Momma strategized all the lines and timings so we could hit the big ones, including the new Guardian of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. We walked around the International Festival of the Holidays at the different countries, eating a buffet lunch at Germany’s Biergarten Restaurant and dinner in China at Lotus Blossom Cafe. We caught the processional show with narration, orchestra, and singers, and ending the night watching the laser/firework/water show called Harmonious.
We had a Ceilidh to celebrate the end of the program and learned a bunch of traditional dances!
Ceilidh Dance Video 1 Ceilidh Dance Video 2 Ceilidh Dance Video 3
Went back up to the Wallace Monument to actually go inside; the views from the top were quite good but more welcomed was the breeze cooling me off from the Scottish heat wave (80 deg) – which doesn’t seem like much but is actually pretty serious because Scotland is not equipped for weather above like 70, and we actually had to have class online today because our teacher couldn’t get here because the train lines are melting. Then we went to the Birds and Bees pub where we ate and enjoyed a Scottish and Irish Folk band, and taught us a wee dance.
The day we’re all here for, the tour of the campus. We explored a Tesco and ended the night at a bar with some music; we’ve found that they’re pretty much stuck in the 70s, the musician was playing lots of Eagles and Beatles, and stores/restaurants in both Dublin and Dundalk play almost exclusively all the oldies but goodies.
Took a stroll to the Ha’penny pedestrian bridge to see a bit of Dublin without the rain, then took a quick train ride to Dundalk. Today was mostly meandering around, walked around Ice House Hill Park (where I took my obligatory European duck pictures – though not the best cuz all the kids were trying to pet them), and ended the night as the “Comfortably Dumb” trivia team and actually not doing terribly!
We took a couple different routes on the Hop-Off-Hop-Off buses so I feel like we really got to see a lot of the city. That includes Marienplatz, St. Michael’s church, the eternal flame monument for those lost in WWII, Nymphenburg Palace, Olympic Park where we went to the top of the tower, a market where we saw a maypole, Odeonsplatz, and the English Gardens. The gardens were beautiful, and we stumbled across a place where apparently a lot of people go to surf the little waves coming out from under the bridge.
We visited the Shoes on the Danube, a memorial there to honor those lost in WWII. We also went through the Labyrinth, naturally made, but now used in connection to Dracula; they were quite creepy with very few lights, fog, and opera music echoing throughout accompanied by wax figures as a masquerade ball. We took the funicular down Buda Hill, rode the Budapest Eye, and as we were sitting having a milkshake to cool down, a random parade came by as there are multiple festivals happening around here, but what mostly caught my attention was the guy having to wear a fur coat in 90 degrees. We had a great dinner where we cooked our own meat on a lava rock (I had some Mangalica Pork, mostly because I was really intrigued by the concept of eating a fuzzy pig). And then we were supposed to take an overnight train tonight to Munich, but we ended up missing that one, but we were able to get another train to Munich tomorrow morning and a hotel room in the same hotel we stayed in last night so it all worked out. Plus we were glad to be able to take a shower after sweating all day.
We visited the Rock Hospital which was not what I had expected but was extremely interesting. They didn’t allow us to take photos inside, but they had wax statues all through the tunnels in the cave to represent how it was used in WWII as a hospital and later as a potential nuclear shelter for the threat during the Cold War. We went to Gellert Hill and visited the church built into the stone, and then I hiked up to the top and the views were spectacular (you can see a more detailed story of that adventure by searching “Hiking Gellert Hill”). We also walked through a local market (located in a very large, grand looking building) and got some fresh fruit. And finally, as it is the last night of the cruise, they led us into town to the street filled with all the nightlife and bars and we hung out with some of the friends we have made.
We made a quick stop in Melk and walked through the abbey, then cruised through the Wachau Valley (a UNESCO world heritage site) to get to Dürnstein where we went to a wine tasting. My young tastebuds do not really enjoy the taste of alcohol so I didn’t really like any of the wines, but it was a fun experience. I do quite enjoy that we are able to make stops in these little towns instead of just being in the big cities with tons of tourists, they are quite quaint and beautiful. Also, apricots are really big around here, so I got an Austrian cake sort of thing filled with an apricot spread and at the wine tasting they had an apricot dessert paired with an apricot rum.
We docked in Passau this afternoon. We walked around the city, as we were walking some of the stones were painted and apparently they show where art galleries can be found, and we went to where the three rivers converge as Passau is also called the “City of Three Rivers.” For lunch we went to a little cafe looking out on the Danube where I had some typical Bavarian food: juice with sparkling water and a sort of strudel with spinach, egg, goat cheese, and yogurt. We visited St. Peter’s Cathedral which has the biggest organ in a cathedral, and then I hiked up to the fortress Veste Oberhaus. On our way back to the ship we stopped by a local beer festival.
