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Europe Xmas River Cruise ++
  • Maurice Gilling
  • Amber Gilling
  • Riley Gilling
  • Maurice Gilling
  • Amber Gilling
  • Riley Gilling

Europe Xmas River Cruise ++

Budapest, Vienna to Nuremburg (Danube), Munich, Paris, D-Day beaches, WW1 & 2 sites Read more
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  • Trip start
    December 14, 2024
  • Europe Xmas River Cruise ++
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    Buda Castle

    December 16, 2024 in Hungary ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Buda Castle & Caves

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    Vienna, Austria

    December 18, 2024 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 4 °C

    Our full day in Vienna started with a coach drive around the Ringstrasse, followed by a short walking tour. We then went back to the Envision for lunch & back to the Innere Stadt to the Rathaus where Vienna’s largest Christmas market is.Read more

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    Melk Abbey

    December 19, 2024 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    A Benedictine abbey above the town of Melk, Lower Austria founded in 1089, on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Danube river, adjoining the Wachau valley. Today's Baroque abbey was built between 1702 to 1736.Read more

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    Cruising the Danube river

    December 19, 2024 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    After departing Vienna, the following day we went through the Wachau valley. Full of twists & turns, modern towns, castles, churches and town after town of colourful houses and some dramatic vistas. Amber’s 5 x great grandfather (paternal side) left Germany in the late 1700s when Catherine the Great of Russia opened the Ukraine to settlers & floated down the Danube on a raft to settle outside of Odessa where the family stayed until they (Amber’s great grandparents & grandfather) immigrated to Canada in the 30s. It’s been a special day looking at castles and abbeys that would have been here when Georg Boepple (born 1765) went by so long ago changing the history of the family.Read more

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    Grein

    December 19, 2024 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    An adorable very small little city (we were told by our guide to tell his wife he called it that as she was born there). We turned up after dark and had a gorgeous little concert of local folk music followed by a short walking tour to the town square where the locals were enjoying a mulled wine stall & into the church.Read more

  • Europe Xmas River Cruise ++
    1The small marks up the wall are high water markers where previous floods reached1More higher water markers. The highest one is almost 13m above the Danube & happened in 20134

    Passau

    December 20, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    We split up this afternoon. Logan and I went on the city walking tour ending at the Christmas market & Maurice & Riley did the hike up Veste Oberhaus & they ended up at the markets too.

  • Europe Xmas River Cruise ++
    The Ilz River coming in Black, the Inn coming in clear from the Swiss AlpsIlz River from the north11This is the Oberhaus from the city. This date says 1499 which is when the original was completed.

    Hiking to Veste Oberhaus

    December 20, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    Riley and I took a walk up the hill to a castle. Stunning views of Passau and views of the Inn river from the south (Alps) and the Ilz from the north. We finish with a walk through the town and found Amber and Logan in the Xmas marketsRead more

  • Europe Xmas River Cruise ++
    11The second Stumbling stone found112This was about 11am with a cold pilsner, sausages and Sour Crout, in about 3°c

    A day in Regensburg

    December 21, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    What a stunning city. We started with a guided walk through the central city. Had sausage and sour crout from the oldest sausage shop next to the oldest stone bridge in Europe, built around 1135-46. Back to the ship for lunch we still had the afternoon free so we walk to the island communities across the bridge.Read more

  • Europe Xmas River Cruise ++
    The gates on these ones go up & you move under
    The half finished Nazi Congress HallThe back of the stands at the zeppelin field where the people sat. The buildings between held flagsThe stands go around 3 sides of the fieldWhere the big wigs made their speeches & the dignitariesDignitary seatingThe front of the grandstand seatingThe front of the Palace of Justice. Still a working court, except courtroom 600 is now a museumThe entrance to the jail where they held the 21 highest ranking nazis for the first trial.Courtroom 600 is behind the top middle windows with the chandeliers (removed for the actual trial)

    Nuremberg

    December 22, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 6 °C

    Today we cruised through the locks on the Danube Main Canal before getting off at Roth to be taken into Nuremberg for a visit to the old Nazi party rally grounds, the Palace of Justice where the Nuremberg Trials were held after WWII & on to their famous Christmas market (next footprint)Read more

  • Europe Xmas River Cruise ++
    The original entrance gate that you walk through now too
    The door with the infamous "arbeit macho frei " : work makes you free"Roll call groundsWaking down camp avenue between the 2 lines of BarracksRecreation of what inside the barracks would have looked like, minus the straw for beddingToiletsBl 26. Someone left a memorialLooking back down the main camp avenue from the other end of the campBarb wire gate & ditch leading to the crematorium areaThe original crematorium of the campA new building was built including a gas chamberInside the gas chamber disguised as a showerThe larger crematorium spaceGuard towerInside the admin building where prisoners were registered, now a museum exhibitionView through the admin building to the memorialThe original gate made by prisoners. It was stolen in 2014, a replica is outside nowOne of the punishment cellsThe Bunker; the punishment block1A tribute outside the gate. On arrival there was only the flowers.

    Dachau

    December 23, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C

    After leaving the river cruise we trained from Nuremberg to Munich. We dropped our bags at the hotel & then took the train to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. The site of the original nazi camp was sobering in terms of the size, how well organised they were to perpetrate the atrocities and the sheer size & # of people who ended up there through it’s long history from 1933-1945. Never forget.Read more

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    Christmas Eve in Paris

    December 24, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    Hoping everyone has had/ will have a lovely Christmas as we start the countdown in Paris.💋💋🎄

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    Paris Day 2

    December 26, 2024 in France ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    It started with Riley & Maurice taking the train to Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre. However, we experienced a train breakdown. So we thought. The messaging in the train was all in French.... after about 45mins we got shunted to the next station. Then we got out to police with guns surrounding the train. I think it was just to stop people getting on. But a little disturbing initially. Part 2 of the day Amber joined us as Logan was unfortunately not feeling well, we went to Musee de l’Armee at Les Invalides (with Napoleon I’s tomb) and the Eiffel Tower.Read more

  • Europe Xmas River Cruise ++

    Arromanches

    Dec 27–30, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Arromanches was our base for D Day sites for 3 days. It was a beautiful little town, the site of the Mulberry harbour built for landing all the gear. Remnants still remain showing the scale of an amazing engineering feat that was floated across from England for the landings.Read more

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