Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
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Agreed on the upholstery. It was a good choice by someone. The concert sounds great. I like how they organized an optional evening activity.
Trip Report! ABD Danube River Cruise w/Prague Add-on !!UPDATED!! 9/17/17 Re-posted all the Photos!!
- Thread starter sayhello
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sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
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The upholstery really added to the atmosphere of the dining room.
I also really liked that they had an evening option. It's one of the things I definitely like better about river cruising vs. ocean cruising, that you get to stay places until late in the evening instead of leaving so early. It just wasn't that far from town to town on the River.
Sayhello
sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
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Day 5 – Krems, the Wachau Valley and Melk, Austria
Day 5 started out in Krems. That morning, there were originally 4 options. The Guided Hiking tour to Durnstein and the castle ruins above it, a 4.5 hour bike ride from Krems to Melk, an on-your-own bike ride to Durnstein, and the visit to the Apricot Farm. I’m not sure if the on-your-own bike ride ever happened. We did see folks going off for the long bike ride to Melk, and folks heading for the hike. I was torn for a while between the hike and the Apricot farm. I had seen Jennae praising the beauty of the hike, but also describing it as short but brutal. Which was reinforced by folks reporting back from the first cruises. Whereas the Apricot farm visit sounded a lot like the farm visit in Sorrento, Italy, which had been one of my favorite activities. But after the heat and humidity of the last couple of days, I decided I really wasn’t up to the hike. And the Apricot farm just sounded so fun. Plus, apricots!! So decision made: I was going to the Apricot Farm.
Our Guides for this morning were Jennae and Hanneke. We were treated to a bus ride through gorgeous rolling hills and valleys, filled with cow jokes!! Jennae has quite the impressive repertoire of cow jokes! Suitable for all situations!
A beautiful estate of some sort that we passed on our way to the Apricot Farm.
As we wound around one hill, we stopped, and picked up a woman in local costume. She gave us a bit of a talk about the area & the farms & vineyards we passed on our way to the Apricot Farm.
We arrived, and got off our motorcoach to gather around several apricot trees, which overlooked a beautiful spread of orchards. Our local guide (ack! I’ve forgotten names!) told us about their farm, and the apricots, and the fact that it was harvest. (There were several folks walking between the trees, picking up apricots off the ground. Since they weren’t selling them as fruit, but using them to make things such as wine and jams, they harvested the super-ripe fruit that fell off the tree. Such an interesting idea!) They allowed us to go up to a couple of the trees and pick apricots to eat right then and there. They were heavenly!!! Growing up, one of our neighbors had a massive apricot tree in their backyard, and every summer would *beg* folks to come over and pick all the apricots they wanted. We always had bags and bags full of the most delicious, fresh apricots. They’ve always been one of my favorite fruits.
Our Guide took the group over to where she had some story panels put up. It was a story she had written. Unfortunately, I was busy eating and photographing apricots, and missed most of the translation of the story. If anyone else knows what it was about, feel free to chime in here!
Looking out over the orchards.
Harvest.
We then got back on the motorcoach, and were driven over to where the main building with the winery and their store was.
The Aufreiter Family Apricot Farm.
We were greeted with glasses of absolutely delicious apricot nectar. OMG, wonderful!!
Inside, our Guide slid open a door, and showed us that the wine making occurred right there in that building. Folks were busily doing their thing back there. They had a slide up of the whole family, as this was quite definitely a family owned and run business. Our Guide had, if I remember correctly, married into the family and the business.
After a brief video about the vineyard, we were taken into another room where we were sat around tables. There were bread rolls there to use to cleanse your palate. We then had a tasting of all the different beverages made there.
There was the “nektar”,
And the Grüner Veltliner, a white apricot wine. Very delicious!
And here’s a great pic of our dear Hanni!
Prost!
Then we had a Perlwein (or sparkling) apricot wine.
And then we finished up with a sparkling, champagne-like apricot wine. This one was definitely my favorite! In fact, I brought a couple of small bottles of this home with me! One I gave as a gift, the other I’m saving for a New Year’s toast.
Anybody out there want to translate this for me? I just thought it was a cool looking tableau. [ETA: From Google:
"Here, the goods are not from the band we still create with heart and hand". Not quite sure what that means.]
After we were done with the wine tasting, our Guide took us downstairs to the wine cellar, where the large casks of wine were left to age.
Our Guide told us about some more about the winemaking process, and then sang a lovely song for us in Austrian.
Click! It’s a video!
Next, we went back up to the shop area, where an amazing sampling of apricot products was laid out for us to try. There was Apricot Schnapps, Apricot Brandy, Apricot Marmalade and, wonder of wonders, Apricot chocolate bars!! It was all delicious. I think most of us left there glad we didn’t have to drive back to the ship ourselves!
We then were turned loose to shop in the little store they had there. Folks bought wine, marmalade, soaps, etc. It smelled pretty damn great in the motorcoach on the way back to the ship!
This ended up being a really fun, fantastic excursion! Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. Jennae and Hanni were very enthusiastic about it and just having a fun, good time. Beautiful weather, a gorgeous setting, APRICOTS, good wine, chocolate, a pretty song, shopping. Fun times! I was very glad I chose this activity. I'm sure the hike was also wonderful, but I'm happy with the choice I made.
These swans were just hanging out at the pier next to the AMAViola.
Those of us who weren’t doing the bike ride to Melk got a real treat next: a cruise up the Wachau Valley on our way to Melk. I really think ABD is missing out here, and should be advertising this as a highlight of the cruise! I think everyone really enjoyed this. We slowly sailed down the Danube River, through a gorgeous, green area of rolling hills and lush green fields, with adorable little towns and various castles dotting the landscape along our way.
We sailed past the charming town of Durnstein, where some of the folks had hiked that morning, with its distinctive blue church tower, and the ruins of Durnstein Castle above. The views were apparently amazing from up there!
This pic of Durnstein is really zoomed, and if you look closely, you can see our intrepid bikers and their Adventure Guides waving at us as we sailed past.
We sailed past pastoral villages.
Verdant green hills.
And monuments by the side of the river.
It was really, really gorgeous!
Continued in next post
Day 5 started out in Krems. That morning, there were originally 4 options. The Guided Hiking tour to Durnstein and the castle ruins above it, a 4.5 hour bike ride from Krems to Melk, an on-your-own bike ride to Durnstein, and the visit to the Apricot Farm. I’m not sure if the on-your-own bike ride ever happened. We did see folks going off for the long bike ride to Melk, and folks heading for the hike. I was torn for a while between the hike and the Apricot farm. I had seen Jennae praising the beauty of the hike, but also describing it as short but brutal. Which was reinforced by folks reporting back from the first cruises. Whereas the Apricot farm visit sounded a lot like the farm visit in Sorrento, Italy, which had been one of my favorite activities. But after the heat and humidity of the last couple of days, I decided I really wasn’t up to the hike. And the Apricot farm just sounded so fun. Plus, apricots!! So decision made: I was going to the Apricot Farm.
Our Guides for this morning were Jennae and Hanneke. We were treated to a bus ride through gorgeous rolling hills and valleys, filled with cow jokes!! Jennae has quite the impressive repertoire of cow jokes! Suitable for all situations!
A beautiful estate of some sort that we passed on our way to the Apricot Farm.
As we wound around one hill, we stopped, and picked up a woman in local costume. She gave us a bit of a talk about the area & the farms & vineyards we passed on our way to the Apricot Farm.
We arrived, and got off our motorcoach to gather around several apricot trees, which overlooked a beautiful spread of orchards. Our local guide (ack! I’ve forgotten names!) told us about their farm, and the apricots, and the fact that it was harvest. (There were several folks walking between the trees, picking up apricots off the ground. Since they weren’t selling them as fruit, but using them to make things such as wine and jams, they harvested the super-ripe fruit that fell off the tree. Such an interesting idea!) They allowed us to go up to a couple of the trees and pick apricots to eat right then and there. They were heavenly!!! Growing up, one of our neighbors had a massive apricot tree in their backyard, and every summer would *beg* folks to come over and pick all the apricots they wanted. We always had bags and bags full of the most delicious, fresh apricots. They’ve always been one of my favorite fruits.
Our Guide took the group over to where she had some story panels put up. It was a story she had written. Unfortunately, I was busy eating and photographing apricots, and missed most of the translation of the story. If anyone else knows what it was about, feel free to chime in here!
Looking out over the orchards.
Harvest.
We then got back on the motorcoach, and were driven over to where the main building with the winery and their store was.
The Aufreiter Family Apricot Farm.
We were greeted with glasses of absolutely delicious apricot nectar. OMG, wonderful!!
Inside, our Guide slid open a door, and showed us that the wine making occurred right there in that building. Folks were busily doing their thing back there. They had a slide up of the whole family, as this was quite definitely a family owned and run business. Our Guide had, if I remember correctly, married into the family and the business.
After a brief video about the vineyard, we were taken into another room where we were sat around tables. There were bread rolls there to use to cleanse your palate. We then had a tasting of all the different beverages made there.
There was the “nektar”,
And the Grüner Veltliner, a white apricot wine. Very delicious!
And here’s a great pic of our dear Hanni!
Prost!
Then we had a Perlwein (or sparkling) apricot wine.
And then we finished up with a sparkling, champagne-like apricot wine. This one was definitely my favorite! In fact, I brought a couple of small bottles of this home with me! One I gave as a gift, the other I’m saving for a New Year’s toast.
Anybody out there want to translate this for me? I just thought it was a cool looking tableau. [ETA: From Google:
"Here, the goods are not from the band we still create with heart and hand". Not quite sure what that means.]
After we were done with the wine tasting, our Guide took us downstairs to the wine cellar, where the large casks of wine were left to age.
Our Guide told us about some more about the winemaking process, and then sang a lovely song for us in Austrian.
Click! It’s a video!
Next, we went back up to the shop area, where an amazing sampling of apricot products was laid out for us to try. There was Apricot Schnapps, Apricot Brandy, Apricot Marmalade and, wonder of wonders, Apricot chocolate bars!! It was all delicious. I think most of us left there glad we didn’t have to drive back to the ship ourselves!
We then were turned loose to shop in the little store they had there. Folks bought wine, marmalade, soaps, etc. It smelled pretty damn great in the motorcoach on the way back to the ship!
This ended up being a really fun, fantastic excursion! Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. Jennae and Hanni were very enthusiastic about it and just having a fun, good time. Beautiful weather, a gorgeous setting, APRICOTS, good wine, chocolate, a pretty song, shopping. Fun times! I was very glad I chose this activity. I'm sure the hike was also wonderful, but I'm happy with the choice I made.
These swans were just hanging out at the pier next to the AMAViola.
Those of us who weren’t doing the bike ride to Melk got a real treat next: a cruise up the Wachau Valley on our way to Melk. I really think ABD is missing out here, and should be advertising this as a highlight of the cruise! I think everyone really enjoyed this. We slowly sailed down the Danube River, through a gorgeous, green area of rolling hills and lush green fields, with adorable little towns and various castles dotting the landscape along our way.
We sailed past the charming town of Durnstein, where some of the folks had hiked that morning, with its distinctive blue church tower, and the ruins of Durnstein Castle above. The views were apparently amazing from up there!
This pic of Durnstein is really zoomed, and if you look closely, you can see our intrepid bikers and their Adventure Guides waving at us as we sailed past.
We sailed past pastoral villages.
Verdant green hills.
And monuments by the side of the river.
It was really, really gorgeous!
Continued in next post
Last edited:
sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
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This was an “interesting” piece of art along the river…
We passed a lot of gorgeous churches & castles, too!!
It started to rain while we were cruising, but the timing was perfect, because it was lunch time by then, and everyone went downstairs to the dining room to eat. There was the possibility of it being quite a storm, so the crew really battened down the hatches (they closed up all the umbrellas, took down the drinks booth, etc.).
But we were still able to see a lot of what we passed, as the dining room was wall-to-wall windows.
After lunch, I went back to my cabin to clean up, and ended up reading & watching the towns go by from my French balcony. I was even able to have the door open for a bit of it!
The rain got fairly heavy for a bit, so I also wandered around and took some photos of the ship.
It eventually cleared up, and we saw more castles.
I love, love, love this imposing castle set on a cliff overlooking the riverbank! I took dozens of photos of it, as it just kept changing and getting more & more impressive as we came up on it, and then passed it.
Eventually, we arrived in Melk, with the stunning Melk Abbey behind it.
Once we docked (it was the first time I was awake when we docked!) we took off in our motorcoaches for Melk Abbey. This was the only time I saw that the color-coded bus card system broke down. Jennae had told us to hold onto our card from the Apricot Farm trip, and use that same color for the afternoon. But apparently no-one had told the folks at the reception desk, and we had way more than 40 people show up to be on our bus. Fortunately, multiple buses were going to the same place, so they just sent the overflow to another motorcoach. Not sure how they would have handled it if that wasn’t the case.
It was drizzling a bit, but not enough to be bothersome. We headed up to Melk Abbey.
The courtyard of Melk Abbey.
The group at Melk Abbey.
Our tour guide for Melk Abbey was cute as a button!
Yep. It’s ornate!
We were taken into an area where several of the very old and very valuable artifacts owned by the Abbey are on display.
This is a portable altar. It’s from the mid- to late-11th century, and is the oldest artifact in the Abbey.
This is a massively heavy and complicated locking chest. I got to try to turn the key to start the locking mechanism. It was really hard to turn!
A beautiful ante-room.
A view of the town of Melk from a balcony of the Abbey.
It took us a while to realize the stairwell was not as deep as it looked. It has a mirror at the bottom!
They took us on a tour of one of the libraries at the Abbey. It was magnificent! No photos allowed, unfortunately.
Then we went into the Chapel at the Abbey.
The monks at Melk Abbey *definitely* did *NOT* take a vow of poverty!!
Continued in next post.
We passed a lot of gorgeous churches & castles, too!!
It started to rain while we were cruising, but the timing was perfect, because it was lunch time by then, and everyone went downstairs to the dining room to eat. There was the possibility of it being quite a storm, so the crew really battened down the hatches (they closed up all the umbrellas, took down the drinks booth, etc.).
But we were still able to see a lot of what we passed, as the dining room was wall-to-wall windows.
After lunch, I went back to my cabin to clean up, and ended up reading & watching the towns go by from my French balcony. I was even able to have the door open for a bit of it!
The rain got fairly heavy for a bit, so I also wandered around and took some photos of the ship.
It eventually cleared up, and we saw more castles.
I love, love, love this imposing castle set on a cliff overlooking the riverbank! I took dozens of photos of it, as it just kept changing and getting more & more impressive as we came up on it, and then passed it.
Eventually, we arrived in Melk, with the stunning Melk Abbey behind it.
Once we docked (it was the first time I was awake when we docked!) we took off in our motorcoaches for Melk Abbey. This was the only time I saw that the color-coded bus card system broke down. Jennae had told us to hold onto our card from the Apricot Farm trip, and use that same color for the afternoon. But apparently no-one had told the folks at the reception desk, and we had way more than 40 people show up to be on our bus. Fortunately, multiple buses were going to the same place, so they just sent the overflow to another motorcoach. Not sure how they would have handled it if that wasn’t the case.
It was drizzling a bit, but not enough to be bothersome. We headed up to Melk Abbey.
The courtyard of Melk Abbey.
The group at Melk Abbey.
Our tour guide for Melk Abbey was cute as a button!
Yep. It’s ornate!
We were taken into an area where several of the very old and very valuable artifacts owned by the Abbey are on display.
This is a portable altar. It’s from the mid- to late-11th century, and is the oldest artifact in the Abbey.
This is a massively heavy and complicated locking chest. I got to try to turn the key to start the locking mechanism. It was really hard to turn!
A beautiful ante-room.
A view of the town of Melk from a balcony of the Abbey.
It took us a while to realize the stairwell was not as deep as it looked. It has a mirror at the bottom!
They took us on a tour of one of the libraries at the Abbey. It was magnificent! No photos allowed, unfortunately.
Then we went into the Chapel at the Abbey.
The monks at Melk Abbey *definitely* did *NOT* take a vow of poverty!!
Continued in next post.
Last edited:
sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
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It was apparently a thing in the 16th & 17th centuries to have "patron saint's" skeletons, elaborately dressed and bejeweled. It was a real status symbol.
The Melk Abbey had two of them!!
After we spent some time wandering the Chapel, and taking tons of photos, we headed back to our motorcoaches. We next headed to the Landhotel Wachau for our “Danube Cultural Activities”. Everyone was there, and we just rotated through 4 different activities.
We were greeted by lively Austrian folk music.
Click on the video!
The first activity our group did involved the folk dancers teaching us a traditional Austrian folk dance. I got paired with our lovely Adventure Guide Jennae! It was fast, and a bit elaborate, but I think we nailed it!
The next activity was learning about how the villagers in the area fished the river. There was a chart of all the different fish that lived in the river and a discussion by the couple in costume.
There were also two actual fish of some sort in a bucket of water that we were shown how to lift. (And then posed for a picture with it. It was harder than it looked. Those suckers were *heavy*!!)
Next we learned about making Apricot Marmalade. I got to cut up the apricots! The smell as she rendered the fruit and sugar down was absolutely amazing!! We were all given a jar of apricot marmalade to take with us.
This little gal apparently ruled the place!
Lastly, we had another apricot wine tasting. Good stuff once again, but I liked the wine at the Apricot Farm better.
When we finished, we were again serenaded with folk music as we returned to our motorcoaches for the trip back home to the AMAViola.
That night was the night I’d made a reservation for the Chef’s Table, which is the upscale restaurant on the AMAViola. Unlike with most ocean cruiseships, one dinner at the Chef’s Table is included in your cruise fare. You just have to make a reservation for the night you want to eat there. It’s a fixed tasting menu (although they could vary the menu if necessary for dietary reasons).
To start off, we were introduced to the chef and our serving staff.
The food was all really tasty! And the staff were wonderfully attentive. It was quite a nice experience.
The appetizer - Marinated salmon trout, papaya salsa, scallops, wakame carrots miso cream and apple beetroot celery salad.
Parsnips Cream soup with grilled oyster mushroom. In the cool glass dish above the plate is pear sherbet in champagne. I actually think the sherbet would have been better without the champagne. Imagine that!
The main course - Grilled Pike perch, spinach nettle, Crayfish, Porcini ravioli, nuts flavored chive butter, vegetable pearls, Japanese glazed short ribs, Cauliflower mash, quinoa, broccoli & plums. Some folks at my table said they didn’t like fish, and they ended up getting two portions of the short ribs. It was all excellent.
While we were dining, the ship entered a lock. We had quite a great view of it from our table.
We sat and watched it for a while, but then I and one other person decided to run up to the top deck to watch us finish entering the lock. Luckily, there were stairs right outside of the restaurant. It was gorgeous out, and a pretty cool sight. As we say farewell to Melk Abbey...
We then went back downstairs to finish up dinner.
Dessert! Chocolate Truffle Cake, Brulee cheesecake, & Vanilla ice cream.
I love tasting desserts, where you get smaller bites of multiple goodies. More flavors to enjoy!
They made killer cappuccinos on this ship, and this one was a perfect topper to our DELICIOUS meal!
When I got back to my cabin, this was showing on the TV. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. The housekeeping staff were *so* helpful and friendly!
It was then time to hang out and eventually head to bed. The next day was our day in Salzburg!
Next up: Day 6 - Salzburg!
Last edited:
sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
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A position that I think the Danube definitely deserves!
Thanks for the compliments!I'm sure you're going to love it! I'm looking forward to hearing about what it's like in the winter, and with the area done up for the holidays!Thank you so much for your updates! We fly out in about a month so I'm beginning to get excited
Sayhello
Thank you so much for your updates! We fly out in about a month so I'm beginning to get excited
Tink1970, please let us know what farms would be on your tour. The apricots sounded marvelous (my Uncle had a huge tree and those were the sweetest ones I ever had) but am curious what's offered during the winter month
sayhello
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ABD actually has a separate itinerary on the website for the Holiday cruises. I don't know if what's out there is different for 2017 than what tink1970 will do next month, but according to that, they get a "Walking Gourmet Tour of Krems An experienced local expert will share the history of Krems, while Guests indulge in the delicacies of the region. Together, families will enjoy local food specialties. In addition, adults will sample wine, apricot brandy and liqueurs from a private Wachau distillery."Tink1970, please let us know what farms would be on your tour. The apricots sounded marvelous (my Uncle had a huge tree and those were the sweetest ones I ever had) but am curious what's offered during the winter month
You can find that here: https://www.adventuresbydisney.com/europe/river-cruise-holiday/daily-itinerary/melk-abbey-tour-east/
Sayhello
ETA: OMG, I didn't realize the Holiday cruises include this:
Vienna Boys Choir
Enjoy a performance of the Vienna Boys Choir—the most famous boys' choir in the world—at the chapel in the Hofburg Palace. With soprano and alto singers from Austria and across Europe, this choir produces some of the sweetest sounds you'll ever hear.
@tink1970 I sure hope that's on *your* itinerary!! That would be amazing!
Last edited:
tink1970
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The Vienna Boys Choir is what got my husband literally and figuratively onboard with this trip. I know ABD reserves the right to make itinerary changes but he realllly wants to hear them so fingers crossed!
@walnut611- there is the gourmet walking tour of Krem as @sayhello mentioned on Day 5 as well as "Danube Cultural Activities" which include marmalade making and wine and juice tasting (also Day 5) listed in our Daily Activities Planner.
Our box came today and it's a bit exciting. I need to start shopping for warmer clothes-just returned to NYC and realized what a Floridian I am
@walnut611- there is the gourmet walking tour of Krem as @sayhello mentioned on Day 5 as well as "Danube Cultural Activities" which include marmalade making and wine and juice tasting (also Day 5) listed in our Daily Activities Planner.
Our box came today and it's a bit exciting. I need to start shopping for warmer clothes-just returned to NYC and realized what a Floridian I am
sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
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Day 6 – Salzburg!
So today was our day-long trip to Salzburg! Salzburg was the only destination we went to that wasn’t close by where we docked. It took us a good 2 hours to get there, with a “comfort stop” on the way.
This morning I realized yet another “advantage” of a regular ABD over the river cruise. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more and more susceptible to car-sickness. I use the patch and sea bands, mostly, and occasionally meds (although I hate how those make me feel). So whenever I do an ABD, I make sure to let the ABD Guides know that I get car-sick, and they’ve always made sure to save me a seat at the front of the bus. And, honestly, on most of the ABD’s I’ve been on, people kind of settle into “their place” on the bus on the first day, and go back to those seats for the rest of the trip.
On the river cruise, you couldn’t really do that. The Adventure Guides didn’t know who was going to be on what bus until folks got there. Nor did we know who would be our Adventure Guides until we got to the bus. And since the makeup of the group changed for every excursion, there was no defining of who sat where.
For the river cruise, most of the bus trips were pretty short and mostly city roads, so it wasn’t so much of an issue. But I still made sure to get to the bus early enough to get a seat at the front of the bus. But this day, where we had a long drive ahead of us into mountainous terrain, of course, was the day I ended up running late. By the time I got to the bus, there was nothing left but seats at the back. I looked around disappointedly, replying to someone’s question that I tried to sit near the front of the bus due to car sickness. As I turned resignedly to go to the back of the bus, one of the Junior Adventurers turned to her father & said “We can go to the back, Dad.” I asked her if she was sure, and she smiled & said of course. That was *such* a sweet thing for her to do! I was able to make it all the way to Salzburg without getting ill! When we got to Salzburg, I thanked her again, and then managed an aside to her father to ask if it was OK if I bought her something, like maybe some chocolate, for being so sweet. He gladly gave his approval. So it all turned out well, but I really prefer not to have to worry about it… Ah, well!
Anyway, back to the trip. There were two choices of morning excursions in Salzburg. One was to go to Mondsee, where several parts of “The Sound of Music” were filmed, including the basilica of Mondsee, where the wedding scene was filmed. The second choice was a visit to the Hallein Salt Mines. I’d heard a lot of good things about the Salt Mine tour, although I’d tried to avoid too much detail of what it entailed so I could be surprised. So, as you can probably tell, I chose the Salt Mine.
Our comfort stop was actually in Mondsee, at a seriously nice rest stop above the town. It rained quite a bit, on and off during our drive, but the rain had stopped for a while during our rest stop. Mondsee, at least from above, is very pastoral and beautiful.
Here’s a couple of photos I took from the rest stop.
My reflection in the wall of windows on the balcony of the rest stop.
I guess calling this Mondsee Lake would be repetitive, since Mondsee means "Moon Lake". It was green and gorgeous.
When we got to the Salt Mine, they issued everyone “miner’s outfits” that we put on over our clothes. There were several reasons for this, I’m sure. One, it just made for a fun sense of “group” when we were all fitted out in these funny matching outfits. It also helped keep us warm, as the mines are consistently between 44 to 50 degrees F. It was quite a contrast to how hot it had been outside. And thirdly, it helped protect our clothes during an activity we did later on during the tour.
Here we are in our lovely miners’ costumes!
You can see how cloudy it still was as we lined up to start the tour.
We all got on a little train-like conveyance that took us deep into the mine. (I assume this is one of the ways the miners got into the mines.) It was kind of fun! Here’s a photo of me & DISers pandw (behind me) and others from our group, ready to head into the mine on our little train ride. This was one of 3 photos that I bought from the Salt Mine folks. I’m a sucker for stuff like that!
And here we are, speeding along the tunnels.
Click the thumbnail for a short video of this!
We had tour guides along the way who told us about the Salt Mines, and how they were dug, and the history of the area, etc. This one area, where the sign is, says that it was the Freudenburg tunnel, and was dug by hand in the 17th century!
There were a couple of different areas where they had videos & slide presentations to describe how the mines were worked, and the history of Salzburg and the folks who ran & profited (in the extreme!) from the mines.
Waiting for a presentation.
We actually crossed the border between Austria & Germany while traveling through the mine’s tunnels.
We then were taken to the first of 2 wooden slides. The rails that made up the slides were *very* highly polished, and this was the other reason they had us dress in our funny miners’ costume. The pants were reinforced and quite thick in the butt area, and acted as protection as you slid down the slide in two’s or three’s. It was actually *quite* fun!!
Another of the photos I bought. Looks like we were speeding along at 16.16 KMH. I don't know how fast that is, but it felt *really* fast!
Click the thumbnail for a short video of the slide.
We walked through a couple of areas where they had displays up, explaining more about the mining, which included an interesting video of a clergy/politician (the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg) who made his vast fortune in the Salt Mines, and used a lot of the wealth from the mines to beautify & improve Salzburg. They also had a character of a monk who was apparently *very* clumsy, setting things on fire, etc. It was really interesting, because they played the videos on screens on the wall of the cave, and the characters were projected life size.
After that, we got on a simple wooden barge that took us across an underground lake. It was hard to get pictures of this area, as it was *really* dark.
We then walked a bit more, and did the second slide, which I believe was longer. Still fun!
We went through an area where you could still see the salt embedded in the roof of the tunnels.
We took an escalator back up to the level where the train was, and got back on the train for the return trip out of the mine. They gave us tiny salt containers of salt from the mine.
Once we got back up, and turned in our costumes (and bought pictures if we wanted to) we came out to find that the weather had cleared up considerably while we were in the mines. This is the same view from before we went into the mine. It had been so cloudy, I had no idea this whole beautiful valley was below us!
We then re-boarded our motorcoaches, and headed into the town of Salzburg. We were dropped off, and had a bit of a walk through town to the location where we were having lunch. It was quite a pleasant walk, with several gorgeous views of Salzburg Castle high on a hill overlooking the town.
I’m not sure what this sculpture is supposed to be, but it’s cool.
We all headed to St. Peter Stiftskellar, which is one of the oldest restaurants in Europe. It was originally founded as a dining room to feed the monks in St Peter's abbey in 803 AD, and has been reportedly serving meals ever since. The room we ate in was quite large (and quite lovely!) We’d met up with the folks who went to Mondsee, and all of us ate at the same time in this lovely room.
The service seemed to be rather overwhelmed. They gave us dishes of vegetables and potatoes, but there really wasn’t much in the dishes, and there wasn’t enough to go around. We requested more, and it took them forever to get them. I managed to knock over my glass (I can't remember at this point if it was wine or water, but I'm afraid it may have been wine) and so I needed a new plate. We told multiple servers, multiple times. One of the Adventure Guides eventually had to go and get me a new plate. Considering that this was not the first ABD river cruise to eat here, it just seemed a bit odd that they acted like they hadn't been expecting us. Oh, well. The main dish was yet another platter filled with tons of meat. There was chicken schnitzel, ground veal patties and pork knuckle. It was all very good, but, again, I think the schnitzel was the winner!
We had a traditional sacher torte for dessert.
Once we finished lunch, we gathered outside in the square to meet up with our tour guides for the walking tour of Salzburg. I guess we were a bit early, because the guide for our group told us it would be a while before the tour left, and that we should go check out the graveyard out behind St. Peter’s in the meanwhile, as it was quite lovely. It really was a very cool graveyard, with very ornate wrought iron markers and tons of flowers. It was very pleasant to walk through, and take photos of the graveyard.
We finally met back up with our tour guide, who was dressed in a traditional Austrian Dirndl Costume.
She walked us around the main square in Salzburg, and pointed out to us the Statue of the Virgin Mary in front of the Salzburg Cathedral. The Cathedral had been built by the very wealthy Prince Archbishop of Salzburg, and had a lot of gaudy, more secular decorations, including a large golden crown over the entrance. Someone decided rather than remove the crown, they would place a statue of the Virgin Mary in such a way so that, as you entered the square through an archway, the golden crown appears to be placed on Mary’s head. It’s a very cool illusion!
We ended up the tour in the square where Mozart’s birthplace is. Our Guide spoke about Mozart for a bit, and then we were set loose for some time on our own, and instructed to return to that same area at a specific time to move on to the next part of our excursion.
There was a road with tons of shops that branched off from that location, so I went off in search of a Dirndl apron, that I still have plans to make into something I can display on my wall (some day!). I also bought a couple of authentic Mozart balls, which are *delicious* chocolate & marzipan balls of amazement, wrapped in foil, that originated in a shop in Salzburg called “Fürst”. They had a small shop in the area.
After some more shopping & wandering around, I went back to the meeting spot, and we headed off to walk over to – Mirabell Gardens! Mirabell Gardens is the place where they filmed Maria & the kids performing “Do Re Mi” in “The Sound of Music”. Folks were getting their photos taken on the rim of the fountain the kids marched around, and some had their photos taken on the steps where the song ends. There were a billion people on the steps, so I was happy just to get a shot on the fountain with @pandw and Daniel our Adventure Guide.
Group shot with Salzburg Castle in the background.
Just before we went out to explore the Gardens on our own, I went up to the lovely young Junior Adventurer who had given up her seat on the bus for me. I told her Thanks once again, and how much it meant to me that she’d been so nice, and gave her the Mozart balls. I hope she enjoyed them! (I made sure to give her more than one, just *in case* she wanted to share with her sister.)
I wandered around at that point, taking pictures of the lovely Gardens. It was very warm at this point, and you could see people kind of drooping.
But they were quite lovely gardens.
Continued in next post.
So today was our day-long trip to Salzburg! Salzburg was the only destination we went to that wasn’t close by where we docked. It took us a good 2 hours to get there, with a “comfort stop” on the way.
This morning I realized yet another “advantage” of a regular ABD over the river cruise. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more and more susceptible to car-sickness. I use the patch and sea bands, mostly, and occasionally meds (although I hate how those make me feel). So whenever I do an ABD, I make sure to let the ABD Guides know that I get car-sick, and they’ve always made sure to save me a seat at the front of the bus. And, honestly, on most of the ABD’s I’ve been on, people kind of settle into “their place” on the bus on the first day, and go back to those seats for the rest of the trip.
On the river cruise, you couldn’t really do that. The Adventure Guides didn’t know who was going to be on what bus until folks got there. Nor did we know who would be our Adventure Guides until we got to the bus. And since the makeup of the group changed for every excursion, there was no defining of who sat where.
For the river cruise, most of the bus trips were pretty short and mostly city roads, so it wasn’t so much of an issue. But I still made sure to get to the bus early enough to get a seat at the front of the bus. But this day, where we had a long drive ahead of us into mountainous terrain, of course, was the day I ended up running late. By the time I got to the bus, there was nothing left but seats at the back. I looked around disappointedly, replying to someone’s question that I tried to sit near the front of the bus due to car sickness. As I turned resignedly to go to the back of the bus, one of the Junior Adventurers turned to her father & said “We can go to the back, Dad.” I asked her if she was sure, and she smiled & said of course. That was *such* a sweet thing for her to do! I was able to make it all the way to Salzburg without getting ill! When we got to Salzburg, I thanked her again, and then managed an aside to her father to ask if it was OK if I bought her something, like maybe some chocolate, for being so sweet. He gladly gave his approval. So it all turned out well, but I really prefer not to have to worry about it… Ah, well!
Anyway, back to the trip. There were two choices of morning excursions in Salzburg. One was to go to Mondsee, where several parts of “The Sound of Music” were filmed, including the basilica of Mondsee, where the wedding scene was filmed. The second choice was a visit to the Hallein Salt Mines. I’d heard a lot of good things about the Salt Mine tour, although I’d tried to avoid too much detail of what it entailed so I could be surprised. So, as you can probably tell, I chose the Salt Mine.
Our comfort stop was actually in Mondsee, at a seriously nice rest stop above the town. It rained quite a bit, on and off during our drive, but the rain had stopped for a while during our rest stop. Mondsee, at least from above, is very pastoral and beautiful.
Here’s a couple of photos I took from the rest stop.
My reflection in the wall of windows on the balcony of the rest stop.
I guess calling this Mondsee Lake would be repetitive, since Mondsee means "Moon Lake". It was green and gorgeous.
When we got to the Salt Mine, they issued everyone “miner’s outfits” that we put on over our clothes. There were several reasons for this, I’m sure. One, it just made for a fun sense of “group” when we were all fitted out in these funny matching outfits. It also helped keep us warm, as the mines are consistently between 44 to 50 degrees F. It was quite a contrast to how hot it had been outside. And thirdly, it helped protect our clothes during an activity we did later on during the tour.
Here we are in our lovely miners’ costumes!
You can see how cloudy it still was as we lined up to start the tour.
We all got on a little train-like conveyance that took us deep into the mine. (I assume this is one of the ways the miners got into the mines.) It was kind of fun! Here’s a photo of me & DISers pandw (behind me) and others from our group, ready to head into the mine on our little train ride. This was one of 3 photos that I bought from the Salt Mine folks. I’m a sucker for stuff like that!
And here we are, speeding along the tunnels.
Click the thumbnail for a short video of this!
We had tour guides along the way who told us about the Salt Mines, and how they were dug, and the history of the area, etc. This one area, where the sign is, says that it was the Freudenburg tunnel, and was dug by hand in the 17th century!
There were a couple of different areas where they had videos & slide presentations to describe how the mines were worked, and the history of Salzburg and the folks who ran & profited (in the extreme!) from the mines.
Waiting for a presentation.
We actually crossed the border between Austria & Germany while traveling through the mine’s tunnels.
We then were taken to the first of 2 wooden slides. The rails that made up the slides were *very* highly polished, and this was the other reason they had us dress in our funny miners’ costume. The pants were reinforced and quite thick in the butt area, and acted as protection as you slid down the slide in two’s or three’s. It was actually *quite* fun!!
Another of the photos I bought. Looks like we were speeding along at 16.16 KMH. I don't know how fast that is, but it felt *really* fast!
Click the thumbnail for a short video of the slide.
We walked through a couple of areas where they had displays up, explaining more about the mining, which included an interesting video of a clergy/politician (the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg) who made his vast fortune in the Salt Mines, and used a lot of the wealth from the mines to beautify & improve Salzburg. They also had a character of a monk who was apparently *very* clumsy, setting things on fire, etc. It was really interesting, because they played the videos on screens on the wall of the cave, and the characters were projected life size.
After that, we got on a simple wooden barge that took us across an underground lake. It was hard to get pictures of this area, as it was *really* dark.
We then walked a bit more, and did the second slide, which I believe was longer. Still fun!
We went through an area where you could still see the salt embedded in the roof of the tunnels.
We took an escalator back up to the level where the train was, and got back on the train for the return trip out of the mine. They gave us tiny salt containers of salt from the mine.
Once we got back up, and turned in our costumes (and bought pictures if we wanted to) we came out to find that the weather had cleared up considerably while we were in the mines. This is the same view from before we went into the mine. It had been so cloudy, I had no idea this whole beautiful valley was below us!
We then re-boarded our motorcoaches, and headed into the town of Salzburg. We were dropped off, and had a bit of a walk through town to the location where we were having lunch. It was quite a pleasant walk, with several gorgeous views of Salzburg Castle high on a hill overlooking the town.
I’m not sure what this sculpture is supposed to be, but it’s cool.
We all headed to St. Peter Stiftskellar, which is one of the oldest restaurants in Europe. It was originally founded as a dining room to feed the monks in St Peter's abbey in 803 AD, and has been reportedly serving meals ever since. The room we ate in was quite large (and quite lovely!) We’d met up with the folks who went to Mondsee, and all of us ate at the same time in this lovely room.
The service seemed to be rather overwhelmed. They gave us dishes of vegetables and potatoes, but there really wasn’t much in the dishes, and there wasn’t enough to go around. We requested more, and it took them forever to get them. I managed to knock over my glass (I can't remember at this point if it was wine or water, but I'm afraid it may have been wine) and so I needed a new plate. We told multiple servers, multiple times. One of the Adventure Guides eventually had to go and get me a new plate. Considering that this was not the first ABD river cruise to eat here, it just seemed a bit odd that they acted like they hadn't been expecting us. Oh, well. The main dish was yet another platter filled with tons of meat. There was chicken schnitzel, ground veal patties and pork knuckle. It was all very good, but, again, I think the schnitzel was the winner!
We had a traditional sacher torte for dessert.
Once we finished lunch, we gathered outside in the square to meet up with our tour guides for the walking tour of Salzburg. I guess we were a bit early, because the guide for our group told us it would be a while before the tour left, and that we should go check out the graveyard out behind St. Peter’s in the meanwhile, as it was quite lovely. It really was a very cool graveyard, with very ornate wrought iron markers and tons of flowers. It was very pleasant to walk through, and take photos of the graveyard.
We finally met back up with our tour guide, who was dressed in a traditional Austrian Dirndl Costume.
She walked us around the main square in Salzburg, and pointed out to us the Statue of the Virgin Mary in front of the Salzburg Cathedral. The Cathedral had been built by the very wealthy Prince Archbishop of Salzburg, and had a lot of gaudy, more secular decorations, including a large golden crown over the entrance. Someone decided rather than remove the crown, they would place a statue of the Virgin Mary in such a way so that, as you entered the square through an archway, the golden crown appears to be placed on Mary’s head. It’s a very cool illusion!
We ended up the tour in the square where Mozart’s birthplace is. Our Guide spoke about Mozart for a bit, and then we were set loose for some time on our own, and instructed to return to that same area at a specific time to move on to the next part of our excursion.
There was a road with tons of shops that branched off from that location, so I went off in search of a Dirndl apron, that I still have plans to make into something I can display on my wall (some day!). I also bought a couple of authentic Mozart balls, which are *delicious* chocolate & marzipan balls of amazement, wrapped in foil, that originated in a shop in Salzburg called “Fürst”. They had a small shop in the area.
After some more shopping & wandering around, I went back to the meeting spot, and we headed off to walk over to – Mirabell Gardens! Mirabell Gardens is the place where they filmed Maria & the kids performing “Do Re Mi” in “The Sound of Music”. Folks were getting their photos taken on the rim of the fountain the kids marched around, and some had their photos taken on the steps where the song ends. There were a billion people on the steps, so I was happy just to get a shot on the fountain with @pandw and Daniel our Adventure Guide.
Group shot with Salzburg Castle in the background.
Just before we went out to explore the Gardens on our own, I went up to the lovely young Junior Adventurer who had given up her seat on the bus for me. I told her Thanks once again, and how much it meant to me that she’d been so nice, and gave her the Mozart balls. I hope she enjoyed them! (I made sure to give her more than one, just *in case* she wanted to share with her sister.)
I wandered around at that point, taking pictures of the lovely Gardens. It was very warm at this point, and you could see people kind of drooping.
But they were quite lovely gardens.
Continued in next post.
Last edited:
sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
- Messages
- 16,823
Adventure Guide Zoe near the infamous steps.
Eventually, I made it outside the gardens to our meeting spot. I’d checked with Daniel about the location of a bathroom, and he indicated they were outside near the meeting spot, so I managed to head out there & use the facilities before the lines started forming.
After a bit of a *warm* trek to our motorcoach, our Guides, Daniel & Katerina, handed out to us small Mozart balls. They weren’t the large official ones made by Fürst, but they were very yummy! (And a bit melty!)
They had also gotten some Manner bars for us, which are wafer cookies, and also extremely delicious!
We then settled in for the long drive back to Linz and the AmaViola.
It had been a long day, and I didn’t really feel like doing much after dinner, so I wandered the top deck for a while, and took some photos, and then headed to bed.
Next up: Day 7 - Passau, Germany!
Sayhello
Eventually, I made it outside the gardens to our meeting spot. I’d checked with Daniel about the location of a bathroom, and he indicated they were outside near the meeting spot, so I managed to head out there & use the facilities before the lines started forming.
After a bit of a *warm* trek to our motorcoach, our Guides, Daniel & Katerina, handed out to us small Mozart balls. They weren’t the large official ones made by Fürst, but they were very yummy! (And a bit melty!)
They had also gotten some Manner bars for us, which are wafer cookies, and also extremely delicious!
We then settled in for the long drive back to Linz and the AmaViola.
It had been a long day, and I didn’t really feel like doing much after dinner, so I wandered the top deck for a while, and took some photos, and then headed to bed.
Next up: Day 7 - Passau, Germany!
Sayhello
Last edited:
tink1970
DCL Platinum
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2012
- Messages
- 3,949
Good to see a new update! You really described the salt mines well, now I'm kind of bummed I didn't go, although Mondsee was beautiful, especially with a little snow. We were underwhelmed with the service at St Stiftskeller, which was impressive since our little group of 20-something was there a good 30-45 minutes before the salt mine groups. We couldn't take photos at the do-re-me stairs, either. Not because of crowds but they were roped off for safety (I guess they get icy). Some other groups went around the barrier but our ABD group was very obedient
Thanks for the photos of gardens with flowers...we sort of had to imagine it in December
Thanks for the photos of gardens with flowers...we sort of had to imagine it in December
sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
- Messages
- 16,823
Wow. So it seems like the bad service at Stiftskellar is just the way they are. Amazing they've been open for so long!Good to see a new update! You really described the salt mines well, now I'm kind of bummed I didn't go, although Mondsee was beautiful, especially with a little snow. We were underwhelmed with the service at St Stiftskeller, which was impressive since our little group of 20-something was there a good 30-45 minutes before the salt mine groups. We couldn't take photos at the do-re-me stairs, either. Not because of crowds but they were roped off for safety (I guess they get icy). Some other groups went around the barrier but our ABD group was very obedient
Thanks for the photos of gardens with flowers...we sort of had to imagine it in December
That makes sense about the steps being icy. I can't imagine the gardens with no flowers. But the pics you posted of Mondsee were gorgeous.
Sayhello
One thing I learned from our trips to Europe is that meal service is used to relax as a diner and speed of service is not as important to the locals. It seems that dining is more a time to socialize and in years past smoke and sip wine than refuel with food. I know at night when you sit at a table that table is "yours" for the evening until you motion for the check rather than how many times that one table can be "turned" in the evening. I think it is just a difference in social norms just like tipping. I do relate to the feeling of frustration we feel when we travel and time in an area is limited and there is so much to see and do.
sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
- Messages
- 16,823
Oh, I totally agree with you. If you're in a rush, do NOT do a sit down meal in Europe!! It can be very nice to dine that way, slowly & with conversation. But this was bad even by European standards!
It wasn't just the slowness. There was a sense of chaos that was a bit unsettling. Sayhello
.......then that experience must have been very frustrating. Relaxed is one thing but chaos is annoying. By the way Sayhello I would like to hire you to travel with us as our private photographer if we ever hit the lottery. Love the pictures ( as always).
CaliforniaGirl09
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2009
- Messages
- 4,061
I agree with Carpenta! So happy we are traveling with you to China--planning to take advantage of those camera skills loving the report (as usual too).
loving the report (as usual too).-
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