Diary - Rhine Trip Amsterdam to Budapest 2012

Neither of us had been on a cruise before & as Jan gets seasick, we opted to try a river cruise to ease us into the experience.

I had heard that the Amsterdam to Budapest trip was worth doing, so decided to try that & the following is a brief account of our experience.

First of all, we decided to repeat our use of Premium Economy air travel which we had first experienced on our trip to Africa last year & found excellent as far as seat comfort, service & meal quality was concerned.  However, we had used Qantas before & on this trip were advised that British Airways was the best option & provided similar quality - RUBBISH.  BA was disgusting & Jan arrived in Heathrow sick as a dog & requiring a wheelchair to get to our departure point for Amsterdam.  Read my earlier blog about the experience, which ensures we will not use BA again if avoidable.

27 Sep

Canal cruise in Amsterdam followed by own walk around in the day, passing on the tour of Gassan Diamonds & Hermitage Museum optional excursion. Jan improved a lot. Didn't manage to find the flower markets unfortunately, due to time constraints before boat departure.

We were asked to complete our preferences for which of the 13 optional excursions we wanted to take & were provided with a summary of what they covered. We chose 6 which added Euro 582 to the trip cost, but they were worth it.

Viewed passing through the first of the 68 locks on the trip, a huge affair capable of taking 4 boats of our size. Other locks were not as large but the 2 deepest had an 81 foot fall!

The boat is 443 feet long & 34 wide with 47 crew, very clean & comfortable with 4 decks including the upper sky deck, a large restaurant, a large saloon & bar forward & a small rear coffee/library/TV room at the rear of the boat. We were told the boat could float in only 10cm of water because of a ballasting system. All rooms were quite spacious with TVs & free internet access. However, the latter could be affected by where we were docked & by going through locks, but was otherwise good.

In the evening, we had a talk about the difference between Holland & Netherlands, which was instructive, then off to the usual excellent 8 course dinner after which we could enjoy casual music in the forward saloon, or special performances put on at particular locations.

The only problem with the cruise was that we were fed so well we didn't feel like sampling any of the local food in any of the places visited! However, the chef generally included one local choice with the meals served, as well as having a standard reserve of 3 entrees & 3 mains available in case anyone didn't like anything on the main menu.

28 Sep

Cologne walking tour - interested to see the development since last here in mid '80s. Took the pilgrim tour of the cathedral, which was otherwise closed to tourists. Stained glass had been cleaned & the Dom impressive. Bought some Farina cologne, the first cologne produced here.

Our walking tour went past the Hohenzollern rail bridge, which we were told handles 1200 trains a day!

We went into the museum covering Roman occupation – very interesting with a stunning Dionysius Mosaic from the 2^nd century & could have spent more time there.

Concert by La Strade trio of 2 violinists & 1 guitarist in the evening - very pleasant.

29 Sep Up early to see the vinyards on steep slopes & first of the castles in the Rhine Gorge – very spectacular. Misty on the hills & cold on deck, but cleared up to a fine day so we caught a glimpse of the Lorelei statue by the river.

In to Rudesheim pm - lovely little village with a Xmas shop similar to Rothenburg's but much smaller. Gave the mechanical musical instrument museum a miss & had a Rhine wine at a small estaminet before going on to sample a Rudesheimer coffee (brandy & sugar set on fire, doused with coffee & covered in cream & choc flakes). Then ambled down the Drosselgasse, very narrow street filled with cafes & tourist shops back to the river & on board again.

Unfortunately, at Rudesheim we didn't have a chance to get up to the Niederwald monument of the statue of Germania cast from 32 tonnes of bronze to celebrate unification of Germany in 1871, perched on a hillside just north of the village, or visit Hildegard of Bingen's abbey nearby, or we would have had to forgo the walking tour of the town & we wanted to visit the Xmas shop there as well. Definitely an area worth a longer visit via road.

30 Sep on to Miltenberg. Pleasant walk down the picturesque main street & up to the Schloss, which we didn't enter, but admired the view from.

Marvellous Zither concert that afternoon by Tomy Temerson, one of only a handful of professional players world wide - very complicated instrument! Then attended a hilarious show put on by the crew at night.

1 Oct on to Wurtzburg. Bishop's palace interesting, but the guide waffled on too long - we could have done it in half the time, giving us more to spend exploring, not that there was too much else to see there, as the gardens were past their best. However, we didn't have time to wander over the old bridge to the Marienberg Fortress, which would have been interesting. The palace tour brought home the arrogance of the bishops in those days & the profligacy of the Catholic church.

A tour of the boat's galley that afternoon was interesting, as was question time with Captain Remus who fielded questions on a variety of subjects.

2 Oct on to Bamberg. Pleasant town with plenty of antique shops & good for walking. It is reputed the beer capital of Germany & famous (notorious?) for its Rauchbier, as smokey flavoured black beer, which I didn't try after watching reactions from some who did! Bought some fruit at the green markets where we found prices were on a par with Oz.

That night we were treated to the Chef's special dinner, 9 courses instead of 8! Also that night Gunzheimer Swingband entertained on board, but too late for us.

3 Oct on to Nuremberg. Very interesting town with not enough time to explore as much as we would have liked. Castle superb, but again, not enough time to do the 1.5 hour palace tour.

That afternoon we had a talk on the Main-Danube Canal, which was very interesting. We had been climbing through the locks, were now on a plateau & that night were going to be going downhill through the locks!

4 Oct on to Weltenburg Abbey via a boat trip through the Danube Gorge. Lovely trip with interesting scenery. The Abbey was ordinary until we got into the chapel, which was very ornate. The Abbey is the oldest abbey brewery in the world & the beer was excellent.

Then on to Regensberg which was worth a longer look. I discovered a golf museum by accident & it was superb. I told the tour director that he needs to announce it as a 'must see' for golfers in future.

A beer tasting later on the boat was quite interesting too, describing the various main types, but the entertainment later was a bit ordinary - Oom pa pa with a guy with the biggest moustache in Germany who was very talented, but I didn't go for the audience participation!

5 Oct we passed on Passau, as we had booked the optional Cesky Krumlov tour to see into the Czech Republic. We enjoyed a drive of over an hour to get to it & found the area we visited very interesting. Whilst most of it had been restored after the Communist era, there were still parts that showed how it was then – dirty, drab & run down - although these were slated for redevelopment & will soon disappear.

We rejoined the boat at Linz, but unfortunately didn't have time to see much of it, or visit Mauthausen, the former Nazi concentration camp. (The Austrians don't want to talk about the fact that Hitler was Austrian, preferring to refer to Kepler, composers & tortes!)

6 Oct after leaving Linz we sailed through night getting to Melk early the next morning to visit the famous baroque Abbey. Later that morning we passed through the stunning Wachau Valley which afforded some superb views of vinyards & castles on the way to Durnstein, a winegrowing village with a ruined castle above where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned on his way back from the crusades. It was quite a climb, but worth it for the views!

7 Oct on to Vienna where we experienced the first rain of the trip. We had opted for the optional tour of Schonbrunn Palace following a coach tour of the city. It was impressive, but we were pushed through it quite quickly with other tour groups before & after us. We went to an apple strudel making demonstration in the grounds which included a massive helping of the same with coffee in what looked like an old wine cellar, which was welcome as it had turned cold & wet outside.

We gave the optional classical concert that night a miss as it consisted of standard works like the Blue Danube & Radetski March & we had had enough of the cold & wet.

8 Oct saw us coaching to Bratislava in Slovakia which was quite interesting, with many antique stores. That afternoon we took an optional tour to Schlosshof Palace. It had been extensively damaged by Russian troops after the war but had largely been renovated. The grounds were beautiful but again we didn't have much time to explore fully.

That night we had our farewell dinner followed by a concert by the Aphrodites, which was very pleasant.

9 Oct arrived in Budapest & did a city tour before taking an optional tour to Szentendre In Pest County, which took us to Skansen, a reconstructed rural village of thatched houses & animal pens, which was quite interesting, then on to a diamond & jewellery centre which was disappointing, as it was supposed to house the Sissi collection, but they were just some reproductions.

We returned to the boat by speedboat, which was a pleasant ride once the cabin was closed in, as it was getting cold by then.

10 Oct as we had elected to spend an extra couple of days in Budapest, we were able to book another optional tour to Puszta Farm, an animal farm with horse riding & coach displays followed by a typical Hungarian goulash lunch.

This was excellent value, although the performers all lined up for tips & as we had only Euros instead of Hungarian Forints, were largely disappointed! (We had opted to pay our tips up front as part of the tour, but it was recommended we tip the guides on the optional excursions about 1-2 Euro if we were happy with them.) This was one of the best optional tours of the trip, as we were past castles, cathedrals & abbeys by then.

Final impressions – a great trip, well organised by Avalon in very comfortable cabins (even though we were on the lowest deck), excellent food & service throughout & good company. We would recommend it to anyone without hesitation (but diet first!).

11/12 Oct
We elected to spend a couple of extra days in Budapest after the cruise to have a more extensive look around & were glad we did so, as there is a lot to see.  For example, I went to the Torture Museum, which showcases life under Communism & the persecutions carried out by the Hungarian secret police.  It was very sobering & gave an indelible impression of the horrors perpetrated in that era.

There were other interesting walks & monuments & we only scratched the surface.