Gallipoli

Sort of pleased to leave stifling Istanbul this morning, but do not regret the experience. It is good to know what you are missing after you have left. The bot is only a memory too which pleases me.
Coach ride to Gallipoli stopping for lunch at roadside cafe. Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, Chunuk Bair all very respectfully laid out and grave sites well cared for. Very hot. Down to the coastal town of Eceabat and a fe

rry took 4 or 5 coaches and a dozen cars across to Canakkale and our hotel. Seventh floor views to die for and note the picture above the bed! Now to test the buffet dinner.

Long hot and sticky start to our tour

There were two things that made the start to our first day less than ideal - the 6.30am wake up call and the fact that Bryan had the dreaded tummy bot in the night. Fortunately we had pills with us and they did help but he had hardly slept so was feeling none too good in the heat, and long periods of standing that is part of this kind of tour. We managed the Topkapi palace which is impressive but had to dip out on the blue mosque, then managed the Hagia Sophia which is probably not spelt right. Very impressive but a bit too hot to fully appreciate it. The day ended with a very nice 90 minute boat ride on the Bosphorus which was a lovely way to see the European and Asian sides of Istanbul in the shade with the wind in your face.
Back in the hotel the cleaner chose today to not make up our beds and not replenish our water bottles. Obviously not our day.
Never mind, Gallipolis tomorrow and hopefully we will both be firing on all cylinders.

Overload

Overloaded with luxury in our hotel for three days. Will we ever escape. Brsr fillet steak and mushrooms ever yesterday evening.
Istanbul is overloaded with people, yellow taxis (mostly with panel damage), pavement stalls selling everything you don't need, and some things we do need like local style sesame rolls and turkish delight, people, yellow taxis, sunshine, yellow taxis and lots of people.
Walked from our hotel in Sisli to T

axim square and back absorbing the atmosphere which is hot, sweaty and smells of spice, bodies, sweet corn and roast chestnuts.
Tonight we check in with our new tour guide.

Bye bye Budapest hello Istanbul

Well, we are in the Radisson Blue Hotel  in Istanbul, which is by a country mile the poshest we have ever stayed in. We said farewell to our lovely boat this morning and to all the friends we have made from all around the globe. A magnificent two weeks. The final night was a bit full on, starting with pre dinner drinks of Polanka  which is about 50% proof, followed by dinner and wine on tap, then rounded off with a trip to see Budapest by night. A long day but lovely day.
Istanbul airport was incredibly busy, huge queues for passport control but we made it through and eventually managed to spot our Tour man who ferried us to the hotel along with another couple who are on the tour.

View down into the foyer from our 2nd floor room

View from our window not quite as good!

Trying out the bed for size

Farewell festivities and Budapest arrival

Yesterday evening entertainment consisted of show music from five Brataslavian ladies and then after dinner the crew dod some comedy sketches to entertain us.
Arrival in Budapest was stage managed to perfection. Eight am blue sky and warm sun. City is spectacular. Photos will not do justice to it. We have skipped the city tour this morning in favour of relaxation. But bisy schedule this afternoon and evening. Then Istanbul.

Regensburg. Untouched by bombs.

Regensburg is too far east and too small to have suffered bombing. Started in roman times as a border fortress between Rome and the huns. Very prosperous from river trade in silk and spices between Istanbull and Europe. Then the Islamic empire moved into Turkey  and shut the trade down so Regensburg slumped. But now prosperous on tourists. Huge cathedral as ever. Rivals Cologne in size and wealth in its heyday.

We arrived at start of "october"fest season. Lunch in town square bratwurst and bier and watched gay rights parade. Tried not to get too close!

Vienna and Bratislava

We have renamed our "stateroom" the Tardis,  cos we go to bed in one place then in the night we time travel to somewhere else. All very clever. Yesterday we had the day in Vienna and we and everyone else were really looking forward to it - romantic Vienna. We had a coach tour through the city and eye overwhelmed by street after street after street of big ornate buildings with loads of ornate carvings and statue after statue. There was so much of everything that it actually was too much and just about everyone we spoke to was not all that impressed. But there are unexpected gems on any trip and the gem of Vienna was a chance close up of the beautiful Spanish Riding School Lippanzer white horses. They were led right past us - we just happened to be passing at the right moment. So magnificent.
In the afternoon we had a walk to the edge of the city with a lovely American couple we have become very friendly with. Then in the evening after dinner we went to an operatic concert in a very ornately decorated concert room. It was wonderful, a small orchestra, male and female opera singers, and some ballet style dancing. They do ensure you have some lovely experiences on this cruise.
Today we are in Bratislava and we have fallen in love with it. It has so ugh character and our guide was old enough to have experienced the communist regime so was a mine of information on the subject. Lovely buildings, narrow streets, and apparently the ubiquitous pick pockets - one was spotted attempting to probe someone's handbag.
Tonight is the farewell dinner so more inches on the waistline are forecast. That will be followed by some international entertainment by the crew which should be a lot of  fun. We are betting that the Purser who never smiles will not be doing a turn.
Tomorrow we will wake up in Budapest!
                           Below Vienna

Bratislava

Hazy view from the castle, the forest is in Bratislava and the 600 wind vanes are in Austria

Melk and Durnstein

Started the day in Melk where there is a Benedictine Abbey that is out of this world with frescoes and paintings and guilded everything.
Then down the Wachau valley renowned for white wine in many varieties and apricots with everything including marmalade schnapps and ice cream.
Then Durnstien where King Richard Coeur de Leon was held captive for several years and ransomed back for zillions of silver. We climbed to the ruined castle on a hot afternoon for a stunning view of the valley. Evening concert on the ship by a slovak duo very versatile traditional and modern instruments. Tomorrow Vienna.

Regensburg. Yesterday.

Hi. Everything out of order. Regensburg was begore Passau but as we are in the Danube gorge internet keeps collapsing and Carol has jumped the gun and done Passau first. So
Back to Regensburg. Originally Roman fortress to keep the huns from crossing the Danube and entering Roman territory. Very wealthy in medeaval times through the silk and spice trade with the east via Istanbul. When islam overran Turkey that stopped and the town declined with two results. Sea trade started tesulting among other things the discovery of New Zealand and Regensburg was ignored in WEII and escaped inscathed. Therefore it has retained its medeaval buildings including the cathedral built to out do its trading rival Cologne. Both have huge Cathedrals.
We visited at the start of the "october"fest season and the town was full. Included in our lunchtime entertainment was bratwurst, bier amd a gay rights procession. All adding to the colour.
Weather is now superb warm sunny light breezes.
Currently dropping gently through a Danube lock with the pianist playing Leibestraum and slowly digesting lunch. What could be nicer.

Austria

We woke this morning in Passau, a lovely day, warm and sunny, all ready for our guided tour. The guides are mostly very good but our guide today was extra good, young, humorous, and a very knowledgeable lecturer in art history at the local uni so he knew everything there was to know about the town, the architecture and its history.  We are learning so much on the trip.
We are now back on the boat and sailing through Austria.  Very steep tree covered hills rise up on each side of the Danube, with little villages here and there and the odd castle - a lovely way to enjoy the scenery. The Danube is a very winding river and the scenery reminds me in some ways of Fiordland.

A cigarette vending machine in Passau, and directly above it is a plaque advertising a psychiatrist, presumably hoping to get business from addicts

Amusing sculpture in Passau

Even Passau has a Mcdonalds. I wonder if they substitute sauerkraut for onion?

The new Neuhaus Palace dominates the skyline above the Danube, with the ruins of the old palace below it

Nuremberg and Bamberg

Flexibility is the name of the game on river cruises, and particularly with scheduled itineraries which have to be adjusted for all sorts of things, including the closure of locks for maintenance. The latter meant we had two visits yesterday which should have been spread over two days, and a full day's sailing today.
Nuremberg was the first visit, and we opted for the tour focusing on the Nazi regime. We saw the building where the Nazi leaders were tried, and where 12 were hanged, interestingly by Albert Pierrepont from Oldham. We spent the bulk of the time in the Documentation Centre which presented extremely well Hitler's rise to power, his amazing propaganda programme which gained him such popularity among the German people, the concentration camps, and finally the collapse of the Nazi regime and the Nuremberg trials. Full marks to Germany for presenting it so honestly.
Bamberg, our afternoon visit, is a World Heritage town, very old very beautiful and very wet.  We were drenched and like hundreds of other tourists escaped into a warm dry cafe for a latte. Much nicer today though, a lovely day to spend relaxing on the sky deck watching the world go by. So tiring, these cruises.

The famous room 600 in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice where the Nazi leaders were tried - behind one of the windows shown here

Huge amphitheater built by Hitler to address the people, never finished

Beautiful Bamberg.

Wurtzburg
Bombed out of existence in 1945 but bounced back as a small modern city. We visited the Bishops palace, some survived WWII  and some restored. Magnificent opulence. You have to admire the skill and atistry of the architects and decorators butall done at the expence of the populace who were made poorer while the rich got richer. Sorry not allowed to take pics.
Passed through many locks on the canalised Main river. Just a big version of the English canals with German engineering added. Countryside is very picturesque with many villages containing church spires, old houses and relics of the past. Characteristics are whitewash plaster and red sandstone features.

And note the musical dessert.

Miltenberg with a history of witches

They really know how to make these cruises special. Last night before dinner, in the "happy hour" when all drinks are half price (as a warm up to dinner when you can have as much wine as you can drink for free) we were entertained by a string trio called La Strada. The was a woman violinist, a male cellist and a male guitarist and they were amazing.  Such a treat to listen to. At dinner we sat with a couple from Vermont, so had another really interesting meal. It's a great way to meet people from all over the world.

Today we sailed to Miltenberg, and had a number of locks to go through which is a slow process. These locks are huge, big enough to take two cruise ships end to end. Miltenberg is quite a historic town with lovely buildings, typically 4 or 5 stories high in cream and brown colours,  with narrow streets and cobbled roads. 

The town has a history of burning witches, 200 in 40 years. We saw where they used to hang them by their wrists until they gave the names of their accomplices in witchcraft - easy to see how the number of burnings would quickly increase.

The Rhine Gorge. We are castled out!!!

Entered Rhine Gorge this morning and finished at Rudesheim in the afternoon.  This place has more castles per square inch than anywhere else I  know. All very beautiful and all that but just how many do you need? They should share them around a little, then everyone can enjoy them. Not only that but all the little spaces between the castles are filled with vinyards. I guess that is a good thing. Maybe better if the castles swapped with vineyards then there would be more wine.
At Rudestheim there is a collection of musical automata, pianola's fairground organs and so on. Really cool when the frauleins demonstrate them. Then we tried the local Ausbach coffee - brandy and sugar burnt in a mug then doused with black coffee and cream. Tastes better than it sounds. Now on the Main river hearing into Bavaria where they drink copious quantities of beer, not a bad thing to my way of thinking. I'll let you know if I like it.