We spent the morning cruising through the German countryside, going through several locks. After lunch we went on a World War II historical tour in Nuremberg. We went to the Zeppelinfield where the huge Nazi rallies were held in the 1930's. We spent about an hour and a half going thru a fascinating museum in a old Nazi building showing the rise of Hitler and the Nazi's. It was all very interesting and disturbing at the same time. We had a little free time in town...

We spent the morning on a walking tour of Regensburg. Just as the tour started a heavy shower hit. Fortunately Viking supplies large golf style umbrellas so we did not get too wet. The shower ended soon and we enjoyed he tour. Regensburg is the best preserved medieval city in Germany - escaping bombing in WWII. In Roman times it was on the north border of the Empire. On one side of the river it was the Romans, on the other side Germanic tribes. After the tour we ...

We spent the morning cruising along the Danube. The current has been so strong we were over an hour late getting to Passau. We go through 68 locks on the trip from Budapest to Amsterdam. We were up on the top deck this morning when we went through one of them. As we approached, they had everyone sit down. The bridge over the lock was so low we could actually reach up and touch it. If we had been standing we would have been knocked over. After that the bridges wer...

We spent the morning cruising the Wachau Valley, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a stretch of the Danube that has steep hillsides with vineyards climbing up them, quaint Austrian villages, and huge castles on the cliffs above. We spent a couple of hours watching the scenery. It was cloudy and quite cool but the scenery was beautiful. We docked in Melk around noon. After lunch, we all went on a tour of Melk Abbey. It is a huge 900 year old Benedictine...

It's actually the day after Vienna and this will again be short. We are happy but tired. We took a bus/walking tour of the city in the morning. Vienna must have about a billion palaces (well maybe only a million), each one more impressive than the next. After the tour we had some free time. One of the things you have to do in Vienna is to have a coffee at one of their coffee houses (Wiener Kaffeehaus). We found one quickly and sat down at the bar. Our timing was ...