Avalon River Cruise
Vienna to Basel – Part 2
Wednesday 6 June 2018 -Würzburg
This morning we had to get up early. Katy, together with another Avalon Ship, had arranged for our groups to visit the ‘Residenz’ prior to the official opening time. This building was built as a Palace after the style of Versailles for the Bishop-Prince of the day, commenced in 1720 and completed in 1744.
We were in the ‘blue’ group this morning (colour band on power pack) and we had another very good guide – Florian. The Palace was not as OTT as Versailles and I could just enjoy the artistry of the sculptures and Frescoes. The latter were painted by the Italian painter Tiepolo. We went into one room that had photos of the bombing damage to both the town and Palace 16 March 1945. 90% of the town was destroyed in 17 minutes by 225 British Lancaster bombers. 5,000 people died.
The gold and glass room (mirror Cabinet) was destroyed and one artist, using shattered pieces reconstructed the painting behind the glass over a whole year. Florian did not know the name of this artist, except that he was Italian. I looked up online later but could not find his name. The room was re-opened in 1981. Tapestries in the building were rescued and stored elsewhere prior to the bombing and that it why they are still here. Entrance hall, staircase and a couple of other rooms escaped a lot of damage but others were damaged by fire and/or rain afterwards as the roof was destroyed.
No photography allowed in the Palace but some people (not our group) were taking pics and Florian told them to stop! We were allowed to take photos in the gardens, but as we only had 15 minutes to look around Eddie & I went to the Italian garden. Then on the way back to our meeting point, we took photos of statues under the conical shaped yews in the formal French garden. 
There was an opportunity to go back to the ship on the bus or walk into the town with Florian, but he would not be conducting a walking tour. We decided to go back to the ship as we were going out again just after lunch. We have taken to having lunch in the lounge Bistro and the waiter/barman, Radu, is a great personality and its fun being up there with him and his helper, the eager young Edgars who, like us, is on his first cruise and we sometimes catch him staring out the window instead of table clearing!
Then it was on to Rothenberg Ob Der Tauber, to give the town its full name. this was about a one hour coach ride from our dock. The town was as gorgeous as I had seen online and even more enchanting than I had thought.
Every building was unusual and photo-worthy. Florian (yes, he was our guide again) let us loose from the Castle grounds – ‘the nose’. The border walls of the town when seen on a map,form a Pinocchio shaped head!
On the way up the street to the main square we bought an ice cream. Just as I was to bite the last piece of cone ice-cream spilt out the bottom and I got it on my favourite star T-shirt! We decided to go the WCs around the corner from the Marktplatz that Florian had pointed out previously. On the way I spied a shop with T-shirts on the corner. After I had used the facilities and cleaned the ice-cream off me as best I could with water and tissues, I went into the shop while Eddie was still ‘engaged’.
Found a nice Rothenberg T-Shirt in dark blue and building scene in white- €12.95. I gave the girl 10 + 2 and when I said I should have the 95 in coins in my purse and started scrabbling. She said ‘don’t worry €12 OK’. Great! I popped out to find Eddie and near the door I spied some nice watercolour prints of the town. Waved Eddie inside and he agreed they were good so we bought one. This time a man served us at the counter and asked where we were from. When he heard NZ, he said ‘I have a gift for you’ – a nice 3-D map of the town, that his Mother originally designed. She apparently had been to NZ and really liked it. ‘Enjoy your stay’ he said. I told him he has a beautiful town and he thanked me. Very, very nice people.
On the way back in the coach Florian told us that Germans always drink beer or wine when travelling in coaches, and the driver keeps white wine & beer in his fridge up front. Florian also brought on board mini bottles of liqueur & schnapps. We bought 2 little bottles of the liqueur for €1 each. The schnapps apparently is 40% proof! We shared one of the little bottles and kept the other for another day/time.
We had dinner in the restaurant tonight. I had arancino balls for the main course – delicious. It was Mr Lee’s birthday and he got a big cake with a large sparkler in the middle. Everyone clapped and cheered and sang.
After dinner we had a 3 piece ‘showband’ on board. Piano accordion, drummer and a young woman who sang, played the flute and the best – the Pan Pipes! They played one piece – ‘The Lonely Shepherd’, very beautiful on the pipes and then the accordion player joined in with a small bugle – it was a joy to hear.
They sang and played several songs representing various places around the world. We all had to get up and do a Greek Dance, then the Twist and a simple Spanish ‘Samba’. It was a fun night.
This morning we docked at Karlstadt. We were in the yellow group this time for our town walk at 9am. Our guide was late and all through the walk he seemed to be making it up as he went along – one of the poorest guide we’ve had. Town was interesting in parts, especially the small wooden underground flour mill, worked by hand. There were also some round towers that were once part of the fortifications. One has been named Katzenturm (cat tower). This was named thus after a watchman fell from near the top but, like a cat, he survived. When the tour had finished some went into the main street to shop/look but we went back to the ship. Not half as interesting as yesterday’s tour.
The ship left around 1pm. At 3:15pm we had a Galley Tour – interesting to see the small size for 10 chefs in there and the food they can produce under these restraints. Petar, the head Chef is from Bosnia, but they have several different nationalities – Croatian, Serb, Malay. Doesn’t appear to be any Germans aboard. Katy the CD is Belgium but she’s married to a German and often gives us little anecdotes of German personality and character.
After that we had Joni showing us how to fold towels into cute animals. When we got back from the town walk we came into our room and found a funny towel dog? Bunny? On our bed. They had got Eddie’s reading glasses out of the case and put them on the animal’s nose! 
We had dinner again in the restaurant. Sat next to New Yorkers on one side and an old deaf couple on the other. Eddie seemed to be able to have a reasonable conversation with Dennis but she was very difficult to communicate with. They are Ex Pats now living in Australia. Now in their 80’s she said this would be their last trip. They have done Ocean Cruising before and she liked them better than this! More to do on board and because of her lack of hearing and walking difficulty, the town tours were not good for her. The noise in the dining room did not help her to hear. In fact it affected her hearing aid so she had turned it off!! No wonder she could not understand what I was asking/saying – she did all the talking.
We went up to the lounge after and our musician Edward played a segment where he played the clarinet! Great stuff, as he usually just plays piano and/or electronic keyboard. He’s a one-man orchestra and we always enjoy his music, especially at lunch time in the lounge.
Friday 8 June
Sailing on the Main in the morning. At 10:30am we had Tony Temerson playing the Zither. He had come onboard at the lock apparently. Really enjoyed his music and we got to have a good look at the zither afterwards and chat with his about his musical journey. He is apparently one of only 4 professional Zither players in the world!
At lunchtime as we were leaving I told Edward that we had enjoyed his clarinet playing and he told us that tomorrow night the Captain is going to play the clarinet for us all! What a talented crew!
We arrived in Frankfurt 12:30pm. Eddie & I signed up for the town tour of Seligenstadt, about 45 minutes coach ride from Frankfurt. The latter has a population of 700,000 that’s why we decided on the smaller town option.
It was OK. Some older buildings – sort of like Karlstadt. Had a nice walking tour through the monastery gardens – herbs, fruit & veges. The guide kept getting confused about 7 -8C and 1870’s. he said the founder of the Monastery was an assistant of Charlemagne but then said it was established in 1870! This confused me as I knew the dates of Charlemagne’s reign. Later, at the church he corrected his dates just before I was going to question his information. No-one else seemed concerned.
In the town square was an excellent example of a May Pole. Many of the towns we passed along the river had May Poles and each town is very proud of their own Pole.
I thought the one here was worthy of a couple of photos. 
Just when we were about to leave the market Square to head back to our coaches (2) there was thunder and black clouds. Started to rain in big fat drops so we scurried ahead following the other guide who had left earlier with the slow walkers. Got to the coach just before it rained hard! It was fine and sunny when we got back to Frankfurt.
Had dinner upstairs tonight. After dinner we stayed chatting with the couple form Hawkes Bay NZ plus the Aussie ‘family’ on our other side. They put 3 tables together so we could all sit and watch the dancing to the trio that came onboard. Not as good as the other night but OK. We had one dance toward the end of their set, then went out the front to watch the ship leaving the dock at Frankfurt. I took a couple of pics of the night lights on the bridges & the city. Then off to bed as we have to be out and about at 8:30am tomorrow.
Saturday 9 June – Rhine River
Stopped at Mannheim and had a coach ride of around 40 minutes to Heidelberg. A Very nice town with a great ruined castle up on the hill and lovely old houses across the river – we were old the average price to buy a house there is €3 million!
Roland was our guide. A very nice young man who had been a student in Heidelberg. We had 2hrs of free time. We wandered the long shopping street we, or rather me, looked in the rock crystal shop and I found a nice amethyst ‘slice’ pendant with a little quartz crystal ‘candle’ in the middle. It has silver around the edges. A nice memento.
Later we found 2 T-shirts for our grandsons. After a ‘pee pee’ stop – 50c for me, we headed back up the street looking for an ice cream shop. Hard to find. Was going to settles for frozen yoghurt but on-one was in the little shop. So, further on we did find ice-cream! I had 2 scoops in a tub – Lemon & Amaretto.
The it was slow wander back to the river Neckar where we met our coach again at 12 noon. When we got back to the ship they were already getting grill lunch on Sky Deck ready and people were already heading for the few tables up there! So I snagged a couple of chairs with the young vets from Canada. Eddie took our stuff back to our room before he joined us. A very nice afternoon. Rain didn’t come and it got quite hot when my chair came into the sun. We had to keep moving back under the shade. Had sparkling wine (secco) with salads, grilled salmon and ‘pinwheel’ sausage. Then they brought up ice-cream! We had a second helping of the day – walnut and pistachio this time.
Came back to our room and transferred photos from camera to Google on my phone. Works well now. Both systems are ‘in simpatico’!! ? Had to go to a disembarkation Meeting at 5pm and then we went to ‘Happy Hour’. – although we were late so only had ½ hour. Had a ½ price Bellini each. Captain played pieces with Edward on Flute,recorder and clarinet.
Aside: as I write this we go into another lock! This time back to going up! I was writing away, minding my own business, when the room went dark! Now I have a stony grey wall a foot from our window!
To Continue: after the little concert we went into our Gala dinner! Usual sort of menu except of an extra plate of lobster tail. Back up to the lounge for a while to listen to Edward playing and the Captain on the flute.
Some, especially one, guy got very boisterous – definitely had too much vino at dinner and whatever before during Happy Hour. He grabbed the microphone and tried to sing (badly) over the top of Edward’s playing and singing. Edward managed to get the mic off him at the end of his song, unplugged it & put it away. Drunk guy tried to chat up a couple of woman near his table, especially Tina whose husband was not well so was back in their room. She told him to leave off in no uncertain terms!
By this time, even though he had calmed down a little and sitting with his ‘family’, the happy evening was tarnished, so we went back to our room shortly afterwards.
Sunday 10 June – Strasbourg
Out at 8:30am again this morning and a short trot down the canal to a small glass-walled & roofed scenic boat. We went through the canals surrounding the town for one & quarter hours. Lots of views but not many photo ops because of the reflections from the glass roof. Did get a nice pic of a beautiful Greeewk Orthodox Church however.
Then off for a guided walk. We had Rafaella, the same guide who was on the canal boat. Very informative. Once again we had been divided into smaller walking groups with the green groups being the slow walkers.
It was quite a sight to round the corner at the end of a narrow lane and see the gothic cathedral! My reaction was similar to when I first saw Milan cathedral. This one is called Cathedrale Notre-Dame -yes, another one! 142m spire and was built between 1176-1439 on foundations of earlier ones that had burnt down.
After some free time and checking out souvenir shops (only shops open as its Sunday), we met up with our guide again and she led us around to our lunch place. Vege soup was nice but the sauerkraut and sausage were not, so I didn’t eat much of it. Wine was also only so-so, so I had some of Eddie’s beer – very tasty! Apple custard pie was nice.
Then it was a 10 minute walk in full sun and the temperature on the coach said 29°C!!~
One group went on to the optional tour of Colmar and the other 2 buses, one of which we were on, drove to the ship. BUT not where we had left it! The driver drove at quite a pace through narrow country lanes, then stopped in a seemingly out-of-the-way place amongst trees and a small gravel area. We followed a vague path to a bridge across a small, stony bottomed stream – very clear water – then up a graveled stairway and as we reached the top there was the ship moored in isolated splendor on the river canal and Katy was waiting for us.
I was relieved to be back – hot & tired. Did photos and wrote in journal while Eddie showered. Its now 4pm so I’m going to shower thane start re-packing our cases! We have to be out of here at 7:30am tomorrow! Our flight tickets from Zurich airport to London included free train transport from Basel to Zurich airport.
We went up to the lounge just after 6pm and had a final Bellini, then at 7pm, after Katy’s final ‘Port Talk’ the Captain came in to give a short speech. He is definitely a better musician than orator. The staff brought out glasses of sparkling wine and then the Captain came around the whole group and clinked glasses with everyone in turn and thanked us for coming. Then he was gone.
We had our final dinner upstairs in the ‘Bistro’. Afterwards we listened to Edward playing the clarinet for a while. We then thought we’d go outside in the front for some fresh air. We were coming up to another lock so Eddie went up to the Skydeck to see what it was like up there. Came back quickly and beckoned me to come up. Now I do not like the steps of set of stairs to that deck, especially going down – very narrow and steep. This had better be good I thought. The Aussies (ex-Kiwis) were up there so we sat and chatted with them for a time while watching the lock fill and the gates open. It doesn’t get dark here until about 10:30pm. So it was a good final evening.
Spent a little more time in the lounge listening to Edward. Barry & Yvonne came to say farewell. We shook hands with Radu and Edgars, then it was bedtime.
Monday 11 June - Transition
Up at 5:45am! Dressed then packed. Went into breakfast at 6:30am. Katy said to put cases outside our door with the stickers on them stating we were going by taxi at 7:30am.
At 7:15 when we left our room after a final check, our cases were still there! We started to take them ourselves when our little room cleaner – Florina, came and took my case and the older woman took Eddie’s. “the boys were supposed to take them – must have forgot – Typical!” Florina exclaimed.
The taxi didn’t arrive until 7:40am, but we did get to the station just before 8am. We didn’t know what we should do – we did have our mobile boarding pass but we wanted to check with someone(?) if that was OK. A fellow Swiss traveler came and helped us check the board and told us that when the platform Number of our train shows up just go there, there should be officials on the platform.
So we did. The guard on the platform said it was OK to board and just sit anywhere. When the train got underway another guard walked through checking tickets/passes. Mine was OK as the QR pattern was on my email but for some reason Eddie’s wouldn’t show. (he has a different type of phone and a different email). The guard said he would return. I had to put Eddie’s phone on data roaming and go into Swiss.com online and we got the pattern up on the screen, so it was ready when he returned. All good. We saw some Swiss countryside when not going through some very long tunnels!
The Zurich airport was a big labyrinth. We found the bag drop off N°3 OK and she just needed our passports. Gave us a bag receipt and our gate number. We followed the signs to All Gates, up escalators and then down. We were looking for D34, but initially you only follow signs for the letter. Finally came to Security. Because I had some liquids we were sent upstairs. I went through the gate OK but Eddie made it ‘beep’. The officer checked his pockets – removed his meds and some coins – still beeped so he had to have a pat down and a handheld sensor. The conclusion was the metal fasteners on his pockets (cargo pants). We thanked the officer and he said have a good trip and waved us off. THEN we had to go back downstairs, walk several corridors up and down, several times until we got to passport check prior to going down to our gate! The woman was concerned we had no stamp in our passports at Point-of -Entry, Rome! We explained that the customs officer just looked at our passports and gave them back! We were surprised we didn’t have them stamped but thought this was a new procedure. I had to show the woman our Travel Itinerary to show flights we had taken and where we first came into the EU. She said if we travel again in the next year to take this itinerary with us as proof of our travel and legal entries!!
When we finally got down to Gate D34 , the plane had been delayed! We didn’t start boarding until 40 minutes after scheduled departure time. Plane similar to Austrian Airline – 2 seats each side – but seemed and older plane. Very basic seats that creaked and squeaked when you moved!
Remembering Austrian airline I wondered if they too would hand out pkts of crispy nibbles too? Then I said “As its Swiss Airlines, perhaps they’ll give us cheese!” Guess what??? We got nice fresh breadrolls with cheese and a herb flavoured spread and apple juice again. Very tasty snack it was too.
So it was bye-bye to Europe! Ride rather turbulent and I felt nervous at first, but the refreshments perked us up!
P.S.
There is one photo I have to include. when we were berthed near Wurzburg, We noticed this barge moored opposite. Look at the front!
