Wednesday April 10
Passau Germany
Included excursions: Passau, the City of Three Rivers (2 hours), Hiking in Passau with your Adventure Host (1.5 hours)
We had another leisurely morning, sailing on the water. The only activity on the schedule was another cornhole game 10am to 12pm.
The weather this week has been interesting – we started out nice, then it got hot (82 in Vienna), and then it was in the high 70s and nice, and today was predicted to be in the 50s and rainy. It was definitely chillier outside!
On this quiet morning, what is it like on the ship? Breakfast today was from 7:30am to 9:30am in the dining room. After breakfast, people were either in their staterooms, or hanging out in the Panorama Lounge (at the front of the ship), the Club Lounge (at the back on deck 3), or on the Sky Deck. There are also a few outdoor areas – at the back of the Club Lounge (the smoking area), and at the front of the Panorama Lounge.
In the Club Lounge, there are a variety of games and books, and people have been playing dominoes, cards, and other board games at various times. There are always snacks here too – cookies, a pastry of some kind (apple turnover, sugar donut, etc.), and little bags of rice crackers or nut mix. And there is a Coffee/hot drink machine. They also have a little water dispenser – 5 different options including pink positive (grapefruit-mango), green hope (cucumber-mint), body guard (lime-ginger), herb happinez (green tea-ginseng-moringa), and magnesium mineralized water (“water but better”). There is also a wide variety of tea, and the coffee machine has hot chocolate.
In each stateroom there is a TV, and a wide variety of movies and TV shows available for streaming, as well as live TV. Also, on the TV we can see the daily schedule and other details about our cruise.
It’s also so helpful to have the app – we definitely missed having one on the Emerald cruise. We can see our daily schedule, all the excursion options and details, the menu for every meal, and the daily schedule.
There is also a place in the app where you can keep a journal – Amy was using it during our cruise. You can choose to keep the journal private or share it with others.
Other things that make a river cruise different from an ocean cruise – most river cruise lines include wifi, beer and wine at lunch and dinner, and excursions. There are usually coffee machines with premium options (espresso, cappuccino, etc.) at no additional cost. There are places to refill your water bottles around the ship, and usually water in your stateroom. Room service breakfast is available at no additional charge.
When you depart the ship, you either take a card from the front desk (like on Emerald), or you tap your room key card at the screens by the door and select Checking Out. When you come back, you either return the card or tap your card and select Checking In. You literally just walk off the ship and back on – no security needed.
There are bikes on the top deck – if they haven’t brought them down you can ask, and they will bring them down for you to use (unless they are being used on a tour). On this sailing, there are 4 electric bikes, and the rest are standard bikes, all free to use. They also have helmets to use.
There are not really organized activities onboard, although twice when we were sailing during the day, they offered cornhole on the Sky Deck.
We met up with our friends for lunch, and we were going to just wander in town with them, but then Amy and I decided to do the hike for the views. We left the ship around 12:30, and there were 15 of us. Our Adventure Host, Gabriela, led us over the nearby bridge, across the road, and then to the road that led up to the fortress. It was a very steep road up, but we made it up to the top and explored the Veste Oberhaus, which dates back to 1219. There is now a museum, a youth hostel and restaurant, and an open-air theater up there.
One of the highlights of the view – you could see where the rivers meet. The colors of the waters are different, so it’s easy to see. Passau is actually the confluence of three rivers – Danube, Inn, and Ilz.
The group was ready to walk back down the hill, and I needed a ladies’ room. We had passed one earlier, so Amy and I retraced our steps and found it, and then walked down the hill. At the bottom, we caught up with the group, and walked back across the bridge. I realized I had lost my scarf, so sad! But I wasn’t going to climb back up the hillside to look for it.
We walked through town a bit, and tried to find the ladies, but they were having tea somewhere that we couldn’t find and then we just decided to skip the tea and head back to the ship.
Back onboard, we met at 6:40 for the Happiest Hour, and then The Gates of Heaven opened, and we went into the restaurant for dinner. The six of us (me, Amy, Carole, Karen, Ernie and Fred) sat together and it was a bittersweet meal, as we are already sad to be saying good-bye to each other.
But most of us had an early wake up call, so we went to bed right after dinner. Fred is continuing on to Prague with Avalon, Karen and Carole have a flight that is late in the day so they are hanging out on the ship until 3pm, Amy’s flight was at 9:15am from Munich (1.5-hour drive away), so she has a 4:30am shuttle. My flight is at 10:25am, so I had a 5:45am shuttle (Ernie is on that one too).
