A lot of people got off the boat and a lot less got on in Nuremberg and apart from Cuz1, Cuz2, the CB and me, most of our shipmates are now single women or men with walking impediments. The single women are not reflective of a Contiki tour, I might add. They are more your “grab a granny” at the local disco. Actually, that’s a real stretch as well. But some of them drink a lot and laugh a lot – enough said.
There’s something fundamentally different about the south of Germany compared with the north. It took me a while to put my finger on it and the hot weather should have provided a clue. The CB and I have been to northern Germany and I have previously commented on the plethora of windmills littering the landscape like so much sewerage in a mediaeval river. Down here there aren’t anywhere near as many. A good start. But thousands of acres of perfectly good farming land are coated with environmentally poisonous solar panels. We’ve heard tour guides say old (very old in many cases) buildings had to be protected from acid rain and the Danube flooding Passau in 2013 was due to global warming therefore renewable energy blah blah blah and it’s probably Trump’s fault. I didn’t have the heart to ask him what caused the even bigger flood in 1501. Anyway we won’t go down that well worn path until next time.
Unfortunately the Danube River is about 3 metres below where it usually is (and about 16 metres below where it was in 1501) so none of the river boats or cargo barges are running in the Passau / Vienna region. There are 120 stuck at one end and 140 at the other end so we are coaching it to Vienna then on to Budapest. Obviously global warming hasn’t been as bad this year as it was in 2013 if you consider rain to be the key. If sunshine is the key it’s climate change not global warming and this year has been worse than 2013, I think (couldn’t help myself). No point complaining and Saga, the travel company, has done a sterling job re-jigging the itinerary.
It wasn’t what we signed up for but Vienna and Budapest are the last two stops and the highlights of the trip for all four of us. Not everyone feels the same however. Remember the opening line of Monty Python’s Parrot Sketch – one of the most iconic comedy routines in history – “I wish to register a complaint”? Well some people can’t help themselves and if the Parrot Sketch was written today it would be a public service broadcast.
The other unfortunate thing about missing the last four or five days of cruising is that it was to be through the best scenery – the bits they show on the TV ads where fairy tale castles are perched on Madonna’s bra – shaped mountains. Again, Saga has compensated for this by driving us through or to the towns we would have sailed through. So we got to have lunch next to what’s left of the castle Richard the Lionheart was locked up in in 1192 in Durnstein. He would have had a great view through his dungeon slit though.