Passau, Germany 5/1/17

Today we biked through Passau and then along the Inn River. Passau is lovely with its cobblestone streets in interesting designs and its many pastel buildings. Flowers are planted everywhere. There is a university here, so there are many young people walking the bike paths enjoying the May Day three day weekend.  Passing through Passau, we entered the bike path along the Inn River. It was such a gorgeous ride through parks and forests. Our bike group was 38 strong with four guides. We stopped at a point where they had lemonade, beer, water and pretzels for us to enjoy. Then on the trail again. The ride back to the ship was much easier, being mostly downhill. It was a wonderful four hour ride!

Riding on these cobblestones was not easy!

What a pretty skyline.

Uniworld provided snacks along the way.

There were 39 of us for this ride.

Passau is a beautiful city.

Beginning the Inn River Bike Path.

This afternoon Captain Tom oversaw the Saber Ceremony. They broke open a bottle of champagne with a special saber. Then glasses of champagne were served to all of the guests during our sail away from Passau where we had spent the first two nights.

The Sabor Ceremony

Uncorked. Then they poured champagne for the guests.

The Captain's Gala dinner was on the agenda for tonight. We began with cocktails and passed appetizers in the lounge, which we enjoyed with our Canadian friends Sharon and Rick and Brian and Debbie. We moved on to dinner in the dining room where we met Sophie and Roland and Eva. Claudia was not feeling well, so she did not join us. The food was over the top and never ending. The Chocolate Extravaganza dessert was so delicious, but Rick and I were both overly stuffed. To bed early tonight as we have a full day trip to Salzburg tomorrow that begins at 8:15.

Yummy Lemon Drop

Rick likes his goodies, too.

Roland and Sophie from Austraila.

Passau, Germany 4/30/17

This morning we had our delicious hotel breakfast and then took the S-Bahn back to the airport to catch our Uniworld van ride to the Maria Theresa, our home for a week on the Danube. 

On our way from Hotel Schlicker to the S-Bahn.

After the nearly 2 hour ride to Passau, we saw our gorgeous boat. She is a beauty - the nicest we have seen on the river so far. She is beautiful at night with neon blue lights on the outside.

S.S. Maria Theresa

Our cabin in very comfortable with a slick French Balcony window that slides down to make half of the wall a window. It even has a mosquito screen that you can lower, as well. It is not the same as a real balcony, which I would prefer, but it works for us. The bathroom is enormous for a boat with plenty of storage.

Our beautiful stateroom

The bathroom is huge.

The glass wall goes down to make an open air wall.

Comfy!

Here is our itinerary:

The first people we met today on the upper deck were Sharon and Rick from Saint Albert near Edmonton, Canada who travel to Tucson a lot to see friends. They stay at the AZ Inn or Lodge on the Desert and love El Charro. Small world.

Rick and Sharon

We met Claudia and Eva from Australia at dinner. Claudia brought her mother this cruise as a gift. Turns out we were in the same hotel in Munich, but never crossed paths. We had dinner with them tonight. 

Claudia and Eva

We are in Passau today and will spend the night here tomorrow too, when we are doing the bike ride along the Inn River. The other choice is a walking tour of Passau. The boat is very elegant and pretty yet casual at the same time. We spent the afternoon in top in lounge chairs watching the river go by us.

We spent our first hours up on the top deck waiting for our room to be ready.

Munich, Germany 4/29/17

We woke up groggy but ready to explore Munich on our only full day here. Munich is a very clean and attractive city. We are staying in the historic center around the Marienplatz. Jane, our Munich Greeter, met us in our hotel lobby. Munich Greeters is a  program in which you are assigned a tour guide who will spend as much time with you as you require. We wanted a two hour tour before lunch. Jane, an American married to a Austrian man has lived in Munich for 30 years. She was a knowledgeable guide and a lovely person. We learned a lot about the Inner City, as well as the tastes of the German people. We had a very nice lunch with Jane in a spot she chose. She showed us how to eat the local white sausage, peeling the casement off and we also enjoyed a platter of Camembert mixed with butter. Glad there was no calorie count on this meal!

Jane, our Munich Greeter

Weisswurst. We learned how to peel the casing off before eating.

The famous Glockenspiel in Marienplatz.

We said goodbye to our friend Jane and took another short nap before taking the Hotel Schlicker bikes in search of the English Garden, the largest park in Europe. We knew where to enter the park from the Hofgarten near Mad King Ludwig's residence. We took a wrong turn and ended up near a river, which we later found was the Isor. We had an Inner City map but our location was not on it. We decided to ride along the river and it was a great choice. Locals were walking along enjoying the scenery. It was a nice ride.

Hotel Schliker provided bikes.

Riding along the Isor River.

Neat little garden at our hotel.

The hotel owner gave us a recommendation for dinner close to our hotel, a small biergarten. We sat with a local couple and shared a delicious pork cordon bleu and a bottle of Italian wine. Oops - they don't accept credit cards. There go all of our Euros!

Munich, Germany 4/27/17 & 4/28/17

What a huge Lufthansa Airbus we flew in to Munich, Germany via Frankfurt today.

Our plane awaits!

They switched our plane out at the last minute for the largest plane in their fleet. Many folks received new seats not together, but we were lucky and had our two cramped prebooked Economy seats. It was 9.5 hours to Frankfurt with an 1.5 hour layover and then a 1 hour flight to Munich. I napped and Rick could not sleep. By the time we arrived, we had been up 30 hours. We arrived in Munich at around 2:30 pm Munich time, which was 5:30 am to our poor old bodies. The Munich airport has won awards and it is beautiful with large expanses of glass and tennis courts on the plaza-platz between terminals. 

Tennis courts in at the airport!

Hotel Schlicker was so close to everything!

We had purchased our S-Bahn tickets online ahead of time, so we found the station and got on our ride to Hotel Schlicker pretty easily. The 45 mile ride from the airport to Marienplatz was scenic, going through country and residential areas. Snow had fallen overnight, which is extremely rare in the German spring. Guess we brought it with us, as we had 10 inches of snow at our Denver home on the same day. As we stepped off of the S-Bahn, we stepped into a pouring rain. We had come prepared with two umbrellas and big plastic bags to cover our suitcases. Our hotel was only a few blocks from the subway station, so we wheeled our suitcases along the cobblestones in the rain

Our Hotel Schlicker is perfectly situated between the Marienplatz, the Inner City center, and the Hoffbrau Haus, the rowdy and touristy biergarten. Our room was cozy and very comfortable. We really liked the small daily operated hotel. The best part of our stay was the amazing breakfast spread that was included in our rate. Each morning an array of meats and artfully arranged cheeses plus many cheeses, vegetables fruits. We also had fresh juices, eggs and cereals. It was quite a sight every morning!

Beautiful breakfast spread!

The cheeses were so artfully diplayed.

I want to eat it all.

Upon arrival, we unpacked and promptly took an hour and a half nap. We had been up 30 hours by this point and poor Rick had not slept one wink on the flight. Though tempted to continue sleeping, we forced ourselves to get up and head out so we could acclimate to the new time zone. We knew we had to visit the Hoffbrau Haus in our short time in Munich, so no time like the present.
The Hoffbrau Haus is a wild and crazy place- a biergatrten for tourists, although we met several German tourists taking it in, too. The place is huge with many rooms and a lederhausen clad band entertaining the crowd. The floors are tile and slippery with spilled beer. The waiters bring liter beers often three liters in one hand. We had to make five laps through the many rooms until we found a spot that was being vacated. In German biergartens you sit at long tables with whoever happens to sit with you. We enjoyed chatting with a couple from Frankfurt and another from another region of Germany. Later, a honeymooning couple from Hong Kong joined us. They were traveling though many European capitals - London, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich and more. quite a trip. They ordered a ton of food - he loved the knuckles!

The Hoffbrau Haus

Our shared table at the Hoffbrau Haus

This petite couple ordered a ton of food!