Cruising the historic Danube is like a slow-motion dream through four incredible countries
With barely a shudder from our floating home, we make our way across four countries, feasting and supping on board by night, and exploring nearby towns and historical sites by day.
And just like that we’re in Austria. There are no signs or border officials, not even a bump as we glide along the Danube River, sun unexpectedly shining, burnished autumn leaves carpeting the surrounding hills, and with only an SMS from a local phone provider confirming that we have, in fact, left Germany.
All morning we’ve been wandering around Passau, a historic Bavarian city with an impressive cathedral, an abundance of gothic and baroque buildings, and where a four-year-old Adolf Hitler was apparently saved from drowning by a local priest (although the genial guide who leads us through the sloping cobblestone streets of the old town omits this from her otherwise expansive commentary). We’ve sampled coffee and cake at a local cafe and explored the tree-lined river banks of this very pretty town. By lunchtime we’ve bid auf Wiedersehen to our guide, and are gorging (again) on German cheese noodles and Bavarian beer soup, when, with the barest of movements and as per our itinerary, we pull out of Passau, and head downstream towards Linz, Austria’s third largest city. So it’s not that the international crossing is unexpected so much as it is understated, an appropriate motif, as it turns out, for the journey we are undertaking.
We are on the Avalon Envision, an 83-room ship that is sedately proceeding along one of Europe’s great rivers, taking 140 passengers to some of the continent’s most glorious capitals. With stops including Bratislava, Vienna and innumerable small and enchanting towns that front the Danube, our journey from Vilshofen, Germany, to Budapest in Hungary, spans 550km.
It’s a route that is easily covered in six hours by car, slightly faster via train, and that can be walked, according to Google Maps, in five days. But we’re taking an even slower option, and gliding down the river over seven nights.
With barely a shudder from our floating home, we make our way across four countries, feasting and supping on board by night, and exploring nearby towns and historical sites courtesy of a swath of included tours by day.
History is everywhere. It is in pretty Bratislava’s old town, where the Hapsburg rulers were crowned for centuries, and where under Communist rule locals could never venture further than a nondescript central building on one bank of the Danube lest they attempt to flee to the West.
We feel it in every crevice of Vienna’s magnificent first district, with its Opera House and royal palaces, and in tiny Durnstein, where Richard the Lionheart was held captive in the late 12th century. And sometimes it also catches us unawares. At rainy Ybbs, in Austria, we are greeted by two lederhosen-wearing local guides who bus us to nearby Artstetten castle. Only when we walk through the spacious gardens does it become clear that this was the home of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 led to the start of World War I. Led through a smattering of the castle’s 300 rooms, and to the onsite crypt where Ferdinand and his wife Sophie are buried, we learn of the family’s past and its enormous international repercussions, and spy their personal photographs and possessions.
Our tour ends with a deeply personal connection to history when, over refreshments in a small parlour room, we are greeted by Ferdinand’s 34-year-old great, great grandson Count Raoul de La Poeze d’Harambure. With his extended family, he still calls the castle home, although working as a local freelance tour guide he lives a much less extravagant life than his ancestors.
“We go out on the street and nobody knows who we are – and that’s quite comfortable,” he says genially over a glass of bubbly.
That sense of understatement ties in with the rest of the journey, down to our ship, with its relaxed, elegant furnishings. Cabins, most of which feature floor-to-ceiling windows, feel more akin to upmarket hotel rooms, with their spacious wardrobes and generous en suites, and uber-comfortable beds positioned to take in the ever changing views.
With its huge picture windows, the spacious front lounge, one of two on-board, is the hub of shipboard life: a venue for wine tasting one afternoon, and for on-board commentary a couple of times as we pass through especially scenic locations.
In keeping with the ethos of casual luxury, there are no public addresses over the ship’s loud speakers. Instead we are kept abreast of each day’s options via a handy app, and each evening in the main lounge at the port-talk that follows happy hour (which in turn follows the popular and also included afternoon tea spread).
There’s a strong regional component to much that we do. Not just the sites we explore, but down to the copious meals and local wines, from Bavarian sweet mustard soup in Germany to Linzer torte in Linz. Leaving Vienna we are offered house made apple strudel and schnitzel. There are apricots from the spectacular Wachau valley when we cruise through that part of Austria, generous pours of local wines at lunch and dinner and, in between, endless coffee fixes courtesy of the espresso machines installed in both lounges, as well as sparkling and flavoured waters on tap.
Continually fed and watered, we’re almost ready to roll off as we approach Budapest at breakfast time on the final leg of our trip – the irony of arriving in Hungary when we are anything but, not lost on any of the happy passengers.
But as with the understated nature of this journey there are, it turns out, a couple more surprises still ahead. At precisely 8am we are at Margit Island, Budapest’s favourite parkland, and as the sun rises over one of Europe’s grandest cities, we take to the upper deck for an on-board commentary as we gently drift into the city, taking in its splendour not from the river banks but while on the Danube, and from perhaps the best location of all. Our berth for tonight is in a prime location, only steps from the popular covered market, and directly opposite the grand old Gellert Hotel, with its famed thermal baths.
For our final evening, with a full moon casting even more light over an already beautifully illuminated city, we take one last spin on the river that has been our pathway for this memorable trip, with an unscheduled night cruise, spanning a luxurious two hours, up and down Budapest’s Danube.
Slow and majestic, it feels like the perfect way to end this week. Yes, there are faster ways to travel. But a slow life, it turns out, has some pretty fine advantages.
Checklist
Booking in: Avalon’s Danube Dreams cruise visits four countries in eight days, beginning in Vilshofen, near Munich, and ending in Budapest. There are multiple departures until November 2024, with prices from about $4300 per person; avalonwaterways.com.au
Must do: The all-inclusive fare includes excursions in every destination, led by local guides. Options include hiking up to Bratislava’s castle, a guided bike ride around Vienna’s Danube Island, and a tour of Melk Abbey.
Extras: Passengers can extend their journey with two nights in Prague before the cruise. Optional tours (in addition to the complimentary offerings in each destination) include an evening of classical music in Vienna ($130) and wine tasting in the Hungarian countryside ($122).