Night 6: Vienna

We spent our second night abord the Jarl parked at the dock in Vienna. That night we were told that the river was impassible to Budapest and we would be talking a two and a half hour bus ride first thing in the morning. We started looking into the route on Google Maps... If it's only 2.5 hours, then why is Google Maps showing it to be 5+ hours??

We talked with our cruise director about taking the train and he agreed it would be faster and less fussy, so we bought tickets and kept it to ourselves.

 

Day 6: Vienna

After the Imperial Treasury, we wandered around the city and grabbed a late lunch in a restaurant from 1619: The Black Kamel.

Each street had something spectacular to offer. 

The heat was unbearable the entire trip. We all thought we would melt at Schonbrunn. 

 

Day 6: Imperial Treasury

We ventured out on our own and hit the Imperial Treasury: the place where the Hapsburgs kept all their jewels, crowns, and valuable things.

This is the horn of a unicorn!

There was an entire wing devoted to relics. The European relics (especially those in the Imperial Treasury) were much more than the usual finger bone or kneecap of a saint. This is one of the nails that was used to nail Jesus to the cross. 

This is the Sabre of Charlemage from somewhere between 900 and 950 AD. Everything here really brought us closer to the past. It was a weird feeling seeing these actual artifacts of legends.

 

Day 6: Vienna Subway

I got up early and took the subway downtown to see what it was like. Not bad!

 

Day 5: Schonbrun

We spent half a day at Schonbrunn, an old country retreat on the edge of old Vienna. It some nice gardens and really large lawns that must take forever to weed and mow.

I think you could easily spend a week here exploring the grounds.

The gilded ballroom was decorated in the style of the White House Oval Office. Gold knick knacks everywhere!. 

 

Day 5: Vienna

We slept on the boat at the Ybbs Dock and rode the bus to a new boat at the dock in Vienna. Same layout and everyone got their same cabin number. 

Then we were off to explore Vienna! We did the guided walking tour. First stop: The Hapsburg Palace.

St. Stephen's cathedral was one of my favorite churches with its gothic architecture.

All the buildings featured the same Viennese style.

 

Day 4: Gottweig Abbey

We took the bus from Ybbs to Krems (where we supposed to dock last night) and up to Gottweig Abbey atop a hill overlooking the valley. It was beautiful, but HOT.

The church is very ornate. This is the1761 pipe organ has over 3,000 pipes. I'd love to hear it played!

The view from the abbey hilltop was spectacular.

 

Day 4: Ybbs!

We were supposed to dock in Krems, Austria, but the docks were full so we cruised back upriver to the charming town of Ybbs. It's not a regular stop on any of the cruise lines' routes, so it is not a tourist trap. It was one of our favorite explorations.

The town's modest church was spectacular.

We ducked into a dark tunnel and stumbled onto this gem of a cafe in the courtyard of an old building. Within 20 minutes the place was packed with locals and they were turning people away. We had two drinks each and the bill was 10 euro.

 

Night 3: Wachau Valley Cruise

We left Passau and cruised through the Wachau Valley. It's a deep wooded valley with all Bavarian buildings along both banks. We cruised all night under a beautiful full moon.

We reached Krems Austria in the morning, but there were too many boats already docked, so we headed back upriver to a little village called Ybbs.

 

Day 3: Passau

For Day 3, the boat moved from the backwater dock in Passau to the main city dock. We hopped off and explored the town on foot.

We stopped for a snack at a traditional German pub. Nothing like a cold beer when it's 95 outside.

Passau has some magnificent structures on top of the hill opposite the main town. It's a 420 foot elevation gain on the hike up, but worth the view of the city. The city is at the confluence of the Inn and Danube rivers. The Inn flows down from Salzburg at the foot of the Alps and it milky white-green from the glacial sediment. The Danube is normal brown river color. The salt trade flowed down the Inn and from Passau could go in both directions on the Danube.

 

Day 2: Regensburg

Our first real stop was Regensburg, where were supposed to embark. It's a beautiful medieval town built on top of an old Roman fortification on the Danube.

Our walking tour included bonus material about the Jewish history of the city. During some construction, a 12-century synagogue was discovered. This is a reconstruction of its foundation.

We had lunch at the oldest brewery in Europe. Monks have been brewing beer here since 1050. Our food discovery of the day was sliced cold potatoes under a green salad. It was unexpected and delicious.

 

Day 1: Getting to the boat.

We flew from Chicago to Munich and arrived around noon. By three, we had traveled by bus and made it to the boat.

Our cruise was supposed to being in Regensburg, Germany, but due to the water level being low, we boarded in Passau. The boat was docked at an out of the way parking space and there was no real way to get off and sightsee. We were tired enough that exploring our new surroundings on the boat and having dinner was plenty for that day.

ORD Supercomputer

We passed thru O'Hare on our way to Germany. We have not been there in years! The brontosaurus is still there, but he's wearing a United Airlines shirt.

Why don't we have this guy at MSP??

This is an IBM quantum computer. It's fascinating to look at, as it is very physical and old-school Jules Verne-ish. 

 

Heavy Bookcase

JP found an incredible deal on a beautiful walnut bookcase. We thought it would fit in the Honda. Nope. So we went downtown and I got GP's truck while he was at work and we summoned CP to come help us load it. It took all three of us to get it into the truck and back out.

 

Smoky Sky

We had  a bright blue sky for the morning swim.

By the afternoon swim, the forest fire smoke had settled in and downtown was barely visible.

 

New Homeowner

CP closed on his new home!!

It's a beautiful townhouse in a nice quiet & clean neighborhood.

 

Construction Begins

July 16th kicked off the physical aspect of the Oliver Ave. Storm Sewer Project.

 

Smoke on the Water

We went for a sunset cruise on Lake Minnetonka with some friends and watched a wall of forest fire smoke roll in from the east. It looked almost like a desert dust storm approaching; clear on one side and yucky on the other. The smoldering campfire smell hit almost immediately.

It did make for a beautiful orange-sky sunset.

 

Tree Fences

The city put up a bunch of fencing around the trees. It's good to see that they are intentional about keeping the trees out of harm's way. I was worried that between the parkway and the lake they would remove a couple of the large oak trees. I looks like they should be out of the way.