Danke Dave. Yes. It is the Amawaterways. Thank you for the advice. How about the Banaters that did not take the river, and took the land route. Would they have followed the river or taken another path. Frank - Windsor On 7/11/2014 11:39 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Frank, > It sounds like a Amawaterways cruise but yours may be a different cruise > line. > Several years ago my wife manuvered me onto this trip, except it was the > reverse-----Vilshoven to Budapest. > If you examine the details of the Banaters travel and considering the > relatively short duration taken from Ulm or Regensburg to the > Banat(Pantschowa or Neusatz) it is apparent that the barges did not dawdle > along the way. We do not know if the barges pulled into shore for an > overnight. or if they continued underway at night. At the time of migration > to the Banat the travel on the Danube was not especially easy. The channel > was blocked in places by rocks which had to be maneuvered around, sand bars, > false channels and other obstructions, all making travel after dark chancy. > As a result I doubt if there was time for any casual excursions. > In my view there are two stops which would reflect on the immigrant > experience. > The first is the Great Abbey of Melk. The abbey sits on a high bluff > overlooking the river and must have been an impressive sight at the time for > the travelers on the river. Your boat will stop in Melk. They will offer a > bus ride up to the abbey and a tour of the abbey. Take it. The library is > particularly impressive. At the end of the tour dump the group and walk > back down from the abbey on the footpaths and through the picturesque > village of Melk to the boat. > Secondly, the boat will tie up north of Vienna-----out in the sticks. It is > about half a mile walk to get to the nearest Vienna streetcar line. > My wife says take the tour into town but dump the tour at the first stop > which should be Schwedenplatz. This is close to the Danube canal and on the > edge of the core of the Altstadt as well as on the ring streetcar line. > >From here you can walk up into the Altstadt to many of the tourist sights. > As you know, the Banater boats stopped a day in Vienna to register the > migrants and pay them for a portion of their travel expenses. I do not know > exactly where this registration site was but with a bit of research one > should be able to determine its location and likely is within walking > distance of Schwedenplatz.. Of course now it would be entirely altered with > modern buildings. Perhaps there is someone on the DS list who can point you > to the location of the registration place. > In Passau, Linz and Bratislava(Pressburg) the boat will tie up within easy > walking distance of the core of the town. If you do your homework it is not > necessary to take a tour but you can explore on foot and see sights which > interest you and have identified in advance. > Some comments on Budapest. > If you are interested in military matters and have the time you might > consider spending some hours in the military museum. It is located on the > northwest corner of Castle hill on the Buda side. Almost all places in > Budapest will take Euro but for admittance to the museum you will need > Florins. Last time I was there I didn't have any Florins but slid by > passing as a senior-----if I didn't qualify I am not sure what it would > take. In any event, last time I was there was a special exhibit on Russian > World War I POW camps. It was accompanied by useful maps and many photos. > The camps were distributed all the way across Russia to Vladivostok and even > into Afghanistan at Kabul-----I am still trying to figure that one out. > Unfortunately there was no catalogue to go with this exhibit. Their > permanent exhibits tracks Austrian Hungarian history through its military > artifacts. > Another frequently overlooked Budapest sight worth consideration is a block > size covered market a few blocks south of the St Elisabeth bridge on the > Pest side. > Gute Reise > Dave Dreyer > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 5:44 AM > Subject: [BANAT-L] Danube Cruise > > >> Hello All >> I'll be taking a Danube cruise in a couple of weeks from Budapest to >> Vilshoven. (Passing through Bratislava, Vienna, Duernstein-Melk, >> Linz-Gmunden, Passau). Are there any places, withing walking distance to >> the river, that would have something to do with our ancestor's trek? >> >> Frank - Windsor >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes >> in the subject and the body of the message > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >