DECEMBER , PART 2 December 15-23 2011

I guess my New Year's Resolution has got to be....post this blog on a regular basis once again!!!  Im really going to try now that we are back on the road full time. December was a wonderful, though our traditonal Christmas had changed totally for us this year... no house for setting up and decorating a tree or planning dinner parties, no yard for hanging Paul's cute candy cane lights and our new life living in our little motor home meant we wanted to do something new and different. A river boat cruise to visit the Christmas Markets

along the Danube River in Germany sounded just right!  We sailed from Nuremberg, Germany to Vienna, Austria for 9 days with Grand Circle River Cruise on the River Adagio.







 Surprisingly we had no rain and no snow! Cold...yes. And such fun!

We started with the grandest of all German markets in Nuremberg. Bundled up, we wandered and listened to Christmas music performed by local groups

and drank the local Christmas beverage Gluhwien,

a tasty mulled wine sold throughout the market area.
One thing we really liked was that everything we ordered, both food and drink, was served in real dishes/cups with real silverware.  Nothing plastic and disposable. To make it work, we would pay a small deposit, 2 Euro or so as a deposit, drink or eat our treat then return the dish and receive the deposit back.  Novel idea...no trash!




 Snacked on sausages (and sauerkraut for me)

and wandered among all the Christmas  booths.

Nuremburg is known also for its wonderful gingerbread cookies... a mix of a carrot cake turned cookie, scrumptious!

We also visited the Castle at the top of the hill for a wonderful view of the city.

and even saw the remains of Hitler's Rally Grounds outside the city where he had planned to speak and display his military might, built in a similar design to the Coliseum.

Cathedrals and beautiful Germany buildings everywhere.

One of my favorite finds was the 16th century home of German artist Albrecht Durer. Though the city of Nurnmburg had been totally destroyed in WWII this house remained unscathed. We were lucky to find an English speaking docent leading a tour in the character of the artist's wife.









When traveling a river there are many locks to pass through.  The tallest of these was 82' tall so we went outside to watch. Amazing to think there was a wall of water on the other side of the cement wall.We passed through 21 locks along the river. Guess that's about the only part of the river travel that's hard for me...seeing a concrete wall within a foot of the window, I never get used to it.

2 days later we visited Regensburg, Germany. Another walled city with beautiful architecture and seerval Christmas markets.

Passau was our next stop where we encountered this Guard at one of the gates to the city.

One morning was spent just cruising along a very picturesque part  of the river with castles along the hillsides.  Freezing cold outside, but didn't want to miss anything!

Our last evening was spent in Viennna where we attended a wonderful concert with the music of Strauss and Mozart.  A 13 piece orchestra played while 2 opera singers and 2 ballet dancers performed various pieces.

 We left early Dec. 23rd for our flight back to New York...but that's a story for next time!