Dateline: August 30, Passau, Germany
We made it finally, but kids . . . this was a LONG haul. I wouldn’t say too long because it really is worth it in the end, I think, but yeah LONG! Passau on the Danube via Calgary / Frankfurt / Munich, in a lovely, balconied state room on the Viking ship Embla and I don’t even know what day it is; pretty sure it’s night now though because it’s dark and we did just have dinner in the lounge.
We also did the lounge in YYC before we left and well . . . it’s a soul-less bubble of bougie bullshit, and the food was crap (I did eat a couple of plates to, you know, make sure my assessment was accurate?). Let’s be honest, I prefer a foot-long Italian from Subway and some Ranch Doritos while watching the moving picture show of humanity shining it’s brightest. How can you not enjoy the freak show vibe of it all? But . . . you don’t get that in the fancy airport lounge; instead it’s buzz-free boredom and decent lemonade.
Our rooms are nice, and we even have 110V plug ins (North American). We brought a general European adaptor which at some point we might need to use, just not today. Tight living but probably should be expected, no? I envision this boat like an old school luxury train trip, only water instead of rails. I like it, but it’s only Day 2 so how much I like it well, we’ll see.
Dateline: August 31, Linz, Austria
Downriver of old town Passau.
Over here we’re all aliens you know; fat, garrulous, grey-haired aliens, and we’ve descended smack dab into the middle of medieval Passau. And we’re easy to spot too because we move about in groups of 20 or so, speak not a word of the local language (we were like meaning to at least learn a few words but yeah, that never happened) and follow around a nice lady carrying a numbered red lollypop; she seems to talk a lot. Our nice lady’s lollypop was 11C and as we toured the old town she told us many interesting things, none of which I remember.
But I do remember Saint Stephan’s Cathedral.
I felt such good vibes in this beautiful space, like Heaven reached down and gave me a fist bump. Did you know that there is a 5 organ / 18,000 pipe sound system in here? What would it have been like for a villager in say, the 1780’s, to come and listen to a few hymns get pounded out on the pedals? Or a symphony? Oh yeah can you imagine? Like an 18th Century version of a Rammstein concert, right? Young punks in the back getting all fucked up on schnapps and shit, headbanging on the pews? Good times!!!
But we left Bavaria now and I’m sad to say we won’t be back until we fly home. This part of Germany is nice. Everything is clean, solid, efficient; it’s well, German. Passau itself is storybook; old and compact in only the best sort of way, but a little tight for a Canadian used to BIG space. I enjoyed seeing this, but no, I don’t think I could live here.
Linz, Austria at night.
Dateline: September 1, Linz, AustriaJet lag is real. Here in Austria we are 8 hours ahead, so when we go to bed its mid-afternoon at home. That’s normally siesta time so no problem in falling asleep but staying there is a different story – we seem to be up and moving about every two hours, and then between 6 and 7am (10 to 11pm at home) a ‘heavy tired’ arrives, just when it’s almost time to wake up and start the day. It’s kind of like trying to sleep during the day for night shift, everything all fucked up, and by the time our bodies figure it out we’ll be on our way home to do it all over again.
Did you know that Austrians donate 5% of their income to the Catholic Church? Yeah, serious, and if you choose to opt out you get ex-communicated (also serious, is that such a bad thing?).
Anyway, we went rural this afternoon, heading out into the country outside of Linz. It’s gorgeous. Stopped in at a farm, baked some bread (yeah we did), stopped at a second farm that’s also a sawmill as well as a brandy distillery, and learned about how things are done outside the city. I love it outside the city, especially the forests – they are manicured, quite clean, and not like at home where that type of intense management is just not possible. I was impressed though, by all of it. Also impressive – we went out in a large motor coach on rather small roads, and as we passed by people waved to us. I almost waved back but never quite got the arm up in time eh? But it was damn nice of them, and people say the Austrians are cranky.
And now it’s time to go. Probably straight to the dining room because well, I seem to be eating like – all the time. Tonight we sail for Krems, the following day Vienna, so I’ll see you again somewhere down river.