Netherlands, Germany and Austria
by Mary Ann Olson
River cruising on the Main, Danube and Rhine, we pass hillside vineyards and medieval architecture on our journey through the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. On either side of the river banks, we pass villages and towns that have existed for ages. River cruising is slow and relaxing as if gliding along on glass. Passengers sit in the front extensive lounge area, surrounded by glass windows on three sides or on top of the deck for the ultimate views.
River cruising on the Aria, one of the river ships with Grand Circle River Cruise, we traversed from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Vienna, Austria. Staff greeted us at the Holland International Airport and transported the passengers by bus to the Aria, our home for the next 14 days. Onboard, staff immediately escorted us to our cabins. The size comfortably slept two people with ample storage, desks, in-room bathroom and Wi-Fi connection. Cabins had floor to ceiling glass doors and balcony, a large viewing window or two small side-by-side windows. The river ship’s top Sun Deck by the bridge provided outdoor seating with fantastic views. At times, the captain needed to close it because of the heights of some bridges. A library, lounge with 24-hour coffee, cappuccino and tea service, spa with fitness center, a sauna, jacuzzi and messages invigorated and relaxed all 146 guests. Passengers on this cruise were United States citizens. Friendships developed over the next 14 days.
On the Aria, all meals of 14 breakfasts, 14 lunches and 14 dinners included wine, beer or soda. A cold/hot buffet was available for all meals and the chef prepared a ‘local specialty’ dinner in the evening. Open seating was the standard in the restaurant. The four courses served at lunch and dinner included soup, salad, entree and dessert. The servers were very attentive to the needs of the guests and always wished us a “Bon appetite” before the entre. While on the ship, a tour of the galley offered guests the opportunity to see where the food was prepared. It was amazing to see the small area where all the chefs prepared, plated and served the meals. A tour of the pilot room was very informative.
The Great Rivers Cruise began in Amsterdam and cruised to Cologne, Koblenz, Heidelberg and Wertheim, a fairy-tale town where the Main and Tauber Rivers meet. Onward, we cruised to Wurzburg on the Main in Bavaria, walking the bridge with wine in hand and Bamberg, a city on the Main River in Bavaria where the onions are huge and the cold smoky bacon beer was a welcome delight. Nuremberg explored the past and tragic time in history. Regensburg, Passau, and Vienna completed our cruise. Optional tours to Rothenburg on the Tauber River, the Bavaria: Baroque & Beer, with beer, pretzels and mustard and cruising thru the beautiful Danube Gorge to the Weltenburg Monastery provided more opportunities to explore the region. In Melk, a bus transported us to the magnificent Abbey and Baroque Church. Sailing through the Wachau Valley we reached Vienna, an Imperial City, for a Musical Tour of Vienna.
This is not a trip for individuals who have great difficulty walking. Some individuals used scooters and walkers and were accustomed to the cobblestone streets and stairways. During the evenings, we sailed the rivers to a new destination and the tours would begin. Some tours began at the water edge and was a half-day trek through the medieval cities walking on the old cobblestone streets always watching out for bicyclists. Other tours required a comfortable coach ride to the sights. The Grand Cruises employs four Program Directors, men, and women from the area where they have lived. They are very knowledgeable about the history of the country and city, the architecture, museums, churches, castles, UNESCO sites, city life, and stories told over the ages. Some cities provided additional city guides and we met people who lived in the city and they spoke with us about their lives, the war, and refugee crisis – some rather controversial topics. The educational focus of the Grand Circle Cruise Line makes it a leader in river cruising worldwide and the recipient of numerous awards. Every Program Director had approximately 25 guests and were given headsets to hear the director while walking in the cities.
The Rhine River journey from Koblenz, Germany to Ruedeshiem, Germany revealed many castles, 24 in all. The 760 mile voyage up the Rhine River moved at 9½ mph upstream. Each village had a castle on a high hilltop for protection in ages past and a church or two. Along the river, there appeared fortresses, ruins, castles and the legendary Lorelei statue and rocks.
Locks are constructed throughout the rivers. These locks are tall concrete slabs in which the river cruisers and cargo barges slowly maneuver through. There are exactly 12 inches on each side of the river cruiser to the walls. Large doors to the front and back are raised or lowered allowing water to fill or empty from inside the lock. The highest lock on our journey was 85 ft. The locks prevent flooding of the towns along the rivers.
The cruise offered multiple opportunities for enrichment learning. Speakers, singers, dancers and a glass blowing demonstration entertained guests while in port before leaving and in the evening, a crew show on the lounge floor demonstrated additional talents of the crew.
The Grand Circle Cruise Lines has the Grand Circle Foundation founded by Alan & Harriet in 1992 as a means to give back to the world we travel. More than 200 schools in 60 countries have received part of the $100 million dollars donated. Museums have received pledges to purchase artifacts for visitors to view.
Private Alsace Villages and Wine Tour from Breisach on your Rhine River Cruise
If You Go:
♦ Check the seasonal weather for packing appropriate attire. Wear comfortable walking shoes.
♦ Pack one suitcase and one carry-on to avoid additional airfares. Pack ‘outfits’ which interchange.
♦ Carr-yon medications, small umbrella, and pashmina to use for warmth or cover.
♦ Contact your credit/debit card companies and inform them of your travel. Secure some cash of the countries you will be visiting before leaving on vacation.
♦ Contact the Travelers Bureau or Chamber of Commerce for additional city information in you are extending your trip.
Mary Ann Olson is a published journalist, photographer, travel writer and musician. She is a member of the Professional Writers’ Alliance and the International Travel Writer and Photographers Association. Mary Ann provides great insight into the culture, music and arts in the countries visited. Wine and Food are a passion and a focus of her travel writing. She shares her travels at I Write About Travel.com.
All photos by Mary Ann Olson:
Aria Grand Circle Cruises
Meals in the Dining Room
Castle along Rivers
Gorge on Danube River
Locks along River
Town along the River
The heavy wooden door closed and I stood surrounded by silence. Flying anywhere from Australia takes a long time, and after a night and a day and a night I was exhausted. Tired and befuddled, I emerged into the chaos of Rome. I finally found a taxi, with a driver who careened down tiny streets where footpaths were more a suggestion than reality.
Rooms may be simple, but this does not imply austerity. Convents and monasteries are often to be found in Renaissance palazzos, Medieval walled towns or set amongst lavender fields and vineyards. Many hide artistic treasures; a painting by Rubens, or walls adorned by Fra Angelico. Each religious house has its own character, such as the monastery Convento Sant’Agostino in San Gimigiano which refused entry to HRH The Prince of Wales when he arrived after closing time. (Although probably apocryphal, the story alone makes the place worth a detour.)
Rome boasts a convent or monastery in whatever quarter of the city you choose to stay. The rooms of Domus Carmelitana overlook the Castel Sant’ Angelo, while from those of Casa da Accoglienze Tabor you can see the Vatican. Near the Colsseum, the Cistercian Monastery of Santa Croce is in a 10th C building. Some of the balconies overlook ancient ruins and archaeological digs.
In Florence, the Casa Santo Nome di Jesu is in a 15th C palazzo. I reached my room via a marble staircase, complete with trompe l’oil ceiling of putti and plaster relief. The window overlooked a large garden, complete with kiwi fruit, persimmons, pomegranates, grape vines and wisterias, with trunks as thick as my body. The arbour was a perfect place to sit and pass the afternoon when exhausted by sightseeing.
Most convents provide breakfast – fresh rolls and strong coffee are a staple – and often dinner as well. In some, monks still make wine to recipes centuries-old. My first time in Venice, my choice lay at the end of a maze of cobble-stoned side streets and piazzas. The Instituto San Giuseppe stands beside a canal, with a door opening directly onto the water. As I crossed a small limestone bridge a gondola came to a boisterous stop to collect passengers.
My room was simple and clean. The windows opened onto a terracotta skyline, with clothes strung on a line between two buildings. Across a flower-strewn courtyard a woman in black was busy in her kitchen, filling the air with delicious aromas. Every evening an extended family materialised for dinner. Geraniums hung everywhere in pots. In the distance a camponile tolled away the hours while towering (at a slight angle) over the other buildings,
The next essential is catching a boat from the airport to the city, either on the public vaporetto, or by a much faster private boat. Our vessel was all streamlined wood, the skipper as sleek and polished as his vessel. Despite a complete lack of Italian, as soon as my husband began admiring the boat (being a long-time sailor himself) the skipper happily displayed the boat’s paces. As the rain finally poured down and visibility vanished, he raced along the narrow channel to the city, overtaking every other boat in a shower of spray.
Next came a gentle cruise through a network of tiny canals. Some were barely wide enough for the boat, the wash lapping against the buildings and doors in a moss-tipped waterline. Crumbling buildings complete with Juliette-balconies and geraniums stood tranquilly along the canal, as they have for centuries. Seagulls called overhead, bridges arched gracefully over the water, and the chaos of travel and Italian airports floated away. We even passed the gondolier repair shop on the Rio San Trovaso, one of the few remaining squeri in Venice.
The entrance to the convent Canossian Institute San Trovaso lies on a pretty canal, devoid of tourists. Being in the Dorsoduro area of Venice, the streets are far less crowded than the more popular areas, locals outnumber the tourists, and at night the area is quiet. An elderly nun opened the door, and we walked into tranquility. She led us through an inner courtyard, where some other guests sat sipping wine as their kids feasted on gelato.
Convents and monastery are not only in cities, but also in idyllic countryside settings. Stays are not restricted to Italy, and some are to be found in the most unexpected of places. An example is the 12th century monastery Kriva Palanka, hidden in the Osogovo Mountains of Macedonia [TOP PHOTO]. It is worth a visit for the medieval frescoes alone.
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In March 1941, the Germans forced all Krakow Jews to resettle in the newly created ghetto of Kazimierz. The Nazis liquidated it only two years later on March 13, 1943. Most of the 17,000 inhabitants perished in the Nazi concentration camps. Today Krakow has only about 200 Jewish residents.
Kazimirez is not beautiful; many of its buildings are run down. A few night clubs have emerged around the Square. We enjoyed just sitting and people watching… modern day residents and a few Jews dressed in shawls and yarmulkes. And, of course, the foreign tourists.
At Szeroka Street 40, we entered the Remuh Cemetery. A few worshipers were praying or cleaning grave sites. The cemetery had been widely used from 1551 to 1800. It has hundreds of old tombstones, dating mostly from the Renaissance…still readable.
The next thing on our list, however, was to sample some of the local food. There was no shortage of Jewish themed restaurants and shops.
Another interesting feature are the walls in the prayer hall. Prayers have been painted on the walls for worshipers who couldn’t afford prayer books. Most readings have even been translated into English. A plaque outside states the synagogue was constructed in 1638, so there is some serious history attached to this place of worship.
In addition to the Jewish element, Christianity also had a role in Kazimirez. The Church of Corpus Christi has an awesome historical interior. There are stalls going back to 1629, the altarpiece of 1634, and the ornate mid-18th-century pulpit.
Those simple early ninots have evolved into magnificent wax and polystrene figurines that require such precise skills that the artists who create them now have their own guild, The Guild of Falleros Artists; at least two schools who specialize in training them; two museums dedicated to their work and a part of Valencia known as Cuidad del Artisto Fallera (the City of Falleros Artists) where many of them have full-time workshops.
One of the largest workshops belonged to Manolo Garcia whose team had been selected to create the 2016 fallas monument representing the City of Valencia displayed in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento; the one subjected to the blasts of the daily Mascleta of gunpowder explosion and traditionally the last fallas to get burned in the fire on March 19th.
The scale model and the massive pieces of the scene in the workshop did not do justice to the full scale of the monument as it was being constructed. Because of its sheer size, much of the actual carpentry happened in the plaza where the public could watch its daily progress. The monument, called Fallas of the World, consisted of a tall wooden human figure surrounded by world “monuments” that had been part of previous years’ fallas structures – the EIffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Concorde jet, the statues of David and Moses.
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The sun is just setting behind the Serranía de Ronda (Ronda Mountain Range) and an hour and a half later, we arrive, relieved and unscathed.
Ronda is one of the oldest cities in Spain first settled by the Celts around the 10th century BCE as Arunda. The town continued to thrive under the Romans as did the nearby settlement of Acinipo originally founded by the Phoenicians. Today, ruins of a vast Roman theatre and thermal baths dated to the 1st century can be visited about 12 miles northwest from Ronda in the ancient city of Acinipo or, as it is locally known, Ronda La Vieja (Old Ronda.)
Ronda is the birthplace of the highly gifted 9th century Muslim Andalusí physician, mathematician, and engineer known as Abbas ibn Firnas. Of Berber descent, Firnas was also an illustrious inventor creating such ingenious devices as a water clock, a mechanized planetarium, an armillary sphere, and even a flying machine (for this reason, he is known as the “father of aviation.”) Firnas was also skilled in astronomy, music, and poetry as well as being responsible for introducing glass-making techniques to al-Andalus (Andalusia during Muslim Spain.) Today, he has an airport in northern Baghdad and a lunar crater named in his honour as well as a bridge in Córdoba where he died in 887.
The town of Ronda is connected by three bridges that cross the deep canyon adding to the city’s remarkable features. The Roman Bridge is the oldest dating to the 11th century. Although it is Arabic in origin, it was likely constructed over an older Roman bridge. After the Christian conquest it was renamed Puente de San Miguel (St. Michaels Bridge.) Not far away is the early 17th century Puente Viejo (Old Bridge) and smallest of the three. As it was built over the ruins of an old Arab bridge, it is also known as Puente Árabe.
After crossing this bridge, I wander the charming old Moorish quarter with its winding pedestrian streets, white-washed houses, and historic squares. Locally known as La Ciudad (The City), the old quarter is situated on the south side of the gorge as opposed to the newer city on the north. Not for from Puente Nuevo in the historic quarter is an interesting gate known as Arco de Felipe V (Arch of Philip V.) This emblematic arch or gate, crowned by three pinnacles, was reconstructed in 1742 from the old Arab gate that provided access to the medina by the southwest.
The first Moorish site on my itinerary is the 13th century Bańos Arabes (Arab Baths) located near the Arco de Felipe V. The public baths were traditionally situated outside the walled city where visitors, adhering to Muslim customs, cleansed and purified themselves before entering the city. Typical of this period, the Moorish architecture displayed the traditional Islamic-shaped supporting horseshoe arches and domed ceiling embellished with skylights in the shape of stars that magnificently illuminated the room. Used until the beginning of the 17th century, these Arab Baths are considered as the best preserved in the Iberian Peninsula and possibly Europe.
Next I decide to visit the 14th century Alminar (minaret) of San Sebastián in the old Moorish quarter. The impressive square tower is all that remains of a mosque that once stood here before it was destroyed and rebuilt by the Christians. The lower part is clearly Moorish in architecture while the top part was added by the Christians to house the bell tower of the San Sebastián Church that also once stood here.
Near the minaret is the early 14th century Casa de Mondagrón that is also well worth visiting. The stone palace, promoted as “probably the most important civil monument in Ronda”, was the former residence of a king and its last Muslim governor. In 1485, Ronda was captured by the Christians and a few years later, King Fernando and Queen Isabella also made this palace their home. Although restored and enlarged during the 18th century, the exterior pales in comparison to the beauty of its interior adorned with arched patios, ceramic tiles, marble columns, balconies overlooking at inner courtyards, decorated fountains and water gardens. Today it also houses an auditorium and a municipal museum on the second floor.
Ronda is also the birthplace of bullfighting. Not only was the first professional bullfighter born here in 1754 but it is also home of the oldest and largest bullfighting ring in the country dated to 1785. Another unique and unusual aspect of Ronda is their fascination with bandoleros (bandits); particularly those between the 18th and 19th centuries.
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