{"id":76,"date":"2012-07-07T07:54:10","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T11:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wherearemomanddad.com\/?page_id=76"},"modified":"2015-05-10T16:53:26","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T20:53:26","slug":"2008-cruise-up-the-danube","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/wherearemomanddad.com\/?page_id=76","title":{"rendered":"2008 Cruise up the Danube"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Welcome to our Cruise up the Danube River on the Amacello Luxury River Boat!\u00a0 Yes kids, Mom and I are out gallivanting in Europe with our co-adventurers, the \u201cSmiths\u201d on a cruise that starts in Hungary and takes us up the Danube river to Slovakia, Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic.\u00a0 Hey, Czech out Mom’s new hair style!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We started in Budapest, Hungary for a little history lesson.\u00a0 Hungary has a history of conquering and well as being conquered.\u00a0 It started with the Romans who liked the country for its wealth of hot springs and ended most recently with the occupation by Nazi\u00a0Germany and then the Soviet Union.\u00a0 Seems that while uniting with Austria in the late 1800\u2019s brought great wealth to Hungary, it also made them the aggressor in WWI. Unfortunately this initiated the cascade that lead them to occupation by the Soviets.\u00a0 When WWII was starting, Hungary was still stinging from the loss of 72% of its territory at the end of WWI, so the Hungarian\u2019s signed a treaty with the Nazi\u2019s in hopes of avoiding the loss of additional territory to the Germans.\u00a0 Bad choice.\u00a0 Not only did the Nazi\u2019s occupy Hungary and kill hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews, but the territory was \u201cgiven\u201d to Soviet Russia as part of the treaty at the end of WWII.\u00a0 Hungary has spent its time since the fall of the Iron Curtain catching up with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In addition to preserved historical sites such as Hero\u2019s Square, the Royal Palace, and Parliament, we also saw the ugly WWII and Communist parts of Hungary that included the House of Terror (where Nazi\u2019s and then the KGB tortured Hungarians thought to be spys), and the \u201cShoe Memorial” (bronze shoes on the bank of the Danube, commemorating the thousands of Jews that were marched to the river, forced to remove their shoes, and then shot so they would fall into the Danube and be washed down the river.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The second day in Hungary was much more fun as we were bussed to a Hungarian ranch where we watched \u201cHungarian Cowboys\u201d show us their best horse tricks, horseback archery, and skill with whips.\u00a0 Mom liked the whips.\u00a0 It turns out that the cowfolks actually come from Romania as their culture really has not changed much in the last 100 years.\u00a0 Obviously Communism did nothing for Romanians either.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From Hungary, we sailed to Bratislava, Slovakia.\u00a0 It sounds like the Slovakia was always part of another country, such as Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and the Soviet Union.\u00a0 It\u00a0is finally enjoying its own independence. Like Hungary, the Slovakia suffered greatly after WWII as part of the Soviet Union.\u00a0 It is coming around even slower than Hungary.\u00a0 As you can see from the picture, Bratislava is still repairing its roads and buildings nearly 20 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We then sailed up the Danube to Austria and stopped at Vienna.\u00a0 Vienna is the home of the Hapsberg’s, classical music, etc.\u00a0 Austria has done much better than Hungary and the Slovakia since WWII.\u00a0 I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that Austria was spared from becoming part of the Soviet Union?\u00a0 Austria is a beautiful mix of the old and the new.\u00a0 Pictured to the left is the Cathedral of St. Francis Asisi which was built for the last Emperor (Franz Josef) of Austria to commemorate his 50th anniversary as Emperor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Next up the Danube came Durnstein which is a tiny medieval town on the banks of the Danube in Austria noted for its white wine and apricot liquors.\u00a0 The town itself has less than 1000 inhabitants whose major industry is tourism.\u00a0 Central to the town\u00a0is the Monestary with a beautiful cathedral.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We couldn’t leave Austria without visiting the towns made famous by the von Trapp family and the Sound of Music.\u00a0 These are beautiful Bavarian-like towns of Salzburg and Monsee.\u00a0 Monsee is the lake town where most of the movie was filmed and Salzburg is where the garden scenes were shot.\u00a0 Salzburg (in ancient times known for its salt “salz”\u00a0mining)\u00a0is also known as the birthplace of the famous such as Doppler and Mozart, and is the home of the most famous musical university in the world,\u00a0the University of Salzberg.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Our next stop was Regensburg in Germany.\u00a0 Regensburg is one of the oldest cities in Europe, as its origins date back to the Stone Age.\u00a0 It is a perfectly preserved medieval city complete with “family” towers and St. Peter’s Cathedral in the center of town.\u00a0 The great stone bridge across the Danube built in the mid 1100’s was important in connecting Venice to merchants in Northern Europe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From Regensburg, we sailed across the “Continental Divide”. Using locks, we climbed<\/strong> over 300 feet in elevation! to Nuremberg.\u00a0The city was the home of the\u00a0Nuremberg trials of the WWII war crimes.\u00a0The history of the city dates back to\u00a0the stone age and in medieval times became an important trade city.\u00a0\u00a0Unfortunately most of the city was completely destroyed in 90 minutes during WWII, but was rebuilt using much of the original stone.\u00a0 Today Nuremburg is a flourishing city known for its craftsmen and markets.\u00a0 This is a picture of the Marienkirche Church and famous “Gold Fountain” in Nuremburg’s main square.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From Nuremburg we left the ship and were bused into the Czech Republic where we visited Carlsbad (know as Karlovy Vary) and Prague.\u00a0 Carlsbad is a beautiful spa city with great restaurants, gorgeous medieval architecture, and of course, attractive people.\u00a0 With many natural heated springs\u00a0there are many luxurious spas to relax in as well as the Pupp Hotel for upper crust accommodations.\u00a0 Definitely deserves a return visit… once the dollar gains a little more value that is.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Our last stop on the trip was Prague.\u00a0 Definitely one of our favorite cities (Notice Mom’s smile?)!\u00a0 It’s situated on the river Vltava (no, I can’t pronounce it either) and is the capital of the Czech republic.\u00a0 It is found in the region known as Central Bohemia, and embodies every connotation associated with the word “Bohemian”.\u00a0 It escaped the vast devastation that many European countries suffered in WWII so it is rich in the old style architecture of Europe, as well as in musical, literary, and artistic culture.\u00a0 Throw in the great restaurants, an easy metro system,\u00a0and\u00a0a quaint Harley Dealership, …what’s not to love?\u00a0 And Tony, not a bad place to shop for a wife (wink, wink).<\/p>\n

Here are a few more pictures and stories.\u00a0 Either click on the “slideshow” or arrow down to page through the pictures one at a time.\u00a0 Enjoy and don’t forget to drop us a line in the Guestbook!
\n

<\/div>
<\/g><\/svg><\/span><\/g><\/svg><\/span><\/g><\/svg><\/span><\/div>To see the full size images, you need to enable javascript in your browser.<\/span><\/noscript>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/g><\/svg><\/span><\/g><\/svg><\/span><\/span>
<\/div><\/div>