Friday, 31st August 2018 The Pöstlingberg hill in Linz is 539 metres high and is served by the Pöstlingbergbahn, one of the steepest railways in the world. This takes you up to the top of the hill where there is a pilgrimage basilica, panoramic views and the Grottenbahn – a fantasy ride through the kingdom of dwarves. We enjoyed the panoramic views and had a coffee at altitude. A family in the basilica, possibly there on a pilgrimage, treated us to some beautiful a cappella singing, reminiscent of the Von Trapp family, filling the small church with harmonies. How appropriate since the phrase is Italian for “in the manner of the chapel”. Some members of the Herd, however, were disappointed not to ride on the Grottenbahn. The Mariendom [New Cathedral] has the largest seating capacity of any church in Austria and as the name suggests .. … and has an open and modern interior. The Lentos Kunstmuseum is a striking building and as there was an art and culture festival on in the town we were granted free entrance. This was probably just a well as none of us were captivated by the art on display. The art and culture festival also extended […]
Monthly Archives: August 2018
Thursday, 30th August 2018 Melk is a picturesque town in Lower Austria overlooked by a beautiful and imposing monastery. On arrival we decided to forego the meal on the boat again in the hopes of letting Jaime have a choice of vegetarian options and set off for a day in the town. Between 2004 and 2008 the Waldzell Leadership Institute held annual meetings in the Abbey of Melk “giving international speakers from the fields of science, economy, art and spirituality a platform of dialogue with political and economic leaders“. The Waldzell meetings have welcomed renowned speakers like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Paolo Coelho, Isabel Allende, Frank Gehry as well as several Nobel Prize winners to share their knowledge and their visions. Now the Travelling Herd has followed in these illustrious footsteps and it was good to see Jaime getting up to her old tricks again. The views and the interior are spectacular, but no photographs were allowed inside the building. The second room of the library, which houses the Waldzell Collection, was particularly interesting, featuring the traditional two globes – one of the earth and one of the heavens. This room is also home to the Waldzell sculpture, shaped like the […]
Wednesday, 29th August 2018 The food on board offers very little in the way of variety for vegetarians and two three course meals a day is more than any of us require so we agreed that we would forego the lunch onboard and try to find something lighter and more interesting to eat at lunchtime. Having informed the staff we would not be back till after lunch, we were again first off the boat to walk into Vienna. The cathedral has an ornate geometric tiled roof but we were heading beyond here towards the Opera for Cafe Sacher to try the eponymous torte. Matilda was convinced Sacher torte would be very rich, having sampled some made by friends in the past and so only one slice was ordered. In fact, the original was less rich than she expected and we could perhaps have had more. Having finished the torte between us we headed towards the Naschmarkt near Karlsplatz. This offers fruit, vegetables, sweets, fish, olives, spices and much much more. It is close to the Vienna Secession – a building designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich at the turn of the 19th century to house exhibitions of work by the Secession […]
Tuesday, 28th August 2018 Bratislava is quite compact and approaching by river is dominated by the castle on the hill. The walk from our mooring took in the local transport. . . . . . the landmark statues. . . . . . which it is obligatory to pose with and photograph . . . . . . and the main square. We also found the very picturesque post office which Robert and Matilda remembered from their last visit so were able to buy stamps and post two final postcards. Matilda recalled a very good ice cream shop which had been based in small premises, situated through an archway between two vacant properties, leading into a courtyard. Three years ago the queue had snaked out of the shop, through the archway and into the main street. Clearly it has been a very successful venture as the old premises now house a cake shop [without a queue] and Arthur has relocated to a larger, more central location. The ice cream is still as good. Fortified by the ice cream, Matilda, Ruth and Jaime walked up to the castle to take in the views and admire the historical baroque gardens which have […]
Monday, 27th August 2018 Travelling Herd needs all the technology available to keep the blog up-to-date… As we were conducting our own tour of Budapest we were first off the boat after lunch and headed straight to the Great Market Hall so that Robert could invest in some paprika to perfect his goulash and we could return any purchases to the boat before going to look round the city. We walked along the river front by the trams. And paused to admire an artist at work. We crossed to the Buda side of the city and took the funicular up to Castle Hill to enjoy the views back across the river from Fisherman’s Bastion to the Parliament Building. The guards at the top of Castle Hill are so still and tanned they almost look plastic. But the views are impressive. Matthias Church has a colourful geometrically tiled roof but it can be difficult to get the best angle for a photograph. The interior is beautifully stencilled from floor to ceiling in warm almost autumnal shades of orange, brown, green and gold and unusually you can also climb to a gallery level for views of the interior from a different perspective. […]
Sunday, 26th August 2018 This morning we had to go through passport control on board the boat to enter Hungary. This involved completing a declaration the night before about the amount of alcohol, cigarettes and currency we were bringing into the country and presenting ourselves to the customs officers in an orderly fashion in the morning. A cursory glance at our passports seemed to be all that was required. The weather has broken and the temperature is a chilly 21 degrees. Since the sun deck loses some of its allure in these temperatures, Ruth, Matilda and Jaime all decided to join the excursion to the Puszta area to see the Hungarian horsemen in action. Robert remained on board, hoping to arrive at the pick up point in time to have a look round the town. We were moored alongside another boat and had to walk through it to disembark. This seems to be a slightly more luxurious vessel than ours and Jaime wanted to jump ship. The tour started with a visit to a traditional Hungarian home with painted walls and hand embroidered cloth and clothes. Ironically, given the current water level, houses were built on a slight mound to protect […]
Saturday, 25th August 2018 We awoke in Belgrade for breakfast and left the boat at 08:00 as it needed to leave the dock to refuel. The majority of passengers went on a guided tour whilst we went on our own to look around this capital city. First we had to cross the border controls [we have a stamp in our passports to prove it]. The boat was moored very close to the old town on the River Sava. Matilda wondered why the tour needed a coach for such a short distance but having climbed six flights up to the town she felt she would have appreciated a lift just that far. Our walk led us past a statue . . . through the old square . . . . . . .past the Serbian National Parliament . . . . . . and the St Sava Cathedral. This is the largest orthodox cathedral in the Balkans. Designed in the 19th century, work started in 1935 but had to be suspended during WWII. Construction of the dome was completed in 1989 and the cathedral was consecrated in 2004. This is the Serbian equivalent of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familias as work is still underway. […]
Friday, 24th August 2018 The day was spent cruising through Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia, passing through the 140km scenic gorge on the Danube between the Carpathians and the Balkans, known as the Iron Gates. The two hydroelectric dams, built as a collaboration between Yugoslavia [now Serbia] and Romania are called Iron Gate I and Iron Gate II. Before entering the gates we passed the point where three countries meet: Romania on the starboard side and Bulgaria and Serbia on the port side separated by a small tributary to the Danube. The completion of the dams in 1970 resulted in the Danube rising by up to 45m and there are now three locks to pass through. The geography of the area had to be changed and buildings and communities were sacrificed, including a whole island, Ada Kaleh, which was home to a thriving Turkish community. Prior to the dams and locks it would take ships four days to navigate the shallow waters through this part of the river, now it takes about 15 hours. The Iron Gate II lock is a double lock [one lock immediately adjoined to the other with a common gate] the combined lock has a drop of 34m […]
Thursday, 23rd August 2018 Overnight the cruise boat moored in Ruse, which is the fourth largest city in Bulgaria. While the majority of passengers had a guided coach and walking tour of Ruse, we walked into the city to see the sights including the Monument to Freedom in the main plaza; The Court House; The streets of the old city and The Pantheon, which is now a museum. Unfortunately, as we had no local currency – Bulgarian lev – we found we could not pay to enter any of the sites. We did manage to pay by card for some more sun protection as the 30 degree plus temperatures have meant that this is being used up at quite a rate. We left Ruse to travel on up the Danube through the afternoon and evening towards the Iron Gates along the border between Bulgaria [starboard] and Romania [port]. After the evening meal, the onboard entertainment was a team trivia quiz in two halves. First you had to give an answer to a question. Then three possible answers, including the correct one, were provided for the same question and teams gave their “final answer”. This made it possible to score a maximum […]
Wednesday, 9th August 2018 The boat had travelled through the night southbound through Romania, before curving westwards along the Danube on the border between Romania and Bulgaria. At 10:00 the boat docked at Oltenita on the Romanian side of the river, south south east of Bucharest. With the exception of us and about 8 others, the passengers disembarked to join the waiting coaches. While they all drove off for the one and a half hour coach ride to the capital, and their tour, the boat, with us moved on to Giurgiu. We had a relaxing time on the boat as it travelled along the river. Because the weather has been so hot and dry across Europe, the Danube is about 3 meters shallower than normal. This meant that in this part of the river even on a boat with a draft of just 1.6 meters we had to travel slowly, meandering backwards and forwards across the river following the deepest channels. At 14:30 we moored at Giurgiu. In the photo below you can see the ‘Giurgiu-Ruse Friendship Bridge’ that connects Romania with Bulgaria across the Danube. This is one of only two bridges connecting the two countries across the Danube, […]
Tuesday, 21st August 2018 So today is our first day of 12 on the River Danube, the second longest river in Europe, after the Volga [Russia], and at 2860km long, travels from Donauesschingen [Germany] to the Black Sea. It winds its way through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. Where the Danube joins the Black Sea is the Danube Delta. The delta is the largest bio sphere in Europe with a huge range of birds, flora and fauna. Its approximate surface area is 4,152 km2 and it is listed as a World Heritage Site. We decided to join the excursion on a local boat to travel for a few hours around the delta. Firstly, we passed our cruise boat. Robert and Matilda’s room is on the middle deck, ninth window from the left, with the curtains open. Next we passed a military naval base. One of the ships moored up here is the boat that formerly belonged to Ceauşescu. It has a solid gold toilet. The boat is now used by the state for formal functions. The delta is made up of three main channels of water with many small interconnections. As part of the trip we were […]
Monday, 20th August 2018 Only a short post today as it has been a very lazy day with just one purpose. We caught the 12th train of the trip, a short ride from the coast at Constanta to Medgidia, from here we changed to a small modern DMU train for a three hour trip on a single track line north to Tulcea. Tulcea is at the beginning of the Danube delta. It is here that we would be joining our CroisiEurope river cruiser the MS L’Europe. We arrived in Tulcea at 12:35 and could see our boat moored up, unfortunately we could not check in until 16:45. Because of our luggage we did not want to walk around the town, so we had a lazy afternoon sitting on the terrace of a local hotel watching the world go by.before boarding the boat, unpacking and settling in for the next twelve days. Miles walked today: 4.0 Route Map:
Sunday, 19th August 2018 Today started with our eleventh train journey of this trip, the 09:00 from Bucharest to Constanta, arriving at 11:00. Constanta is located on the Black Sea; is the second largest city in Romania and its largest port. It also has a very large beach stretching north from the city, which includes Mamaia, a strip of sand 7 kilometres long and 300 meters wide, between a sea and a lake. This means that not only is Constanta a big industrial port but also a major holiday beach location for Romanians. Unfortunately the main bulk of Constanta, like most of Romania is very run down, with many derelict and empty buildings. The old port area and the old town have fared a bit better. So, having dropped off our bags at the hotel, we went for a walk down to the beach and then through the old harbour and into the old town. At the end of the old town, between the old and new industrial port stands ‘The Casino’, being too expensive to maintain, it is now empty and left to decay. The Roman Cathedral of St Anthony stands next to the ruins of the first christian […]
Saturday, 18th August 2018 After breakfast we took the metro to see Ceauşescu’s Palace which is an extraordinary monument to one man’s power and sense of self-importance to put it mildly. To put this building into perspective, it took only six years to build, from 1983 to 1989. However, it is still not finished, of the 1,100 rooms only 400 odd are complete, and some of these are not carpeted or furnished. It is the second largest building in the world. It is huge [330.000 m²] and would take an hour to walk around. Ceauşescu wanted to prove to the world how wealthy and powerful the Socialist Republic of Romania was. Although the Palace is smaller than the Pentigon, it is heavier. This is probably due to the one million cubic meters of marble used to clad the interior walls and floors. As it is a functioning parliament building we had to take photo ID with us and go through airport style security to gain entry. We were also given individual badges with a visitor number on. As we left the security area we walked in to a corridor… The two houses of the Parliament of Romania: the Senate (Senat) and the […]
Friday, 17th August 2018 An early train at 07:40 meant foregoing breakfast and we were caught in a rain shower just as we were putting our luggage in the taxi to the station. The rain is the second we have experienced this holiday and was very short lived: it was dry again by the time we reached the station. Bucharest is much more built up and bustling than other places we have visited in Romania, as befits a capital city. We deposited our luggage at the hotel, where we found we could see Ceauşescu’s Palace from our room. With the luxury of two nights in the city, we went on a walk to get our bearings. The walk took us past Coltea Hospital, Cretulescu Church and the National Art Museum. By the time we had walked to the river and Ceauşescu’s Palace to find out about tour prices and opening hours for the next day, then back up into the older part of town, the brunch which Robert had promised Matilda had turned into beer snacks and a cold drink. Unsurprisingly, Matilda found that her freshly squeezed orange juice didn’t really complement the beer snacks as well as Robert’s cold […]
Thursday, 16th August 2018 We planned to visit Bran Castle, but rather than take a guided tour – you should be aware of Robert’s opinion of those by now – we decided to take a local bus from Bus Station 2. Buses leave every hour, on the hour in both directions and we caught one at 10:00. The fare is just 8 lei [£1.60] per person each way. The bus itself was old, the windows were hazy with age and some were damp between the double glazing so the views were very limited. There were also road works on the route which caused some delays in this direction. The journey usually takes 40 mins, but today it was an hour and 10 minutes. We were of course aware that Bran Castle is marketed as being associated with Dracula and Vlad the Impaler although Vlad was only in charge of the castle for two months. We were also aware that we were visiting one of the most popular tourist sites in Romania on a public holiday. We still weren’t quite prepared however for the crowds and the sheer commercialisation of the place. Arriving in Bran you first have to queue to buy […]