After lunch, we hopped on to a taxi that Crystal called for us to Szechenyi Spa, originally built in 1913. The taxi fare was only 3,000 Forint, according to the meter. It was great that we could share this with another couple from the ship. It’s 10 Euros if not paid in Hungarian Forint. The journey took only 15 minutes and the traffic was quite light. We got in from the entrance opposite to the Circus and the line-up was huge. Luckily we bought the VIP entry so the line was so much shorter that we got to the counter in less than 10 minutes.

VIP package meant we could have a private little cabin for each of us as a change room. The room operated (locked/opened) using the digital bracelet that we got and it was quite spacious so we didn’t have to worry about our belongings or leave them in lockers. We were also given shower gel/shampoo, flip flops and a towel but we opted not to use those as we brought our own for hygienic purpose.

This was the map of the spa to show the 18 outdoor/indoor natural hot springs with different temperatures, 10 saunas / steam cabins and several rooms for massage therapies.

Here’s the huge outdoor baths:

A few of the indoor ones:

 

There were a few massage areas with many treatment rooms.  The rooms were all spacious and the service was very relaxing. Both my husband and myself enjoyed the 1-hour thermal massage a lot.

We spent about 3 hours at the spa. The shower stalls were all private and the facilities were very well-run. We just had to tell the girl who led us to our change cabins that we paid for the private cabin and had a massage with the set time on the ticket, otherwise she would take us to the public locker area. A few taxis were waiting at the entrance so it was easy to get one to take us back to the ship. Our return journey cost double of what we paid, not sure why, might be because of the time, a bit of traffic jam, but we knew the driver did not take a longer route. It was a side trip that I would highly recommend.

Budapest – July 17
Steps walked: 8,784         Floors climbed: 14	Distance walked: 6.3 km
Details	Time	Notes
Breakfast at Waterside	8:00 AM
Ship delayed entering Budapest	9:00 AM
Ship Tour: Beautiful Budapest (BUD-01)	9:45 AM	Guide: Eva
drove around the city for major sights		very funny
Visited Castle Hill	10:50 AM
boarded coach to go back to ship	12:30 PM
Buffet lunch at Waterside	12:50 PM
Took a taxi to Szechenyi Spa	2:00 PM	taxi fare: 3000 forints
Private Tour: Budapest Szechenyi Spa	2:30 PM
with VIP Massage (5808P30)
taxi back to ship	5:30 PM	taxi fare: 6000 forints
Buffet dinner at Waterside	6:15 PM
Signature Event: Princesses of Violin at	7:20 PM	very commercialized
Budapest History Museum (BUD-08)		with loud background
“3 Princesses of Violin”		music, great techniques
boarded coach to go back to ship	9:10 PM
Budapest by Night Cruising	9:30 PM	beautiful but very windy

The ship was about 45 minutes late entering Budapest, so it gave us some time to watch the ship arrive at beautiful Budapest.

At 9:45 am, we started to tour around both sections of Hungary’s vibrant capital, Buda and Pest. Following along Andrassy Blvd., we reached the Heroes’ Square, with its statue featuring the Seven Chieftains of the Magyars and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Then we crossed the Elisabeth Bridge to the Buda side where the Castle Hill was located, driving past the Royal Palace.

After we got off the coach, there was a 10-minute easy uphill walk to reach the Matthias Church and the seven towers of the Fisherman’s Bastion.

We visited one of the terraces to enjoy the sweeping panoramic view of Budapest from Castle Hill, plus a very nice and enjoyable surprise prepared for us by Crystal.

 

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.