Bratislava – July 16
Steps walked: 6,571         Floors climbed: 4	Distance walked: 4.7 km
Details	Time	Notes
Scenic cruising including Hainburg & Devin Castle	am
Brunch at Blue	12:00 PM
Ship Tour: Bratislava’s Ultimate Survivor:	3:30 PM
Chatam Sofer Memorial (BTS-04)
Bratislava on our own	5:20 PM
Boarded trolley for a 30-min Old Town Tour	5:25 PM
Walked around in town	6:00 PM
“Pressburger Duo” show in Palm Court	6:15 PM	WE MISSED IT!!!
Back to ship, booked Bistro dinner	7:05 PM
Dinner at Bistro Mozart	7:30 PM
Social time at Cove Bar	9:30 PM

After passing through Hainburg, then Devin with its castle, we reached Bratislava in Slovakia in the afternoon. We docked with the Starboard side facing a very long pier which almost spanned the whole length of the ship.

We first went to the Bratislava Castle, built in the 9th century on a hilltop, overlooking the beautiful Danube. We didn’t go inside the castle.

Then we went to Chatam Sofer Memorial, an old Jewish cemetery where hundreds of rabbis and teachers were buried.

Then we went to the Old Town to tour the Museum of Jewish Culture in Slovakia and the oldest Jewish settlement in the city. To be honest, the visit of the cemetery and the museum was something I didn’t enjoy much, after learning so much in Poland about the Holocaust and Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. The walk through the Old Town was quite interesting. When we saw the Old Town Trolley, we told the guide that we would hop on it and went back to the ship by ourselves. That was a smart move as we saw a bit more of Bratislava and we didn’t have to walk, though I was very happy to walk past the residences of Mozart and Beethoven.

Of course we had to take a picture of the bronze statue of Cumil the Sewer Worker.

When we walked back to the ship, we made reservations to eat at Bistro Mozart again. The Bistro waitress, Emese, was always friendly and helpful. This time we had a little bit of difference in our appetizer:

The side of the main course was mashed potatoes instead of mushrooms. Best of all, the view of the sunset was amazing. It didn’t look like we were on a river at all…the water’s wide!

Passau – July 15
Steps walked: 4,911         Floors climbed: 8	Distance walked: 3.5 km
Details	Time	Notes
Breakfast at Waterside	8:30 AM
Ship Tour: Roman Times and Roman	10:15 AM	Guide: Roman
Dishes (PSU-01)		excellent English
Back to ship	12:45 PM
Lunch at Blue	1:00 PM
watched the locks at the spa relaxation area	2:30 PM
watched world cup final at Palm Court	5:00 PM
Dinner at Waterside	7:30 AM
Social time at Cove Bar	10:00 PM

This morning, we had breakfast at 8:30 am before Waterside closed at 9 am. We got all items before 9 am, then we could sit and enjoy our breakfast even though the buffet was closed. We joined a surprisingly informative and interesting excursion this morning called “Roman Times and Roman Dishes”. We went to the Roman Museum of Passau, Museum Kastell Boiotro.

Our guide, Roman, was super good with excellent English. Throughout the 2-hour excursion, we gained insightful perspective on what daily life was like in Passau 1000 years ago when the city was part of the Roman Empire. The museum is very modern, but it was built on the foundation of the Roman Fort Boiotro, with some remains of the military fortification both outside and inside of the museum.

The fun part was we got to make a Roman snack with Romaine lettuce, cheese spread of feta, pepper, coriander, honey, garlic, a little vinegar and oil. We were also offered a sweet Roman wine and grape juice with honey & pepper.

We also tasted the Roman dessert made of dates, filled with honey, almonds and pepper. All of them were delicious!

It was unfortunate that there was no time to explore Passau on our own after the excursion.  If I had known that there were shuttles from ship to Passau at 9:30 am, 10:15 am & 11 am, I would have joined the earlier group of the same excursion that started at 8:45 am so I could have some time to explore Passau. Shuttles from Passau to ship were at 10:30 am, 11:45 am & 12:30 pm.

Passau was one port that we had to get off from ship to pier from the top Vista Deck (Deck 4), that might be an issue with those who are less mobile. Also, it double-parked with NickoVision so ALL staterooms on the Starboard side were in complete darkness against the concrete pier. Whereas staterooms on the Port side were tied with NickoVision. We were lucky because in order to line up the entrance, NickoVision moved back and so my suite DID NOT get blocked at all.  Hooray! Another eveidence to prove the excellent location of my room!

Here showed the gangway from the top deck to the pier:

As usual, we lunch at Blue, my favourite lunch spot!

In the afternoon, we relaxed in the spa waiting area where the whirlpool & the swimming pool were located and watched the boat enter/exit the locks.

My husband even set up his video camera on the tripod while he himself relaxed on the lounger.

Then my husband and a lot of other passengers gathered at Palm Court to watch World Cup Final. They were furious when the satellite signals were weak at times and the screen blacked out or frozen many times. I used my data to watch it so I had no problems, though the screen on my phone was way smaller.

We didn’t attend “The not so newly wed game”, so sorry, no comments on the event.

Passau & Munich – July 14
Steps walked: 11,800         Floors climbed: 4	Distance walked: 8.4 km
Details	Time	Notes
Breakfast at Waterside	7:30 AM
Ship Tour: A Day of Art & Culture in	8:30 AM	Guide: Jardo
Munich (PSU-05)
washroom break	9:45 AM
arrived at Munich	11:30 AM
Guided tour at Museum of Modern Art	11:45 AM	Guide: Ricki
Complimentary lunch at Ratskeller	1:15 PM
Guided walking tour	2:30 PM
Free time	3:25 PM
Visited Munich City Museum	3:45 PM
Met at Max-Joseph-Platz	5:00 PM
Back to ship	7:40 PM
Dinner at Waterside	8:00 PM
Spotlight Showtime: Tenor (Stefan Mullan)	9:30 PM	Excellent
Pianist (Elda Laro)
Social time at Cove Bar	10:30 PM

What a day! After a 2.5 hour’s journey, we finally arrived at Munich. With the Christopher Street Day Gay/Lesbian Parade taking place in Munich, Crystal should have cancelled this trip to Munich, rather than having us amidst the crazy crowd on all major routes. It’s amazing that none of us got lost while walking to lunch!! UGH! THE CROWD!

As soon as we arrived, we went to the Museum of Modern Art. The guide Ricki’s English was not very good, with a heavy accent. Besides, she treated us like College Art students and went into so much details that we got very bored. We stood in front of a few not-so-famous paintings and listened to her for over 5 minutes, so we could only see a few sections of the museum. I peeked into other sections that we didn’t have time to see and found that I actually had more interest to see those. That 1-hour was really boring!! When I signed up for this excursion, I thought I was going to see artwork reflecting the history of Germany in the eyes of modern people. What a disappointment! We spent over 5 minutes to talk about these rocks:

The second disappointment was the complimentary lunch at Ratskeller.

There was not a choice for us so everyone was given the beef stew. It tasted okay but I’d rather pay to get German specialties like pork knuckle or the different types of sausages. The beer was just average. When we walked past the Biergarten during our walking tour after lunch, how I wished we were eating & drinking there!

I didn’t enjoy the walking tour as the streets were all crowded with people because of the parade. So when we had free time, we just wanted to get inside a museum to avoid the people. We paid 7 euros each to get to the Munich City Museum. Surprsingly, there was one floor that had a huge display of authentic musical instruments…very interesting! I even got to play a steel drum.

After a brief visit to St. Peter’s Church, we went to our meeting place, Max-Joseph-Platz. It was so cute that they put cushions on the steps for people to sit and have a drink outside the Residenzmuseum.

When we got back, there was a ship parked beside us. See how close it was at midship:

A much bigger gap was outside our window, hence our room location was more desirable than other balcony rooms:

After a quick dinner at the Waterside, we attended a superb concert by a tenor, Stefan Mullan and his incredible piano accompanist, Elda Laro.

What a coincidence that both Stefan and myself graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, England! We had a brief chat after the concert.

Having heard so many great things about the tapas-style Bistro Mozart, we decided to give it a try. We liked it so much that we had to book it for a second time before we disembarked.

First of all, it was very pleasant to eat with floor to ceiling windows right beside you. Incredible Danube river views accompanied us for the whole meal, from day to night.

There being no menu, it was up to the chef to share with us his “creation”, based on our liking of seafood and meat. These were the appetizers: salmon with caviar, air-dried pork, caesar salad…soooo yummy!

Main course were shrimps and filet mignon with yams and garlic bread. Everything was super tasty. Our dessert was of course their famous mango sorbet with chunks of mangoes.

 

 

 

When we got back to Linz, we drove past Hauptplatz the main city square. It was so beautiful that we decided to have a little exploration on our own. After changing our Bistro reservation to 8 pm, we started to walk to the Main Square from the ship. Then we saw the cute yellow trolley so we decided to take a little tour of the town. It was only €9 per person for a 30-minute tour. We were the red tour so we could see our ship from the bridge.

After the trolley trip, we walked around and then paid €1, 20 to take a 3-stop bus ride back to the Main Square before walking back to the ship. We just paid for the bus tickets from the machine at the bus stop, very easy with clear English instructions.

 

Linz & Cesky Krumlov – July 13
Steps walked: 11,800         Floors climbed: 4	Distance walked: 8.4 km
Details	Time	Notes
Breakfast at Waterside	8:00 AM
Ship Tour: Czesky Full-day Adventure	9:00 AM
to Cesky Krumlov (LNZ-03)
arrived at Cesky Krumlov Castle	11:00 AM	start tour from uphill
complimentary coffee break at Cesky Pernik	11:50 AM
Guided tour part 2	12:00 PM
Free time & Lunch	12:20 PM
Lunch at Hotrel Dvorak terrace by the river	12:30 PM	1050 Czech Koruna
Coffee at Egon Café	2:00 PM	138 Czech Koruna
Meet at Old Town Square	2:30 PM
arrived back to Linz for city sightseeing	4:00 PM
Back to ship, booked Bistro dinner	4:20 PM
Afternoon snacks at Bistro	4:30 PM
Walked to Linz Old Town	5:15 PM
Boarded trolley for a 30-min Old Town Tour	6:00 PM	€9 per person
Took a bus back to ship	6:50 PM	€1,20 per person
Back to ship	7:05 PM
Dinner at Bistro Mozart	8:00 PM
Ship to Passau	9:00 PM
Went to “Ther Liar’s Club” at Palm Court	9:30 PM	too long & repetitive!

While we were at Linz, the ship docked with the Port side facing the pier. Luckily, our suite didn’t get blocked by the pier at all. But you could see from the picture that a whole chunk of rooms on Deck 1 from mid-ship to the front of the ship were completely blocked.

We docked really close to town. Strolling to Hauptplatz, the Old Town Main Square, was just an easy 5-minute walk.

After breakfast, we boarded the bus to go to Český Krumlov in the Czech Republic. Most people from the ship chose to go to Salzburg as it was a more popular spot for tourists. So there were only about 20 of us on the coach. After a 2-hour journey on the coach, we arrived at the top of Český Krumlov Castle, dated back to 1240 when the first castle was built. We felt much better walking downhill, accompanied by the gorgeous views:

After a 45-minute walk, we were taken to a cute little shop opposite the castle exit to taste their famous Old Bohemian ginger bread. We were also offered free trials of their wine & liqueur. The ginger bread had lovely designs and was really soft and delicious.

We continued our walk to cross the Vltava (Moldau) River to the Old Town Square. We had a great lunch on the terrace of Hotel Dvorak by the river.

Both the fish and the duck were delicious.

After lunch, we walked to a little cafe for coffee before joining the group at the Old Town Square to walk to the coach for our return trip.

We left Durnstein at 12 noon, sailing the beautiful Wachau valley.

Crystal Mozart docked at Melk.

The spectacular Melk Abbey.

The walking tour

It was quite tiring to walk so much, and we had even more walking the following day to go to Cesky Krumlov. Getting really excited to see Linz and Cesky after 17 years!!

Durnstein & Melk – July 12
Steps walked: 10,332         Floors climbed: 11	Distance walked: 7.4 km
Details	Time	Notes
Breakfast at Waterside	8:30 AM
Ship Tour: Durnstein Walking Tour &	9:30 AM	quaint little village
Monastery (DUE-03)
1-hour guided tour with Lisa Marie
free time to explore the town	10:30 AM
back to ship	11:45 AM
Scenic Sailing along Wachau Valley	12:00 PM
Lunch at Blue	12:20 PM
Arrived at Melk	4:00 PM
Ship Tour: Melk Abbey: a Baroque	4:30 PM	lots of walking!!!
Masterpiece (MLK-02) 2-hr guided		Guide: Iduna (Excellent)
Left Melk Abbey	6:30 PM
back to ship	6:45 PM
Dinner at Waterside	7:00 PM
Social time at Cove Bar	9:00 PM

Crystal Mozart left Vienna just before midnight of July 11. When we woke up on July 12, we found that we were already at Durnstein, with Amadeus Symphony parked right beside us on the Starboard side. Again, it proved that our suite location was great as there was still a little bit of gap between our windows and the front part of Amadeus Symphony.

We started the walking tour by going to Dürnstein Abbey. Established in 1410 and rebuilt in 1710 in the elaborate Baroque style, the abbey is definitely very well-kept. Here is the famous spire of the blue church:

The interior was surprisingly stunning for a quaint little village of only 900 inhabitants.

We had an easy stroll through this beautiful village, heard legends about the town, its ruined castle and King Richard I of England, also known as Richard the Lionheart. Walking back to the ship on our own was super easy.

On a river cruise, the worst stateroom locations were the midship rooms, and many of them were the penthouse suites. They ALWAYS got blocked, at least partially if not completely. All you faced was just the concrete. Those on Deck 1 midship were in complete darkness, like you’re trapped in a lock.

When we booked this cruise, the Michelin-starred restaurant experience was one of the highlights that attracted us. Now Crystal only offered that to guests who are in Penthouse & above free of charge, all others would be charged €249 per person. Since we booked the cruise before Crystal announced the cut-off date of August 7, 2017, we were able to enjoy this culinary experience free of charge. Out of Edvard, Konstantin Filippou & Le Ciel, we chose the last one.  There were 16 of us going there and 20 that went to Edvard. Not sure how many went to Konstantin Filippou.

The food at Le Ciel was definitely above average and the service was great too, but I don’t think it’s worth €249. Crystal used 3 different coaches to take us to the restaurants. Le Ciel is on the 7th floor of the Grand Hotel, quite close to the Vienna State Opera.

The menu

The veal (main course)

The dessert

2 types of chocolate after the dessert (yes, the green ones are yummy chocolates)

What a great day in Vienna! There was so much that we didn’t get to see so I was very glad that we got to stay in Vienna for a couple more days after the cruise.

Vienna – July 11
Steps walked: 11,139          Floors climbed: 13	Distance walked: 7.6 km
Details	Time	Notes
Breakfast at Waterside	8:00 AM
Ship Tour: Exclusive Museum of Fine Arts	9:00 AM
& Art Chamber (VIE-05)
arrived at Kunsthistorisches Museum	9:40 AM	early opening for
2-hour guided tour with Gabriela, saw Klimt’s artwork		Crystal guests
walked to Imperial Treasury to see crowns	11:40 AM
walked to coach	12:20 PM
boarded coach at Albertina	12:30 PM
Lunch at Waterside	1:00 PM
Ship Tour: Imperial Schonbrunn Palace &	2:00 PM	guide: Irene
Royal Carriage Museum (VIE-04)
self tour of palace grounds (no tour inside)	2:50 PM
Guided tour to Royal Carriage Museum	3:30 PM	interesting history
Boarded coach for more city sightseeing	4:30 PM
Back to ship	6:00 PM
Signature Event: Michelin-Star Dining at	7:00 PM	upscale and delicious
Le Ciel by Toni Morwald (VIE-16)		excellent service
arrived at Grand Hotel	7:20 PM
finished dinner	9:30 PM
back to ship	9:50 PM

After a restful sleep, we woke up ready to have a full day of sightseeing in Vienna. This was our itinerary for the day:

1. 9 am – 1 pm     Exclusive Museum of Fine Arts & Art Chamber
2. 2 – 6:30 pm       Imperial Schonbrunn Palace & Royal Carriage Museum
3. 7 – 10 pm          Michelin-Star Dining at Le Ciel by Toni Morwald

First we went to breakfast and it was amazingly good. I’ll post some pictures later.

Our 1st stop was the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts). The museum was supposed to open at 10 am but Crystal got priority entry at 9:40 so we could follow the guide and saw many areas before the public. We had to leave our bags in the locker. Photography without flash was permitted. Our tour guide Gabriela (same as yesterday’s tour) was very very good.

One of the most important works was the Saliera or Salt Cellar by Benvenuto Cellini.

Another special event at the Kunsthistorisches Museum was the Stairway to Klimt. To remember the artist’s death 100 years ago, there was a temporary elevated platform that brought visitors close to 13 paintings on walls above the museum’s grand staircase.

Then we moved on to the Imperial Treasury to view 2 very famous imperial crowns. The first one was the Austrian Imperial Crown (the Imperial Orb, Crown, and Sceptre of Austria).

The second one was the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

After we went back to the ship for lunch, we started our afternoon excursion to Schönbrunn Palace and the Royal Carriage Museum at 2 pm. The drive took 20 minutes.

We only visited the outside of the Schönbrunn Palace but the ground was absolutely stunning.

 

The Carriage Museum was right next to it.

We left the palace at 4:30 pm and the driver drove through the city for more sight-seeing before getting back to the ship. I’m so glad that we got to stay for a couple more days after disembarkation so we could see more of Vienna. It’s a wonderful city!