It was a restful morning on the ship as we weren’t getting into port until noon. The weather is fantastic, sunny and in the mid-seventies. This video, if it posts, shows a little of the town from the stone bridge.
They gave a disembarkation talk in the lounge where they explained what would happen on Wednesday when we leave the ship. We, and a lot of other people, will be going onto Prague for a few days. Actually, the full tour is three nights but we’ll only be there for two before we move onto Amsterdam.
There were no big surprises in the talk but they do work gratuities differently then ocean cruises. On ocean trips the gratuities are automatically charged to your account each day unless you ask to have them removed. On a river cruise they have suggested tipping guidelines and it’s up to you to pay by credit card or cash on the last day.
Their guidelines suggest 100 euros per passenger for the crew. Another 25 euro per guest for the cruise manager (who has been with us since before the ship left for Budapest and will be with us until we leave Prague) plus another 4 euro per person per day for the land portion. For Fred and I the total suggested tip would come to 282 euro for the two of us.
282 Euro is about $306 or close to it. We have $300 in on board credit but we’ve also sent laundry in to be done. We should get our credit statement sometime tonight and we’ll see what we’ll do.
So, business aside we were in beautiful Regensburg, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s a typical picturesque German town. We took a walking tour and learned about the history and the formation of the town. On the outskirts, just before we got to town we got a view of Valhalla, a museum dedicated to distinguished people throughout Germany's history.
The town is very pretty and we enjoyed walking around. Again, we had an excellent guide, she was a very good communicator, we even walked by the house she lives in. Below are some pictures we took along the way today, including the oldest sausage retailer in Germany. I didn’t take a picture of the line of people waiting to get a sausage but there were quite a few. Here are some other pictures we took around town.
Regensburg was not bombed during the war although the Nazi’s tried to destroy the stone bridge to stymie the allied advance. We’re heard this in other towns as well, the allies didn’t cause the damage, the Nazi’s did while retreating. The stone bridge was damaged but did not fall down.
After our tour we walked around town for a while. Most stores are closed but the tourist merchants, restaurants and ice cream sellers were all open. Today is Pentecost Monday, and like yesterday is a holiday.
Tomorrow we will be in Nuremberg, Germany. Instead of the standard walking tour we chose one that looks at Nuremberg’s history in WWII.
No comments:
Post a Comment