day in a coffee shop, it truly bothers me.

It all reminded me of when we visited the Russian Summer Palaces while in St. Petersburg. When you see those, you understand why the Russian Revolution happened.

Ok, I will get off my soapbox now. I just wanted to explain why I am not as impressed as I probably should be by the churches, cathedrals and abbeys. The ones I like best are in small towns and are kept up by local parishioners. Like the ones I saw when I was in Krems.

I grew up in Austria, and for me, real comfort food is Wiener Schnitzel. Wiener Schnitzel and mashed potatoes because it reminds me of my youth… It reminds me of when I grew up, and it feels very comforting.  —Wolfgang Puck

 

We go to Munich! And wait…

by | Dec 11, 2023 | Photography

First, I need to say that we have lost all track of time. Not really time as much as dates. So often, I find myself asking Kathleen what day it is. Right now, I had to look up into the corner of my Mac’s screen to find out that it was Monday here (and still Sunday at home). This brings me to the fact that on Sunday (during the day—when the Seahawks were losing), we were on a “luxury motor coach” to Munich (which takes about 90 minutes).

Wait! I forgot to tell you about the night before. And maybe the biggest difference between river cruising and ocean cruising. Before dinner, every night, there is supposed to be (I say that because last night there was not) a talk by our Program Director (think Cruise Director) about the next day’s activities. So ours had said that our ship would stay docked in Regensburg overnight, and the next morning, we would get off and go to Munich (others who had not done the pre-cruise extension we did went back to Nuremberg), and most of those on board would spend the day in Regensburg doing a walking tour and then with time on their own. In the meantime, after everyone was off touring, the ship would move to Deggendorf, where we would all meet back up with her.

But that didn’t happen. What did happen was that when we got up to use the facilities in the middle of the night, we looked out, and the ship was moving. I am really moving. What had happened is that the weather had warmed up between the time we went to bed around 10:00 and 1:00 am when we started moving. The Captain was worried that if the snow melted and raised the river (even by a few inches), we would not be able to get under some of the lower bridges. So he basically turned on the jets and got us past those low bridges.

So when we woke up in the morning and went to breakfast, we could see we were moored on a river bank in the literal middle of nowhere. Seriously. No towns, houses or farms to be seen. All we could see was a line of trees with a road behind it. And on that road were two buses—one for Nuremberg and ours for Munich. After breakfast, they called us down at 8:30 (unlike ocean cruises, they make announcements that go right into your rooms), and we stepped off the gangway into muddy snow and made our way through some bushes to the waiting bus. I bet you never did that on an ocean cruise.

We (those of us going to Munich) thought that buses would be brought to that spot for those going to Regensburg, and they would tour from there. But later, we learned that everyone else on the ship stayed on until after lunch. The ship took the morning to get to Deggendorf, and then the folks who were supposed to go to Regensburg got on buses (that the Program Director had to find in a big hurry) and went even further back the way we had come to tour that city. What is interesting to note is that they (who went a much shorter distance) got back more than an hour after we got back from Munich. Also of note is that when we were headed home on our “luxury motor coach,” I asked our guide where the ship that we were headed left Munich, and I asked Reinhol to was docked; he had no idea. He said they were just getting out of Munich and on the road, and they would call him and tell him where they were.WHAT??? Sure enough, about an hour into a 90-minute bus ride, he gets a call and tells the driver where to take us.

Hopefully, you see what I mean about this cruise. It’s different than an ocean cruise; it’s very different. Another thing I told Kathleen was that I realized that doing private shore excursions instead of Viking excursions would be next to impossible. Where would you tell your guide to meet you? You could say come to one place and then wind up in another. A good example is this morning. We were scheduled to dock in Passau, Germany. Instead, we are docked in a small town in Austria. Those wanting to go to Passau’s Christmas Market (NOT ME) will be bussed back to Passau. It’s just crazy what they put up with to navigate the ins and outs of the Danube.

So, back to Munich. Because we got on the bus in the middle of nowhere, we had to navigate some pretty out-in-the-boondocks back roads to get to the Autobahn for the actual ride to Munich. This turned out to be the most beautiful part of the trip as we passed through so many small farming communities and beautiful fields and meadows. The sun was rising, and we saw deer, hares, villages in the distance, and so much more. The landscape was covered in snow (roads were clear), and we could see for miles in every direction from our “luxury motor coach.” Speaking of “luxury motor coaches,” we had a 48-passenger bus almost all to ourselves. There were only 12 of us on board.

This scenic part of the trip just killed me. Every time I turned around, I saw a perfect photograph. I mean perfect. I could have done an entire photographic coffee-table book just in the hour it took us to get to the Autobahn. But I didn’t get a single, usable photo. All I got was reflections of myself in the bus windows. Too much sun, in the wrong place and somewhat dirty windows. Just killed me.

When we finally got on the Autobahn, our aforementioned guide, Reinhold, told us, “We will drive for another 45 minutes and then make a rest stop at the BMW dealership. You can have a few minutes to look around and use the facilities and then we will be on our way.” We were kind or perplexed. Why would we stop at a BMW dealership to use restrooms? And why would we want to “look around?” Does Viking have a deal with BMW to help them sell us cars?

Well, it turned out that the “dealership” was the world headquarters of BMW and they had an entire BMW World for us to tour. For Kathleen and I who have two adult kids who LOVE BMWs, this was a big deal. (Brian and Michelle have four BMWs between the two of them, and my son Josh drives one too. Not to mention that Brian runs an independent repair shop that caters to European cars.) We loved touring BMW World, and I took plenty of pics to show them later. Finally, I can show them some travel photos so that they won’t fall asleep while we look at them ?. Here’s the stuff I shot at BMW World. Just snaps of cool cars so feel free to look at them on your phone if you want.

We stayed at BMW World for about 40 minutes, and then we were off to the old town of Munich to see their Christmas Market. Reinhold walked us through some historic buildings and areas around the Old Town. We got to see more Hitler sites (makes me sick to think about what went on there) and walked through a small Christmas Market (more about Christmas Markets in general later on) and then on to the Old Town (every city seems to have a downtown and an Old Town) Square where the BIG Christmas Market is. The square also had an amazing glockenspiel high on the front of the City Hall. There are pictures below, but our guide said that the sound of Europe was the church bells. So, I tried taking a short video so you could hear the bells striking noon but the wind was so bad all you could hear is the wind buffeting us.

We got a Viking-provided lunch at a GIGANTIC restaurant named Ratskeller in the basement of the city hall. When I say GIGANTIC, I am not kidding. The restaurant had so many nooks and crannies to stick diners into you would have thought it was a Thomas’ English muffin. The place holds 1100 people, all eating at the same time. And from the noise level, it was full when we got there.

Lunch (salad, a giant pretzel, stuffed cabbage and apple strudel) was delicious. Or maybe the giant glass of beer we drank with it made it delicious. It was after lunch that things went south.

Those of you who have read my posts about shore excursions know that I HATE when you are a long way from your ship and they take you on a tour, and then they say, “Now you have free time to SHOP.” We don’t shop. We really don’t. Well, we do but I grocery shop at home and we pretty much get everything else from Amazon.

This brings me to a rant about Christmas Markets. No, it is really a rant to myself for not realizing that every single Christmas Market would be exactly the same. And that on a “Christmas Market Cruise” you would see them every single day. From Lisboa to Prague to Nuremberg to Regensburg and now to Munich, they are all the same. They sell the same stuff (in many cases, it comes from Asia, so we know it is the SAME stuff), just at different prices. I have absolutely no clue why I expected anything else. What I thought about was the chance to walk around and take photos of the markets. The reality is that there are a bunch of well-dressed (if they are locals; those of us from ships look like we are wearing old, dirty clothes—because we are) people drinking hot wine, looking at Christmas trinkets, taking selfies, and just generally being festive. You can only go to so many Christmas Markets before you are so over them. I have now reached that point. I am done with Christmas Markets. Unless there is NOTHING else to do, I have been to my last one. You will have to really convince me that there is something there worth taking a photo of that I don’t already have a photo of.

Now, back to shopping. When we finished lunch at approximately 1:00 pm, Reinhold said, “You now have until 4:00 to shop. See you back here.” WTH??? I honestly can’t think of anything I want to shop for for three entire hours. Even if you plunked me B&H Photo in NYC, I couldn’t stand looking at stuff for that long. So Kathleen and I walked through the market (which means we squeezed through the market), and that took about 20 minutes. We have all the Christmas decorations we could ever want; we were stuffed from lunch, so we didn’t want to eat or drink. So what would we do for three hours in a sunny square where the crowds were growing by the minute, and the wind chill hovered around freezing? Did I mention that it was Sunday, which meant that there were no businesses, shops or any place you could go to escape the cold wind other than restaurants, and we had just eaten?

So we ended up walking around trying to find someplace to sit outdoors, in the sun but out of the bone-chilling wind. Not much luck. What were we going to do if we found it? Sit there for three hours? We tried getting into a Starbucks, but there was no dice. Everyone in there was ensconced in doing what we were trying to do. We finally returned to the place where we ate lunch and sat in their waiting area for about two hours until it was time to meet our guide and bus to return to the ship. TWO HOURS! While Kathleen, Jamie and Steve waited there, I walked around the area to see what other photos I could take that I hadn’t already taken. The answer was NOT A SINGLE ONE. I had taken everything of interest. It was just so frustrating. If we had known where the bus was parked, we could have gone there and sat on the warm bus. But they don’t tell you that. It got so bad that if we had known where the ship was, we might have hired a car to take us there. Stuck doing NOTHING for three hours is horrible. And since it was Sunday, even museums were closed, and the cathedrals had church services going on, so you couldn’t get in to take photos. Besides, my buddy Mike has the market cornered on church and cathedral photos, so I don’t even bother.

After our three-hour sentence was over (I forgot to mention that I couldn’t even play games on my phone because the power was down to 6%, and I had stupidly forgotten to bring my portable charger. You would think a “luxury motor coach” would have outlets or at least a USB port.) we boarded the bus for the ride back to the ship…wherever it was. As I mentioned earlier, after about an hour, Reindhold got a phone call to say it was in Deggendorf. To continue this comedy of errors, when we got to the village, we saw a Viking ship moored just below the bridge. So our bus went down a hill to get to it but as we got closer we told the driver and Reinhold that this was NOT our ship. It was A Viking ship, but not our Viking ship. So they had to call again and find out exactly where our Viking ship was. We took off to find it, which entailed recrossing the Danube again and then a bunch of U-turns. We finally got there and came on board, only to find that all the tours to Regensburg had not returned yet, and only those who had stayed on board or come from Munich were here. It was really quiet compared to the night before.

Right now, I am sitting in the lounge, and we have decided not to go out. It is raining pretty hard, but if it stops, I might walk up to the little Austrian village and see what I can find. In the meantime, I get to write this post and add these photos of Munich. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

There won’t be much to write about tomorrow since we are basically doing nothing today, so even you, my wonderful readers, will get a day off. Back again in a couple of days after we get to Vienna. Tomorrow is supposed to be Krems, Austria, but let’s be honest, it could be anyplace on the entire Danube River.

I liked Germany; I’m not into Berlin, it’s too huge and empty and imposing, but Munich was good.   —Graham Coxon