Yesterday was a long but interesting day and I couldn’t get to the blog. Today we traveled from Nuremberg to Prague via Pilsen. But let me start with Nuremberg.
We were on the boat for most of the morning and put in at Roth, Germany. We are now traveling in the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal. This canal makes it possible to travel from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea, but there are a lot of elevation changes and thus a lot of locks to go through. To save time for touring we disembarked in Roth and drove to Nuremberg, maybe 30 minutes away. Later we would meet up with the boat in Nuremberg.
We did the WWII Nuremberg tour. There were of course the famous trials held here after the war but before that there were enormous rallies held by the Nazi’s in the city. We went to the old grandstand that is in some disrepair but still standing. The pictures below are of the one I took yesterday and one from the Nuremberg Documentation Center (museum) so you can see what it looked like. There are many historical films of these rallies.
Our guide was very interesting, she belongs to a group working to ensure locals don’t forget what happened here in the 1930’s and 40’s. They started in the 1970’s when they realized people didn’t really understand the history of the Nazi’s and what it meant for Germany and the world. They are fighting to preserve the buildings, pictures and writings of that time. She said something interesting during the tour, she said that the Americans ‘liberated’ Nuremberg in 1945. I don’t know that we would have used that word exactly.
The Documentation Center is undergoing renovations so the current exhibit is small compared to the material available. We also went to the courthouse where the trials took place over several months leading to the execution or imprisonment of the high-ranking Nazi’s. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go in because it’s closed on Tuesday.
It was a really interesting tour and at the end we went into the old town of Nuremberg and had some time to look around. It was rainy and chilly pretty much all day so we really didn’t get any good pictures. I did however manage to capture the ‘big’ chair. This is a furniture store chain and each of their locations feature a huge chair.
After the tour we were shuttled back to the boat where we’ll stay moored until the next morning.
Pilsen
Today we disembarked the boat for the last time.
The drive to Prague (our ultimate destination) takes about 4 to 4 ½ hours depending on traffic. To break it up we stopped in Pilsen (famous for pilsner beer). Unfortunately, it was another very chilly, windy and rainy day, at least at the start.
We were dropped off at the town square that I have to say, paled in comparison to some of the other places we’ve seen. The dismal weather didn’t help. Our guide brought us around the square and we saw the church and heard how General Patton’s army liberated the town in 1945.
The Czech Republic has a long recent history of being overtaken by other countries. They were pretty much handed over to the Nazi’s prior to WWII in an effort to appease Hitler. They were under Nazi occupation from 1939 until liberated by Patton but that didn’t last long. The Soviet Union claimed the entire country and it fell within their sphere after the war. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989-90 they were free to form their own government but the country of Czechoslovakia was never a real country, it was made up of two different nationalities, the Czech and the Slovaks and in 1993 they split in two.
After walking around some we did see that it was a charming town but still trying to form their identity as a tourist destination.
In walking around we came across an exhibition celebrating the liberation by Patton’s army. In part it said that for many years, during the Soviet occupation, people couldn’t talk about that day or show their pictures but they can now. The exhibit called the American occupation the happiest six months many had ever experienced.
After spending a few hours in Pilsen and having lunch at a local restaurant, we continued our journey to Prague.
We’re staying at the Marriott hotel near the old town and it’s just great. As I mentioned we came from the boat and had all our luggage on the bus with us. When we got to the hotel, we were handed our keys and told our luggage would be delivered to our room. About an hour and a half later we still had no luggage!
I have air tags in the bags so I knew they were in the building. We went down to the front desk and they sent a bellman up to help us out. We showed him the location, at least according to the app, and he thought they were in the newer wing, but of course we couldn’t tell what floor. Then he had a brilliant idea, we are in room 515 and in Europe people often write ‘1s’ like ‘7s’ and it happened room 575 was in the new wing. So, we followed him there and Tada, our luggage was found. The room was not occupied so it would have just sat there till whenever had we not had a smart bellman and air tags.
After that drama we went on a brief orientation tour of old town Prague. It is so beautiful. We can’t wait to see more tomorrow.
So now we’re done with the river cruise portion of our trip and the question is, would we do it again? The answer is no. It’s just not a travel product that suits us. This company, AMAwaterways is great, everything was top notch so it wasn’t them.
There is very limited space on the ship, and all the ships are exactly the same size, they have to be to get under the bridges and through the locks. The low ceilings make for a tremendous amount of noise in any public area. We were practically yelling to be heard at dinner last night. The meals are very regimented, if you want to eat early, sorry no can do. There is no room service or alternative dining venue.
We loved all the towns we got to visit but the nature of a 7-day river cruise is you stay in pretty much the same geographical area so the stories are the same, the history is the same.
Also, we don’t drink but we don’t mind if other people do of course. On river cruises the house wine and beer are free flowing at designated parties or evening cocktail hour, and that’s every night. Let’s just say some people really want to get their monies worth. This contributes to the very loud public venues (of which there are about two). So not for us but we’re glad we tried it.
One last thing from the ship, there is a window in the bathroom that looks onto the bedroom area of the room.
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