Tuesday, 28 May to Thursday, 30 May 2019
We awoke on Tuesday morning to overcast skies and drizzle that turned to rain. We had a walk to the Jewish quarter of Prague and then boarded our bus for the 4 hour trip to Regensburg. We were supposed to join our ship Avalon Envision in Nuremberg, however this was changed to Regensburg due to a rapidly rising Danube. As soon as we had boarded, the ship left and headed downstream. One bridge would only have cms clearance and a delay would have us stuck until the levels began to drop. This meant several changes to our itinerary as we kept moving downstream to keep ahead of the rising waters.
We awoke on Wednesday morning to light rain in Passau, Germany. The day started with a guided walk of the town where the Danube, Inn and Ilz Rivers meet. The Town Hall had marks showing the height of major floods over the last 500 years. The River was already over the walls and slowly covering the river paths. The last major flood of the Danube was 2013. Hopefully it won’t be repeated this year.
The baroque Cathedral was impressive and there was an interesting assortment of shops.
During lunch we set sail for Linz, Austria arriving about 1730. After dinner, we were entertained by Hans who played Bavarian tunes on a variety of instruments. He was a non English speaking comedian who kept us all laughing. Warren and I got called up as part of his audience participation. We didn’t know we could play the washboard.
We started Thursday with a guided tour of Linz.
This city was heavily bombed by the allies during WW2 and is now a mix of old and new buildings.
Mozart composed the Linzer Symphony in the building below in only 3 days in 1783.
We then took a tram across the river and up to Postlingberg. The 18th century chapel was popular with pilgrims and the tramway opened in 1898. There was a great view over the city that was spoiled by smoke from the chimneys of the steelworks in the town.
After lunch we decided to borrow 2 bikes off the ship and ride along the Danube. We visited the nearby town of Ottensheim, covering 28kms in our wanderings.
