River Danube Cruise

 April 4-11, 2024

Our sleek home for a week 

Esztergom
Day 2

There has been a hiatus with the blogs as I have been away cruising on the peaceful River Danube finishing, nourished by the cultural sights seen, but weakened by the week-long physical effort. Since returning I have been ill, unbelievably, with a second visitation from the dreaded bronchitis.

My first river cruise experience was on the whole, great! Loved our cabin on the highest deck, with its glass wall and door overlooking the river and the shores beyond. Could not believe that the huge boat with around 156 passengers on board, plus crew, could possibly glide along the river without sound or apparent engine control noise in the background. It rendered the many gazing hours aboard, silently magical. The cuisine was fantastic as one realised that this nautical palace was, in effect, a marvellous up-market hotel-on-water!! The daily visits to nearby cities or occasional monasteries were eye-opening in the discovery of such elegant, often huge, always imposing, Gothic and Baroque buildings and city centres spaces, Local guides at each stopping point were splendid too, so knowledgeable and informative.

Bratislava
Day 3

Durnstein and Melk Abbey
Day 4

 

However, this latter benefit was also two-sided, Janus-like, for Cait and me. Neither of us really liked being in Group Two with perhaps thirty others, for instance, trailing with our tiny radio-reception kits, listening to the guide and picking out the high spots of the view indicated, around us. We were torn! The information we wanted but not the ambient, accompanying audience. Each time, eventually, we quietly peeled off the edge of the group and did our own thing. I imagine we missed out on some interesting facts but we hugely enjoyed wandering the centres, stopping for coffees at outside tables to watch the world go by. We became, in effect, happy flaneuses, lucky to have sunny, warm weather each day and the delight in individually exploring new cultural sights.

 

 

Vienna showing the New Danube; Danube Island; the
old Danube [left to right]
Day 6.

Salzburg
Day 5

Budapest from the Danube
Day 7.

One of our favourite treasures to behold was the Blue Church in Bratislava which was inexplicably omitted by the group tours. It is the church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and its style, sometimes known as Hungarian Secession, is repeated in the nearby grammar school on Grösslingová Street. Originally indeed, the Blue Church was the chapel for the Gymnasium. Both were designed by Budapest architect Edmund Lechner and built in the early twentieth century (the church foundation was laid in 1909 and consecrated on 11 October, 1913). Both the interior and exterior of the church are painted in shades of pale blue and decorated with blue majolica; even the roof is tiled with blue-glazed ceramics. 

Entrance to the Blue Church

The structure also incorporates a 36.8-metre round tower. Graceful lines and additional architectural attributes in the French Art Nouveau style popular in Europe between 1890 and 1910, give the building a truly fabulous look. It is believed that the architect, Eden Lechner, was probably a member of the Masonic fraternity. The interior of the church is literally strewn with various Masonic symbols: Here you will find the “all-seeing eye”, and the six-pointed star of Bethlehem, and the “radiant delta”, pentagrams and others. Even the choice of colours is associated by many precisely with the architect’s Masonic preferences. White for the Masons symbolizes purity, and blue is the colour of being chosen.

Blue pews continue the
colour scheme.

The 'all-seeing eye'
Mosaic above side entrance to the
Blue Church.

In the imposing cities we visited, all on or near the Danube, we saw so much to savour in the historical Gothic and Baroque buildings everywhere, but the charm of the Blue Church lingers.