Day 5: Bamberg

Red roofs and Baroque Buildings

This morning we went on a tour of Bamberg but the weather started out cloudy and finally got rainy. Luckily I had my umbrella but Charlie who was in a different group (a more leisurely tour) didn’t bring his rain jacket.) We stood around under awnings for a little while but finally those who didn’t have anything to keep them dry went back to the ship. It did stop after about 20 minutes but, as you can imagine, those without rain gear of some kind were already drenched.

This is the Unicorn House

Street in Bamberg

This time our guide was a girl from the same institute as the man was from yesterday. Their stated goal seems to be educating all people about all of German history without trying to whitewash it. Besides the medieval history of the town, she also talked about the Jews’ problems in being citizens of Bamberg from medieval times through current times. According to her, after WWII, a camp for displaced person was set up in Bamberg, so quite a few Jews settled in Bamberg and there seems to be a thriving community there today.

Bamberg wasn’t bombed during WWII so most of the buildings from old Bamburg are still standing, many in the baroque style. Because it has the largest number of baroque buildings in than any other town, it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. Many unique buildings are in this old section of Bamberg (population 17,000). Many unique buildings throughout small town (pop 17,000). Instead of addresses, in the medieval days, houses were known by the signs on their houses. (For instance, the Unicorn House.) We were told of the history of the town, saw it’s cathedral (couldn’t go in because of services) and the Queen’s home and garden. (Built in the half-timbered style.)

Rose from the Royal Garden

The Town Hall

When we returned to the ship, we set sail immediately and did the safety drill, life jackets and all. We laughed because it looks as if a person can swim, it wouldn’t be hard to swim to one side of the river or the other. But it looks like the current is quite swift. After lunch, a lot of us spent the afternoon sitting on deck on the bow watching small towns pass by and taking photos as we passed through about 10 locks. We are on the Main (pronounced “mine”) River, and the river is used for moving goods as well as river cruising. Some of the barges are quite large and it looks like there is little room to spare, but the two captains don’t slow down, so I imagine they are used to it.

Scenes from the Main River

One of the Locks we Passed Through

Terri had asked if I thought they might enjoy a cruise like this but I’m not sure. It’s very leisurely. We spent the afternoon and evening cruising, and while some stayed in their rooms and slept or watched movies on TV, most of us stay in the lounge or deck and just watched the scenery go by. A lot of the experience is getting to know your fellow passengers and that has been fun. There were a number of photographers, so we had a good time comparing notes.

Since there aren’t many passengers, we are beginning to know each other a little at a time and with no reserve seating for eating, we might eat with different people each day. There’s a cocktail hour every day, a couple of talks about different subjects (tonight was about the locks system), and dancing to our “one man orchestra” after that. There’s a group that enjoys dancing and drinking, and they’re fun to be with, but I think several of them came together. I can understand why our friends recommended it–it’s totally different from an ocean cruise and I’m really enjoying it. Tonight’s meal was all German specialties served buffet style in different parts of the ship. An interesting way to do it–it got people to move around the ship and sit different places. Some people didn’t particularly like it because of having to stand in line.

Another Scene on the Main

Day 4: A Trip to Nuremberg (Nurmberg)

View of town from Castle

This morning got up early to have a big breakfast and take a bus to Nurmberg–a 4 hour trip from Prague. After getting there, we stopped at the Old Town Square to find our own lunch and then back on the bus with a local guide to do a City Tour. Charlie, of course, had a bratwurst and I tried a langor–a German dish where a circular piece of thin dough is dumped into a vat of hot oil where it puffs up really big. Then a tomato based sauce is put on it, cheese and a sour cream on top of that. It was just okay, but why not give something new a try. I could have had Old El Paso mexican food or Chinese food–LOL. I took the extra 45 minutes to wander the Square and take photos.

Known as The Beautiful Fountain

Gargoyle on The Beautiful Fountain

The bus tour was quite interesting. The guide was quite knowledgeable about the medieval history and we visited the old Nurmberg castle which was 50% destroyed in WWII (the city was 90% demolished.) He also talked about the Nazis. I didn’t realize how much Nurmberg was used by the Nazis to produce the propaganda, both thru written word and by pictures. The idea was to create psychological images. (For instance, the giant buildings, flags, trappings and masses of people made the people feel small so that they would feel that there was only strength in sticking together.) We saw remnants of the grounds that were seen in old newsreels with the masses of people and brownshirts, etc. when Hitler was addressing the people–also, the giant buildings that Speer designed to achieve these effects–many of which were never finished. The guide also talked about what they believe are the reasons for the German people going along with Hitler, and the current efforts made to teach the younger generation about the mistakes and the history so that it can never happen again in Germany.

A View of Nuremberg Castle

Another View of Castle

Nuremberg Street

At the Castle[/caption]

After the city tour, it was on to Bamberg where we boarded our ship. It’s a whole different experience and the inside is very nice. I was worried about the size of our cabin since when we booked, we got the last cabin available. However, not to worry–it was bigger than we thought and had enough room for a kingsized bed, a closet for our clothes, 4 drawers for storage and shelves. Perfectly fine for us and we were told that all the cabins on that level were the same. Did I mention that our deck is below the water line with just a small window above the water line to let in light.)

As soon as we got on, we went to the patio for a “light” repast (2 salads, 2 types of sandwiches, won ton soup and desserts. First margaritas, then wine of our choice.) Next we had mimosas or similar type drinks to receive a toast from the captain and hear from our Program Director.

Then dinner! I had chateaubriand, soup and a cheese plate for dessert. Very good. They treat us very well. We’re spending the night in port tonight, doing a City Tour of Bamburg tomorrow morning and then taking off tomorrow at noon for our sail down the Main (pronounced “mine”) River where we can sit out on the sun deck and watch the scenery go by. There’s no reserve seating which encourages everyone to mingle. Seems like a varied group of people from 2 couples who are honeymooners, at least one couple in their 20’s, several in the 30-something category, several of the 40-something age group, then the rest are divided between the pre-old, the old, and the ones older than that. LOL

After dinner, we had dancing and a there were couple of young women who were having a very good time! The “piano player” is actually using a karoake machine and he plays a litle bit of piano along with it. He has a good selection of music which encourages people to dance. The staff is very friendly and obviously they all know each other and are having a good time with the passengers. Seems like a good start to our trip.

Walking Around Prague

Day 3: All day in Prague (Praha)

Lesser Town from Charles Bridge

Wi-Fi is spotty on our ship, so I will get these out as I can. Here goes. May have to wait until I get to Paris to post the others. Not all the photos and/or narrative is showing up on this post.

I met our local city guide at 8:15 but Charlie was concerned that he may not be able to do all the walking that the tour was going to do. Instead, he took an optional tour to the Leibowitz Palace where he would have lunch, look at the artwork and the compositions which had original annotations by Beethovan and Mozart, and attend a chamber concert.

Our group went first to Prague Castle and visited (along with about 10 other large groups) the castle grounds and St. Vitus Cathedral. This particular tour reminded me of why I don’t particularly cruise tours. The problem is we only get to the see outside of the sights and don;t get to see any of the insides. And, disappointingly, we didn’t get to see the royal gardens. It’s a good reason to spend more time in these big cities. One of the people that I have talked with was there for 4 days and still didn’t feel like she saw everything she wanted to!

Gargoyle from St Vitus Cathedral

Charles Bridge

After the visit to the castle, we went back to Lesser Town to cross the Charles Bridge and go into Old Town. It was very crowded so I decided to go my own way. Charles Bridge has many statutes and vendors/artists. Supposedly, before they can get a permit, they have to submit samples of their work and it goes to committee before being approved. There were some really nice things there and some interesting music groups.

A Birds Eye View of Old Town Square

I had lunch in the Jewish quarter and went into the Powder Tower for a bird’s eye view of the Old Town Square. Then back across the Charles Bridge to Lesser Town. There were several things I wanted to see over there plus I wanted to try to see the Stravhy Monstary and its theological library–it’s supposed to be gorgeous. However, I will have to admit that the metro system stumped me. I was told to take the 22 tram, but no one told me there are about 6 different 22 trams, all headed in different directions. The tram stops have a schedule of stops but none of them sounded familiar. I actually got on one–I thought I might be able to ask the driver, but he is boxed in behind plexiglass and I could find a way to talk to him. So I gave up on that.

Tyn Church

By then, it was too late to do anything else, so I decided to go back to the hotel. I couldn’t find a cab (I had been warned only to use AAA cab company) so after checking with person at the tourist info desk, I was told it was about a 25 minute walk, so after walking along the river for about 20 minutes, I stopped at a hotel and asked them how much farther and they said another 20 minutes at least!

Finally, I could see it about a block away, but when I got to the block, it was a major freeway. I finally found an underground passage when I noticed a bicyclist use it. So after taking this way of doing it, on the other side was another major street without a place to cross. Then I found some stairs to take me up to the major freeway, where I walked on the sidewalk to the Allianze building where I found someone smoking outside that should be an elevated walkway across the second freeway. Finally–I got into the hotel, headed right to the bar and enjoyed a nice glass of wine.

I didn’t get to see all I had wanted to but Prague is a really nice city. People are very nice and I enjoyed the things I got to do there.

First day in Prague

A Really Nice Hotel

Our trip was uneventful, except that our luggage didn’t make it on our connection in Frankfurt to Prague. When I booked the flight with Viking Cruise Lines, I told them I was worried about 1 hour layover in Frankfurt–in fact, I called them twice before the final booking, and I was assured it was plenty of time. Well, we got to Frankfurt 30 minutes early, had to take a bus from the tarmac, then had to go through Frankfurt’s security, @35 minutes. Got to the gate where they were already loading, had to take a bus out to the plane on the tarmac–we made it but our luggage didn’t. Hopefully, it will get in tonight.

Our airline was Lufthansa and the flight attendants do a nice job. They were very pleasant and never looked harried or frazzled like so many of ours do. And they constantly served us–cocktails before dinner, a hot towel, then dinner with wine, then more wine, then soft drinks, and finally it was time to sleep. Then in the morning, a hot towel and a hot breakfast. On our 45 minute flight from Frankfurt to Prague, we got a snack of a half of sandwich and sodas. The planes were nice and modern with a lot of choices of what we could watch (many movie selections, TV, news, etc.) and lots of music. The one thing I did notice that wasn’t as good as the US was the seats in economy don’t have much padding to them and of course, they are very close together. But a good trip except for the luggage thing.

Viking picked us up in Prague and took us to our hotel–the Hilton Prague. The traffic here is not as fast moving or as many cars as in Rome or Paris (or Cocoa Beach–ha,ha). It seems to be at a normal pace. By the time we got to the hotel, checked in and got to our rooms, it was already 4:00 ; thus too late to do anything if we wanted to take the orientation walk at 6:00. That was disappointing; I’ll only have one day to take pictures of Prague, it seems. Our hotel is too far from Old Town and Lesser Town to walk so I’ll try to figure out their metro system.

The orientation walk was about 30 minutes, walking from here to Old Town. We then all split up and found a place to eat. The place we ate at was Kolkovna, a beer pub with filling Czech food. Charlie had steark tartar and I had roast beef with creme gravy and dumplings. Their dumplings are nothing like mine. Much more like bread, but Charlie liked their beer and I had two glasses of white wine. The luggage hasn’t shown up yet, but hopefully before tomorrow. I’m in need of clean clothes and a toothbrush!

Powder Tower

St. Michaels