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CRUISES: Uniworld’s Vienna to Amsterdam
The travel brochures about river cruising say it all. The ships (boats really, they are hardly large enough to be called ships) usually have a mere hundred or so passengers -- Uniword’s new flagship River Beatrice, with an original Picasso and marble bathrooms, 410 feet long with 150 passengers, is almost an anomaly. The River Countess we’re on for the second time is 361 feet long and has capacity for 134 guests.
Such small size attracts its own clientele and surely creates passenger loyalty. There was a lot of bonding between the captain and his crew and between those two groups and passengers. At one time Hildegard Peiker, the cruise manager, mentioned in the lounge’s nightly Murmured a passenger near us in a loud stage whisper, “Plan B or C or D; it’s all OK!” Indeed, slow-moving river cruises make passengers mellow. They even make our 32 year-old captain, Jord Zwaal, mellow although that’s maybe because he married his hotel manager, Julie, since we first met them two years ago on the Danube. Mellow or not, he discusses safety with his passengers the first day. The dangers on any ship are always fire and risk of sinking, he says, but his boat is 18 feet high and the water averages only 10 feet.
The captain is serious about safety but the passengers are merely thinking about where they are going and when will they get there?” There’s going to be a lot to see: the cruise from Vienna to Amsterdam offered 12 days of unforgettable experiences including day-long guided tours of both Vienna and, at the cruise destination, Amsterdam.
Passengers easily settled into the rhythms of river cruising: The meals, of course – a cruise director once told us, “You come on as
Some of the dinners were special occasions including an epicurean meal and a low key lunch arranged on the sun deck. Particularly appreciated by passengers were several improvements over prior years, some of which came from the suggestions of previous He becomes animated. “Everyone who works for this company believes in this company,” he says. We believe it. The 38 crew looking after the 124 passengers on board performed with considerable pride in service and many passengers soon developed All that said, most people cruising probably choose their trip for the destinations. Passengers were often divided into five or so small groups to tour each port of call. The local guides were fairly fluent in English and had transmitters so that passengers could hear in the iPod-like headgear provided by Uniworld. Our problems with where we went was that, in time, many Medieval river towns tended to merge as a common experience but, fortunately, photographs help to make some stand out. Yet the towns were so attractive they made subsequent towns, such as Bruges visited independently after the cruise, less exciting.
This may suggest part of a great vacation experience is the leisurely contemplation that comes afterwards. For us it was passing through Passau late in the evening, a town located where the rivers Inn and Ilz run into the Danube. Partly destroyed by fire in the 17th Century it was rebuilt in Baroque style. Its cathedral has the world’s largest organ: 17,300 pipes and 231 registers. And at night the town looks glorious. Ports of Call Linz, Austria Linz, is the third largest city in Austria after Vienna and Graz and the Danube’s largest port in Austria. The city’s beauty and charm so captivated Mozart that he wrote his Symphony No. 36 here in one week in 1783. The European Union has chosen it as the 2009 Capital of Culture.
Linz is the former home of composer Anton Bruckner who was organist at the Linz Cathedral from 1856 to 1868. It is also the home of the almond, butter and red current jelly concoction called Linzertorte first baked in 1822 and said to be the “city’s sweetest ambassador.” Our guide took us at the end of the tour to a patisserie where she provided each passenger with a sample of this famous Linzertorte. So was it delicious? One of us doesn’t know. An Oriental tourist had asked that one to take his photograph in what is now called the Old Linz Cathedral (built in 1669 to 1678) and by the time the pictures were to the tourist’s satisfaction the group had moved on leaving its member behind, lost. The spouse was given a bag containing an extra Linzertorte for the absentee but “absentmindedly” shared it with a friend going back to the ship!
The River Countess then sailed into Germany a country that now has a population of 82 million. Ahead lay Regensburg, the fourth largest city in Bavaria, a colorful area that became part of Germany in 1871. It was a kingdom until 1918. Bavaria, with a 12,000 million population, has 700 breweries, 44 percent of all the breweries in the EU! It has a long history regarding beer what the Bavarians call “liquid bread.” As far back as 1516 Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria decreed that beer could only be brewed from barley malt, hops and water. This purity law was probably the world's first consumer protection law although earlier in 1444 it was decreed that any merchant selling adulterated saffron would be burned alive.(Saffron, the “world’s most seductive spice,” has been used Regensburg is known, of course, for its beer steins and cuckoo clocks, its teddy bears and Hummels -- and for its Wurstkuchl sausages. When ordering sausages at “probably the world’s first fast food restaurant” beside the Stone Bridge, you can order only in even numbers and you have to say whether you want them with sauerkraut or bread. Locals love to tell the tale of the English tourist who was offended when she was asked “Do you want sex with kraut?” (Sex being German for six.) There were other boats tied down on the other side of the river in Regensburg but none, of course, were as handsome as ours.
Nuremberg
In the early 1800s Napoleon presided over his dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire from the city of Regensburg but here, in Nuremberg, Hitler, in the 1930s, staged the grandiose Nuremberg rallies that so electrified the German people. Ninety percent of the Old Town was destroyed in World War II. Our young guide, Tom, openly discusses this and Hitler and the Nazi Party and readily admits his country started the war and the bombings of cities not the Allies. He points out the Documentation Centre on the Nazi Party Rally Grounds that deals with the horrors the Nazis caused. Tom also indicates the massive buildings where Hitler chose to make his theatrical entrance in front of the people -- from down to his platform not the opposite. The grounds are the size of 30 football fields and 20 of the original 60 towers are left intact. Consideration was given to destroying the entire complex of the Nazi Rally Grounds and putting the land to a better use but consensus was it should to be left “as a warning about National Socialist tyranny.” We could not see the courtroom used for the war crimes’ trial; it is being converted into a museum.
Bamberg This town of 70,000 people, arrives as a Baroque jewel. It is divided by the river Regnitz and the Old Town Hall is actually built on a bridge over the river. A statue of Heilige Kunigunde, the consort of Emperor Heinrich II who died in a convent in 1033, stands nearby -- and a half-faced statue by Igor Mitoraj and a Rubens-like female statue by Fernando Betero grace (though “grace” might not be the right word) other locations in town.
Bamberg was not damaged in the war and its 2,000 Baroque homes thrill visitors. At the time these houses were built owners were not Built on seven hills, it has been called “the Rome of the North.” It got its name in the 10th Century from the local family who ruled it. It was the second city in Germany to introduce book printing in 1460 (Gutenberg printed his Bible around 1439). And, yes, beer is big here too. The town has ten breweries. One beer, the local Rauchbier tastes, says our cruise manager Hildegard, “as if you had stuck smoked Virginia ham and beer in your mouth at the same time.”
Bamberg was a visual delight. We had extra free time to wander its streets and explore its history. Rothenburg We had a whole day in Rothenburgh-ob-der-Tauber in what was our second visit to this city (it lies 70 miles east of Heidelberg accessible by car on the “Romantic Road”).
It hadn’t changed. Why would it? It hasn’t changed since 1634 though much of it is centuries older -- its roots go back to AD 970. Its history is well detailed: the one the tourists enjoy (and there are plenty of those visitors -- two and a half million visitors come every year) is “The Master Draught.” This is the account of how, during the Thirty Years War, the Protestant town was occupied by Catholic forces
under the legendary Count Tilly (”the Monk in Armor”). In an attempt to appease the conqueror, the town fathers offered him a tankard holding three and a half liters – more than six pints -- of beer. Amused, Tilly offered not to sack the town if any of the town council could Next door to the Eisenhut is a enormous Christmas shop and Christmas Museum with its collection of historic nutcrackers and Father Christmas figures from the 19th and 20th centuries. The town has a Doll and Toy Museum, too, and, like other Middle Ages’ towns, a museum of torture now re-named the Medieval Crime Museum. Not the kind of museum for which you’d want a season ticket. Rothenburg has a population of 11,000. Two thousand live in Old Town itself. One guide told us she preferred, for example, Regensburg, because it was a working city whereas she felt Rothenburg was rather contrived and not lived in. We don’t agree. To be able to walk Rothenburg’s walls and see an occasional violinist play there, or to wander its cobbled streets stepping back to let horse-drawn carriages go past, to marvel at its canting half-timbered homes that were the basis for Walt Disney’s Pinocchio, to have lunch at the 12th Century Hotel Eisenhut again or to walk the Herrenstrasse in order to find a patisserie for the city’s famous schneeball, a ball of pastry dough dusted with powdered sugar, is surely, surely a perfect vacation day. Miltenberg
The poor fortunes of most of those towns during 17th through the 19th centuries was the salvation of their architecture. The people couldn’t afford to follow the vagaries of fashion and to rebuild their home in modern or contemporary styles. Our guide was upbeat and fun. Her stories of this old town brought smiles to our faces. Some families here are unemployed, she said, but what the heck, their mortgage was paid off 400 years ago. The most exciting thing around here is the Fair, she told us. “You need a new pot? Must have a new pair of shoelaces? Want to trade your husband? Do it at the Fair!” Frankfurt Frankfurt came as a surprise. We’ve passed through its sleek, efficient airport a few times and knew it had a population of about two thirds of a million and yet here is Frankfurt, the 7th largest city in Germany, from the river Main looking like Small Town Germany even to Frankfurt was first mentioned in documents in 794 and from 1356 the kings of Franconia had to be crowned here. Big trade fairs in the Middle Ages brought visitors from all over Central Europe. The foreigners needed their currency changed and Frankfurt, pleased to oblige, started the banking system that is all-powerful today. Visitors still come: the Frankfurt airport is the second largest in Europe where 42,000 shops and businesses show their wares to passengers. When the railway station was built it was the largest station in the world and the first building in Germany to have electric light. It serves a million passengers a day. “We were bombed heavily in the war,” says our guide, “So what you see is almost all-new.” She’s right; 85 percent of the city was evidently destroyed in two air raids in World War II. The Goethe house was completely rebuilt and 32 museums were relocated in mansions along the river.
The guide wasn’t impressed by her city’s cuisine, apparently. She said, “The apple-wine cider is OK but be sure to have it with cheeses marinated in onion sauce, oil and vinegar, what we call ‘handkäs mit musik.’” We didn’t follow her advice -- Krisztian Restas, the chef of our river boat, was too skilled for us to ignore his own culinary interpretations. Rüdesheim
This was a quickie. A short visit to a captivating small town where we took a mini-train to Siegfried’s Mechanical Musikkabinett and then walked back to our boat. The museum had the most complicated and intricate musical exhibits we’ve ever seen. The walk back was down the Dosselgasse (six feet wide and 360 feet long), the German meaning Strangle Street though it has been called “the happiest street in the world.” Boppard
We walked past the statue of Engelbert Humperdinck, a local composer whose name, in our innocence, we’d never heard of other than when used by the pop singer who’d taken it in the 1970s. Then it was on to Cologne. Cologne This city was all we expected: home of the famous Cologne Cathedral, and a busy urban center -- the fourth largest in Germany -- with shops to delight any tourist on an expense account. Situated on the cross roads of the European The cathedral might take all day to visit. Amongst the exhibits inside is the tomb of the Saint Engelbertus whose marble carving shows him in extreme repose. Surprising considering how he died: pulled from his horse and fatally stabbed 47 times in 1225 because enemies thought he behaved more like a king than a bishop. Those were surely difficult times. Easier times are represented at a little café on our way back to the ship: Papa Joe’s Biersalon at Alter Markt 50-52, Altstadt, a “kitschy place” as Fodor’s says, ”offering oldies from Piaf to Cole Porter.” It just looks like fun, a happy but sad place to acknowledge our cruise will end tomorrow in Amsterdam.
European River Cruising In the Middle Ages the towns of Europe were centered on the rivers. Those rivers were the highways before there were roads. When the river boat docks you are right there: in the middle of the Medieval town. Although the River Countess offered complimentary guided excursions every day it provided additional free time for passengers to wander towns at their own pace and we all did. Because the boat was small there were never long lines waiting to disembark and none of the few bus journeys from the pier into historic places were long or tedious.
The vision of continued water travel between the Black Sea and the North Sea started with Charlemagne (AD 742-814) the King of the “And then,” writes historian Andrew Cowin, “Rivers that once helped divide Europe had now become vital arteries promoting communication and understanding between [sic] more than a dozen countries.”
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discussion there would be a slight change in the time the boat would reach its destination that day. “So here is our Plan B; is that OK?” she asked.
“That’s deep enough!” a passenger cries out -- but everyone knows in the rare event of sinking all passengers would need to do is walk up to the sundeck. “And if there’s a fire and we’re docked, just walk off the gangway,” says the captain. “But, as you do, break the glass on the alarm button. We have Band-aids for any cuts on your thumb.”
passengers but leave as ballast!” Plus the fun of finding your special niche, the place where you push a button on the cappuccino machine then settle down with a book. Passing through 66 locks. The evening lounge meetings where you listen to port talks and hear what the next day will bring – and, particularly well done on the River Countess, the professional-quality entertainment arranged most nights after dinner. Small boat enthusiasts are used to an occasional enrichment lecture as total entertainment but our ship had set up much more: Bavarian musicians were brought on board one night; then another night a small Oom-pah band; then an opera singer and her musician-husband; then a prominent singer delivering German and international country and folk songs; and demonstrations of glass blowing by a professional; and, less professionally, fun events by ship’s officers including ABC quizzes, liar competitions and crazy horse races.
passengers. Wine and soft drinks were complimentary at dinner, and bottles of drinking water were provided at no charge for shore excursions. A glamorous sealed carafe of designer water appeared each day in our cabin. The toiletries were top quality L’Occitane; bicycles were available gratis for passenger use and a huge floor chess set sat on the sun deck that now provided big yellow buttons to summon a bartender if that was your wish. Those extras were all low-key as was the approach of 
favorites. Ours were Monika and Gabor, the two at the reception desk to whom no problem was a problem. When passengers take time to observe the professionalism of those serving them it’s rather fun to see how capable their crew members are.
Regensburg 
for more the 3,000 years and its cultivation in Europe made many shopkeepers wealthy.
Nuremberg, the second largest city in Bavaria, has a history going back to the year 1050. It has a population of half a million and a reported thirst for beer that claims 350 liters are drunk each year by each citizen. Historians like to point out water was dirty and often polluted then and it was healthier, even for children, to drink beer in the Middle Ages. 
taxed for 20 years if they put up a 3-story home in Baroque style, and for 12 years if it were a 2-story.
empty the tankard in one gulp. Mayor Nusch came forward and managed to do this then fell down and apparently slept for three days. The town clock performs this ritual for several hours in the middle part of the day. Paintings in town, particularly at the Hotel Eisenhut, show the city’s survival event in greater detail.
We probably wouldn’t have found Miltenberg, a little town on a bend of the river Main, had we not taken this cruise. A one-time important Roman fort it became a busy toll-station in the Middle Ages when those in power used their position to force taxes on all those passing by, a familiar story. The town with about 10,000 inhabitants, is very photogenic and easily visited as there’s essentially only one street. It also had an Internet Café found on that street without difficulty at reasonable prices. Miltenberg also has Zum Riesen, said to be Germany’s oldest inn –and guess what, it sells beer!
the old-world half-timbered buildings around the “village” square. This area looks magical in the evening when lights make it look almost like a Christmas scene. Our River Countess was docked on the river where swans sailed serenely past bicyclists keeping pace with kayakers and boats so full of people having fun it looked that the boats might capsize.
Boppard was a bonus, visited briefly for two hours, two hours after we left Rüdesheim during which time we enjoyed a hamburger and ice cream buffet on the sun deck and watched the castles of the Rhine unfold in front of us in what Jord Zwaal, our captain describes as “a movie opening outside your cabin.”
trade routes how could it not prosper? In the Middle ages, our guide told us, it was more important than London or Paris. Part of its attraction was perhaps preposterous. Cologne was supposed to have the heads of the Magi, the three kings who paid homage to the birth of Jesus Christ. On such faith religions are born. And on them a massive cathedral was built in Cologne, amazingly -- unlike Coventry cathedral in England – undamaged by bombing in World War II. 
Franks who became the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles I. He found a problem: the rivers of Central Europe were not connected. It took 1200 years for his dream to be realized. The Rhine-Main-Danube Canal opened in 1992, delayed fortunately until the “Green People” could express their approval – and make their demands. The canal had to be landscaped to look like a river and had to curve gracefully at times as it wandered past the medieval villages now situated along its banks.
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Eric Anderson