To Amsterdam and finish

The final day was spent sailing through the flatlands of the Netherlands, with windmills as the main attraction. At Kinderdijk, a World Heritage site, there are 19 historic windmills. TSH went on a walking tour of some of the windmills, including visiting one that at one time had housed a family of 15 people.

The word amongst the Embla passengers is that the Danube below Budapest is still closed to help with the search for the bodies of the people drowned in the recent collision. Hence ships such as the Viking Lif cannot go south and also cannot go north because of the high water. It is rumoured that passengers have decided to abandon their cruises and return home.

The infrastructure of the Danube/Main/canal/Rhine is not really capable of supporting the amount of traffic it has attracted. A victim of its own success.


The holiday was completed with the KLM flight from Amsterdam to Manchester.

Cologne

The city is dominated by the twin towers of its famous cathedral. However, surprisingly, it also has a lot of Roman ruins, which are to be incorporated into a new museum combining Roman and Jewish cultures. The centre of the city has many stolpersteins, brass plaques in the pavements commemorating those who were killed by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s.

After having an organised tour in the morning Diva and TSH went back into the town centre on foot. This involved walking across the bridge that also carried all of the railway tracks into the station, giving TSH another train photo opportunity. The bridge was festooned with padlocks attached by people who then threw the keys into the river.

The Viking Elba is now sailing through the Netherlands. Flat but no windmills yet.

A few technical problems on the ship. Two power cuts. One whilst TSH was in the shower. No water. Later, general problem with toilets, although that was fixed relatively quickly.

To Cologne

The Embla is now on the Rhine, which is both wider and busier than the Main.  The gorge provided many views of castles which are now either ruins or hotels. Castles thus became as plentiful as churches. TSH also noted that there were railways running along both sides of the river, so the camera was kept busy.

There was a stop for a visit to Marksburg Castle. The weather is much warmer now and Diva was most unimpressed at the climb to the castle in the afternoon heat. She returned to the bus and was very careful to get on one marked with the correct ship, as there were several Viking groups at the castle. When unfamiliar faces started appearing on the bus, she knew that they were on the wrong bus and explained this to them. It turned out that the sign on the bus had been changed whilst she was on there, so she had the humiliation of a group of people explaining to each other that the woman ‘was on the wrong bus’.

TSH thought the visit to the castle was ok but was probably more interesting to people coming from countries where no old castles existed. He would have preferred to stay on the ship to Koblenz and spend time there. This was another occasion when Viking dropped off an excursion from one point and picked them up from another, reducing flexibility for returning to the ship early or late.

There is now a member of Reception staff dedicated to TSH’s cap, which he has so far lost 3 times. Each time, he has thought his holiday to be over and each time he has been very relieved when his personal ‘lost and found’ officer returned it to him. Note from TSH – The story on the cap has had a certain amount of poetic licence added by Diva.

Wertheim

This was the most picturesque town so far – narrow cobbled streets and attractive old buildings. TSH and Diva walked back to the Embla along the riverside.

There is still a great party atmosphere on shore – everyone drinking beer and waving.

Dinner was a ‘typical’ German buffet., although modern-day Germans probably eat the same international food as the rest of us. There was a galley visit afterwards. It is very small and the staff of only 12 are working miracles with such a good variety of food produced in such a small space. Tiny compared with the galley on even the smallest (300 guests) ocean cruise ship. There are about 200 passengers on the Embla.

Maths went better – all correct today.

Germany

Viking Embla has its top deck folded down and this is likely to remain the case for several days. This is not connected with the high water but is normal for the low bridges on this section of the river.

In Bamberg, Diva rebelled against another guided tour, especially since it was one where passengers were to be dropped off at one quay and collected from another. The ship’s record on keeping to such a timetable is not great, because of queues for locks. Diva spent a pleasant morning with a past paper for her maths exam. Scored 86%, which is only 1 mark clear of what she needs, so it was not the best attempt ever – normally she has managed to score 90%+.

TSH went on the organised walking tour of Bamberg which revealed the town to be the prettiest visited on the trip so far. The two hours of free time allowed TSH to wander and make extensive use of his camera. Whilst many places claim to be like Venice but have few waterways Bamberg did at least have a gondolier plying his trade on the river. TSH did not get round to testing the local  smoky beer which is said to taste like liquid bacon.

Embla sailed past a very friendly German town where the locals had obviously enjoyed the beery aspects of the Public Holiday of Ascension Thursday/Father’s Day. There was a group of girls who seemed to be practising their cheer leader routine. Many waved and one woman asked ‘Wovon sind sie hier?’, looking delighted when Diva replied ‘England’.

The visit in Wurzburg was to the residence of a prince-bishop. The outside of the building is not particularly attractive – it looks like a much larger(!!) Buckingham Palace. But the inside is full of art and very elaborate décor, especially the ’mirror cabinet’, which is a small(ish) room lined with mirrors and gilt and paintings.

The passengers now all know that the tragic incident on the Danube in Budapest involved a Viking cruise ship, although no Viking crew or passengers were harmed. River traffic downstream was halted for some time whilst emergency services searched in vain for survivors. The Viking captain has been arrested.

Viking Embla

TSH and Diva have the same cabin as before. Almost the same but the lighting system is different. Lots and lots of switches but this time without labels. And some seem to be interdependent!! The ship layout is identical to the Viking Lif.

The visit to Nuremburg was one of the best so far. Chilling visit to the Nazi rally area, followed by a guided walk around the attractive city centre. It has mostly been rebuilt since the serious bomb damage inflicted by the Allies in WW2. But, like everywhere else on this holiday so far, there is a huge amount of scaffolding and a huge amount of building work.

Before Nuremburg, Regensburg felt like freedom. No tour group. No waiting around. No monotonous guide. No earpieces. Just a stroll round a pleasant town, which is a mixture of a real town with real inhabitants and a number of tourists.

Now that the ship is in Germany, wearing of seat belts is compulsory.

The food on the Embla does not seem to be as good, but maybe that is just a bad first impression after a long tiring day. TSH did not finish his dessert at lunch time – a first for him!!

By moving ships, the opportunity to cruise the Main-Danube canal (a great feat of modern engineering) has been lost. The rest of the canal was mostly navigated by night. This has all been a great source of disappointment to Diva, who had attended a talk about the canal and really wanted to experience it.

Early Disembarkation

The Viking Lif captain has so far had very little communication with the passengers. So when he spoke over the PA system just before lunch, TSH and Diva already knew that there would be no good news. The Danube has risen so far that not only can the Lif not progress further, but it needs to retreat downstream - back towards Passau - to avoid being totally trapped.

So at some time over the next 24 hours, everyone will pack, disembark and transfer to an identical Viking ship which is somewhere around the canal. Tomorrow was to be a highlight for Diva - traversing the many locks linking the Danube with the Rhine, and then an escorted tour to Nuremburg. It is not yet clear what time the transfer will happen or where the new ship will be.

Watch this space!!