Wednesday 13th September
We sailed over night to Bamberg, and it is here we wake up to a wet cold and windy day. We have docked in a siding that gives us just an industrial view on either side of the Main River. Expecting this downturn in the weather conditions we decided to stay aboard and have a quiet day, with weather permitting catch the shuttle service into town in the afternoon. The centre of town is a little more than walking distance hence the shuttle, the “berg” part of Bamberg interprets as hill in German, meaning the town is up the hill from the river. Last nights presentation didn’t really highlight any points of major interest, except that wine is again prominent, we decide to let the weather decide. The other “burg” in German town names interprets as fortress, now we know a little of what to expect with towns with these four letters in them. We spend the day relaxing and enjoying the quiet, almost deserted River Duchess. By lunch time though the touring passengers start to arrive back, it was as we thought cold and wet, with Bamberg being more of a modern town and less of a medieval one. The weather has not improved by lunch time, still dense rippling grey clouds hide the blue sky and the sun from our eyes, rain still falls intermittently. Inside the ship is warm and comfortable and has all we need, the choice is easy, we stay aboard. The cocktail hour rapidly approaches, we have some how joined an exclusive club and become Heritage members, apparently this status is granted to travellers that have sailed on more than one Uniworld cruise, this our first and so membership is a mystery to us but having had the honour bestowed on us we are happy to indulge in the associated privileges. As such an invitation was extended to us to join a cocktail party to be held in the lounge, concurrently with the cocktail hour. We have spent most of the day in the Blue Danube lounge but it is now time to depart and prepare for dinner, the cocktail hour/party and the presentation of tomorrow’s events. After tidying our selves for dinner we head back to the Blue Danube lounge for the cocktail do, we seek out a couple from Seattle sitting at the bow end of the ship, this end apparently is for Heritage club members of which we are one. We score champagne, although they have a South African merlot on offer that I decide to try. Striking up conversation with Nick and Danna, we discover that the party is all about the ships heads of departments mingling with us and checking to see if we are happy with the cruise so far. In other words a PR exercise, but it’s good to talk to the people that run the ship and give them our feedback, while gaining some insight into their lives aboard a river cruise ship. Bence our cruise manager updates on tomorrow’s tours of Nuremberg and we are set for dinner. We continue dinner with Nick & Danna, enjoying exchanging travellers tales, ours pale into insignificance though this couple have travelled far and wide. Most of Europe, China, North Africa, the Amazon, Tahiti the list goes on. Dinner tonight consists of crab cakes, choice of German onion soup or cream of carrot and ginger, rib eye steaks, with Yorkshire pudding and double baked potato or poached salmon trout. Uni World really do go all out with the food and service on their ships, if we are not keen on the nights menu then they will cook a alternative, if you don’t want to eat in the dining room they will bring the meal to your stateroom. Every night regional wines from the area we are traveling through are presented, tonight’s wines are a local blend of Cabernet Shiraz or Silvanner. Throughout the Rhine/Main valleys the districts appear to be one big vineyard. As we dine we pass through some impressively large locks, the first at least twice the height of the ship, we are engulfed in artificial darkness, surrounded by damp concrete walls, then slowly we rise up to the next level, like a giant elevator. We are leaving the Main River and entering the Main-Danube Canal constructed in 1990 to allow vessels to travel right across Germany to Austria, Hungary and into Eastern Europe by connecting to the Danube.
We finish off a delightful meal with a cheese selection then make our way to our cabins to once again recharge for tomorrows adventures.