We arrived into Budapest on August 28 for a pre-extension trip to include two nights on the Buda side of the river in the Hilton hotel.
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| Castle Hill |
Fisherman's Bastion - 7 towers, built in 1905 named for the medieval guild that defended this portion of the castle wall.
Parliament building across water - built between 1885 - 1902. It has 24 slender towers and is lined with 90 statues of Hungarian heroes. Inside the building is the original crown of jewels.
Matthias Church, Church of our lady - named for the country's most popular medieval King.
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| Matthias Church |
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| Holy Trinity column - 1713 |
On April 29 we took an optional tour of "Jewels of Andrassy Avenue". We visited St. Stephen's Basilica, Budapest's largest Roman Catholic Church. We also toured the Hungarian State Opera.
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| Famous stairs at Opera House |
At the Royal palace we watched the changing of the guards, which has been the home to Hungary's kings for almost 700 years. We also walked around the old Palace which is now a museum and the beautiful gates. The bird statue is of "mythical bird tural".
We also had drinks and pastry in the main hall of the Paris Department Store and then rode the Millennium Underground Railway, the continent's first subway which opened in 1896.
On August 30, we walked down the hill to the Chain bridge and across the Danube River and was able to board the ship Viking Vili, around noon. The chain bridge was the first bridge built in 1849, that connected the Buda and Pest sides of the city. Big surprise for us, we got upgraded to a Veranda suite (one of 8). We later found out that we had taken more Viking cruises than anyone else on board.
On August 31 we took the "Panoramic Budapest" included tour. We drove by Heroes Square that has monuments and statues commemorating the Magyar state. After the tour we then walked backed to the Parliament buildings and visited the Shoe Memorial.
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| Heroes Square |
On August 31 we started the river cruise at 5:30 heading to Vienna, Austria. The captain informed us that we would be sailing through 5 countries, going about 1000 miles and going through 67 locks. There are about 175 guests on board with 50 staff.
We arrived into Vienna around 7:00 and attended an optional excursion "Mozart & Strauss Concert" at the Vienna Residence Orchestra.
In the morning on Sept 2, we took the included tour "Panoramic Vienna" for a drive into the city and then a walk around Ringstrasse, to include Hofburg Palace the winter residence, with 18 wings, of the Hapsburgs and home of the Spanish Riding School with its Lipizzaner Stallions. We also saw the Gothic St. Stephen's Cathedral. We had major rain in the morning so it was hard to get pictures.
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| Palace and Maria Theresa square |
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| Trinity column |
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| St Stephens cathedral |
In the afternoon we took an optional tour "Behind the Scenes at the Lipizzaner Stallions. We could only take pictures of the horses in the courtyard. They keep about 72 horses in Vienna 6 months and then send them to the country stables for 6 months. We ended the day strolling through the gardens and then had the famous Austrian chocolate cake and drinks at a cafe.
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| Inside of Cafe |
Vienna's Riesenrad is the oldest ferris wheel in the world with very interesting cars.
Sept 3 am - Scenic cruising of Wachau Valley - wine growing region
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| Dumstein Abbey |
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| Schloss Schönbühel |
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| Nose statute by ferry - takes in scents of the valley |
On Sept 3, we arrived into Melk, Austria and went off to see the Abbey and Monastery. While we were there, the boat moved to Ybbs. We could not take pictures inside of the Abbey.
The Abbey is active with 30 monks, 800 students and 90 public teachers. The building started in 1702 as a royal palace and then in the 11th century it was presented to the Bendictine monks. The Abbey has 350 windows, one for each day of the year. The building was rebuilt during the 18th century after a fire.
On Sept 4 we docked in Passau, Germany, one of Bavaria's oldest cities on the German/Austrian border. The ship then picked us up in Vilshofen around 6 pm. We took the 9.5 hour optional tour to Salzburg known for the "Sound of Music" and Mozart's birthplace
The next four pictures were taken in the Mirabell gardens and were used for the filming of the Sound of Music.
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| Fancy sign for McDonalds |
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| Weather Station |
Salzburg is also known for Mozart, the yellow building was his birthplace, the cafe was where he would have coffee every morning and the third one is Mozart square and statute and the building behind the statute is where his widow lived.
We also saw Salzburg Cathedral, had lunch in St Peter's restaurant where the Sounds of Austria performed music from the Sound of Music and then we walked through town and took the elevator up the hillside to a viewpoint looking over Salzburg.
On Sept. 5 we arrived in Regensburg and from there we traveled to Munich, driving through all the hop regions and rejoined the ship in Kelheim around 6 pm.
On our way to Munich we first stopped at the BMW place for a rest stop and then drove past the Olympic Park, constructed for the 1972 Olympics.
During our free time we stopped at the Hofbrauhaus Brewery and listened to the oom pah band and of course had a beer.
St Peters Church:
At noon we made it to Marienplatz the city's main square in time to see the Glockenspiel spring to life in the New Town Hall. The white building below is the Old Town Hall. And then we had lunch at the Ratskeller restaurant and walked through the Viktualienmarket, the city's most popular outdoor market.
Site of Zeppelin Field's Nazi rallies and the site of the Nuremberg Trials, war crimes trials at the Palace of Justice. We also went to Nuremberg Castle.
On Sept. 7 we arrived into Bamberg, Germany. We took the "Bamberg Walking tour" which was the included tour. We rejoined the ship in Zeil am Main.
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| St Martin's Church |
Old town hall (Rathaus) with painted angels built in the middle of a double arched bridge over the Regnitz River.
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| Rauchbier - smoked beer |
New Residence built in 1613, for Bamburg's Prince-Bishops - now 40 rooms are open to the public to include the gardens.
11th century Bamberg Cathedral - rebuilt in 13th century. Emperor Henry II and Pope Clement II are buried in cathedral. Has the statue of the Bamberger Reiter or Bamberg Horseman inside the cathedral.
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| Courtyard used in filming of Three Musketeers |
On Sept 9 we arrived into Wertheim, Germany. We took the Modern Aristocracy tour, traveling to Miltenberg and viewing the MespelBrunn Castle and Schloss Lowenstein. We rejoined the ship in Freudenberg.
MespelBrunn Castle, privately owned since 1400s. The picture on the right is the Mill.
Town of Miltenberg was one of our favorites.
Of course we enjoyed the statute outside
the water closet as well as lunch at the old
guest house.
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| Zum Riesen, oldest guest house |
Miltenberg castle and view from the castle overlooking Miltenberg.
Schloss Lowenstein, which is now a hotel. They also have a
chapel and winery on the grounds. The winery use to be the
old stables.
On Sept 10 we cruised the Middle Rhine River and then that afternoon we arrived into Braubach and took the included tour of the Marksburg Castle. We met back up with the ship in Koblenz, Germany.
Marksburg Castle
Monument - unification of German nation. Statute is in Koblenz at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers. Equestrian statue of Prince William I.
On Sept 11 we arrived into Cologne and we took the included "Cologne Walking Tour". That afternoon we took an optional tour out to the "Bruhl UNESCO Palaces.
Chocolate Factory/Museum
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| St Martins Chu |
Colorful Narrow houses - numbers show year they were built - merchant homes
The Cologne Cathedral took 632 years to complete - 3 wise men are buried within. Largest cathedral in Northern Europe. Construction began in 1248. Completed in 1880, but it is constantly under repair and restoration so very hard to get pictures without scaffolding.
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| Shows how many meters the Rhine River is at the time |
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| Laurel & Hardy statute - rub nose for good luck |
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Fountain of the Elves
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| Bruhl Falcon Hunting Palace |
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| Chapel at Hunting Palace |
Schloss Augustusburg - Palace and garden. Completed in 1786. We could not take pictures inside either of the Palaces.
On September 12 we arrived into Kinderdijk, The Netherlands. We took the included tour of the Kinderdijk Windmills in the corner of South Holland. There were19 windmills completed in 18th century. Kinderdijk is 6 meters below sea level.
Last stop was Amsterdam on Sept 13. We really did not see anything as we had an early flight back to Portland.
Town of Miltenberg was one of our favorites. 
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