During Wednesday afternoon and thru the night, the River Princess cruised the Danube towards the German border and the town of Passau. Since river boats glide along rather than speeding and it was a fair distance to our next stop, we spent the evening looking at delightful vistas on both sides, until well after sunset. We then went to bed soothed by the gentle motion of our ship. We would not arrive at Passau until early afternoon on Thursday.
As the sun set, the small towns along the shore were silhouetted against the sky, and a few light gradually appeared in some of the buildings.
The Ramblers had visited Passau twice before. On our previous Danube cruise, it was our last stop, because of low water between Passau and Regensburg. In fact, we were bussed to Passau as the Maria Theresa slowly made her way through the very shallow water and then could go no further. However, our first cruise, Christmas Markets on the Danube in 2014, ended in Passau and we then flew home from Munich. This was only a year after the 500 year flood that hit the area in 2013.
The Rhine floods on an average, every 5 years, tho most times, it is not disastrous. Passau is especially susceptible to flooding as three rivers meet within its boundaries, the black Ilz, the green Inn and of course, the blue Danube! A marker every guide points out is the flood chart painted on the wall of city hall in the historic district near the river. The 2013 flood came in just under the historic flood of 1501. As you can see, the water came up to the third story of many buildings close to the Danube,
In 2014, flood damage was still visible on some of the buildings but all had been repaired by 2019.
The reason many river cruises either begin or end at Passau is because cruising that part of the Danube is both scenic and popular. As a result, the docking pontoons are usually full. Most cruises last for a week, and it takes a week to get from Budapest to Passau or the reverse, so this makes sense. Passau was a very popular destination in early July of 2019. Of course, July is a also the vacation month for many Germans and Austrians and other Europeans. Thus there was a constant stream of busses loading and unloading tourists on the plaza facing the historic district in front of the Danube while we were there.
The intrepid bicyclists ready to leave Engelhartzell for their ride along the River Inn
Before we got to Passau, the River Princess made another technical stop at Englehartzell, to drop off the cruisers who were going to bicycle along the river. Not the Danube this time, but mostly along the River Inn which would also take them to Passau by a different and very scenic route. The River Princess like all Uniworld ships, has excellent bicycles available for those who want a more active tour. In this case, they would cycle for about 28 km/18 miles and eventually meet the Princess in Passau. Their guides were waiting when the ship arrived and the group was away by 9 AM.
The Hofgut Hafnerleiten is set in the idyllic Bavarian countryside; it is a small hotel restaurant with cooking school attached. Jean raved about the setting.
Another small group also left at Englehartzell for a much different experience, a Bavarian Country Cooking Class. This was a fairly pricey Masterpiece Collection experience at $250 Euros a person. Being familiar with German/Austrian country cooking, the Rambler had no desire to try this one, but Jean, one of our Aussie friends, took it and enjoyed it very much. Of course it wasn’t just any cooking class, it was taught by Michelin chef Erwin at the beautiful Hofgut Hafnerleiten. Chef Erwin and his wife have created a small hotel and cooking school in the beautiful Bavarian countryside. Researching it for this blog entry, it looked like a very lovely spot.
Here is a photo I found of the guests preparing a meal in the court yard. Our cruisers found it very enjoyable although the sometimes had problems understanding their hosts as none spoke German.
The rest of us continued on to Passau where we would meet our guide, Elizabeth, next to the dock. We were fortunate to have her, as not only was she an excellent guide but she led us gentle walkers at a sedate pace through some beautiful places. And, at end of our tour, we learned that she was a singer and actress, and happily serenaded us with the”Sound of Music!” It was a great treat. But before that she led us through a beautiful garden, we got a look at the amazing ceiling in the Bishop’s Palace and learned alot about St. Stephens.
St. Stephen’s cathedral is a beautiful baroque edifice, famous for its magnificent organ which has 17,974 pipes. It was once the largest in the world but is still the largest in Europe and has a marvelous sound. The Ramblers had enjoyed a concert of organ music on our last visit, but no concert was scheduled that afternoon. Yet, in some ways, this was a good thing as we got to walk around and admire the interior and learn about St. Stephens construction when it was not full of people. And believe me, the concerts draw a crowd.
One of the many beautiful gardens in the historic districtThe am amazing ceiling in he Bishop’s Palace, gorgeous frescoes and plaster-work. Trying to get a good photo was a dizzying experience. . This is a very beautiful church, and for once it wasn’t crowded with people for the organ concert. This gave us time to enjoy the church and say a prayer or two and light a candle.Elizabeth serenading her gentle walker group at the end of the tour.
Finally we regrouped outside the cathedral where Elizabeth sang for us and then bid us adieu to much applause. We gentle walkers then had a relative short downhill stroll back to the Danube and the River Princess. It is hard to get lost in the Passau historic district; if you walk downhill, you will eventually get to the river. On the way back, the Rambler stopped at Simon’s bakery one street over from the river to buy some of their amazing gingerbread to bring home.
Veste Oberhaus, high above the town. In this photo you can see the remnants of the medieval and later additions to the fortress. It served the Holy Roman Empire as ;protection for this very strategic area.
While we were taking in historic Passau, yet another group had a much more strenuous experience; a hike to the Veste Oberhaus, a 14th century fortress that overlooks the town on the other side of the river. They would then cross back over to the historic district. Obviously not all the people on our cruise were slow movers, as quite a few opted to hike up to the fortress which must have had an amazing view. They then had a chance to explore the town as we would not set sail for Regensburg until 6 PM.
However, before ending this blog, after much thought, the Rambler felt she must add something about Passau’s dark history in the recent past. I learned about it after our second visit, and this time, there is no way I can avoid writing about it. With all the turmoil in 2020 about how to address unpleasant aspects of a country’s history, Passau has decided to simply forget about what happened there during Hitler’s Third Reich.
Passau is a lovely town and a delightful place to visit but it has ties to Hitler and his policies. As Hitler had lived in Passau as a boy, it became a pilgrimage site during the Third Reich. There were certainly quite a few Nazis living here as well as two small concentration camps nearby. When Anna Rosmus discovered and wrote about Passau under Hitler as a high school student, most of the townspeople were very angry. This was not the image of their town they wanted to display.
Rosmus went on to research and write about Passau under Hitler and published a well-received book about the period called, “Out of Passau.” For her efforts, she has been reviled and even received death threats but this has not stopped her. In 1990, her work was featured in a movie called “The Nasty Girl.” The book is readily available if you are interested. Rosmus continues to work against the Neo-Nazi movement in Germany. She is not welcomed by many in her home town.
Of course there is much more good in Passau’s past than evil, and the Bavarians’ who live there would obviously prefer it was forgotten. In truth, there is little left to see of these dark days, but should it be entirely glossed over?
This cruise will take us to at least one other city that has had to deal with its past under Hitler. Nurnberg took quite a different path. I leave it to you to decide which way is best. I expect that the only time Nazis might be mentioned in Passau today would be on a Jewish tour of the city, but not on the many tours led by guides from the various river cruise companies.
PS. Looked to see if there were any Jewish history tours of Passau; the only one I found had nothing about Passau under the Third Reich in it’s description.
As the heat wave subsided, we spent our last day in Vienna taking advantage of the plesant weather and strolling along the quay. We also got to watch the crew polishing the ship. The people who work on river cruise ships have distinct tasks and distinct uniforms. The crew of sailors who are responsible for docking, getting the ship through the locks, and keeping it shipshape, wear blue shirts and shorts on Uniworld ships. The sailors on the ship rafted next to us wore a uniform of orange t shirts and shorts as they busily swabbed the deck.
I don’t remember what company it was from, maybe Croisi Europe, as it was slightly smaller than the Princess. A bridge across the Danube is in the background. No doubt those sailors are preparing the ship for the next group to board.
On our last day in Vienna, only one tour was offered. It was part of the Masterpiece Collection and therefor had an additional cost. This was a visit to the Schonbrunn Palace which would last most of the afternoon.
The Rambler is not a fan of touring palaces – if you’ve seen one or two, you’ve seen them all. The gardens are another story, but this tour promised to spend much time in the Schonbrunn itself. Thus we didn’t sign up for the palace trip. Though it may sound heretical, the Ramblers never did see the famous Schoenbrunn Palace on any of our cruises tho we had opportunities.
The front facade of the Schoenbrunn Palace; It has a mere 1441 rooms of varying sizes. The public rooms are VERY ornate as you might expect. The kings and emperors who built them were showing off their wealth and power. As you can see, much walking is involved. Schoenbrunn Palace was constructed over a period of 300 years, starting in the 17th century and currently is administered by the Republic of Austria.The Gloriette, the very famous architectural folly of the Schoenbrunn gardens which, by the way, are also enormous. The center portion of the Gloriette has recently been made into a cafe. Not a bad idea, as most people would appreciate some refreshments after wandering around the huge but beautifully kept gardens.
Shortly after the tired tour group returned at 5 PM, our crew got the Princess ready to sail to Rossatz, Austria. We would arrive at our next stop in the middle of the night. Rossatz was not our objective that morning. Instead it was a port of convenience for our visit to Durnstein.
Durnstein, a small town of around 800 inhabitants is one of the most picturesque stops along the Danube. The Ramblers had seen it twice before but only as our ship sailed past. First from the Beatrice on a cold December day and from the Maria Teresa during the prime tourist season.
This fascinating glimpse of Durnstein, its landmark blue and white church and the ruins of the castle where Richard the Lion heart was held captive made nearly everyone on board wish we were stopping there. But it wouldn’t actually be until our third trip on the Danube that we stopped there. This photo was taken with a powerful telephoto lens from the opposite bank. The castle ruins look close but they are not.
Because it has much to offer visitors, Durnstein is a popular stop for all the cruise companies although not all Danube cruises stop there. Because it is so popular, docking space is at a premium, and ships often have to stop at a close-by port instead of docking at Durnstein. Even the Durnstein docks are across the Danube from the town and accessed by a small ferry. Thus the Princess stopped at Rossatz and we were bussed to Durnstein.
The dock at Rossatz, not close to anything.
Since the Rossatz dock was not close to the town, the senior Rambler was coaxed into coming along for the ride. Fortunately there were many places to sit down and wait for us more determined sight-seers when we got to Durnstein. The beautiful sunshine of the previous days had left us but there was no rain in the forecast. We were lucky to avoid rain on this trip as Austria is the 11th rainiest country in the world. By this time, the gentle walkers had sorted themselves out, and if not walking with the senior Rambler, I might pair up with Laura from Florida or Kathy and Jean from Australia. We had become good friends by the end of the voyage and we all usually much preferred the slow pace of the gentle walkers.
There were three options for touring Durnstein; a visit to an organic wine estate with tasting, a visit to a saffron grower or spending time on your own in Durnstein. Uniworld provided a shuttle bus back to the ship for everyone who had gone to Durnstein on the hour from 10:30 to 12:30, as even those who took a tour would have free time afterwards. Durnstein is in the Wachau Valley. famous for beautiful scenery, picturesque villages and wine, but also for its apricots or marille as they are called in Austria.
A typical apricot orchard in the Wachau valley. These small trees were heavy with ripening fruit. AND they are picked when they are ripe, as the apricots are processed into preserves, liquors and many other products right in the valley. I had bought some last time, and wanted to get more. They are not sold in the US, unfortunately.
It also has a well justified reputation as a good place to shop for gifts to bring back home. Thus while Laura and Jean went off on tours, Kathy and I wanted only to tour Durnstein and visit the shops. The senior Rambler tagged along with us for a while and then turned back to wait and people watch. But first we had to get to the village…
Along the way we got a glimpse of not one but two castle ruins. The closer one is where King Richard spent several months in captivity. The Danube is on the left.
Unfortunately, the bus drop off spot was quite a ways from the little town. So the three of us strolled up the road towards our destination; it was a pleasant walk at first, a paved path along the Danube. On the way we got a good look at the ruined castle where Richard the Lion-heart was imprisoned for a time. King Richard angered an Austrian noble when he tossed his flag off the fortress walls whilst on the crusades. When he tried to make his way back to England without his retinue, Richard was captured and thrown into a dungeon. Tho he was later transferred to another castle, Richard was not released until a huge ransom was paid. The money was raised in England with much difficulty, by his mother Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. It is possible to hike up to the picturesque ruin, but we would have enough trouble getting to the main street of Durnstein.
Our uphill climb. You know it is steep when the Austrians provide benches for resting along the way. Most of the tourist from the river cruise boats are older, and while some are amazingly fit, others are not.
Unfortunately, as we neared the village our path took an upward turn and when we got to its end, we saw with dismay that we had a choice of two ways to get there, both were very steep and paved with my nemesis, cobblestones. After a serious discussion, Kathy and I decided the further path was a better option, while the senior Rambler told us he would find his way to the bus stop and meet us there. It took us a while because when we reached the top , we found there was yet another uphill stretch before we got to the top. Then, to our dismay we found we were in a courtyard, in back of the Abbey and church. However, we could see the main shopping street accessible across a lumpy cobblestone courtyard.
When Kathy and I reached the top, we ended in this courtyard. We didn’t know it but if we had entered the gate on the left, it would have taken us to the Abbey and Church. We could however, see the main street of Durnstein to the right, with its row of shops and that’s where we headed. The cobblestones were particularly lumpy.
What we didn’t realize was that if we had ventured into the Abbey building on the left, we would have been able to able to access the church as well. There really hadn ‘t been any signs either in German or English to point us in the right direction, so we never did get to see the church interior. Of course we would have many more chances to tour historic churches on the cruise but we both felt just a little disappointed that we had missed it. NOT as disappointed as we would have been though if we had missed our chance to visit the charming Durnstein shops which was our primary goal.
Here is what we missed. There is so much going on inside the church that the photo almost looks like a double exposure. Luckily the Rambler didn’t see this picture until much later or I would have been very sorry I missed it. .Although, the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption dates to the 14th century, it was transformed into a blue and white baroque landmark 300 years later. Unfortunately the Augustinian monastery was dissolve along with many others, by reforming Emperor Joseph II. However it survived and is not back in the hands of the Augustinians. The church interior had been deteriorating for 200 years until restoration began in the 1980s. Not only has it been beautifully restored, but a museum has been added to showcase its history and treasures.
We were not disappointed. The shops lived up to their billing and both Kathy and I were able to find just what we were looking for. In fact it was fun to spend some time on an activity that was not educational, historical or inspiring. Just plain shopping was what we enjoyed that morning. The Rambler headed to the stores that sold Marillen products and there were several to choose from. In the end, I bought several bottles of marille liquor, two different varieties. Of course when flying these days, one has to be careful not to purchase too much of anything considered a liquid, and then pack it in the right bag for the trip home. I have had some edibles confiscated by the customs police in the EU before and didn’t want to make the same mistake.
One of the many shops that sold a variety of apricot products, along with cold drinks and non-food products with an apricot theme. It is amazing that these shops have their doors open to the outside and yet you see very few, if any flying insects. I bought my marille souvenirs at another shop but this one was the most picturesque.
With our purchases secured, it was time to find our way back to the bus stop. Of course, we could hardly get lost as there was one way in and one way out. This time we would have to carefully pick our way downhill towards the Danube and then head left. This was not so easy for the Rambler, as she has been paranoid about falling since hitting her head on concrete at home. Going down the steep cobblestone path was not easy, but with Kathy’s encouragement, we finally reached the road.
Not fancy, but just what we needed, and great tasting EisKaffe!
When we reached the large parking lot, we spied both the senior Rambler and a little hut that sold beverages and snacks. Although food and drink are so plentiful and easily accessible on a river cruise, there are a few times when they are not. Fortunately, not only did we have time, but there was also a place close by where we could enjoy one of my favorite Austrian beverages, an EisKaffe. Kathy had never had one but who can resist coffee and ice cream? Thus we got to enjoy an a treat alongside the Danube, after a very enjoyable morning.
Kathy shows her approval of the EisKaffe!
Mission accomplished, we boarded the next bus for a brief ride back to the River Princess. Of course, when we got back, they were already serving lunch, but the EisKaffe did not spoil our appetites too much. I will admit the senior Rambler and I don’t eat too much for lunch even tho the food is fresh, varied and tasty. Overindulgence at lunch generally encourages an afternoon nap, yet that is when our ship often cruises past the most beautiful vistas.
The River Princess set sail at 1:45 PM for Engelhartszell, Austria; we would arrive at 9 AM the next day. This would be just a brief stop to drop off the the cruisers who had signed up for the Bavarian River Bicycle Ride. Several others departed in a van for a Masterpiece Collection Cooking Class. More about this next time.
A last look at Durnstein as we sailed past on our way to Englehartszell and Passau. The ferry across the river is on the left foreground.
The rest of us enjoyed a pleasant morning cruise on the Danube until we arrived at Passau around 1:00 PM
Our first full day of the cruise offered several options for seeing some of the most interesting parts of Vienna; walking tours, bus tours and a combination bus-walking tour. The Rambler chose the gentle walker version of “Morning with the Masters,” an exclusive tour of the Vienna Art History Museum; exclusive because we arrived early in the morning before it was open to the public. There were at least 3 other options of tour, for the more active passengers. The senior Rambler opted to exercise yet another option, staying on board the Princess. LOL
In the afternoon, Uniworld provided a shuttle into the city. Since we had already seen quite a bit of Vienna on the Big Red Bus, the Rambler didn’t take advantage of this opportunity. The shuttle stop was at Schwedenplatz, which is on the other side of the Danube ,but more importantly a stop on the Vienna Metro/subway.
Schwendenplatz at night. Lots of things to do in the area.
That evening there was an opportunity to attend a concert of Mozart and Strauss music held exclusively for River Princess guests at the Klosterneuburg Abbey. The Rambler had attended two of these concerts on past cruises which were excellent, at two different Vienna concert halls. However, as this was a Masterpiece Collection event, it cost 79 Euros PP and would be held at the abbey instead of one of the many concert halls in Vienna. After checking with Heidicha, our cruise manager, I found that there were stairs with no railings in the historic monastery and decided to pass on it. This was a mistake. Everyone who went said it was wonderful, and even Jen and her 84 year old mother who was wheelchair bound were accommodated.
Klosterneuburg seen from above. The buildings form a huge square with the church at the front.
To repent for my omission, I have included some information on this amazing place that I wish I had seen. It was founded by St. Leopold in the 12th century and is one of the oldest and wealthiest abbeys in Austria. Although not in Vienna, it is in a close and wealthy suburb, north of Vienna, along the Danube. We would pass Klosterneuburg when we sailed the next night but we must have sailed past during the Captain’s welcome and port talk.
A relic of St. Leopold (part of his skull ) , id displayed at the Abbey. (t is an unusual reliquary to be sure. it looks like Leopold is wearing a very fancy skullcap!
It is a huge place that has been added to over the centuries but its final form took shape in the 18th century. There are many things to see and even a wine tasting of the Abbey’s wine is possible.
Needless to say there was plenty of space for a concert of Mozart and Strauss on the grounds. At night the Abbey is illuminated, which was another treat for the the River Princess cruisers when they left the the Abbey. If you have a chance to visit Klosterneuberg for a concert, take advantage of it.
One of the most beautiful altarpieces created by Nicholas of Verdun in the 12th century. It can be found in the side chapel, and is similar to the shrine of the Three Kings in the Cologne cathedral, also by Nicholas of Verdun.
Although the Abbey looks majestic today, it suffered much after Hitler’s forces took over Austria in the Anschluss (1938). The Augustinians were persecuted by Hitler, and most were forced to leave Klosterneuburg. Many were drafted into the army, others were killed in the resistance while ministering to Austrian Catholics. Even after the Russians drove out the Nazi’s, some Augustinians were killed by Russian troops when they tried to prevent the rape of Austrian women by the soldiers. Nevertheless, the Abbey has made a comeback since that awful period and is still under the leadership of an Augustinian Provost.
The Abbey church at night seems to have a timeless and mysterious aura.
Now back to the places the Rambler did visit that day. Our bus left the quay at 8:30 AM, as we would visit the Kunst Historiches Museum (Vienna Art Museum) before it opened to the public. We arrived at the Museum square just in time for the daily lawn watering; sprinklers everywhere. No wonder the surrounding lawns are so green.
Water, water everywhere. We had to step lively in order to miss getting wet.
The palatial museum opened in 1891, at the same time as the Museum of Natural History across the Maria Theresa Platz. Both were sponsored by Franz Joseph. While the Natural History Museum is devoted to the natural sciences, the Art Museum was built initially to house the art collection of the Hapsburg’s, which was extensive to say the least. However, the museum building itself is a work of art. Marble and gilding are everywhere and it is certainly worthy of the collection it houses.
The second floor of the museum, with stairs leading upward and the imposing dome at the top. The cafe looked like a great place to absorb the ambiance of the museum.
As for the collection itself, as you might expect, it is strong in works from the 500 years the Hapsburg ruled a substantial part of Europe.
The foundations of the collection were laid then and its main focus is still in the 17th century: 16th-century Venetian painting (Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto), 17th-century Flemish painting (Peter Paul Rubens, Sir Anthony Van Dyck), Early Netherlands painting (Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden) and German Renaissance painting (Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach).
One of the creepiest but oddly fascinating paintings of the four seasons by Giuseppe Arcinboldo, titled Summer…
The museum also houses the largest collection in the world, of pictures by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, my favorite, as well as masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Raphael, Caravaggio, Velazquez and the Italian Baroque painters.
Velasquez famous painting of the Spanish Infanta, Margarita Theresa in a blue dress.
But it also includes objects from the Hapsburg Kunstkammer(treasury) opened in 2013, which includes the famous gold salt cellar created by Benvenute Cellini and other valuable objects, a coin collection and even some modern artworks. Obviously there was much to see and the gentle walkers only had an hour before the museum opened to the public at 10 AM.
Our guide did a good job, taking us through the museum in a timely manner yet providing excellent commentary
We had an excellent guide who managed to lead us through the most famous galleries and we even got to the Kunstkammer gallery to view Cellini’s salt cellar which was stolen in 2003, and recovered in 2006. It had been buried in a box in the Austrian woods.
The famous salt cellar,. You can see why someone might think it would be easy to steal. The problem is what do you do with it after you have it. The answer, not much. It would be really criminal to melt it down for the gold, just as it would be hard to sell.
The museum was a place where the Rambler could have stayed for hours, but soon our time was up and we headed to our bus. Unfortunately neither the cafe, a perfect place to have a coffee, nor the gift shop, with many enticing objects on view was open yet. FYI for those forced to be armchair travelers in 2020, you can order from the Kunsthistoriches Museum shop online. Recently, the Rambler ordered two COVID masks from the gift shop. The shipping didn’t seem too outrageous altho they haven’t arrived yet…and your purchase supports this wonderful museum.
One of the narrow streets leading to the Stephansdom. As you can see, we had to dodge construction barriers on our way.
Our next stop was as close as our bus could get to the historic center of Vienna surrounding St. Stephens cathedral. There was much construction going on and we were lucky to have a guide who knew her way around the historic district. As we approached the amazing cathedral, we noticed a very unpleasant urine odor. Our guide explained that the fiaker(horse drawn carriage) drivers congregate around St. Stephens because it is a tourist magnet and unfortunately they have not found a way to stop the horses from urinating while the fiaker drivers wait for customers. It was quite nasty, made worse by the summer heat, but luckily, the cathedral is relatively air tight and the smell did not follow us inside.
This picture checks two boxes;; the crow of fiakers surrounding the church at the bottom, and the famous tiled roof complete with imperial eagles.
St. Stephens is an ancient church, founded in 1137 AD, and added onto through the centuries. If you are looking for stark simplicity, you will not find it here. But somehow, the interior blends into a glorious whole. Although Catholicism has fewer believers in Vienna these days, the Rambler saw many people kneeing in prayer, including a young monk. These ancient churches have the most uncomfortable kneelers, but they were built for the ages. Just don’t let one fall, it makes quite a noise.
A young monk praying at a side altar with light streaming in the stained glass window at the top.
There are two things the gentle walkers didn’t visit at St. Stephens. The first was the crypt under the building which houses the bones of long dead Viennese. It has several rooms; the first houses the tombs of religious, the second, intestines of the Hapsburg family in separate urns, and the innermost, heaps of skeletons and bones which have been there for centuries. However, there are no more burials in the crypt since Emperor Joseph outlawed all burials in the city in 1783. The Rambler would have found the crypt interesting in a creepy way, but I suspect most of our group would not have enjoyed it.
Piles of medieval bones in the last room of the crypt under the Stephansdom, many victims of the first super-Pandemic, the Black Plague.. Not a place to visit on All Hallow’s Eve.
The gentle walkers were also happy to skip climbing up the South Tower of the cathedral – only 343 narrow steps – and over 240 feet up, to the watchman’s room. The Rambler heard that it provides one of the best views in the city, but this is something she would never have enjoyed, even on her best day, because of her fear of heights.
A shot of the stone spiral staircase that is the only way up the South Tower. Keep in mind that people are gong up and down this narrow passage at the same time. It is not for the faint of heart.
On our way back to the bus which would take us back to the ship, we passed another macabre place where the Rambler would have stopped if she hadn’t needed to keep up with her group., This was the Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypt) in the Capuchin Church, just around the corner from the Stephansdom.
The Capuchin church is a plain Jane compared to the Stephansdom, but there is a lot going on underneath its floor…
The 17th century church has a simple exterior but the large crypt underneath holds the remains of a dozen Hapsburg emperors and even more empresses and queens plus children and family members; 146 in all.
Skulls feature prominently in many of the tomb displays; Sic transit Gloria mundi!
The last Hapsburg burial was in 2011, Here you will find the tomb of Franz Josef and Empress Sisi (Elizabeth of Bavaria) and their ill-fated son, Prince Rudolph. It is a fascinatingly macabre place, and the tombs themselves are masterpieces of sculpture. Even more strange, the hearts of some, but not all, are held in small urns in a special heart crypt, (Herzgruft) along with the large mausoleums and tombs.
The tomb of Maria Theresa, perhaps the most successful female European ruler. She reigned during the Golden Age of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is certainly not as gruesome as some.
Back in the sunshine after our virtual stay in the Kaisergruft, we headed back to the River Princess for the daily port talk and a special early dinner buffet. Unusual, since the evening meal is a sit down dinner, the buffet was scheduled so that the large group going to the Abbey that evening, would not go off hungry. It was a nice touch. The rest of us, enjoyed a relaxing evening on board after a busy day in Vienna.
Our last morning at the Palais Hansen, we packed our cases after another excellent breakfast and headed for the lobby. There we met a few other couples who were also headed to the River Princess. Pick-up is usually in the afternoon as the housekeeping staff has bas to work hard to clean all the staterooms after the last passengers check out at 8:30. Of course there are always stragglers, and not all passengers leave for the airport before 8 AM. Those who have afternoon flights are welcome to stay onboard and even enjoy a light lunch before they leave. The one thing they can’t do is get back into their room!
Cruises usually, tho not always, end on Saturday, and start on Sunday afternoon. One thing I have always wanted to do when staying in a city with many Catholic churches like Vienna, is to attend Sunday mass. However I have never been able to accomplish this feat on any of our cruises. This Sunday, I had located a church fairly close by -the Votiv Kirche was just too far. It had a mass in the morning, and it seemed that this time, I would actually manage to get to church. But there is always a hitch, and in this case, it was a good one.
Close up of the altar in Maria am Gestade, with beautiful stained glass.
The church in question was Maria am Gestade, which translates to the church of Mary at the Shore. It is one of the oldest in Vienna, having been consecrated in 1415, and recently has been beautifully restored. Sounds wonderful, right? Well the hitch was that the entrance is at the top of a long flight of stairs – with no railings. Long staircases are not the friend of the Rambler, and my heart sank when I saw the photo. There would be no visit to Maria am Gestade this morning. Instead, the Ramblers relaxed in the Palais Hansen’s huge lobby while waiting for the Uniworld bus.
Stairs and more stairs, thwarted again! I learned that it used to be on the band of a small river. The river was diverted, the ground sank and stairs were needed to reach the church after the bridge was torn down.
Onboard the bus on the way to the ship, the Ramblers again passed by St. Francis of Assisi Church, very distinctive with its red tile roof. We had passed it several times when we rode the Big Red Bus. Unfortunately it was not a tour bus stop nor was it a place we would visit with our Uniworld tour groups. However, it was clearly visible from onboard the River Princess, so near and yet so far. More about it later… The Ramblers were very surprised to see the many river cruise ships lined up along the Reichsbrucke dock. At least a dozen companies were represented, including many whose main market is in Europe. Because of the number of ships in port, rafting was necessary.
A view of the Reichsbrucke dock facing the other direction. An equal number of ships were docked in the other direction.
For those of you new to the blog, rafting means that instead of being tied up to the dock, some ships must tie up or raft to a ship that is already there. Thus to get onboard or disembark, one must walk through the docked ship to get to the rafted ship. Obviously this is not ideal, but it becomes necessary at popular ports at the busiest times of the year. Viking often has their own docks, tho not here, but they also have the most ships, which usually raft up to each other if necessary. This time the River Princess was the rafted ship, so we had to walk through a Scenic ship to board. Fortunately, the cabin stewards took care of our luggage, which they moved to our room.
Taken onboard ship from the sundeck. We were rafted next to a Scenic ship. St. Francis of Assisi Church is in the background center..
The Ramblers had visited Vienna twice before, the first time on a Christmas Markets cruise, when there were only a few ships docked. The second time, we ended up at the Ritz Carlton, courtesy of Uniworld, because of low water issues. This time our cruise began during July, the most popular month for river cruising, and also the month when many Europeans take their vacations. Seeing the dozens of ships docked along the Danube was a revelation to the Ramblers. It shows the rampant popularity of river cruising and the difference in numbers between off season and high season cruising. So you ask, why did the Rambler book during the busiest season? It had to do with trying to estimate when the water levels in the Rhine and Danube would be neither too high (spring) or two low ( later in the summer and early fall.) Because we had our August cruise cancelled last summer, it seemed like a good idea to travel a month earlier. We would have no low water issues but would find some of our stops crowded with tourists like us.
The first day of a river cruise is usually a leisurely one, as the passengers arrive during the afternoon. The early arrivals can get a bite to eat, or something to drink and even stroll around the quay. Many like the Ramblers, arrive the day before. Although our ship would stay in Vienna for 3 nights, on this cruise, many cruises leave by 5 or 6 PM on the first day, If you miss your sailing time, it is often very difficult to catch up with your ship, as most stops are in small towns with no direct transportation. Fortunately this has never happened to the Ramblers.
With the rise of terrorist threats, Uniworld security is always visible and photo ID cards are always checked when boarding. Then everyone is photographed for their ship ID which is needed to get off and on the ship. To the Ramblers, this seemed like a great idea. Not only did the staff know who was missing but what they looked like.
The staff, waiting to welcome the passengers on board, as on all Uniworld ships, the front desk area always has unique and very attractive decor. In this case, it was a giant chandelier.
By 6 PM, almost everyone was on board, and so the ubiquitous safety drill was held. We got to meet Captain Ronny, a tall, bearded Dutchman who very much looked the part of an experienced mariner. We soon found out he was indeed an excellent Captain. Of course a safety drill is part of any cruise, and many passengers don’t think it is necessary given the relatively shallow depth of most European rivers. However, although there are shallow areas, the Rhine and Danube have powerful currents, and cruise passengers have drowned in the past. Always good to be aware of this drill, tho there are no lifeboats involved, exit points are very important.
Next the staff was introduced; we would get to know many of them in the next two weeks. Finally it was time for the Cruise Manager, Heidicha Smith, to give her overview of our voyage. She was a very personable and attractive host, and seemed to have the ability to be in two places at the same time. At the same time, we got to meet some of our fellow passengers, although most were somewhat jet lagged. For the first time, the Ramblers met a large Chinese family onboard, including a 93 year old grandmother, parents, children, and grandchildren, including a very lively 4 year old. We later learned that they were from Taiwan and would go on from Europe to tour the United States; quite a trip with such a large group. There is a growing Chinese/Asian tourist presence in Europe, although the COVID crisis has no doubt affected it to some degree.
Afterwards, the Ramblers strolled around the quay, tho we didn’t go far. There were stairs to the bridge that led to the area around the dock but we were content to observe the activity around the quay. And there was St. Francis of Assisi church again. I later learned that it was built between 1895-1910 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Franz Joseph’s reign. It is ironic that although his reign was long it was a disaster for the Empire,. Yet Franz Joseph is commemorated everywhere you turn in Vienna. Much like Queen Victoria, he became a beloved icon in his later years despite his failures. Of course Vienna was the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which ended with its defeat in WWI.
I found this great photo of St. Francis of Assisi Church on Wikimedia, uploaded by Bwag. Do you suppose it was taken with a drone? In the background you can see the Prater and the Riesenrad.
The Elizabeth chapel was added during the construction of the church in 1898 to commemorate Empress Sisi (Elizabeth) after her assassination in that year. The chapel in her honor was funded by donations from the Red Cross, as she was its First Protector.
The interior of the Elizabeth chapel. The decor is real gold leaf, because of the most generous contributions of the Red Cross.
Today it seems that the Red Cross has been around forever, but it was actually founded in 1863, in Switzerland, and took a while to get established. Like her husband, Franz Joseph, Sisi remains a very popular figure throughout the former empire and you will see her image in many places, including boxes of tea.
A photo of the Emperor in his later years, he does not look like a happy man, but would survive WWI an live in exile in the Netherlands.
A little about Franz Joseph and Sisi… Franz Joseph, the last Hapsburg ruler of the Austro-Hungarian empire ruled over an empire that was falling apart. He married Elizabeth, Sisi, a strikingly beautiful Bavarian princess and together they had 4 children. Unfortunately their only son died in a suicide pact with his sweetheart because he was not allowed to marry her. She was a commoner. The loss of the heir was traumatic to the couple and drove them apart. Franz Joseph became increasingly rigid in his ideas about ruling the Empire as he aged.
The Empress Elizabeth in 1864, with her famous long hair on display. In an era when upper class women wore their hair long, hers stood out.
Although Sisi was loved by the people for her many good qualities, she was obsessed with maintaining her good looks. She kept to a s strict diet and exercise routine, unusual for a 19th century woman. Another obsession was her very long hair, which took much time and care. She traveled almost constantly, probably to escape her personal demons, but did not care for the typical social life of royalty. Again, unusual for the time, she had only one companion, a Hungarian lady in waiting. This made it easy for her assassin to approach her.
The last photo taken of Elizabeth with her companion, before she was stabbed by an assassin. Because her corset was so tight, her wound bled very little tho she was stabbed in the heart. No one realized the extent of her injury at first.
Thus St. Francis of Assisi is a striking and beautiful church popular with the English-speaking residents of Vienna and it commemorates perhaps the two most famous people in Vienna. The church is situated very close to the Danube on Mexico Square,(Mexicoplatz), however the river in front of the church is actually the Danube canal not the main branch of the river. An island separates the canal from the main river.
Why is there a Mexico Square in Vienna? Because Mexico was the only country (beside the Soviet Union) to protest the Anschluss, Hitler’s takeover of Austria in 1938.
We would have two more days in Vienna to take advantage of its many attractions before the River Princess set sail for our next stop at Rossatz, Austria.
After a leisurely day in and around the Palais Hansen, the Ramblers decided to further explore Vienna, but how to do it? The Kempinski concierge suggested we ride the Bid Red Bus around the city which would give us an excellent overview of the surrounding area. We had never tried one of these bus tours although we had seen them in many cities. His glowing recommendation tipped the scales in its favor. Sadly, the Ramblers were no longer the intrepid walkers of even 5 years ago. A walking tour was out of the question, especially in the unseasonably hot weather. The temperature would climb to the mid-90’s later in the day.
the Hop on- Hop off Big Red Bus which provides an excellent tour around Vienna. This would be our first time on the Bus.
Out of curiosity the Rambler checked the weather forecast for the same day in 2020; it called for a high of 71, with a good chance of rain. This was the Vienna weather we had expected but it was not to be. The only caveat to taking the Big Red Bus was the long walk (for us) to its closest stop. Although the Big Red Bus and its yellow competition stopped right next to a few of the 5 star hotels in Vienna, the closest stop to the Palais Hansen was in front of the Votiv Kirche, at least a half mile away. Yet the Ramblers did have the whole day and we could always call an Uber if we ran out of gas… On the plus side, it was a straight shot down the Shottenring, and the Church was visible from quite a distance. In fact, it was nearly impossible to get lost, and we didn’t!
As we got closer, we spotted the Votiv Kirche; we would have to cross several wide streets to get there while avoiding cars, trams and busses, plus bicycles and scooters.. It was a daunting experience at times for the Ramblers. We are used to suburban living and rarely cross busy streets.
Our slow progress eventually got us to the shady and pleasant park that surrounded the church. But…we had to walk through the park to get to the Bus stop as it was directly in front of the church. Since there were many places to sit down in the shade along the way, I left the senior Rambler to relax while I went to visit the Votiv Kirche. I didn’t think I would want to do this after our Bus ride, and I was right.
AS we got closer, we got a better view of the huge electronic billboard in front of the church.
The Votiv Kirche is a relatively new church, built to look old It was designed in the Neo-Gothic style of the 19th century to commemorate Franz Joseph’s escape from assassination in 1853. A contest was held to chose its design and the winning architect was a young Austrian, Heinrich Ferstel, only 26 at the time. You can find his portrait bust under the pulpit of the Votiv Kirche. Ferstel supervised the entire construction of the cathedral which started in 1856 and was dedicated in 1879. Unlike all medieval cathedrals which often took centuries to build, the Votiv Kirche was completed in just 23 years under the supervision of just one man.
It somewhat resembles the Stephansdom or St. Stephens Cathedral, the seat of Vienna’s Cardinal, as both have distinctive tile roofs, St. Stephens opened in 1160 AD, and extends 449 ft upwards as opposed to the Votiv Kirche’s 325. Instead of a saint’s name, its unusual title means ” the thankful church,” as it was built in gratitude for the emperor’s survival.
Up close, the electronic billboard steals the scene until you enter the Votivkirche.
It is well worth gong inside although the huge electronic billboard that blocks the view of the entrance until you get relatively close is somewhat jarring. I have never seen this kind of advertising in front of a cathedral anywhere else. However, it seems to be doing well, probably because you can’t possibly miss it!
The interior also follow the Gothic style, with wall frescoes and even an old fashioned ladder. Some restoration work was in progress.
When you enter, several things catch the eye, the beautiful stained glass and the reverent attitude of the people inside. I would have liked to spend more time inside, as not only is is beautiful, but it was also delightfully cool inside. I understand that it is also very chilly in winter as well. However, our goal was to ride the Big Red Bus around Vienna, and I didn’t want the senior Rambler to wait too long outside, so I didn’t stay too long inside..
Despite all the outdoor activity, there were a number of people inside the church, sitting or kneeling in prayer. Despite the construction , it was a peaceful and spiritual place.
The Red Bus stop was not too far away, and it was soon obvious that the bus arrived at regular intervals. We had bought our tickets at the hotel, so we were checked in, got our headsets and passes and climbed aboard. The Ramblers immediately noticed that the bus was not air-conditioned. Well, how could it be when the whole upper level was open to the sky. We would have enjoyed sitting up there on a cooler day, as it was a great spot for photography but we found seats on the first level instead. And so our journey began.
This is for the folks who have never taken a Big Red Bus tour, thinking the bus would be full of obnoxious tourists. This was not the case in Vienna, in fact, there were quite a few Austrians on board. As we found out, it is a great way to get around Vienna, and even the least expensive ticket costs less than 30 Euros discounted. For an additional fee, one can add a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace, a ride on the Risenrad, or in a fiaker (horse drawn carriage) and several others. In addition, although we didn’t realize this, besides the Hop-On, Hop-Off route that we took, it had two other routes; one which took in the Schoenbrunn Palace and one that took in the Hundredwasser complex. If I had know this, I would have been sorely tempted despite the heat, to ride the Schoenbrunn Palace route as the Ramblers never did get to see it. At this time, the Ramblers hadn’t heard about Hundredwasser, but would have enjoyed seeing it.
One of the first places we passed was the impressive Sigmund Freud Park
But, we settled ourselves in fairly good seats, tried to think cool thoughts and prepared to see Vienna. There were 15 stops on the Red route, at three, passengers could hop off and hop onto the Blue route instead. The Blue route had only 9 stops, but for the most part, traveled an entirely different part of the city. The headsets provided narration in numerous languages including English English. En route, we would cross the Danube(Donau) twice quite near where the River Princess, and many other river cruisers were docked.
Where better to get some Euros than from a giant piggy bank in front of the Prater Amusement Park.
One of the most interesting stops was the Prater; part Aging Amusement Park, part green space and recreation area for city dwellers, it includes a lake and swimming pool which were quite crowded on such a hot day. We got a good look at the famous Riesenrod or travel wheel, better known to the Ramblers as a Ferris wheel. It was constructed for Franz Joseph’s Golden Jubilee, and is one of the earliest ever built. From 1920 to 1985, it was the world’s tallest. Today it sports 15 gondolas which look like wooden cabins but are called waggons, and a 15 – 20 minute ride costs 12 Euros. However, one of the cabins is fitted out as a dining room where you can order lunch or even a 3 course meal, which is fairly expensive, almost 300 Euros, though you do get a longer ride.
The famous Riesenrad; 12 Euros will get you a 15 minute ride.
The Amusement Part rides in the Prater are somewhat faded, but they were still doing a brisk business and many people were strolling in the part. From there we headed across the Danube past the river cruisers, and then past the Donau Tower, Vienna’s tallest building. Cities like Vienna don’t have many tall structures as yet, except for church steeples, but some want to build more while others are strongly opposed to their construction. Fortunately the modern buildings are clustered together near the Donau Tower, leaving the inner city to the glorious historic buildings that line the streets of the inner city.
Vienna’s collection of tall buildings, the Donau Tower is the dark glass one and the most recently built. Fortunately they are not in the historic district.
The Ramblers did not take advantage of the Hop Off option during our ride although the temperature both inside and outside was rising. We were not sure just how long we were on the bus, but we did learn from one of our fellow passengers, that the temperature inside was over 90 degrees. Thus by the time we got back to the Votiv Kirche we were happy to Hop Off. It had been alot of fun but we still had the long walk back to the Palais Hansen.Even more important, we hoped to find a nearby air-conditioned cafe where we could have something to eat and drink.
After we again crossed the ultra-wide Schottenring, we scanned the buildings for a suitable place but no cafes were open, tho they probably wouldn’t have been air-conditioned. Yet there was one place on the corner across from the church that seemed to be open.
The Rambler had hoped to try one of the wursts at Wiener Wursterworld, but again I had the wurst luck finding a wurst. However, we did find and even better place to stop after our bus ride.
Yes! Not only was it open but it was air-conditioned. We had lucked upon one of the famous Aida Konditorei, coffee, ice cream and pastry shops. We slid our sweaty selves into one of the open booths and found just what we needed, along with several glasses of water. This Rambler does love ice cream and the dish I savored at Aida was excellent.
View from inside Aida, lots of pin k and vinyl. The Votivkirche is in the background
Later I found that the Aida shops had been established in Vienna by the Prousek family before WWII, but all were destroyed during the war. However, the family owned business rebuilt and eventually expanded the chain into more than 20 stores. They were first rebuilt in 50s style and colors, pastel pink being the prominent hue, with lots of chrome accents.
The pink exterior is somewhat faded but it was a welcome haven for the Ramblers.
The Prouseks have refused to change the look of the Aida stores so they are easily recognizable throughout the city. We found our Aida a life-saver, and one with a sparking interior, friendly service and fair prices, not to mention excellent ice cream. If you see one when you are in Vienna, drop in for excellent ice cream. The Ramblers can’t vouch for the pastries but they also looked very good.
I really am enjoying the ice cream, it was delicious and filling. Guess it was just a really long and hot day.
Refreshed, we headed out into the hot summer afternoon and walked slowly back to the Palais Hansen. It was not a fun stroll and we were glad to get back to our hotel where we could change our sweaty clothes and relax. Tomorrow we would leave the Palais Hansen and embark on the River Princess for our 15 day cruise to Amsterdam. There seemed to be a few people staying at the Hansen who were also bound for the Princess, and later on that evening we met others who had just left the ship. They gave it a good review, so at least one Rambler was looking forward to an enjoyable time…the senior Rambler was not terribly enthusiastic, I will admit. Hopefully he would enjoy the cruising and I was pretty sure we would meet some pleasant and interesting folks on board. One of the main attractions of river cruising for both the Ramblers, is the ability to enjoy the company of a variety of people from different places. This cruise would not disappoint.
Unfortunately our last river cruise did not end well for the Ramblers. Not only did we have to take a substitute cruise due to low water, but the Rambler got sick at its end, and the Ramblers had to mark time in Amsterdam until we could fly home. At this point, the senior Rambler was absolutely not in favor of taking another cruise, yet somehow he was coaxed into just one more… that would go smoothly this time.
The Rambler thought long and hard about which cruise to choose and she finally decided on a 15 day cruise that traveled the Danube, Main and Rhine from Vienna to yes…Amsterdam again, on the River Princess. The Princess is one of Uniworld’s smaller ships with alas smaller cabins. However, their Super Ships don’t sail this route, because they generally need deeper water.
We had never sailed on the River Princess but it was the same size as the River Royale we were on for the Bordeaux cruise.
Because of potential low water issues in late July and August, the chosen cruise started in early July, when there was usually plenty of water. Of course, July is also the month when many Europeans are also on vacation, but given the options, it was an easy choice. Little could we imagine what would happen in 2020, but in 2019, this actually turned out to be a good choice. The Rambler would have preferred to start in Budapest, but no other Uniworld cruise fit her parameters and we are brand loyal.. Thus the Ramblers were booked to take the Alluring Amsterdam and Vienna cruise, starting from Vienna on July 7th.
Although the Ramblers had traveled these rivers before, this cruise made a few different stops and because the senior Rambler preferred cruising to sight-seeing, the banks of these rivers were lined with villages, castles and even some interesting industrial sites. At many stops, one can walk off the boat and stroll around without boarding a Uniworld bus.
The view from the Delta Sky Club in the International terminal, not much going on at the moment.
Part of the deal to get him to go was that we fly business class so my next step was to get a good deal on our airfare. This is not so easy. When looking for business class fares, the best prices are offered by consolidators, but those fares are chancy and not much cheaper than booking direct. Many cruise lines offer airfare deals but sometimes the deals involve several transfers, are really early or really late or might involve a long layover. There are no direct flights to Vienna from Atlanta; all the Delta options involved a connector in Amsterdam. Airfares can be volatile and I and my travel agent were watching the prices closely. Probably should have booked directly with Delta, but instead booked through Uniworld, which meant they would pick us up when we arrived in Vienna. Unfortunately I waited a bit too long, which cost us several hundred dollars. My advice is, if you see a great price on an airline site, jump on it; they don’t last long.
The senior Rambler getting set up in Delta One, we really were close to the galley.
We were set to leave July 3, arriving in Vienna, the next day. Our flight was comfortable, the service was excellent, especially since our seats were right next to the galley. My only concern was that our connecting flight from Amsterdam to Vienna took off less than an hour after we landed. To the Ramblers, this didn’t seem like much time to get from one gate to the other at Schiphol which is always crowded. No sense worrying, we though, as it was a regular route. Luckily we had wheelchair service and even then, we boarded rather late. Fortunately our seats on the connector were also business class so we didn’t have to struggle through a crowded plane.
The Palais Hansen Kempinski, a very large hotel, in a 19th century building.
With a sigh of relief, we settled down for our short flight. By the time we got there, we were dragging a bit, but fortunately the Vienna airport is much smaller. We met the Uniworld driver, our luggage was loaded and we were on our way to the Palais Hansen Kempinski. The Palais Hansen was not my first choice, but the AAA offered a free night there as a Uniworld promotion. The Ramblers like to get to our starting destination a few days early, so it was a no brainer. I added 2 more nights at a good price, including breakfast, and so we checked in July 4. Our cruise would start on July 7.
The breakfast room at the Hansen, many choices in an elegant space.
The last time we visited Vienna, we ended up at the Ritz-Carlton, due to low water, courtesy of Uniworld. We enjoyed our time in Vienna and were looking forward to staying there again. However, although the Palais Hansen and the Ritz Carlton are both 5 star hotels, we much preferred the location of the Ritz. The Hansen is located in the Borse (treasury) district, and there are hardly any cafes in easy walking distance while the Ritz offers several choices.The first night we ate at the hotel Lobby Bar. We never tried either of their two restaurants, De Kuche Wien, or their upscale restaurant, Edvard. The senior Rambler is not a fan of upscale eateries so we did not eat there. Honestly even the omnivore Rambler didn’t much like the food at the Rechnung Lobby Bar. But we were tired and not particularly hungry so it didn’t matter so much, However they did up sell the senior Rambler on bottled still water, which cost almost twice as much as my beer. Sometimes you really have to make a point of asking for tap water which is perfectly fine or you will get pricey bottled water. This is a real pet peeve of mine. Americans take it for granted that they will get tap water as they do at home, but this is not the case in Europe.
This trip I would be constantly frustrated in my search for tasty German and Austrian sausages. The hotel served Kasekriner, supposedly the sausage specialty of Vienna. Sausage lover that I am, I ordered it only to be disappointed in its taste…and it had cheese inside, not one of my favorites. In the next two days we would pass by several famed sausage stands, but I was never able to actually buy a decent wurst! Oh well, surely there would be other opportunities in our two week cruise.
The Rambler spent a lot of time in the rain forest, wish we had one like it at home.
One thing I loved at the Hansen was the huge rain-forest shower; it was a very relaxing experience. The Rambler took full advantage, knowing the showers on the Princess paled in comparison. We also enjoyed their breakfast which offered a variety of choices in a pleasant room with a garden theme.
We still had two days on our own in Vienna. Since there was nothing tour worthy in the Rambler’s ambulatory area, we spent some time people watching our first day there. Although Vienna doesn’t have the number of bicycles seen in Amsterdam, it is a place where people walk, cycle or scoot along on electric scooters. The scooter folks were the most interesting to us.
The pedestrian/ bike/scooter path is clearly marked. However caution is the word when you try to cross it even in the marked areas.
Later I learned that electric scooter rentals were new to Vienna in 2019 and the city was still not sure about their use. We have had similar issues in Atlanta which resulted in the curtailing of electric scooter use after some serious injuries and at least one death. The biggest problem in Atlanta was that the scooters had to share the roads with cars or the sidewalks with pedestrians.
In Vienna, there are many joint use pedestrian/bicycle. scooter lanes. Electric scooter users have to obey the same rules as bicyclists as they go about the same speed. These lanes are wide and well marked, and it is possible to travel from one to another for many miles. The Schottenring or Ring Road that circles the historic and cultural heart of Vienna, has one right down the middle of the divided highway. There are also busses and electric trams. Tourists need to look out for the trams as they are very quiet and can sneak up on you. We did enjoy the watching the traffic on these pedestrian/bike/ scooter paths. Of course the scooter riders were almost entirely young people, sometime with two riding on one scooter. They seemed to be enjoying themselves despite the unusually hot weather.
And it was HOT! Normally the temperature in Vienna at this time is in the low 80’s. and Austria gets lots of rain all year round. However, when we were there, the temperatures soared into the 90’s, Fahrenheit, of course. It remained hot while we were there, and as a result, we didn’t do as much the Rambler had planned.
We were happy to find this place. It looked cooler than it was, but it had great atmosphere. Two couple from the hotel came in while we were there.
We didn’t want to eat at the hotel again, except for breakfast, so we walked to a small place we had noticed earlier in the day, called the Borse Cafe. The Ramblers decided to have an early dinner as we hadn’t been hungry at lunch time. It was too hot for sitting outside so we walked into a relatively cool, wood paneled room. The windows were wide open, no air conditioning in most places here. No sausage either as the Borse featured Italian food, which turned out to be very tasty. We lucked out for a change, as our mushroom pizza was excellent.
Our jet lag was fading and the Hansen Concierge recommended that we do the Big Red Bus tour of Vienna tomorrow if we didn’t want to do much walking in the heat. Hopefully tho, it would be cooler tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
River cruising this summer had not turned out as we hoped. Having to chose this cruise instead of one that would take us to Eastern Europe due to low water, had been disappointing. Yes, Provence is beautiful and there is always something interesting to see, but in thinking it over, I probably would have oped just to fly to Budapest, stay in a nice hotel instead of cruising and take short tours around the Hungarian countryside. We would have saved money and had an entirely different experience. Unfortunately last week, I had only had a few hours to made a decision which further complicated matters, and we had loved the Catherine… So no point in second guessing.
A look at Avignon at sunrise, before this busy tourist city wakes up. The view is from the opposite bank and you can see the stub of Le Pont de Avignon and the walls and palace in the distance.
The last two days of the cruise featured places we had already toured on our previous cruise on the Catherine. We had then spent 4 days after the cruise in Avignon touring the countryside, so Friday’s walking tour had little appeal. Avignon is one of the places where the cruise ships dock right next to the quay, and there were many ships there when we arrived. All the popular lines were represented, so we got a chance to walk along the quay later on and compare ships. As always, we thought our Uniworld ship was the best maintained of the lot.
Avignon is also a very walk-able city however if you are not a good walker, it may present difficulties. It is a walled city, that is 2 1/2 miles of walls circle the historic area; you can climb to the top for a magnificent view. However, the Rhone docks are outside the walls so one must walk a ways to get to one of the entrance gates. Then if you intend to visit the Palace of the Popes, this means more walking and lots of walking inside because the place is huge. Consequently if you decide to stay on in Avignon after the cruise as we had done, be sure to book a hotel or B&B inside the walls. You will be inside the historic district with far less traffic to contend with during your stay. The city of Avignon is working to disallow any traffic withing the historic area but that has not happened yet.
Riding on the Petit train through the streets of the historic district.
The first part of the morning’s tour was a ride on the Petit Train which goes around the walls and then through the gates through the historic district. Some of the streets in the historic district are so narrow that even the train barely got through. We passed by the B&B we stayed at 2 years ago, and enjoyed our ride this time more than we had then. Our particular train seemed quite new and rode fairly smoothly while the first time the ride was rough and even worse, we sat in the back of the last car. This meant we bounced on the cobblestones quite a bit. This would not be a good place to sit if you have back trouble! Incidentally, the train company provides headsets with narration in a variety of languages, tho the quality of the sound is not the best.
Our train ride took quite a while as there are 11 stops where people can get on or off. We then walked back to the Catherine and spent a leisurely afternoon people and boat watching. Uniworld offered several excursion opportunities after lunch. The first was a chance to kayak on the Gardon River, ending up near the Pont du Gard Roman aqueduct.
A decade ago we might have chanced it, but today, if we could even get into a kayak, they would probably have to pull us out with a block and tackle. It was a pleasant sunny afternoon, good for this kind of adventure and quite a few of the younger passengers signed up. They got back a few hours later, sweaty and damp, but most really enjoyed it.
A view of the Pont du Gard Aqueduct from the River Gardon. This is where our kayakers ended their journey.
The second option was a tour of the Pont du Gard aqueduct which involved a bus ride through the countryside. The Ramblers would have enjoyed the ride but since we had already visited the Pont du Gard, decided to pass on this option as well, especially since there were limited seats available.
The Mirande is a boutique hotel, furnished in 18th century style. Maybe a little too posh for our tastes.
The next two choices involved an extra charge; the first a cooking lesson at the Hotel La Mirande was 165 Eur per person and the other a Tasting of Chateauneuf de Pape onboard the Catherine 59 Eur per person. La Mirande is a very highly rated hotel with a famous restaurant in the Historic area of Avignon but cooking lessons didn’t have much appeal. In these you get involved in the preparation which I have no desire to do, as I am a kitchen veteran of many decades. As for the wine tasting, our first cruise was in Bordeaux and by this time, I was wine-ding down my consumption. There is sometimes too much of a good thing available.
The cooking school is held here, not as fancy as the hotel dining room but very well equipped.
Nevertheless, Avignon is a charming place, and you can experience it even if you don’t bustle about touring but just enjoy the atmosphere.
That night was our grand farewell dinner and as usual it was excellent. They usually have surf and turf and I get to eat the senior Rambler’s lobster,I also got to eat his Oyster’s Rockefeller….
This shell did hold a delicious oyster, no pearl but who cares.
Fortunately the portions are not huge, which we prefer, as our stomachs seem to have shrunk in the last decade. Love the baked Alaska, something I never make at home, but enjoy.
Here is the Baked Alaska in all of its glory. Yum!
Why have the farewell dinner on the next to last night of the cruise? Well it does make sense, because that last evening everyone is very busy packing and some have a very early departure, before 6 AM in some cases. The airport that serves Avignon is in Marseilles, and that is at least a 50 minute drive. Consequently, not everyone would have enjoyed a leisurely dinner on the last night of the cruise if they had an early flight out of Provence.
When docked, the Catherine often glows in neon blue-green. It is a charming sight.
The Catherine set sail for Tarascon at at 5 AM, needless to say, we slept right through it but were in the restaurant for breakfast by 8 AM. We watched our ship dock at the Halte Fluviale in Tarascon. Tarascon is a town with a population of about 10,000 as opposed to Arles, a short distance further on with 40,000. I wondered why the Uniworld ships didn’t dock there but they seem to prefer Tarascon. I am not sure why because it is a very sunbaked area and also a fairly long walk to the town gates. Arles is as far as any cruise line travels on the Rhone as both Tarascon and Arles are near the edge of the Rhone estuary. The river itself splits into two there as it flows towards the Mediterranean. Between Arles and the sea is the land of Camargue with its black cattle, cowboys, swamps and famous sea salt. It sounded interesting but there was no time to set up a tour of the area.
Aerial view of Tarascon, with a good view of the castle, St. Martha’s church is close to the castle in the center. The castle of King Rene sits right at the edge of the Rhone and is surrounded by pavement. Here it looks romantic, close up it seems a little forlorn.
Tarascon has two claims to fame, the Castle of King Rene, perched right on the river bank, with a highway running past it. It is visible from a long way off; it is the one castle that we saw which was not on a hill and easily accessible to all. It dates back to the early middle ages and is quite impressive tho sadly out of place now in its modern surroundings.
The Tarasque before it was tamed, part lion, part dragon part bear and totally scary.
Probably more notable is its claim to be the home of the Tarasque, a fearsome dragon which seemed to be made of spare animal body parts. The Tarasque terrorized the citizens of Tarascon until it was tamed by St. Martha who had arrived there to convert them. Although she was successful in her conversion efforts, the Tarasque sadly was killed by the locals who evidently didn’t trust that it had turned over a new leaf. St Martha’s Church was built in the middle ages to memorialize the saint’s activities in Tarascon. You are allowed to take this tale with a grain of salt but it does have a worthwhile moral.
Now for the nasty surprise. The afternoon of our day at Tarascon, the wind started to come up. Tarascon is a very dusty place, as is Avignon. The soil is sandy and dry and when the wind picks up, it blows dust all over. When the wind turns into the Mistral, clouds of dust are visible in the air. The Mistral is a cold wind which can blow up to 60 mph. When this happens everyone stays inside.
A view of the tourist area with Mistral blowing as you can see the family heading into the wind. The Ferris wheel was wobbling and shut down. I learned later that they only have it up during June, July and part of August. Must be quite a job to disassemble. Many day tourists are parked outside the walls.
This was bad news for the Rambler who has asthma which has lately turned into COPD. By the time we got back to Avignon in the late afternoon the wind was even stronger and I had some chest congestion, and as the evening went on, it got worse. Of course I used my inhaler, and tried to enjoy the evening. We said our good-byes to the people we had met onboard as we were leaving at different times and also to the wonderful Uniworld staff, including the Hotel Manager, Ivana Pavkejova, and our favorite Cruise Director, Emmanuelle Bonneau.
The senior Ramble surrounded by two very attractive women, Ivana and Emmanuelle. He doesn’t seem to mind.
That night I spent the worst night I ever experienced on a cruise. After the senior Rambler and I said good night, we entered our separate cabins. Once inside I changed and sat down when without warning, my asthma turned into the worst case of bronchitis I ever had. I spent the night wheezing and gasping for breath. To add insult to injury, I now had a temp. There was no point in waking the senior Rambler; he needed his sleep and there was nothing he could do. I took aspirin and used my inhaler to no avail. I knew I would need some steroids and antibiotics but nothing could be done until morning. Fortunately our flight was later in the afternoon, and the next morning I checked with the purser about seeing a doctor. Of course it was Sunday and everything moves slower on Sunday in France.
Avignon is a larger city, with many doctors and a hospital, and Uniworld maintains a list of physicians on call. So I sat glumly wheezing away on the sundeck to await the doctor watching the people getting blown about by the Mistral.
After an hour or so, the Ramblers spotted a youngish man with long curly hair wearing a t shirt and chinos striding towards the Catherine. We knew it had to be the doctor. And so it was. Dr. Skippy(Not his name but the senior Rambler’s nickname) did know his stuff, and prescribed some medicines for severe bronchitis. One thing I didn’t know was that you had to pay the doctor in cash. The purser did know this and I was able to purchase the necessary Euros onboard before we had an embarrassing moment They do NOT take credit cards..
Next we had to get my prescriptions filled. On Sunday all pharmacies are closed — except one near the hospital. Uniworld got us a taxi and when we got there, many people were waiting for their prescriptions. Eventually mine were filled, and we headed back to the boat in plenty of time for our trip to the Marseilles Airport.
Aerial view of the Marseilles Airport. As you can see it is right on the Med.
Although we didn’t see much of it, the Marseilles Airport is the 5th busiest airport in France for passenger traffic and the 3rd largest for cargo. It is one of the hubs for Air France. A few budget airlines also fly out of Marseilles and like at Bordeaux, they are served by a budget terminal The airport’s official name is Marseilles-Marignane Airport. In the 20s and 30s, it served as one of France’s main landing spots for the great flying boats of the time including the Pan American World Clipper. Unlike Paris, Marseilles is right on the ocean, and during the heyday of the flying boats, that was a necessity for landing. Even today, one of the runways ends at the Mediterranean.
The airport interior, luckily it was not crowded when we arrived.
I wasn’t feeling much better when we reached the airport, so the Ramblers trudged slowly to the airport entrance. Fortunately we had asked for wheelchair service, and I was never more thankful for it than that day in July. The jolly wheelchair folks seemed to enjoy their job as they raced each other (with us in the chairs) to security, where we got through fairly quickly, and then to the boarding area. It was a different experience and somewhat of a distraction for me.
Our flight to Schiphol was uneventful, and again we got wheelchair service to the shuttle area. The hotel I had chosen, the Hyatt Place Schiphol, has an excellent airport shuttle, and little did I know when I chose it, how much it would come in handy during our stay there. There are many ways to get to and from Schiphol, but we have used the Connexion shuttle when we weren’t picked up by Uniworld. If you don’t have free pick-up from your hotel a shuttle pass is inexpensive and they run every 20 minutes. We didn’t have a long wait for the shuttle but it was already dark and as you might imagine, the Ramblers were not very perky. The driver from the Hyatt was very friendly and quickly loaded our baggage on board.
The Hyatt Place, we had a high floor with a good view.
In about 10 minutes we arrived at our hotel, to be warmly greeted by a very friendly and helpful desk staff. It was to be our home for 6 days as we waited for our business class flight back to Atlanta. The Provence cruise we had chosen to replace our cruise to Eastern Europe started earlier and ended before our original choice. In order to take advantage of our business class flight home, which couldn’t be changed as it was a special rate, we had to wait in Amsterdam. If I hadn’t gotten sick, we would have enjoyed our stay. Now these. days were very frustrating ones for me; we were surrounded by a number of charming places to visit, easily accessible by bus or car. Unfortunately, despite the medication, the bronchitis didn’t go away and I couldn’t walk a block without wheezing.
Sunrise from our hotel. That dot on the lower left is a Dutch cyclist heading for work. People watching was fun for a while. Unfortunately although there were fascinating places to tour close by, I wasn’t able to walk much so we stayed put. Plus the weather was typical Dutch summer, 70 degrees Fahrenheit with clouds and wind.
Tho a bus passed right by our hotel, the actual bus stop was a half mile away and there was no way I could walk that far. In the end we spent a lot of time watching airplanes take off and land. We took the shuttle to the airport because the hotel food was just average, Amazingly there was a good place to eat on the street side of security with amazing people watching.
Our spot, the Grand Cafe Plaza. Great people watching and good food plus fine beer.
Our home airport is Atlanta and it sees much international traffic, however the people at Schiphol who walked past our table obviously came from all over the world. Consequently the Grand Cafe became our spot to eat an early dinner almost every night. If you need to eat a light meal at Schiphol, the Ramblers heartily endorse it. They also have a much larger restaurant inside security. They serve plain Dutch style food. Although I didn’t like the bitterballen, a Dutch specialty, I can endorse the house made tomato soup, and their fries are excellent.
Yes a burger and fries for the senior Rambler; he enjoyed them. The beer was mine.
Most airport restaurants aren’t noted for their food, but the Plaza gets mostly positive comments from travelers. I checked after we got home.
Finally, the day of our flight came and we were more than ready. After yet another ride on the shuttle, we headed to departures. Unfortunately the airport was very crowded with holiday travelers and we were only able to get one wheelchair to take us to security which is a fairly long walk. The young Dutch woman looked at us and decided the senior Rambler was going to ride while I had to walk alongside. Not fun but we made it.
After going through security we were able to get a ride on the extra large golf carts that they use for passengers who are slow movers. That was a good thing as Schiphol is a very spread out airport. We finally reached our gate with a sigh of relief and shortly afterwards were able to board our Delta flight home. Incidentally, the Dutch wheelchair people will not accept a tip, even tho they are amazingly kind and caring. They believe they are paid a fair wage, and are doing a vital job. And so they are, but everywhere else we used the service, tips were gladly accepted.
At last our plane touched down at Hartsfield, our daughter was waiting for us, and for the second year in a row, I ended up at Kaiser Advanced Care at the end of our flight. Last year I cracked my right arm in Germany. This time I could blame the Mistral!
Thursday morning, the Catherine docked at Viviers, a small and sleepy village that many visitors have called a place that time forgot. We had visited Viviers two years ago with Uniworld, and it seemed that little had changed.For more on Viviers, you can check my earlier blog. Yet one thing was new to us at least. As our ship glided into its docking space, we noticed a small marina on one side. I learned later that it held 18 boats and included a sailing school for dinghies.
If you look carefully, you can see a jaunty line of sailing dinghies following their leader.
Much to our surprise, in the afternoon, we saw a fleet of three tiny vessels, following their leader out on to the river. Yes, people do boat on the river, and some towns have much larger marinas, but there were not as many on the Rhone as we had seen on the Rhine or the Danube. Not sure I would want to sail a boat on the Rhone, especially if one of the fierce Mistral winds came up. More about the Mistral later on…
Although the area around the dock is flat, the village itself straggles along a road that winds its way up to St. Vincent’s cathedral at the top of a nearby hill.
Viviers from above. You can see the cathedral and St. Michael’s tower leading to the river below. All the houses look alike from this angle, tho there are variations, as they are built from the same limestone.
For most of the way, the road is lined by Plane trees, a relative of the sycamore, that, according to legend, were ordered planted by Napoleon to shade his troops on the march. Although this story isn’t very credible, there are certainly a lot of plane trees in Provence. All are pollarded which means they are consistently topped to keep them from growing too tall, and encouraging a wide, lush growth of leaves and shade.
Walking up to St. Vincent’s, St. Michael’s tower shows off its Romanesque style.
St. Vincent’s has the honor of being the smallest cathedral in France, and as a cathedral, is the seat of a bishop. Indeed, there is still a bishop of Viviers. That is not St. Vincent’s only claim to fame. It also has a marvelous, organ and great acoustics to go with it, along with some excellent Gobelin tapestries supposedly donated by Napoleon. They were stolen but later returned.
The famous tapestries surround the altar, one had been removed for cleaning.
Honestly, I am not a fan of tapestries but I do love organ music, so going on this tour was a no-brainer. The senior Rambler is not a fan of organ music or tapestries, so he stayed on board as this was our second visit to Viviers. The first time we walked up the hill, this time I rode in the van.
a close-up of the organ, hard to do as lighting in the cathedral was either too bright or too dark.
The cathedral is one of the oldest you will visit on most river cruises as it was originally built in the 11th century, along with St. Michael’s tower which stands next to it. Centuries ago, it suffered damage in a series of wars and was remodeled, if you will, in the then current flamboyant Gothic style. In the 17th century during the wars of religion, the cathedral suffered fire damage. Its wooden ceiling similar to that in St. Julians in Tournon, was burned to ashes. It was replaced by a vault made of stone in the 18th century. Now, on one side, St. Vincent’s shows its romanesque beginnings and on the other, it looks very Gothic.
In this picture you can see, the original Romanesque church of the left and its fancy flamboyant Gothic part of the right.
Today, we were not the only tour group in the cathedral, and so the local organist had a good audience. The music was wonderful, as before.
Afterwards I decided to hop into the Uniworld van for a ride down to the historic center of the town. We were all given options to visit either a town resident or one of the artisan shops in Viviers. I would have enjoyed visiting one of the residents, but my lot was again to visit one of the shops. I guess I could have asked to visit somewhere else but just decided to head back to the ship. However we can’t leave Viviers without a mention of its second most famous attraction, the House of the Knights.
This is a tall, four story building with an elaborately carved facade built in the 16th century by Noel Albert, a wealthy salt merchant. He sided with the Protestants during the Wars of Religion and prospered for a time. Albert was responsible for the destruction of St. Vincent’s wooden roof, and despite his early success, came to a bad end. Today the House of the Knights is in need of major repairs and restoration and fortunately it is scheduled as a work site for for one of France’s preservation groups. Volunteers who want to learn the stone mason’s trade and get a taste for historic restoration.
Currently looking a little shabby, with a boarded up window, but quite a contrast from the plain, no-nonsense medieval homes on the other side of the street. It is much taller than most of the other houses and must have been very impressive when it was built.
As I am not much of a shopper anymore, I headed back to the Catherine, and had lunch with the senior Rambler. We had just time enough before our scheduled visit to a truffle farm and the village of Grignan.
Grignan, as is often the case in Provence, was situated at the top of a steep hill. At the very top of the hill, was an interesting castle, but…it looked a hot and dusty walk so the Ramblers decided to hang out at the bottom, Fortunately there was an interesting cemetery not far from the bus parking spot and we decided to explore it instead. However, I won’t neglect Grignan as it is a picturesque spot.
This would have been a tough slog for the Ramblers. In season, Grignan is surrounded by fields of lavender but it had all been harvested by the time we visited.
In this photo you can see both the castle and the large chateau that was originally the home of the Grignan family. A daughter of the famous writer, Madame de Sevigny married into the family who owned the castle and chateau, and she visited Grignan several times.
This photo was taken not far from where our bus parked. For those who have never been to Provence, tour busses can rarely enter the historic centers of these old towns. Most streets are too narrow even for cars. Thus one must be prepared to walk or view from afar. In this case, the Ramblers decided to view from afar, our decision was helped by the existence of the town cemetery which surrounded an ancient chapel. The entrance was not far from where we were dropped off. We learned later that many streets of Grignan were paved with bumpy cobblestones, so we were very happy with our choice.
The chapel was faced by several centuries of grave site, some with well kept memorials and other that were neglected or crumbling. No doubt there was at least one layer of earlier graves under them, given that it was there in the 11th century.
The cemetery with its tiny chapel of St. Vincent was another story. As it turned out, this was the oldest monument in Grignan. The chapel dated from the early 11th century, and though it obviously had been much restored, it provided a welcome respite from the August sun. The doors were not locked so we walked inside to find a small bare room, with soft colored light coming from plain stained glass windows. It was furnished with pews so the Ramblers had a place to sit down when we got tired of wandering around the cemetery. It was left undecorated, I believe, to appeal to both Catholics and Protestants as it was completely bare of any religious symbols or statues. Yet it was a very peaceful and spiritual place. The cemetery also included both Protestant and Catholic graves; they slept together to await the last Judgment.
The interior was unadorned, although there was an altar and a plain cross. Catholic funeral masses and Protestant services are likely held here.
I found the name St. Vincent somewhat unusual here and in Vivers as such ancient buildings were probably not named for St. Vincent De Paul. Although Vincent De Paul is well known today, he lived in the 16th century, much too late for this chapel. I thought here must have been another St. Vincent who lived nearby in ancient times, and I was right. After some research, I found St. Vincent of Lerins, a holy monk who lived in Southern Gaul (France) in the 5th century. It is likely these ancient place honored him.
Our last destination was the Ayme Truffle farm, near Grignon. You can buy their products on line and I can testify that the truffles we tasted were very good.
As we waited for the rest of the group that had climbed to the castle, we were able to enjoy the air conditioning in the bus as we rested up for our final stop at a truffle farm. The south of France is famous for its truffles which fetch a high price in the local markets and elsewhere. At this point I must confess that I had never eaten a truffle, though I knew what they were. There are two main varieties, the black truffle found in fall and winter and the white truffle found in summer. The black one is more prized and therefore more expensive.
The truffle meister explained how they find truffles; they would be looking for white truffles which we would later taste.
One of the reasons truffles are so expensive is that the term, “truffle farm” is a misnomer. You don’t farm them, you find them underground with the aid of a dog trained to sniff them out. They don’t grow everywhere but for some reason, southern France with its warm summers and chilly winters provide an ideal climate for truffles. The truffle itself is a fungus that grows entirely underground near the roots of mainly oak trees. They have a powerful scent which can easily be detected by a trained dog, but not by humans. The dog will point to the spot where the truffle grows underground, and the truffle farmer then gently digs it up. Pigs can also locate truffles but they tend to eat the ones they find before the farmer can dig them up.
Finding and digging up summer truffles in the light soil of Provence. They could never do this in the hard and rocky soil we have at home.
The process does work as we soon saw. If the process seems like a lot of work for a fungus, I can only say that black truffles especially demand a high price. For example, in 2018 when we visited, 16 grams of whole black truffles sold for 17 Euro while the same amount of white ones sold for 4.20 Euro.
After watching the truffle hunt, we were invited to a truffle tasting at the Ayne farmhouse. As you might expect, the senior Rambler had absolutely no desire to taste truffles so he stayed outside while the rest of us enjoyed trying truffles fresh from the ground. I ate more truffles that afternoon than I am likely to eat in the rest of my life. Needless to say, I enjoyed them. They were served sliced thin on crusty bread with a drizzle of olive oil and they were tasty, but don’t ask me to describe the flavor. Obviously others must have enjoyed them because many bought Ayme products to take home.
I will admit that I ate quite a few of these tasty snacks, though I didn’t buy any to bring home. We ate the white truffles that had just been dug up and washed, of course.
Sated with truffles, we headed to the bus for the ride back to the Catherine which had sailed on to Avignon while we were touring.
Only 2 full days left of this cruise. Time has gone by very quickly.
Our stop on Wednesday was the twin cities of Tain L’Hermitage and Tournon, two small but very interesting towns that face each other across the Rhone river. The Catherine arrived very early in the morning,, docking on the Tain L’Hermitage side. The first time we took this cruise, we also docked on the Tain L’Hermitage side and never crossed the Rhone over the bridge that links it to Tournon.
Both Tain L’Hermitage and Tournon are surrounded by vineyards bearing high quality grapes; this one is in Tain L’Hermitage. A Tiny Train will take you through through the very hilly vineyards.
Like many other small towns in the wine country of France, both are surrounded by vineyards and many high quality producers have tasting rooms here. Tain L’Hermitage is also home to the Valrhona Chocolate factory and tasting room. Yes, a tasting room for chocolate, and it was great fun. when I visited two years ago.
Literally chocolate for any occasion, and to match with any bottle of wine! All available for tasting.
Valrhona produces a high quality chocolate although it is not as well known in the US as some imported brands. This trip the Ramblers didn’t visit Valrhona because although it was not far, the temperature hovered near 90 F and the Rambler had already done her share of walking for the day.
The Chateau ( castle) Tournon, towered over the town. To get to it we would have to cross a pedestrian bridge over the Rhone, and walk up through the town to the Chateau. You can see the plane trees all leafed out, shading the promenade along the river. They are pollarded (the tops are cut off) so they fill out but don’t grow tall and spoil the view.
Although I am not a big fan of going inside castles, lots of stairs to climb… Emmanuelle, our cruise director, who the Ramblers knew well from an earlier cruise, convinced me that I should visit the castle in Tournon that morning. She told me that there would be a surprise waiting for me that I would enjoy. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into, but I finally agreed to go on the tour since there would be a gentle walkers group. The senior Rambler decided to stay on board as it would be a fairly long walk in the hot sun.
The twin cities of Tournon and Tain L’Hermitage are a favorite stop on many cruises. Both date to Roman times and have been the center of vineyards for at least 2,000 years. On our last visit, we rode Le Petit Train des Vignes on the Tain L’Hermitage side, today we were going to Tournon. Besides the Castle, we would visit the ancient church of St. Julien. First we would have to cross the Rhone on a pedestrian cable suspension bridge. The first bridge of this type was actually built here in 1824 by its inventor Marc Seguin, who was from the area. The one we trod today was not the original but a close replica, and it seemed quite a long walk. The gentle walkers were soon left behind by the speedier folks, but we didn’t mind.
The attractive suspension bridge has a wooden deck for pedestrians and cyclists. It is quite a long walk across the Rhone. This bridge is not the original but was built in the 20th century. The 1824 bridge, located further downstream, was torn down in 1965 as it was deemed unsafe.
Today, our walking tour would take us into the hilly town of Tournon. It took a while to cross the bridge and walk uphill to our first stop, the Church of St. Julien. There the gentle walkers got a brief respite as we toured the church, which has a long and tumultuous history. The church of St. Julien was built in the 1300s on the site of an even earlier church. Although architectural historians says its style is flamboyant Gothic, to me, it looks closer to the Romanesque style of the early churches as it has relatively few windows. During the French Wars of Religion in the 16th century, St. Julien was briefly a Protestant church. In the the early years of the French Revolution(1789-90) it became a temple of the Supreme Being for the new state religion created by the Jacobin revolutionaries. Their new religion failed as the Jacobins lost power, but it did not improve the condition of St. Julien.
On the right, you can see that a house was built using the wall of the church.
St. Julien is also interesting because it is one of the few churches which have houses attached to them. The Rambler is not sure exactly why the townspeople used the existing church wall as part of their dwelling centuries ago, but there could be several reasons. It might be a way to provide a home for the priest, it would save money, or it might provide some protection for the homeowner. At any rate, these houses are still there and are occupied.
The interior was dark, and yet the church was welcoming and spiritual.
By this time, the gentle walkers were really behind which often happens when the slowpokes are going to the same destination as the speedy group. Unfortunately this meant that we had relatively little time to tour the church. Our guide told us we had to be at the castle in time for the program, and this would mean more uphill slogging. We did get to see its famed 14th century frescoes and found the acoustics of the ancient building were excellent. We briefly got to enjoy hearing a young man playing the mandolin before the altar. And then on to the castle.
The entrace to the Chateau, through that wooden door at the center, you can just see the blue capes of the Chevaliers…
As we found it the Chateau de Tournon is both beautiful and massive as it sits high above the Rhone. Newer than St. Julien, it was built between the 14th and 16th centuries. The building still shows the evolution of society and castle building during this period. The main floor houses an excellent museum but that was not our goal. As we found out, the Confrerie of the Jolie Treille of St. Joseph and Hermitage was waiting for us at the top of the first set of stairs. (Translated it means the Brotherhood of the Beautiful Trellis but the brotherhood does have many female members. )
The very welcoming Brotherhood of the Jolie Treille.
Wearing their traditional costumes, the Brotherhood welcomed us and then quickly shepherded us up yet another set of stairs, these were steep and worn with age. We eventually emerged into a courtyard where some sort of ceremony was to take place. Our group was then seated and learned that we were going to enjoy a meeting of one of the wine societies so popular in the area. What we didn’t know was that two of our number were to be inducted into the brotherhood.
Our group from the Catherine, assembled in the ancient courtyard for the ceremony.
In 2020, the Brotherhood of the Jolie Treille celebrated its 50th anniversary. The group is made of of wine professionals and wine lovers whose purpose is to promote the wine industry, both sales and production, and of course, to enjoy their excellent wines. Both the appellation of St. Joseph and Hermitage are known for their premier cru wines. Although the current wine societies, and there are many, each with their quaint medieval-style robes, date from the 20th century, the tradition is a very old one, which was restarted after WWII.
Much to my surprise, Emmanuelle had put my name forward as one suitable to become a member of the society. The other inductee was Brian from Australia. We had to come forward, swear an oath of loyalty to the brotherhood and then chug down a glass of St. Joseph wine, as the members chanted “drink,, drink, drink” or something like that in French. This was a relatively easy task for the Rambler, one of my hidden talents. LOL
Now I am officially “Lady Elsa’ at least in Tournon!
Immediately afterwards, I was dubbed a Dame of the Brotherhood and their absolutely gigantic medal was placed around my neck. (It set off the detector on the way home as I had placed it in my carry-on. I also received a certificate of membership confirming my elevation to Dame status! Afterwards, we all enjoyed a delightful reception on the top of the Chateau which has a beautiful view of the Rhone valley.
Then it was time to head back to the Catherine. Unfortunately there was no down elevator and the Rambler had to negotiate the same uneven, time-worn steps down to the street. Some of the chevaliers of the brotherhood noticed my discomfort and thankfully I had a strong arm to lean on until I got back to street level.
Wearing my medal. Wish I had known about the photo session, I would have worn black! My sponsor not only is wearing his medal but also a small tastevin.
After the Rambler made it safely down, 200 plus steps, it was time to head back to the Catherine. Fortunately it was mostly downhill, but cobblestones can be trickly no matter the angle.
Beautiful view from the top of the Chateau, overlooking the Rhone and in the distance, the vineyards of Tain L’Hermitage.
The senior Rambler was waiting for me as I slowly trudged back to the ship. There I got to tell him all about the ceremony. I do have some video taken by a friend of me being inducted, but decided to spare my readers.
At 3:30, the Catherine set sail for Viviers and another village adventure.
Back in Lyon for our second full day of the cruise, the Ramblers had several choices. As was usual lately, we split up again. The senior Rambler was happy to spend his morning on the Catherine, while I signed up for the Lyon city tour. I had done the tour two years ago, and found Les Halles Paul Bocuse an amazing place. Plus they even offered a gentle walkers group…what more could I ask
. Paul Bocuse, the culinary giant of Lyon had died earlier this year (January 2018) of Parkinson’s disease at 92, but his spirit lives on in Lyon. The inventor of nouvelle cuisine, initially created in 1971 to be served on the also amazing for its time, Concorde, can now be found in restaurants all over the world.
Sausage and meat anyone? Wpuldn’t mind a shop like this in Georgia.
The indoor market of Les Halles Lyon is of relatively recent origin but a market could be found here a hundred years earlier. Inside one can find amazing French foods of the highest quality, beautifully presented in tastefully arrangements. They are, of course, not inexpensive; it is not the place to find a bargain but to buy the best. After we wandered the aisles gaping at the culinary treasures, we assembled for a wine and cheese tasting of local products. It was a lot of fun. The Rambler never could bring herself to buy anything at Les Halles. It was all so beautiful, but we were wined and dined most amply every day on the Catherine and many of the products on display were served on board. In fact, the special Lyon chicken, sold with a tricolour medallion, was one of the Catherine’s dinner entrees that night( served without the medallion.) It was delicious!
Can you say cheese? There is something here for everyone.
