Danube River Cruise. Hungary, Slovakia, Austria & Germany

Travelling with Titan Holidays on their MS River Discovery II, Melodies of the Danube.

Due to the current environment of flight changes, not in the control of Titan...they did remarkably well...and we ended up with an extra morning in Budapest, which was rather fabulous.

Budapest is beautiful...and the extra morning there, gave us the opportunity for a 7 mile walk in a 'comfortable' 31C. Walking the banks of the Danube is rather special and from the Buda side confers marvellous views of the parliament buildings in Pest on the opposite bank. Their featured tour included Heroes' Square and Városligeti Lake/Park and Central Market.

The food and service on board was second to none. The attentive staff clearly know their ship well.

Berthed on the River Danube, our ship set sail westbound, upstream from Komarom in Slovakia due to the lower than usual water levels in Budapest... in this rather, hopefully not so common, drought affected year.

The first stop was Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, a very compact city, dominated by the 9th century castle on the skyline. The castle is easily visited and the views from there are very good. The Franciscan Church and monastery with its gothic crypt is rather interesting too and the presidential palace and Old Town hall are also close by...as are many bars and restaurants.

Our next stop was Vienna...and the only rainy day of the trip. Another short walking tour was included in the city centre, reached by bus initially, about a 3km walk from the berth. The informative tour touched on St Stephen's cathedral, Imperial Palace area, Lipizzaner riding school and Hofburg Palace ( with its balcony, where Hitler made his Austrian Anschluss speech in 1938...never used since due to the notoriety of the event). Part of this trip encompassed a visit to the famous Cafe Central for a fine slice of Sachertorte! In the afternoon we returned to take a 10 mile walk around the city to view this cityscape of grand buildings. Hundertwasser is surreal and worth seeing...and afterwards we indulged in a traditional Wiener Schnitzel.

Durnstein next, one of my favourite stops... on another beautiful day...with a climb up to the 12th century castle remains, in which Richard the lionheart was incarcerated in 1192. Enjoyed the lovely views from there and then continued back down passing vineyards galore to a little village, Unterloiben...where one had to sample a glass of the locally produced Gruner Veltliner wine!

Following day was in Melk...passing the Schönbühel castle on the final approach. We had a morning visit to the Benedictine Abbey perched high above the village. The abbey is still a school and a few monks still reside and work there....an impressive building with a huge library housing over a 100,000 books. In the afternoon we sailed further upstream to Linz, which afforded the opportunity for a pleasant evening walk prior to a daytime visit the next day. Linz is rather charming, it also has a history...another infamous balcony! Took a walk to the port to view some impressive mural art created by well known graffiti artists, followed by a short pleasant stroll back alongside the Danube.

As the ship sailed upstream towards Passau in Germany, nearer to its source in the Black Forest region, the vistas became more appealing, turning truly beautiful as the meandering river widened...with the countryside changing to a more verdant backdrop with forests, fields and mountains becoming more abundant. Paradise.

Travelling in this manner is rather neat and convenient...and very relaxing. The transiting of the locks is entertaining too. It is a taster of what a region has to offer, none of the stays were too long.. and some merit a far longer visit in the future.

I love the idea of river cruising so much, that I will take another one next week....