We went for breakfast at seven and I had oatmeal and 1 slice of toast. I am trying to make up for over eating yesterday. Ken had an omelette and toast, so both of us behaved ourselves.
Then it was back here to enjoy the wonderful scenery that we sailed past. I am surprised at how much of the river is not lived on. There are lots of empty spaces.
We spent some time enjoying the balcony. It is small but it certainly is lovely. Soon it was time to leave. Sam, the cruise director warned us that it was quite hot and the sun was strong so we should bring protection with us. I wore my big white floppy hat.
The tour left at ten and we were back around 12:15. It really was most enjoyable. Dorothea , our guide, told us about the flooding situation. Being at the confluence of 3 rivers means there can be major floods. She said they average about one bad one every 50 years. The last major one was in 2013. People who live in this area do not qualify for flood insurance so they do not use their lower level. When the water gets knee high the doors and windows at the bottom are opened so the water can just flow through and the buildings are not damaged. The one in 2013 got to the third level. For 2 weeks everyone was trapped in their homes with only their emergency kits for 14 days. But no lives were lost. Because the waters contain glacial flour it has to be removed from inside as quickly as possible. I guess it dries life concrete. So as the waters recede all 50 thousand dig in and try to put that silt back into the river. There is a chart on the side of one of the buildings showing the height of the different floods.
Of course the higher areas of the city are not subject to this kind of catastrophic flooding.
Dorthea told us about the cobblestones. I guess they are not old. They have been done in recent years. They tried asphalt and it was too expensive and did not last so they went back to cobble stones. They are made from local rock deposits and they are cut to fit the areas. The big thing is the fact that when you want to repair a water line or a gas line you simply remove a few stones, do the repair and put the stones back. That is so much easier than digging up asphalt and replacing it. Ant of course it is less costly.
For me the main highlight of the tour was to be able to see inside the cathedral and take pictures. This magnificent baroque cathedral is located on the highest point of the town and not subjected to the floods.
St.Stephen cathedral has an organ with 17,974 pipes. 233 stops and 4 carillons. I cannot imagine the sound it must have. Amazing. We will have to return for one of the organ concerts one day.
The cathedral was the last stop on our tour.
We made our way back to the ship and stopped for an ice cream along the way. Ice cream is less expensive here. In Vienna, one scoop was 3.2 Euros. Here it was 1.2 Euros... we had 2 scoops each. One shop had post cards for 2.25 Euros for ten cards. In Budapest the cards were 1 Euro EACH!
We arrived just in time for lunch. I had a bowl of very tasty corn chowder.
Last night we had a great laugh because the appetizer contained buffalo milk cheese. I could not help laugh when I tried to think of the poor soul who had to milk the buffalo.It just struck me so funny and I got the giggles. So today I joked with our waiter about no buffalo milk cheese today. By the way the cheese tasted quite flat, not at all tasty and I would say not worth all of the work required to milk the buffalo.
We spent the afternoon relaxing. Ken went topside to get some sun. Our balcony is shaded in the afternoon. I had my nap, had a shower, did my hair and rinsed out a few unmentionables. It was a perfect afternoon. On our side was more rural country side with farms and parks and bike trails. Ideal for sure.
The interesting thing about today was the time involved in getting to the next stop. Because of locks and twists and turn it took the ship 4 hours to make that trip. However if you stayed in Passeau after the ship left you could catch a bus and get to it in 25 minutes. Some people stayed in town to explore and others like Ken and I returned to the ship. Because this is Sunday most shops were closed. The observe the Lord's Day Act in Germany. I wish they still did that in Canada.
After a very good dinner we went to the sun deck and putted a little and watched a beautiful sunset. Day 6 of our cruise and day 8 of our European adventure has come to an end. I have already taken 536 pictures.
