We’re just leaving Wuerzberg headed southeast to Rothenberg along the “Romantisches Strasse”, the Romantic Highway. It’s quite foggy so there isn’t much visible a few feet away from the bus. We’ll be driving for about an hour.

The first stop was the Bishop’s Palace in Wuerzberg. That place is one-upmanship personified. The area the Wuerzberger Bishop ruled over was smaller than some of the neighboring Bishops. To make sure that the other Bishops didn’t get idea that Wuerzberg was weak or poor, he built a massive, intimidating Bishop’s Palace. Much of the building was destroyed in a bombing raid in March 1945. The furnishings and whatever else could be removed had been taken out of building a couple of years earlier for safekeeping. The building restoration was completed in 1984 along with the stuff that had been kept safe.

Like many of the other cities we’ve visited on this trip, the Bishop was also part of the royal family so he had both religious and political power. That also occasionally conflicted with the Mayor and local businessmen. One the first Prince-Bishops was so disliked he was killed and thrown in the river. Bishops were elected by the elders in the church from among their number and then served for life, much like the Pope is selected. Mayors were also elected from among the businessmen of the town and served for a fixed term.

Since to find the seat of power you just have to follow the money, having two powerful men and institutions in the same small area has to lead to conflict and the common person usually ends up the worst for it. After the first Bishop was killed, the Church built a castle on the hill overlooking the town. As in Passau, a couple of conflicts resulted in the town being bombarded with cannon fire from the Bishop’s Castle!

Eventually by the late 1600’s the tensions were resolved enough for the Bishop’s Palace to be built in town. The palace was completed in 1742. In 1809 the French led by Napoleon arrived and forced the Bishop to resign. That was the end of the Bishopric in Wuerzberg. The biggest and most opulent, decadent buildings are built and occupied just before the fall and “great is the fall thereof.”

This is our second visit to Bamberg. We put this city on our agenda in October, 1999 when Nina and I were in Europe on vacation following a business meeting in Munich, Germany. We spent a night and a day in Rothenberg on der Taube and had a delightful time (We’ll be in Rothenberg tomorrow) and then drove to Bamberg to spend the night and the next day. We didn’t find Bamberg to be so very interesting and about noon on our 1999 visit, left the city to go out in the countryside and then on to our next stop in Nuremberg. The write-up on Bamberg in our cruise itinerary sounded like a very different city than we had visited in 1999 so we were very curious to see what the guided tour of Bamberg would reveal.

We docked in Bamberg right about 11 a.m. this morning after cruising the rest of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal. It was a pleasant morning. I spent it in the lounge classifying digital pictures that will eventually end up on the web page. After lunch we disembarked for a short bus ride to the center of the city where we met our city guides. We stayed with our guide until the start of the climb up the hill to the cathedral. We’ve already been there and didn’t want to make the climb again. Besides, the stores were open and we wanted to do a little shopping. It is still the same city. Our tour guides did not reveal anything new or show us anyplace that we hadn’t already visited. It was a bit more interesting today only because we haven’t yet been to Rothenberg….!!

Bamberg is a very old city on a trade route made possible by the Main River (pronounced “mine”). Similar tension existed here between the Bishop of the Catholic Church and the Mayor and citizens of the city. This tension has been a very common theme in Passau, Regensberg, and now Bamberg. At least in Bamberg the Bishop didn’t make war on his congregation as he did in Passau. That tension still exists to some extent in Regensberg where the guides employed by the city’s tourist bureau aren’t allowed to take tourists into the cathedral. The general architecture in Bamberg is buildings made first of big criss-crossing timbers, then the spaces between the timbers filled up with a plaster. Then, because wood timber houses were considered to be “cheap” houses, most were then plastered over, and in some cases, painted to look like stone buildings.

Bamberg is also a U.S. Army city. About 4,000 soldiers are stationed in Bamberg and about a thousand of them are currently in Iraq. When we lived in Germany in the mid-1970’s, there were more than a quarter of a million U.S. military personnel and their families in Germany. In 1992 a large drawdown started and there are probably less than 30,000 U.S. military in the country now. Bamberg serves as a logistics and supply center and was once very strategic in its position relative to East Germany. Today’s world situation is significantly different and Bamberg’s usefulness has certainly diminished and perhaps even disappeared. However, the Army presence makes a significant contribution to the local economy and that has become quite important to the Germans. In the 1980’s they couldn’t wait for us to leave. Then when the drawdown started and we actually began leaving, the economic impact became very visible and painful. Now folks aren’t as anxious for the troops to leave….

After we ditched the tour, we spent some time window shopping and actually buying a few things. We visited a store selling antique Christmas Creches (manger scenes) and we did spend a little money there. The big shopping (if any of it can be considered to be “big”) will be tomorrow in Rothenberg.

Canals between the Rhine River and the Danube were long envisioned and achieved only with difficulty. The vision was a water highway extending from the North Sea at Rotterdam, Netherlands to the Black Sea. This water route could be traversed in about a third of the time it would take for a sailing vessel to go through the Mediterranean Sea. The first canal, the Rhine-Rhône, was built between 1784 and 1833 and is now largely abandoned. The main driver for this canal was to build a Freedom Monument in Kelheim and then to encourage trade along the river. The current canal, called the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, took more than 30 years to complete. The first section, from Bamberg to Nuremberg was completed and then funding was withdrawn by the German Government because of the change in political fortunes and environmental concerns. It took 15 years before work started once again, after all the planning was reworked with the intent of making the canal look more like a river than like a canal. There are 34 locks on the canal to lift boats up and over the several hundred feet of elevation that must be traversed. Some of the locks are very deep — and two of them are more than 80 feet.

Locks were very interesting on the trip. We went through a total of 68 locks on the cruise, meaning that the ship spent more than 35 hours of cruising time traversing locks. We often had to wait for another boat to come out of a lock before we could go in. From Budapest to about the middle of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, we went up at each lock. We would sail into the lock, the doors would close, water would be let into the lock and lift the boat up to the next level. The front doors would open and we would sail out. Then another boat would sail in going down and reverse the process. On the Danube and Rhine Rivers, no pumps were needed for the locks as water was flowing downstream. On the canal, however, the water had to come from somewhere. So each of the locks also generate electricity as the water is let out of the lock. That electricity is used to pump water from the Danube River up to the highest stretch of the canal. That water is then flows downstream from that point to make the locks work.

On the Rhine and Danube, all the locks were associated with power-generating dams. On the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, the locks were used to get boats up and over the hills separating the Danube Valley from the Rhine Valley. It didn’t take long before locks became old and boring, made even more so as I would always loose my wireless connection when we went through a lock. Since we went through most of them at night, it was quite often the case that I’d be checking e-mail before going to bed or before going to breakfast and we would sail into a lock.

The economics of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal are still being debated. It was originally going to take six years and cost about 200 million Euros. In the end, it took more than 15 years and cost more than 6 billion Euros. The canal was opened in 1992 to great fanfare. It was already too narrow when it finally opened and the six-day journey in smaller cargo ships on the canal compared to a sixteen-day journey in huge cargo ships on the Mediterranean makes for difficult economics. The number of cargo boats on the Danube River was about a third of the number on the Rhine River. Right now it looks like the Mediterranean is winning. However, now that Eastern Europe is beginning to thrive, trade along the Danube will become much more important as every major Eastern European city found in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldovia, and Bulgaria are all either on the Danube River, or on major rivers that flow into the Danube. So, the canal may yet turn out to be fortune rather than folley.

After the day in Passau, we returned to the ship which was now out of dry dock in Linz. We boarded the boat and began sailing up the Danube towards Regensberg. We wouldn’t get all the way there, so the plan was for the boat to make a brief stop in Deggendorf. We would disembark there and use buses to complete the day’s activities, in reverse order. So, we got off the boat in Deggendorf about 9 a.m. for an hour’s bus ride past Kelheim and Regensburg to the Weltenburg Abbey. We arrived there late and really had to hustle through the Abbey. It was under reconstruction from the floods of 1999 and 2002 and 2003, so there wasn’t a lot to be seen, anyway. Abbeys, monasteries, and nunnery’s (convents) aren’t my first priority, anyway.

The navigable part of the Danube river ends at Kelheim while the river itself continues upstream for a couple hundred miles. There are some day boats that traverse the river between Kelheim and Weltenburg — about a 45 minute boat ride up river and a 20 minute boat ride downriver — through some very scenic parts of the river. So, after a whirlwind 20 minute run-by, we left the Weltenburg Abbey and boarded one of the day boats for the trip downstream to Kelheim. Normally we would then have spent some time in Kelheim, but because of the change in plans, all we did was get off the day boat, board the busses, and then drove to Regensburg for lunch and the rest of the day.

The boat trip down the Danube was actually quite beautiful. The area is a National Park and only a few registered boats are allowed on this part of the river, so I guess a pleasure boat wouldn’t be able to traverse the area. In fact, we saw very few pleasure boats until we were near Koeln. I think it would be great fun to take a larger pleasure boat (one that you can live and sleep on) on this same trip and take a couple of months to make the voyage.

Regensburg was definitely a highlight of the trip. The city in the 12th and 13th centuries was enormously wealthy (along with all the attendant problems between church and state) because of its location on the major trade routes through Europe. The city was founded originally by the Romans in about 170 A.D. when a legion of soldiers was stationed there (a legion is about 8,000 soldiers!). Regensburg sits on the northernmost point on the Danube River and for several hundred years, the Roman Empire ended at this point. However, the Turks got quite ambitious in the 14th century, taking over most of Eastern Europe, including parts of Austria and all of Hungary. As a result, the east-west trade evaporated. Further, because of the Turkish presence, the north-south trade routes shifted much further west. In a few short years, Regensburg went from wealthy to bankrupt. That proved to be to the city’s benefit today as all of the old city remains. No one could afford to build anything new, so the existing structures were simply reused. Since the city was built upon trade and not on agriculture or manufacturing, it also escaped the bombing in WWII. There was no manufacturing there to be a target!

Our tour guide in Regensburg was originally from Missouri. He first came to Regensburg to teach at the University. After his five-year contract expired, he decided to stay (perhaps persuaded by his German wife) and be a tourist guide and a house husband. He was apparently well known. As we went on the almost 90 minute tour, he was greeted often by other people in the familiar form of German. We found him to be very knowledgeable and very interesting (as well as quite dramatic as seen in the accompanying picture).

There were a couple of very interesting features in Regensburg. First were the high towers. In the Regensburg Golden Age, wealthy business men would build a high, square tower attached to their house. The tower had no other purpose than to show wealth. Nothing was stored in the towers, they were just empty shells about four or five stories tall shouting to the world, "I’ve got so much money, I can just build this tower and I don’t really need it!" Of the more than 70 towers built, about 25 of them are still standing.

Secondly was the interesting history with the Jews. There was a large Jewish population in Regensburg and most of them were business partners with other non-Jewish business men. During the First Crusade (about 1100 A.D.) mercenaries and soldiers roamed through Europe killing any Jews that they could find. To "protect" their Jewish business partners, all the Jews were rounded up, taken down to the Danube, forcefully baptized, and then registered on the Church rolls. When the soldiers came through Regensburg, there were no Jews. About a year later, the ArchBishop declared the baptisms to be null and void, and everything returned to normal. That lasted until the city plunged into bankruptcy. Someone was certainly to blame, and the blame was fixed on the Jews. They were forcefully removed from the city, the synagogue torn down, and the Jewish cemetery razed. The tombstones were then used as decorations in houses! Some large number of Jewish tombstones can be seen around the town embedded into the walls of houses.

Finally, there is a very impressive bridge across the Danube River in Regensburg. This stone bridge was built by the Romans and survived wars, pestilance, plagues, and poverty. One span, however, did not survive the Nazi’s. They blew up one span as they were retreating. It has, of course, since been repaired.

We would definitely return to Regensburg. We only scratched the surface of what there was to see and do in this city. As we finished the day, we had some strudel and hot chocolate in a small konditori on the second floor of the old Salt House. Our cruise ship meanwhile sailed upstream from Deggendorf and met us in Regensburg. We were almost back on schedule.

The forecast for the day was partly cloudy and 56 degrees. The buses picked us up at 8:30 in very cloudy skies and a light drizzle. We’re now on the bus headed back to the ship under clear skies and 62 degree temperatures. So on average we had partly cloudy skies….

Passau is a border town between Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Tourism is a major industry here with a million and a half day visitors per year and an additional 300,000 overnight visitors. The big business used to be salt. The local Prince-Bishop had a monopoly on the salt coming down the Ilse River from the salt mines to the south (Salzberg which, being interpreted means salt mountain). Salt was critical for food preservation in those days so Passau became a very prosperous city. Or rather, the Bishops became wealthy leading to a revolt by the townspeople. The Bishop’s residence (or Palace) was across the river up overlooking the town. To quell the revolt, the Bishop’s troops bombarded the city with cannons and firebrands! In one uprising some 25% of the men folk were killed, which was devastating to the town that had to care for all the widows. Eventually the townspeople prevailed and the Bishop lost his Prince title and rights. It’s quite amazing to me that the Bishop would war upon his congregation!

Passau is at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube which begins in the Black Forest in western Germany, the Ilse which begins in the Austrian Alps, goes through Salzberg and is the shortest of the three rivers, and the Inn which starts in western Austria and runs through Innsbruck (being interpreted is the Bridge over the River Inn). The Inn and the Ilse end at Passau and the Danube (which is Europe’s only west-east river) continues to the east. One or more of the rivers regularly floods the town with the last major flood in the spring of 2002.

Passau wasn’t the only town we went through that had problems with flooding. I’m not really sure what could be done other than building high dikes all around the town, which would certainly detract from the tourist trade. Perhaps they’ve just decided to “live with it.”

After Duernstein, we cruised through lunch up the Danube River to the city of Melk. This city boats about 2,700 inhabitants and an incredible Abby of Benedictine Monks. My command of English isn’t enough to describe this place, particularly the church in the Abby. I have never seen anything so ornate – to the point of being almost gaudy. The tour was centered on the Benedictine version of Catholicism, and I would have appreciated something much more historically focused. The major source of income for the Abby is tourism and about 450,000 people per year pay admission to tour a very small part of the Abby. The probably translates to some $5 million dollars a year just in entrance fees – perhaps more as I don’t know what the price of admission was. The library, having more than 150,000 books, was astounding. Anyone can come to the library, visit the reading room, and read any of the books. Those that are too old or fragile are on microfilm. The Abby has a current membership of 31 Benedictine Monks, 16 of whom live at the Abby. The rest are stationed at Parish churches around the country. I’d guess each of those 31 monks has available about 50 rooms apiece in the building. The Abbey is rectangular, three stories tall, with a large inner courtyard. Most impressive.

We set sail about 6:00 p.m. At the daily port call briefing at 7:15 p.m. (just before dinner), we learned that the boat has a propeller problem. While we were in Vienna, divers had gone down to inspect the bottom of the boat, the drive shafts, and the propellers. One of the propellers needs to be replaced. So, rather than sailing to Passau, our original destination, we are going to put into port in Linz about 7 a.m. We’ll go by bus to Passau after breakfast and spend the day there while the boat goes into dry dock to have the propeller replaced. If all goes well, we’ll be back sailing up the Danube on Saturday.

More on the propeller problem (added later, of course): The propeller had been damaged a couple of weeks before when leaving Melk on the previous cruise. The pictures of the propeller taken while the ship was in drydock and we were in Passau showed a very damaged propeller, so whatever had happened was serious, enough that the captain of the ship at that time had been placed on leave and a new captain assigned to the boat. As our cruise ended a week and a half later, we learned that replacing the propeller had fixed some of the problem, but that the drive train had also been damaged and the entire drive system — engine, transmission, drive train, and propeller — were going to be removed from the boat and shipped to Rotterdam for repair. The process sounded quite complicated!

When we got off the boat in Amsterdam, the ship was turning around for the final cruise back to Budapest. It was then going to Vienna and was going to do one-week trips between Vienna and Nuremberg through January 4th. A sister ship, the Viking Spirit, however, was also headed to Nuremberg to drop off passengers and then go idle for the rest of the season. The plan was, after the Spirit dropped it’s passengers, it would then sail to Vienna. The Neptune (our ship) would complete its cruise to Budapest, then sail back to Vienna. The Spirit crew would get on the Neptune and the Neptune crew would move to the Spirit. The Spirit would then finish the season in place of the Neptune. Meanwhile, the former Spirit crew would take the Neptune back to Linz where the boat would go into drydock once more. The drive train would be removed, sent to Rotterdam, and then reinstalled, a six week process. The previous captain of the Neptune had indeed done some serious damage when he grounded the boat in Melk. He would have been far better off getting a tug to pull them out in the deeper water…!!

We arrived at the small town (400 souls) of Duernstein just as we sat down for breakfast this morning. Ruins of a castle overlooked the city. Our guides told us to be sure and remember it was a City and not a Village as Duernstein had obtained all the rights of a city, including the right to have an executioner, due to their loyalty to the monarchy during the 30-year war. It was a very quaint city well worth a visit. The city is built along a fairly steep hillside at a narrow point in the Danube River near the beginning of the Wachau Valley. The Wachau Valley is the source of an enormous amount of wine from vineyards all along the 20-mile long, narrow valley. The city was formed to collect tolls on the river and provide a way station for travelers (particularly royalty).

Duernstein’s major claim to fame is that this was the place where Richard the Lionhearted, King of England, was imprisoned and ransomed by England after about three months. Richard was one of several monarchs of Europe on the Third Crusade, but the only one to make it to the Holy City of Jerusalem. He managed to anger the Austrian Duke during the trip through Europe. On the way back to England Richard was shipwrecked near Italy and began making his way across Europe. While in Austria, he was discovered and taken hostage by the Duke. To keep Richard safe and away from public attention, the Duke quartered Richard in Duernstein. Legend says that Richard’s faithful servant searched from castle to castle through Europe singing the first verse of a song that only he and Richard knew. Upon singing the song in Duernstein, Richard heard it and sang back the second verse. The result was messages back to England and the ransom of Richard followed. Further, according to the story of Robin Hood, Richard’s brother John was attempting to have Richard declared dead in England so that John to assume the throne. Just in time, Richard appears, hale and hearty, and foils the plot.

The day began cloudy, but by the time we got to the city, the clouds were gone and a bright sunny (but chilly) day ensued. The weather was actually quite perfect for walking around the town and taking more than a hundred digital pictures. Perhaps a few will survive. The town was well worth our time.