Vienna - end of the adventure

Overcast with Sunshine!

Mexican Catherdal

Vienna--took a combination of a bus tour and walking tour around town this morning.  It was finally good to have the sun come out and have to take our jackets off.

Vienna Opera House

Natural History Museum

Queen Marie Theresia

Athena statue

Vienna Rathaus or Town Hall

Most of our day centered around the St. Stevens Dom area.  Plenty of shops, food, and sight seeing.  The Dom, the Palace, the Palace Gardens, and the City Building just to name a few.

St. Steven's Dom

Inside Saint Stevens' Dom

Saint Steven's Square

Spanish Riding School

Lipizzan horses board here

Find the longest German Word

26 Letters in this word but still several short to win the contest

Finally, we have traveled all over the world to find a rose garden in bloom!

This afternoon we took the subway back to the area.  Sat at an open air café with our tour guide, Anke and had enjoyed a pleasant afternoon with nowhere particular to go.

End the trip by catching rays for the first time on the sun deck with the UN
and other government buildings in the background.

Tonight our trip ends and the long trip home begins.  Our bus leaves at 4:00 am for the airport.  If that isn't fun enough we have a 1 1/2hour lay over in Paris - hopefully, we can master the maze and make our connection.

The Abbey, Wine Tasting & Vienna

Overcast & light rain - cold

Yesterday we left Germany and entered Austria.  Of course, the rain makes it difficult to see the monument designating the Germany/Austria country boundary, but it is there somewhere in the rain.






This morning we stopped along the river for a short time and visited Melk Abbey.  The early monks built an abbey every 20 miles to provide early settlers a place to stay within a days travel. This was a large abbey and most of the countryside is owned by the abbey to provide food and drink.

Servants were not allowed into the bedrooms.
So a small door was installed.  They could then
provide fuel to the stove thru the door in the hall

A safe to keep the Abbey's valuables
Only one key and it would turn 14 locks sequentially.

The Abbey overlooking the town

The Library  - No Pictures allowed.

The Chapel

Yes, we did see dead people

Speaking of drink...after our tour we enjoyed a wine tasting event with accordion music and a brief history of how wine was developed in the countryside.  Of course, Cheryl and I continued to sample our Diet Coke. I'm sorry you'll have to buy your own Diet Coke/beer, but you can still enjoy some of the good accordion music and yodeling that we loved.

Traveled thru the Wachau Valley and observed the quaint little villages along the river and vineyards on the mountainside.  One of the castles along the way was a castle of the king who captured and held King Richard Lionhearted.

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Watch the movie "The Third Man"

This evening we arrived in our final destination, Vienna, Austria.  Enjoyed dinner and then disembarked for a trip into the city center to sample some of the music of Vienna at a concert hall.  We heard a small 14-15 member orchestra with two vocal soloist and two dancers perform various Mozart and Strauss pieces.  It was an enjoyable way to end the evening, which also held hope of good weather tomorrow.

 

Passau- Rain & more rain

Overcast with rain and cold

The Ratskeller Building - City Government Bldg
Note:  This is right along the Danube River

We are now on the Danube River.  Today's port of call is Passau, where the Inn, Danube and Ilz Rivers all converge.  As usual, we took an hour to hour and half walking tour of the old town that lies between the Danube and Inn Rivers.  Of course, as usual, with this trip the rain continues to fall making our vacation a little unpleasant.

Hotel where the actress who played Sissy liked to stay

Saint Stevens Square

Cheryl always finds a friend. 
A musician playing in a narrow alleyway this morning.

Cheryl's Doorway
A secret portal to who knows where




True Germans



Nein, Nein, Fraulein

The remedy, of course, is to find a Chocolate Restaurant and to have a slice of cake.  I don't know what they call the cake but it had chocolate cake, strawberry filling, strawberry cake, and whipping cream.  A treat to die for--okay, take a break from the rain for.

Since it's Sunday, we decided to attend church, Catholic Mass, in German, in the Passau Dom.  This church bears the dual cross on top which means that it has a direct link to God.  Okay, we really didn't go to mass to worship but instead to hear the world's 3rd largest and Europe's largest pipe organ.  In order to do this it required us to sit in the Dom while mass was being conducted.  A beautiful Baroque cathedral with a bellowing organ was worth sitting thru part of mass.































Here is a sample of the sounds of this wonderful organ:

Some more shopping - as if we haven't done any this trip.  Then more rain and wind to soak us, at least from the waist down. Umbrellas were useless. We found a little restaurant to have a Coke and grilled ham and cheese sandwich.  Then back to the boat to dry out for the remainder of the day.






 Oh... do you really think is going to rain today?











THE REST OF THE STORY

On May 28th, we disembarked from our ship and flew home.  Our cruise ship continued on with a majority of the passengers to Prague. 

The rains never stopped!  June 3rd, an alert for flooding was issued and on the 4th of June the Danube River and other tributaries overflowed their banks creating the devastating floods of 2013 in Europe.  



Aerial View of Passau, Germany Flood of 2013

Remember, Passau Ratskeller Building?

Here is Anke, our tour guide, standing
in front of the Passau Ratskeller Building
Note the flood marks on the building.
Floods of 2013 exceeded the highest mark!

Passau Ratskeller Building during flooding

Passau Flooding - the bridge in this picture is the bridge
posted above where I took the picture and asked "Do you think
it is going to rain today?"

River Cruise Ships parked on the streets of Passau.
Note the little white building with a courtyard in front upper left center
We ate lunch here two weeks ago. 

I believe that this is the interior of the little restaurant that we
ate lunch at in Passau

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those people who are suffering and facing the challenges that nature can bring into our lives.  It is sobering to think of all the damage and destruction that has occurred to this beautiful town.  May God bless them is our prayer.