GSC Winter 25: Regensburg, Passau, Melk, Wien

Regensburg Roman tower

 I'm lumping these places together as I saw them all as part of the AMA tour. I'd hoped we'd have a day in each port, and move from port to port each night; that would have given me time to explore the city a bit. We did sail a lot at night, but most of our port calls were relatively short, giving time for the AMA tour, a quick dash through the Markt then back to the boat.  I'll just note what particularly struck me in these places...

There was a sizable Roman fort in Regensburg with well built walls that were incorporated into the later medieval wall.  This was an old Roman tower by one of the gates... the garrison held about 6000 people!

The bridge over the Danube was very old and very beautiful... 

Artists quarter in Passau

Three rivers come together in Passau at the Dreiflusseck... When the Inn is snowfed from the Alps it often flows much faster than the Danube, effectively damning it with water. When this happens, the area of town by the river floods profoundly! This area is home to a lot of artists who have their ateliers in the ground floor and live on the floor above; when a flood is coming, they can move everything to up to their living quarters.

I didn't take many photos in Melk... they were the process of taking all the books out of the library for renovation. The chapel is lovely and well documented by others. I am certainly coming to realize that my favorite type of church architecture is Gothic.

We stopped in Linz briefly to pick up the group who had spent the day in Salzburg but it was cold and dark and rainy and the Markt was closed anyways so I went to bed. 

Normally one would not dream of Vienna not having it's own page but... I took a tour of "Imperial Vienna" which was a drive around the Ringstrasse followed by a walking tour which completely ignored the beautiful Michaelertor, and allowed us 20 minutes of free time at Stephensplatz. What's sad to me is that folks will take this cruise and say they've seen Vienna.  I'm trying not to be judgy but this type of travel does not suit me. We did walk by the Spanish Riding School where I missed a photo of 3 Lipps going to workout; the lead one was showing off; I did see this one posing in his stall.

Lippazaner in his stall

I took the tour to Schönbrunn which was really a bus to the Christkindlmarkt (we saw St Nick!!!) and did not include a garden or Schloss tour. This was not my favorite market. I tried the Uhudler (Glühwein from Burgenland) which was WAY too sweet and not to my taste. 

Our plan is to visit Austria next fall, so I felt okay about not spending the day doing something useful. 

Regensburg: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9n2P4WWsyPSUdUur5

Passau: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eHUQCCA9fU2oW6TR8

Melk: https://photos.app.goo.gl/neo1yZhog6jqjnsb8

Vienna: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oa5yCJCJbRZoNaxC8

GSC, WInter 25, Nürnberg

I arrived in Nuremberg yesterday from Frankfurt; my DB train was only 35 minutes late!!! Apparently that’s really good.  And the announcements were unintelligible so I feel like my experience was complete. I was so tired from not sleeping that I walked around like a zombie for a couple hours, ate some food, then fell asleep. At 1AM, I woke up (that’s my current problem) but opened the window; I was asleep a bit later and feel much better today. The open window was key.

When DH and I travel, we have a plan, and he keeps me moving. When I travel alone, I often have a list but no plan… I assume I’ll do what ever I feel like doing. The problem with that is when I’m zombie tired, then I don’t want to do anything. So… A plan. 

Sebalduskirche, inside

Today after a fine breakfast at the Karl August, I wandered around the old town and saw:

Sebalduskirche, all dressed up Advent. I did see it the night before when I did my zombie walk, but it nice to see it in the daylight (sunset at 4:20). I had watched them decorating the altar.

Lorenzkirche

Kaiserberg: I love fortifications! But all the normal signs were not present. I wonder if it had been destroyed in WWII bombing and not rebuilt?

Albrecht Drurer house: I saw it from the outside but didn’t go in

Tiergärtnertor: this was pretty interesting, but would not photo well. What was interesting to me was that the gate exited parallel to the wall and moat. 

The wall, and some huge ass tower… I don’t know exactly what the tower was. I’d started walking along the wall, figuring maybe I’d walk the entire perimeter *6-7KM) but when I got to the tower, I decided I was cold and I abandoned to go see the Lorenzkirche. 

Two knit shops: I asked about local wool, and was informed that there are a lot of German brands, and they can’t carry everything, so why was I asking. I thanked them very much and left.

Frauenkirche: I actually saw this the night before, in the dark, as they were getting ready for the Market opening. Lovely church. 

The Market opening was nice to see. First they turned off all the lights; then lit the front of the church. A  children’s choir sung, there was a small brass band, the Christmas trees were lit and the Christkindl read the traditional poem before the lights were turned on again. I had a bad angle to the stage so there might have been other things going on… It took awhile for the sizable crowd to disperse.  (The crowd had its advantages… I was a lot warmer when I was stuck in the middle of a sea of bodies). I’ll check the online video footage of it later to see if I missed anything.

The Market stalls were open in the afternoon, so I was able to walk through… I bought some super warm mittens!!! I was delighted to see that the offerings were different (and better) than what I saw in Frankfurt; I was afraid they’d be the same from city to city.

On Saturday, I checked out and went to find the Germanisches Museum… On my way I dropped back into a booth at the Christkindlesmarkt where I’d seen this darn cute little ornaments… I decided to buy them because there was no one at the Markt! Not so when I walked back, it was super super crowded.

I brought some home...

The Germanisches Museum was good… they claim to cover 60000 years of germanic history. I was delighted to see the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Chacolithic, and Iron Age artifacts. Yes, there were spindle whorls and damn small ones, too; those are made for very fine threads. My favorite artifact was the bull from Hallstatt. A lot of the collection on display was ecclesiastical stuff from the Middle Ages which is not my thing. The 20th century collections were interesting. 

My tour on the first day of the cruise took us out and around the city... then out to where the Nazi parade grounds and the courthouse where the WWII trials were. Seeing this from the bus was fine. The court is still in use and you can tour it only when there's not a trial being conducted. 

We then went to the castle where I learned some interesting things about the fortifications, and how to tell which parts of the wall were rebuilt and which were original (if there was a hole in the middle of the stone, it was original). The stone masons would put the holes in the blocks so that they could be lifted with calipers on a pulley system.

Nürnberg photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EmWfuVrJcxJNcygFA