Days 4 and 5 - Passau

Passau is a lovely city in Bavaria, right on the border with Austria.  There have been human settlements dating back 25,000 years and it was a Roman town 2,500 years ago. The ship docked a couple of miles out of Passau at a dock called Lindau.  There were shuttles into town running regularly throughout the day.  After a bit of a sleep-in and a quick breakfast we went into town to find a gym we had contacted from home.  Seldom are the gyms on ships suitable for Blake's full-on weight lifting workouts so we often find ourselves getting organized with one or two in port.   Some times it's fairly easy, some others not so much.  Last year we were on a Caribbean cruise and had to fly to another island for the "right gym".  It was a good adventure. 

 

 

Back to Passau.  After the morning workout we walked through the new and old parts of town and went back to the ship for lunch. Our big adventure of the day was a four hour, 48 km bike ride along the Danube.  We set off from Passau and followed a meandering trail through cornfields.  Very soon we crossed into Austria and rode to the cutest of towns where we rested for a bit.  Shortly after a huge thunderstorm caught us and we had to take shelter under a tunnel and wait till the worst of it passed. Then we crossed the river and were back in Germany.  The pastoral bike ride turned into BMX from hell (well, at least for about half an hour) but we finally made it back to Passau.  We really had a blast and the e-bikes provided by Crystal were very good, boosting our muscle power when needed.  Suffice it to say, we were exhausted and ended up cutting our post-dinner entertainment a bit short.  We spent the night in port.  

Dinner was great and we met the young German executive chef, Dirk. He told us he had spent some years in the Okanagan, in the Crystal Lodge in Vernon. He is really outstanding and his creations taste as good or even better than they look. Kudos to Dirk. Finally some music in the Cove.  

Day two  We had half a day in Passau and took a morning walking tour of the old town.  We went to St. Stephen's Cathedral which boasts the title of "World's Largest Pipe Organ" with 17,000 pipes and 230 registers.  Passau's an easily walkable city at the confluence of the Danube, the Inn and Ilz rivers.  We sailed away in the early afternoon through the most picturesque, bucolic Bavarian landscape, dotted with small villages and the odd castle.  Floppy hats and Bellinis in hand, what a great way to rest up and enjoy the beautiful scenery.   By the way, shoe and bag shopping in Passau were great!

     

Day 3 - The Hills Are Alive!

Salzburg, what a great city.  Loved it but didn't love the 1 1/2 hour bus ride each way from Linz.  Despite how long the drive was, the Austrian countryside is so picturesque, rolling hills dotted with cows, farmhouses with barns attached, and the mountains standing tall in the background, that I would not discourage anyone from taking this tour.  

We took a walking tour of the city which touched on the highlights but was heavy on all things Mozart and on the Sound of Music.  Of course, there is no way to talk about Salzburg without mentioning Mozart or The Sound of Music, but there is much more to it than that.

But before I get into it, some Sound of Music trivia:  

1. Lisle was 21 years old (not 16 as her character) and she had a big crush on Captain Von Trapp

2. Captain Von Trapp liked his alcohol a bit too much and he didn't like the movie all that much

3. The mountain they crossed to save themselves did not take them to Switzerland, in actuality it crosses into Germany (hardly the place they wanted to to go!)

Seems like every winding street leads to a plaza, beautiful examples of Baroque architecture all around.

Salzburg has a really cool fortress overlooking the city dating back to the eleventh century. A funicular make the trek up and down easy but being the cool intrepid people we are, we went up on foot. It was crazy hot but the views form the top were worth it.

But Mozart truly is the town son and there are countless monuments, shops and other reminders of the illustrious boy.

Dinner on board was lovely and we had a funny Sound of Music sing-along afterwards.  Mark Farris continues to make the evenings enjoyable and fun, for the day in Salzburg he brought on a troupe of young Tyrolese boys and their mother for a local dance performance.  The days are busy and long and it's hard to stay up late.   This is perhaps the one thing we miss the most about this not being an ocean cruise, downtime is hard to find.  

Day Two - The Wachau Valley

We woke up to the rushing River outside our window, fast approaching Durnstein.  We ended up docking a few miles away (there were a couple of other River boats docked at Durnstein) and were met by the Crystal tour buses which follow the ship from one destination to the next. We toured Durnstein on foot (it can be walked from one end to the other in no more than 10 minutes) and visited the monastery and blue tower which are the town's biggest attractions.  But the town dates back to the twelfth century and the ruins of a fortress dominate from atop the village.  The most prevalent sight however, is of the vineyards on which the village economy is based, set upon the hills flanking the Danube. Made it back to the Mozart for another yummy lunch at The Blue from where we admired the sights along the Danube's banks.  Tons of River cruise traffic along the way, we saw various other River boats on our way to Melk.

The Wachau (Narrow) Valley is dotted with tiny villages and at 3 pm we set off for Melk.  We had chosen a tour of the Arstetten Castle (one of the many castles of the Hapsburgs) which is both a small museum and the current home of one of the descendants of Duke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie who were killed in Sarajevo in 1914, an event which marked the beginning of World War I.  The tour was ok but it was stifling hot inside the small rooms of the castle which was made even worse by the larger than planned tour groups (there were to be three small groups but the castle was one tour guide short so we ended up with two groups of approximately 30 people each). In hindsight the tour of the Monastery in Melk may have been a better choice as it is said to be quite magnificent.  We were in Melk for only three and a half hours and by the time we had come back from the castle there was no time left to explore the village.  For anyone on their first visit to Melk trying to decide which one of these tours to take, I would suggest consider doing the village and Monastery tour.

Just out of Melk we went under a bridge and into a lock. The pop-up bar on the Sun Deck was lowered completely under the deck, that was neat to see but we think it was completely unnecessary as we were never close to the bottom of the bridge. Views of the Monastery from the River were gorgeous. We spent a lot of time on the Sun Deck sipping Bellinis and finally made it to dinner at Waterside.  Dinner was simply amazing! After dinner we went to the Cove where Mark Farris was entertaining at the piano.  We had a blast, we singed, danced and laughed our heads off. Mark introduced Cathy to the crowd as our psychiatrist, Dr. Cathy Chris, it all went downhill from there :)  

 

Day One Highlights and Other Musings

The Mozart is simply beautiful.  The ship was taken down to the metal and completely re-imagined and refurbished in a way that is elegant, fresh and stunning and at the same time completely consistent with the two sister ocean ships.  We felt right at home from the moment we set foot on her and that feeling is accentuated by the sense of familiarity.  The looks of the Palm Court, the Bistro, and even the Cove, for example, are completely different from those on the Symphony and Serenity, but they have the same feel.

 

The Blue is the one dining venue which really has no counterpart on the other ships. It has a short menu, beautiful decor and sliding doors opening to the back of the ship.  We had lunch there (it is not open for dinner which is a pity) and enjoyed some phenomenal burgers (even better than the ones from the Trident Grill according to Blake) and some local specialties, like Sacher Wurltz served with a wonderful pretzel and a Reuben sandwich.  All washed down with a beautiful Viennese Rose.  By the time we embarked on Saturday we decided to skip the "Vienna in a Nutshell" tour we had signed up for, in favour of getting a little lunch and some rest. Dinner was at Waterside, the main restaurant. The evening entertainment included a wonderful performance by an Opera singer and a concert pianist.We enjoyed it a lot but were struggling to keep our eyes open.  Unlike on most other River cruise lines, there will be several special performances onboard throughout the cruise, highlighting local artists.  

     

Toto I Love You

Actually I don't love my Toto, Cathy does. But she did not always love her Toto and after a few too many lid openings and closings for no good reason, Cathy asked for her Toto to be disabled.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, Toto are the automatic Japanese toilets which have been installed in every cabin on the Mozart.  There are good things about Toto, the seat is heated, it washes and dries the user, etc. The problem is that it also senses when someone enters the bathroom, whether you intend to use Toto or not, and the lid opens automatically, closing a little later if no one sits on it.  Cathy found Toto's friendliness a bit excessive and even annoying and so had her Toto stopped.  Now, almost a whole day without Toto's friendly greetings, Cathy finds she misses the La Di Da's. 

 

Reporting from Vienna

Arrived in Vienna about half an hour later than scheduled.  Happy to be here after almost missing our connection.  Happy that all three of us are in pretty decent shape as we had to run (yes, run) from one end of the terminal to the other when quite accidentally we discovered that they had changed our gate and there had been no announcement whatsoever.

We did not look very pretty and our dignity went out the window but we made it. And then we waited as boarding was delayed!  Crystal reps were waiting for us after collecting our baggage and promptly walked us to the spanking new Crystal bus.

There were seven of us who arrived at the same time and we have the bus all to ourselves. We were handed Oshibori Wellness moist towels (lovely scented terry cloth) and were offered coffee, I gladly accepted a shot of espresso (Nespresso machine onboard).  The wifi works great, the bus ride takes approximately 25 minutes. Approaching the pier now, so exciting!!!  

 

How About Those Expectations

As we left for the airport I started to think about what this River cruise will be like.  First, what I know:   

As a travel agent I've sat through various webinars put on by Crystal since the announcement of the River cruise expansion so I've gotten a bit more info than what's out there for the public in general.  Crystal is attempting to set itself apart as the only true luxury River cruise line.  One of the comments I've heard is that ocean cruisers tend to feel like they are "compromising" when they go on river cruises because the luxury experience cannot really be matched due to contstraints unique to River cruising. So Crystal's doing a few things differently.    

They have the highest crew/guest ratio in the industry by far; on the Mozart there are 91 crew for 156 guests, so my expectation regarding the quality of service is that it should be no different from what we've always experienced on Symphony and Serenity.  They have also brought quite a few familiar faces from the sister ships.   

Another distinction is the "farm to table" approach.  There will be no pre-made or frozen food brought on (unlike most if not all other River cruise lines) and, except for the emphasis on local food and specialties, the dining experience should be not a lot different from that on the ocean siblings.  Adding to that are the various options for dining onboard including Blue Grill, similar to Tastes which we love on Serenity.  Again, my expectations are quite high in the food department.   

There are a few other ways in which Crystal is trying to do things differently (which I'll comment upon as we experience them) to make sure that when their existing customers get on the River yachts, they will feel a seamless familiarity.    As for the unknowns, my biggest one has to do with whether our cabin will feel claustrophobic; it has two fairly large fixed windows and we won't be spending as much time in the cabin. Still, I would've much preferred a cabin with the French balcony but there were none available (long story but satisfactory ending).  We'll have to wait and see.   

My other concern was whether the ship may feel "old". Based on feedback I've gotten from friends who were on board for for the inauguration, the ship is just gorgeous, it was taken down to the bare metal and given all the ultimate technology possible (except perhaps for sufficient North American electrical outlets). The ship is the largest on the Danube and this has allowed Crystal to recreate the feel of the sister ocean ships in various ways.  The cabins are the most spacious of the River cruise ships which bodes well.   

To sum it up, I have not "adjusted" my expectations; if anything, I expect to be blown away.  

P.S. Arrived in Frankfurt but not without some excitement.  As we were coming in for landing, just about to land, the plane goes into a steep climb for several minutes.  It goes without saying, we were pretty alarmed.  As we reached 4,000 ft the captain announced that control had asked him to abort the landing because there was another plane right before us which was too close.  Phew...

Ready to Go



The Crystal Mozart, formerly a Peter Deilmann vessel carrying over 300 passengers, was acquired by Crystal in late 2015 as the first step in the launch one of its new ambitious expansion ventures -Luxury River Cruising- and will cater to 158 lucky guests one sailing at a time. 

Fast forward to July 2016; the Mozart has been completely reimagined, reconfigured and refurbished and is now plying the Danube on its first sailing.  Reports from the christening ceremony and pre-inaugural viewings are of a stunningly beautiful yacht poised to raise the bar in river cruising.

We will arrive in Vienna shortly after noon on July 23 and will head straight for the Mozart (Crystal transfers to and from the airport are included and they aim not to keep anyone waiting at the airport longer than 15 minutes).

This will be a busy week intense with the anticipation of our new adventure.  Let the packing begin!!

From the wide-open seas to the meandering waterways of Europe, the Crystal way

I am a cruiser; an ocean cruiser that is, and what I love most about cruising is the ocean! So what was I thinking when I booked a river cruise?

Images of fairytale castles and medieval towns in the heart of Europe kept calling so a couple of years ago I began researching river cruising, trying to find the river equivalent to the ocean cruises on Crystal that have so spoiled us. Still, despite the many options available, time and again we played it safe and booked yet another great ocean cruise.

Enter the Crystal Mozart. Sold! Within days of the announcement we were booked, but not without misgivings. Would we miss the rocking and rolling that lulls us to sleep each night? what would it be like to not have the endless horizon spreading before us? And what about those priceless days at sea, times during which we recharge our batteries and enjoy the leisure of lounging on deck for hours on end with a good book in hand and the ocean breeze for company?

I guess we'll soon find out. Follow us along the Danube on a ten day itinerary that will take us from Austria to Germany, Slovakia, Hungary and back. We're lucky that one of our very best friends will be with us; after all, the best things in life are even better when shared with people you care about.

Our route along the Danube

Itinerary