Our next port of call was Vienna, where we would spend two days. Vienna is the capital and largest city in Austria. It has been inhabited since 500BC when the Celts first settled here. The historic City Centre was placed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2001. Vienna, situated on the Danube River in the eastern part of Austria, developed from early Celtic and Roman settlements into a medieval and Baroque city, eventually becoming the capital of…
After touring the Cesky Krumlov Palace, we made our way back to Linz and then departed for Dürnstein in the Wachau Valley early the next morning. Brunch was served on the riverboat so we could make our way to the sun deck in the early afternoon to enjoy the beautiful sites. The Wachau Valley is considered one of the most beautiful parts of the Danube and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, both for its architectural and agricultural history. It…
Our next port of call was Linz, Austria. From there we took a bus to Cesky Krumlov, a small town by the Vltava River in the Czech Republic. It was a feudal town founded in the Middle Ages. It attracts tourists because of the Cesky Krumlov Castle complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first castle was established before 1250 by the Lords of Krumlov. This family line died off in 1302. Other families that followed included the Rosenbergs, who…
The day following the Passion Play, we travelled to Vilshofen, Germany to board our ship. On the way, we stopped for lunch in Landshut. It was founded in 1204 when the Duke of Bavaria built a fortress here. Today it is the capital of Lower Bavaria. These pictures are of the Gasthaus Zur Schleuse’s beer garden where we had our lunch and a view along the Isar River, just across the street from the restaurant. Our first port of call…
We visited Oberammergau in 2015 as part of our Alps and Dolomites tour. We were able to tour the Passion Play theatre, but of course there wasn’t a play that year. We booked our Blue Danube tour with Oberammergau in 2018 and now – in 2022 – it was finally going to happen. The play has a several hundred year history. In the 1600s, the Thirty Years War was raging in Europe. As the war moved into Germany, the bubonic…
We drove through the Bavarian countryside on our way to Ettal and Oberammergau. We stayed in Ettal, only ten minutes from Oberammergau. From our hotel grounds, we could see Ettal Abbey. It was founded in 1330 by Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria and is still a working monastery today. The current building was constructed after a fire destroyed the previous abbey in 1744. I have included pictures of the Basilica and the Abbey complex. Ettal Abbey is more than just its…
After almost 2 1/2 years of not being able to travel because of the Covid 19 pandemic, we were finally embarking on our Blue Danube with Oberammergau tour. We flew into Munich, arriving a day before our tour began so we had time to do some exploring on our own. We had been to Munich when we took the Alps and Dolomites tour in 2015 and had seen the Residenz Museum from the outside, but had never been inside to…
We visited the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, which was one of the excursions Tauck offered on our Great Lakes cruise. Commonly referred to as the ROM, it opened in 1914, with the unique crystal addition opening in 2007. The first picture below is of the ROM and the second was taken from inside the museum looking out through one of the crystal panels. I found this interesting information about the crystal addition. Considered to be one of the most…
After making our way through the Welland Canal, we sailed on Lake Ontario to Toronto. After we disembarked the Le Champlain, our first stop would be Niagara Falls. It is actually made up of three separate falls. The American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls lie within the United States. Horseshoe Falls, or the Canadian Falls, are mostly in Canada. In the picture above the blog title, you will see Horseshoe Falls which runs the length of the picture. The American…
After leaving Detroit, we sailed from Lake Huron to the Detroit River and then entered Lake Erie. We spent the afternoon and night sailing up Lake Erie. It was carved by glacier ice. Of the five Great Lakes, Lake Erie is the fourth largest by surface area but the shallowest and smallest by volume. Lake Erie’s northern boundary lies in Ontario while the rest of it is bound by the states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. The picture…