This trip was our first booking with Gate1 Travel Company. We were very impressed and have already booked our 2nd Gate1 trip.
The following is a short description of our tour with links to some photos from the cities we visited. But a large part of a river cruise is what you can see sailing down the river, Danube river in our case. River images are all in this one album with most picture labelled. The "Trip Album" link above and left are all the albums described on this Danube River trip report.
The map to the right shows the 4 countries (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary) we sailed through on this river cruise. Click on the map to access their official description of this river cruise.
We departed from SFO and flew directly to Munich for 3 days prior to boarding the river boat. Images from Munich start with some shots taken while on the "City Tour of Munich". On our third day we took the optional all day tour to Oberammergau and the fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle. The village of Oberammergau is home of the world famous "Passion Play." King Ludwig II built the Neuschwanstein Castle in the 19th century but only lived in the castle 4 months before his mysterious death. The Disney castle at Disneyland and Disney World were both modelled after this castle.
On day 4 a bus picked up our group at the hotel and drove us about 2 hours to Regensburg where we boarded the Monarch Princess. It was a relaxing day that ended with a gala welcome dinner. The next morning we got a guided tour of Regensburg before our 3pm departure for Passau.
We docked in the morning in the 2500 year old city of Passau (Germany). It was possible to do your own self-guided tour of Passau or take a full day tour to Salzburg, which we opted for. Salzburg is very picturesque and is the birthplace of Mozart and setting for the Sound of Music. The tour included lunch at a local restaurant, some time to discover Salzburg on our own and finally a return bus ride to the ship for our sailing to Melk(Austria).
Upon arriving in Melk we had a morning guided tour of "Melk Abbey". After the tour we strolled through the old part of the city on our way back to the ship. Later that day we continued cruising down the Danube through the scenic Wachau Valley on the way to Vienna.
The next day in Vienna we had a guided tour and then time to see Vienna on our own. At dinner our ship departed for our next destination in Slovakia.
The next morning we were still sailing toward Bratislava and arrived about noon. Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia which we learned a lot about during our informative guided tour of the city. Unfortunately our tour of the city ended suddenly when the skies opened up with a real down pour. Carrying those rain ponchos finally paid off. Again at dinner we starting sailing for stunning Budapest.
The next morning we were able to see view part of Budapest as we sailed by. About 10am we docked about the middle of the city. Budapest the capital of Hungry is a beautiful city with lots to see. We had a great guided tour and still had time to explore on our own. The weather was so perfect we did a walk along the river, over a bridge that was covered with people for a celebration then up the other side of the river to another bridge and back to the ship.fabulous.
Unfortunately the next day we were shuttled to the airport for our trip home. Great Trip!!!