Emerald Star Part Three – Beer For Breakfast !

On the lovely afternoon sunshine we left our berth in Nuremberg to start our journey down the Danube. The sailing is one of the best parts of river cruising as, unlike ocean cruising, there is always something to see.

The first part of the journey towards our next stop, Weltenburg, took us through many sets of locks. We cruised along the Main-Danube Canal soon passing through the first set, passing so close that, if you open your balcony window, you can touch the side of the lock itself, that is until the Captain told us not too! Soon the light began to fade and the dining room beckoned as we journeyed through countless more along our way. It had been a long first day, and the next promised to be an early start, so we left the Captain to navigate us safely to Weltenburg.

At 8.30 prompt the next ,despite the mist and fog, our cheerful guide was waiting to escort us on to the waiting coaches for our excursion to Weltenburg Abbey. River Cruising can be quite tiring and, although you don`t have to do everything on offer, most people will get up early everyday to make  the most of their cruise.

Weltenburg Abbey is the oldest Benedictine Monastery in Bavaria, founded in 600 AD by the monks of St. Columbus. It is situated  at the entrance to the beautiful Danube Gorge. Today the lovely  church is still regularly used, in fact one reason for the early start was that the Service was due to start at 10am and we had to finish our tour by ten ! Part of the Monastery is now used as a hotel and another part as a very famous Brewery ! You may even have drunk the award winning beer at your local pub!

It was breakfast time and no visit to Weltenburg could be complete without having a little taste. Our wonderful guide led us into the restaurant area where we were served a glass of beer and a huge, salty type pretzel. I am not a beer drinker but I have to say it was very good, definitely tasted better than it looked!

Outside the Abbey we wandered along the river banks to our small cruise boat which was to take us through the spectacular Danube Gorge.  This part of the river is too small and shallow for larger ships to navigate, so the smaller ship was perfect to get a close up view of the amazing scenery.

Our journey back to Emerald Star, who had travelled on to meet us just outside Regensburg, took us to first see the Kelheim Hall of Liberation. Unfortunately it was closed so we couldn`t go inside, and it was foggy too so we didn`t really see the spectacular views on offer, but it is an impressive building. The memorial commemorates the victorious battles against Napoleon in the Wars of Liberation in 1813-1815. It was commissioned by King Ludwig I and modelled it on centrally planned buildings from ancient Rome and the Italian Middle Ages. It was completed in 1863 by Leo von Klenze.

Tired and hungry we soon arrived back to the ship, where our Star was waiting to serve us very good Bavarian lunch, including sausages of all different varieties ,as we sailed into the centre of Regensburg for an afternoon walking tour. Because of the city´s unique status as “the only authentically preserved large medieval city in Germany” Regensburg  was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2006. It is also brilliant for shopping, but it was Sunday and the shops were mostly closed! Never mind!

Tea time and Bavarian music ended our day and it was soon ” All Aboard” for our journey onto Passau. The evening introduced us to our brilliant cruise director, Karla, who was superb and our Captain who was also pretty good! Tomorrow was to be another early start and a trip to Salzburg .