Regensburg, Germany

October 11, 2016

We made it on time to Regensburg, Germany despite all the obstacles in the river.  Today is the Audi tour and at first I was concerned I would be the only woman but there ended up being 5 of us out of about 20.  It was about an hour and a half drive and I’ve discovered we are all kind of like babies, get us on the bus, start driving and we all fall asleep.

It was a nice drive though.  We did a little site seeing in the city, but we were moving pretty fast so hard to get many pictures.  The drive was nice though and didn’t seem that long.  Finally, we arrived at Audi.  I have to say, it ended up being one of the best tours of the trip.

We walked into the visitor’s center and met our guide, Christian, who was marvelous.  Also quite handsome with silver hair and as one of the lady’s pointed out, a custom made suit.  But he was very knowledgeable and his English was quite good even though he claimed it wasn’t.  The first thing they did was make us put all cameras and cell phones into a locker – no pictures of any kind.  Wonder if any have made it to the web – I’ll have to check.

We saw a short movie about Audi and how it came to be including the circles that make up its logo.  Apparently it is a conglomerate of four auto makers and even owns 15% of Volkswagen.  We saw pictures of all the different plants around the world including the new one in Mexico.  They had considered the US, but because of free trade, it made sense to build it in Mexico and ship to the US.  Christian said most Audi’s are assembled in the destination country to reduce the tax burden to customers.  One of our waiters had told me about the plant in Hungary, he was very proud it was in Hungary, so I told him we had seen a picture of it.

From there we moved to the production floor for one of their smaller models (I don’t know all the model names which I discovered many of my travel companions did) so when he told us what it was didn’t mean anything to me.  The building we were in was about a kilometer long and we would walk all the productions lines from the beginning to the end.

Our first stop was after the basic body had been stamped out.  To robotic arms lifted the roof of the car, cleaned all the edges, then after another robotic arm had applied glue, placed the roof on top of the car.  Christian pointed out a small blue box on the car.  This contained all the details of the car – roof type, color, seat type and color, headlights, rims, car color, etc.  Everything is driven by UPC type codes.  They utilize a just in time inventory so 25 minutes before the car needs to have seats installed, they are ordered from the manufacturer who is also on their campus.  The seats are delivered minutes before the car arrives at the spot where seats are installed.  There was a constant flow of trolleys and fork lifts delivering product to the line.  He said this saved time, conserved time and reduced mistakes.  It was amazing to watch the flow of materials to the lime.

We went back and forth between lines so what we saw was not necessarily in order of installation.  We next saw where they were putting the under cover of the car on.  Two pieces of plastic, four screws.  That was all the man on the line did.  Pickup, apply, twist, twist and repeat for the other side.  I think I would lose my mind.  From there we saw the engine and the suspension installed.  It was supposed to be smooth lifting of engine and suspension into the awaiting frame, but when we got there, the person on the line was having problems getting the suspension to fit and the line backed up.  Christian said this was not normal and I sure felt bad for the worker on the line, having a problem with 20+ people watching.

We then crossed over to where they put the engine together.  Each engine has a code.  The crew working on the engine swipe the code at the entrance of a parts sections and all the bins they need to pull from light up.  They pull the product and as they do the light turns off.  All lights off, all product pulled.  The product then goes back to where it is applied to the engine depending on whether it was a gas engine, dual engine (gas and electric) or all electric.

At each section, parts were coming in just as needed and coded to match the code on the car.  We saw the doors go on, the glass go in, men/women working on the front of the car while a robot was working on the back of the car.  I saw another job where I’d lose my mind.  They apply the latch for the car door, pull off the plastic protector, close the door and check for a smooth fit and that is it.  Can you imagine doing that all day?  I’d last maybe a day, then I’d be fired because my mind would wander and I’m sure I’d mess it up.

Finally, we got to the end and got to see the final product.  They put 8 liters of gas in each car so they can start it and drive it to where it will be loaded and shipped.  A beautiful red Audi came up on the line, the man climbed into the car as we all watched – and it wouldn’t start.  They had to bring over a hand cart to slide under the front wheels and move it over to the side to figure out what was wrong.  So much for showing off for the tour.  The next car did start though.

It was amazing, all amazing.  I could have stood and watched the robots for hours, they truly were like dancers moving smoothly and complimenting the moves of other robotic arms.  Underneath each arm it looked like one big huge motherboard.  Fabulous tour.

We returned to the visitor’s center and walked over to the cafeteria.  I am not sure why, but I guess because of the change in tours, we missed lunch on the boat and weren’t supposed to, so they gave us all 20 Euros to buy lunch.  Most of us didn’t spend all 20 Euros so we came out ahead.

From lunch we had about an hour in the museum.  It was great, it started with their first cars and motorcycles all the way to the newest models.  What was cool is they also had the history of what was going on in the world as each model was introduced.  I finished up a little early and walked over to the bus, which turned out to be a good move.  About 5 minutes after I got on the bus, it started to pour rain, then turned to hail.  The hail stopped but the rest of the group had to make it through the rain to get on.  Again, it paid to be early.

Below are pictures from the Audi Museum.

Below are stock photos from the web that give you a sense of what we saw inside the factory.

Museum

Drove back to the boat – and I think we all slept going back.  But it was a fun, fun day.  Our guide on the bus, who had done the BMW tour but not the Audi tour, thought the Audi tour was better and he thought we actually lucked out by having the tour cancelled.  I don’t know, but I thought Audi was awesome.

We got back just in time for our Signature Lecture, which was about WWI and Nuremberg.  The speaker had done some of his PhD work in the States and Canada so his English was quite good, as was his humor as he spoke.  Even though it was a serious subject, he added some light heartedness to it to keep us engaged.  He was one of those speakers that when he was done you felt like saying "is that all, can't you continue on?"  He spoke about how the Nazi's did not lose the first war, they had turned power over to another political group who surrendered and the Nazi's then said they were "betrayed" but they did not lose.  He spoke of how the Nazi's rose again, providing a high standard of living for Nazi patriots, the start of persecution of the Jews, and how, as the war continued on, Hitler hid from the masses the terrible destruction they were suffering - he painted a picture of success when failure was imminent.  It prepared us for the tour I had signed up for, which was the Nuremberg parade grounds and Document center.Great tour, great friends, great day.

Parade Area - slide from speaker's presentation

Map showing the areas Germany had occupied.  This lead into his discussion of Germany trying to invade Russia since France and Poland had been so "easy".

Picture of bombed Nuremberg.  Hitler kept these pictures from the public so the average German didn't know the extent of the damage to German cities - slide from speaker's presentation

Passau, Germany

October 10, 2016

We sailed most of the morning and arrived at Passau, Germany, the home of our Captain.  We arrived just before lunch and as we gathered after lunch to prepare for our tours, the Captain called a special meeting.  Apparently the river ahead was quite shallow and to complicate things further a ship had run a ground.  So rather than staying in Passau until the evening, as soon as we left for the tour, the ship was going to leave and start sailing to position itself to start down the river as soon as the authorities gave the “OK”.  He could not guarantee we would arrive in our next port to make our tours but he would do his best.

So we left the boat and got on our bus for a tour of the city then a walk through the city center, then we would head of to wherever the boat ended up.

Our tour was not lengthy.  We got to see the country side and drove to a fortress and a monastery but they were just short stops to take pictures.  Our tour was abbreviated because of the issues with the river, so after our driving tour, we headed off to meet the boat that had successfully made it to the next stop.  It had not yet passed through the shallow part or past the grounded boat, but the captain was waiting for us to usher us quickly on board to get under way.

His family had come to see him.  He has a lovely 14 month old daughter Emma who was cruising the hall in front of my room with who I am guessing was Grandma.  She chattered, laughed, then grabbed my hand to have me join their hall crawl.  She was beautiful and I can see why the Captain was even more disappointed in the timing changes than we were.  But we cast off quickly and headed down the river.

The captain told us later that the officials had opened the river and we cast off, then they closed it again but as he said, we were on our way, no place to dock so we continued on.  At the lowest point, there was just about a foot of water under our boat.  We passed the grounded boat after dinner when it was dark, but the Captain came down to point it out.  We saw lots of red lights around it.  Not sure how they get the boat out and moving, but we made it through the shallow area slowly but unscathed and headed to our next stop, Reensburg.

That is when we got the other bad news.  Our scheduled tour of the BMW factory had fallen through so we were going to the Audi factory.  For me it was not an issue, I wanted to see the robots and I figured BMW or Audi - I'd get to see what I wanted.  But some people were upset and cancelled.  I would guess they probably didn't appreciate my opinion of "it's just a car" what's the big deal.  Oh Well.  Off to Audi in the morning.

Our entertainment tonight was a singer, guitar player, Andreas Spranger.  He was fabulous and had a huge repertoire of songs.  He started off just himself walking around the room, but didn’t take long to fill the dance floor.  Tonight was the night I was made an honorary Australian.  The last song was Australian and about being true blue and lifelong friends.  I am sure the quantity of alcohol had something to do with it all, but by the end of the song I was "adopted" by the group.

Weissenkirchen, Austria

October 9, 2016

Today we are in Weissenkirchen, Austria and our planned trip is to the Melk Abbey.  The Benedictine Abbey sits atop a hill over looking the Wachau valley.  It is a Unesco site and deservedly so, but that also meant no pictures, so I’ll add either the pictures I bought or ones I found online just so you can get an idea of its splendor.

We entered the abbey through open air court yards that led into the main body of the Abbey.  As you face the abbey, the left side is set up as the museum that leads back to the library of over 90,000 editions.  The right side of the abbey is the private area of the monks and a school which hosts 900 students from grade 5 through high school.  Our guide told us her twin daughters attend the school but she wasn’t sure about her son, he was “lazy” – he doesn’t have the grades she told us.  She also showed us her house from the abbey.  She said it was $800 Euros per month for 2 bedrooms (about 1,00 sq ft), but that was from a salary of $1,200 per month.  Fortunately they have her husband’s income.  The average price of a house in the town that sits beneath the abbey is $300,000 Euros, so she said most people who live there are renters.

My friend Alida had told me her son went to school in Austria, but it wasn't until I got home and mentioned to her my visit to Melk that she told me that is where he went to school.  She told me the Benedictine monks are very different from our image of monks.  They make a good living from the abbey and the lands around it (vineyards), many drive BMWs, many have girl friends outside the abbey.  But if Alida's son is any indication of the education provided, it is exceptional.

The items in the museum were amazing.  One was a traveling altar that was 1,000 years old.  A cross with Jesus on it over 800 years old.  They had vestments the monks wore for different services.  To look at the fine stitching done hundreds of years ago was just amazing.  There were pictures of a beautiful gold cross encrusted in jewels.  Our guide said it comes out once a year for one day for the public to see.  Finally we reached the library, which is still active.  She noted books missing – you can still contact the library and check out books for research.  No books can leave the site but they may be reviewed in rooms within the library.  There are 8 rooms that contain books of which we saw two.  In the center of the room were samples of hand written books that were over 800 years old.  It was incredible to see the precision of the writing and the hand drawn graphics.  To think someone sat at a table and wrote the volumes we saw in that room was just incredible.

1,000 year old traveling altar

Painted ceiling

Chapel Altar

Christ on the Cross.  The wooden cross is over 800 years old

Library ceiling

Another view of the main library room.  There are a total of 8 rooms and over 90,000 volumes.

One room of the library.  The center display is where the hand written books were open for us to view.  If you didn't know they were handwritten you might think they were created and printed, that is how fine the printing and artwork is.

Part of the vestments worn by monks

Coffin.  Our guide told us that these coffins were positioned over a grave and once the funeral was over, the lever was pulled and rather than the coffin being lowered, the bottom opened and the body was dropped into the grave.  This way the coffin could be used over and over again.

Different views of the exterior of Melk Abbey

We finished the tour of the abbey and returned to the boat to sail through the Wachau Valley.  It is a lovely valley spotted with small towns with beautiful old churches, buildings and remnants of castles and fortresses.  We enjoyed the sites until we finally exited the valley and all headed off for dinner.

Vienna, Austria

October 8, 2016

Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. It is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be "The City of Dreams" because it was home to the world's first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The city's roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city, and then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.

River cruises are such big business.  In Vienna they had a really nice port and here was the sign indicating all the different river cruise companies who docked here. 

We did a tour of the city, which is as beautiful as I imagined.  We saw the coffee shop where Sigmund Freud used to sit and watch people.  We saw the state Opera House and somehow it seemed magical - after all, it is Vienna.  And then there was the floating swimming pool - a swimming pool in a barge on the canal.

Floating swimming pool

The following pictures are examples of architecture as we did a bus tour of the city.

There was a small carnival being held in front of the parliament building

One of the few remaining Starbucks in the city.  Apparently they have closed most of them (according to our guide) because there are already so many coffee shops in Vienna and the "real thing" is preferred by the Viennese over Starbucks.

After a bus tour of the city, we got off and walked to the winter palace.  It was just beautiful inside and on the upper level was a lovely display of art work both historic and contemporary.  Some I really enjoyed, and some I just wonder how they can call it art - like the mobile that included an empty Budweiser case (cardboard box).  I suppose Bud would like it but we all just shook our heads.  A quick stop in the gift shop, then we had a little time to wander around before returning to the ship.

Entrance to the winter palace.

Entrance to the winter palace - kind of like a "foyer"

 The following are examples of the artwork in the winter palace.  No flash allowed but at least they let us take pictures.  Even though the pictures are nice, they just don't do the artwork justice.

This entire room was done with bold leaf.  If you have ever seen gold leaf, it is very thin and very fragile.  Imagine the time it took to apply to this entire room.

Another view of the room with the beautiful chandeliers and more gold leaf.  And of course some contemporary artwork. 

Budweiser, really?  It is an empty Bud box as part of of mobile representing contemporary art.  Wonder how may Buds they had before making this.

Examples of some of the artwork around the Palace.

The following are more pictures from inside the winter palace.  The ornate designs continued through out including more gold leaf.  The paintings on the walls and ceilings were just amazing.  Again, even though the pictures are beautiful, they don't do the paintings and murals justice.

We finished with some time to walk around town.  I spent my time shopping, mostly in a chocolate shop - they were having a sale!  This is the exterior of the abbey in the center of town.  I never tire of looking at the ornate design on the buildings.  They joke about "ABC" - "Another Bloody Castle" or "Another Bloody Church" but I have never tired of looking at them.  Since our time was limited I did not go inside (did I mention sale!).  But the city is beautiful.  We boarded our bus and headed back to the boat.

A model of the entire churce

Today is a special day because we have a private concert of Mozart and Strauss music.  At first I thought it was just music then I thought I heard Agnes (our cruise manager) mention opera.

The concert was presented at the Klosterneuburg Monastery and the evening started with a tour of the building.  We wandered through long halls, up and down narrow stair cases and saw artwork that ranged from "primitive" to very ornate.

We started in the church.  There was a concert going on so we couldn't "tour" the church but it did not inhibit all of us who wanted to take pictures.  Again, beautiful and ornate with amazing artwork through out.

Altar

Altar

Ceiling artwork in the "dome"

Paintings on the wall

Looking up at the pipe organ

Pipes of the organ

Artwork in the churc

Statue in the church

Leaving the church and entering the halls of the abbey

Ceilings in the abbey

 

One of the amazing displays was squares that together depicted history before Christ’s birth, during Christ’s life and after His death.  The work was exquisite and our guide said the artist died taking the technique he used to the grave with him.  She said it has not been replicated since.

We also walked down a hall under which monks were buried.  You could see the slabs with their dates of death – like 746 AD.  Amazing to think we are walking on stones engraved and laid over 1,200 years ago.  I find it so amazing to look at things like this, to imagine who did this, what was involved in creating these "head stones" and that they have survived all this time.  I always wonder if generations after me will get to enjoy the same things I have seen.

This is a "headstone" of a monk in the floor.  Some were in the floor, some were in the wall above where the monk is buried.  Check out the date of death - 747 AD.  

These are statues of the 12 apostles.  Although they were showing some wear and damage due to age, the detail is really quite amazing.  They were all made of wood and again, just amazing to imagine who made these and how over 1,000 years ago.

What is left of the statues of the 12 aposotles 

Artwork portraying different times in Christ's life.  There were four panels with artwork on both sides so 8 portraits in total.

 
We finished our tour and climed up to the concert hall.  It was a seven piece ensemble – 2 violins, flute, clarinet, bass, cello, and piano.  It was amazing how they created such rich music that filled the hall with just those 7 people.  They did Strauss Waltzes and pieces from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro (instrumental) and the Magic Flute (singers) and other pieces from Mozart.  There were two singers, a bass and a soprano.  The concert lasted about 1 ½ hours and it was just magnificent and the room was just large enough for the passengers from our boat, so just about 100.  It was the perfect way to end our stay in Vienna.

We finished with a bus tour of Vienna after dark.  Even though their parliament and city center are beautiful when lit up, they paled in comparison to the buildings in Budapest.