Sunday Evening Bavarian Entertainment

Sunday Evening, June 29th 2014

Tonight we had a special Bavarian Evening, beginning with a wonderful dinner (the company was pretty good as well). The duck was amazing, both the pink breast & slow cooked leg!

After the main we were invited up to the lounge for dessert & entertainment by a traditional Bavarian group. 

My photos  are a bit average, not sure if that is due to the poor light (forgot to use the flash) or the wine consumption!

The captain was in a party mood & joined in the fun. He is just 29 yrs old.

The chef is a real comedian & had us laughing as much as the entertainers.

Some random photos:

Regensburg, Bavaria (Germany)

Sunday June 29th 2014

Today the weather forecast was close, but it did rain most of the day!

Today we had a quiet morning, just relaxing until our early lunch at 11am, then our tour to Regensburg began at 12.30pm. In our original itinerary we would have docked in Regensburg, however because of the low water levels in that area we are now in Vilshofin, further South, hence the 1.5hr coach transfer to Regensburg. 

For the first time all trip is was drizzling rain most of the day, however because of the need for rain in the Danube, no one was complaining. Understandibly, there are not as many photos today, especially along the way.

We arrived in Regensburg, were met by our guide & of course taken to the Gothic Cathedral, the centrepiece of this lovely town. 

Next a walking tour of the old town and some interesting stories about the buildings & inhabitants, getting pretty damp in the process as very little shelter around.

No explanation required:

Our tour finished near a lovely coffee/cake/chocolate shop/cafe so you can guess what we did next (needed to warm up & get out of the rain).

This was berries with marshmallow, not cream!

Some photos taken in the shop downstairs.

A stroll around then back to the Cathedral where we met our guide & coach for the trip back to our ship. 

A few facts about Bavaria:

A quick clean up and off to dinner.

More tomorrow as we depart Vilshofin.

Nuremberg & Transfer to AMABella in Vilshofen

Saturday June 28th 2014

Not sure we should even look at the weather forecast anymore as today was warm to hot & mostly sunny!

Well we were all packed up & ready for our excursion to Nuremberg & transfer to our new ship, The AMABella by breakfast time today. Our luggage is being taken by truck to Viloshfin & will be waiting in our cabins when we arrive later this afternoon.

Today our selected excursion was Nuremberg WW11 Sites which covers more than 4 square kilometres & includes the infamous Courtroom 600.

Nuremberg played a pivotal role for the Nazi Party & was thus systematically bombed by the British & US air forces in WW11 & it went on to act as the host of The Nuremberg Trials.

We were collected by coach (the ship was docked in an industrial area a few klms from town) & taken on a tour of the city by our guide, a very knowledgable gentleman with an American accent who lived in Nuremberg, however, had spent some of his time in the US due to the fact his mother was German & his father met her as a US marine during WW11. He certainly knew his history & was very easy to understand.

After a stop at the huge, incomplete, stadium which was intended by Hitler, to be 3x larger than The Colosseum in Rome, we were taken to the massive site of court rooms & into Courtroom 600. We were then told of the trial process & subsequent findings. Of the 13 found guilty, 11 were hanged just 16 days later. No appeals allowed! Lot's more learned but would take me a week to remember & the it up.

Here are some photos both inside & outside of Courtroom 600

Lot's of heavy timber panelling & could have been any courtroom in any country.

Some sights along the way to the manin square:

Part of the prison:

After about an hour we were again on the coach & taken to the old town, main square. It was very beautiful in that old style with a fountain, beautiful church & buildings. The only problem today was getting photos as they were having some special promotion by the police & there were stalls, music, markets, cars etc everywhere. Very nice though & we had a good look around the shops & sights

This was a retirement home, very popular apparently:

Water Fountain, very ornate & beautiful:

And of course the church:

We were to met the rest of our group at this restaurant, just off the square, for lunch at 1pm:

The food was just delicious (forgot the photos again) & traditionally Bavarian, starting with a large freshly made pretzel, a vegetable soup, a plate containing sausages, sauerkraut & potato salad followed by a strawberry dessert & coffee. We were each allowed either 2 beers or wines. I had one of each & both were good.  

Just a few minutes to look around & then we met our guide for the walk back to our coach at 3pm. 

The coach ride from Nuremberg to Vilsofen took just 2.5 hours & we were onboard the AMABella & in our cabins just after 5.30pm. We were really impressed by the welcome from the crew & Captain (a very young, tall handsome Dutchman) as they would have had a busy day cleaning after the last group left & preparing for us.

No cabin photos this time as this ship is identical to the AMAVerde. We unpacked in record time, went to a briefing in the lounge & off to dinner at 7pm. Great company & service in the dining room. Off to bed for an early night as it's been a long day. I will edit, add photos & publish this Sunday morning as we seem to have much faster WiFi on this ship.

More later.

Betty & Mike