Apr 29, 2013 - Touring the city of Passau, Germany

The ship stayed docked overnight in Passau so that we could have most of Monday to tour the city. In the past Passau was the capital of the largest diocese of the Holy Roman Empire. One of the most magnifcent buildings here is St. Stephan's Cathedral. The baroque architecture with beautiful stucco painting and fresc os is breathtaking. After lunch we went on the other side of the Inn River to see the large fortress"Veste Oberhaus" which was built in 1219. What a long history of an important area of commerce and trade. While visiting this...

Apr 28, 2013 - Day 1 - Travel to the river boat

We left home at 8:20 am on Saturday morning, April 27 heading to the Detroit airport. After many hours including a long lay over in Newark, we finally arrived in Munich, Germany at 11:00 am Sunday. After an hour and a half bus ride we arrived at our boat, the Legend, docked in Passau, Germany. The amenities onboard are very nice - I think this is going to be a very comfortable trip. So far our lunch and dinner have been top notch. We are heading to bed early to try and catch up on some lost sleep last night on the airplane (never have been...

Dec 27, 2012 - To Munich then Wilderswil

Had a nights stay in Munich where we caught up with a lovely Melbourne couple we had been travelling with for a farewell dinner, and had a very interesting and amusing taxi ride back to our hotel, mainly because we didn't know that there are about 6 Mercure City Hotels in Munchen. We enjoyed our night ride around the streets of Munich. On Friday we travelled to Lucerne where we caught the ultra- efficient Swiss Rail to Wilderswil in the Swiss Alps - we may even encounter snow here. We're here for a week, so time to settle in.

Dec 22, 2012 - More of Munich

We all met at breakfast at about 9.00am as planned, and planned our day. Laundry was the first priority, followed by ice skating, a re-visit of the Marienplatz to see the glockenspiel in action, and then we wanted to see the Medieval market by night. We were told by the hotel clerk that there was a Laundromat in the main train station so, loaded with bags of laundry, we walked the short distance to the terminus. Despite following the clerk’s directions we were unable to locate anything that even looked like a Laundromat, so we ventured to...

Dec 21, 2012 - Nürnberg - The Most "German" of German Cities

After a typical, but delicious breakfast of fresh multigrain baked rolls, sliced sausage, cheese, and pickles, Ute, Walter and I took the train to Nürnberg to see the largest Christmas Market in Germany. Nürnberg is one of the few medieval walled cities left in Europe, and has been historically significant in this region for around 1000 years. We arrived in the early afternoon, after about an hour on the train, our first exposure to the "Bayern Ticket" the BEST deal in Bavarian train travel. The weather here was cold, overcast and slightly...

Dec 21, 2012 - Munich Museum and Medieval Market

As usual, we woke before the alarm. We checked email and completed our trip journal entry and then hit the shower …… or not! After running the hot tap for nearly five minutes, the water was still cool. Ron dressed and went down to the lobby to complain, where he was advised that (since the hotel has a single, common hot water system) it could take quite a while for the hot water to work its way through recently unused pipes! By this time, time was getting tight so Ron simply had a quick wash and headed for our parked car to retrieve the...

Dec 20, 2012 - Munich

We woke at 5.10am, dressed quickly and then caught the 5.30am hotel shuttle to Munich airport. We had time to grab a coffee and croissant at the airport Starbucks before Evania appeared on cue at 6.00am. We caught the return shuttle van back to the hotel where Evania enjoyed the opportunity to shower and freshen up. We had breakfast in the lobby restaurant and then all relaxed in the hotel until just before our midday check-out time. At midday we loaded up the trusted car and followed the GPS to our Munich city hotel. We had a few...

Dec 20, 2012 - Würzburg and a Glimpse at Life in Germany

After an easy hour train ride from Franfurt, one of our hosts, Klaus, picked us up from the Würzburg train station. He graciously pointed out some of the city landmarks on our way to his home. There we met Ute, who served us hot tea and bread. Both Klaus and Ute went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable and knew how to make ourselves at home. I think in retrospect, spending the first three days of our trip with them was probably one of the best decisions we made. They acquainted us with the streetcar system (trolly) system, the...

Dec 19, 2012 - Donauworth - Munich

We woke as usual and enjoyed our last breakfast at Hotel Garni for a few days, before packing for our trip to Munich. We drove to pick up Zoë and after the standard routine of emails and on-line route checking we departed about 10.30am. The day was grey once again and there was plenty of standing snow as we wound our way South towards Donauworth. We had arranged to meet our friend, Giuseppe, at a restaurant in Donauworth. Giuseppe works for AgustaWestland (helicopter manufacturer) as a software engineer, and was working for a few days at...

Dec 18, 2012 - Nuremberg

Today we visited the town of Nuremberg. On the way we experienced falling snow and lots of snow in the surrounding countryside. Nuremberg is another walled town - the walls and surrounding moat are most impressive. Interesting to note that this town was decimated during the war, mainly because of Hitler's affiliation with the town and the Nazi Party Rallies, however it has been completely rebuilt to its original style. The Nuremberg War Trials were held nearby. Also here, surprise, surprise, were Christmas Markets (our fourth market),...

Dec 18, 2012 - Quiet Day in Weikersheim

As planned, today was an opportunity to relax and regroup. This proved quite timely, as Ron has picked up a head cold and is not a particularly happy camper! Late in the morning Ron followed Lars to a nearby car dealership to pick up an emission certification sticker for our car – this is required to drive in the major cities. Other than that, we simply completed some laundry, ate, checked emails, and enjoyed the company of Zoë and our hosts. As a result, we have no ‘tourist’ photos to share today, just a shot of the hotel breakfast for...

Dec 17, 2012 - Wurzburg

Monday, 17 December From Frankfurt we travelled to the baroque city of Wurzburg, the starting point of the Romantic Road. We spent about three hours in the Altstadt (old city) visiting their renowned Christmas markets (2nd lot of markets). A great place to visit. We visited here in 1978 and have memories of hot air balloons and a bridge. No balloons today but the bridge is still there. Queued up with the locals to buy some leberklosschen suppe then found a cosy spot on the bridge to have a stein of beer. We were then on our way to Rothenburg..