Slovakia has never enjoyed a very high profile in the U.S. For most of my life, I knew it as little more than the suffix of Czechoslovakia -- a little country hidden in the darkness behind Iron Curtain. But in the heyday of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Slovakia’s capital city of Bratislava was a major cultural center and the coronation capital of the Hapsburgs. Its history can be traced back to 200 B.C. when the Celts established a settlement there. Later it was part of the Roman Empire, then part of Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The popular Hapsburg Empress Maria Theresa was crowned there and had a special relationship with the city. Czechoslovakia was created by joining the Czechs with the Slovaks. The country was annexed to Germany in the run-up to World War II. Then after the war it was occupied by the Soviet Union. It became independent when the Soviet Union fell in 1989, and the Czech and Slovak republics had an amicable divorce in 1993.
Bratislava was our first port of call on AMA Waterways’ Romantic Danube itinerary, which began in Budapest about the new Amalyra. We had experienced the ease of river cruising, where you are free to wander off the ship right into the city center in most cases. Those who wished to participate in a city tour would meet outside the ship. You could join the active group or a more moderately paced group, and there was also a group designed for people with walking problems. I joined the group for active walkers, and was happy to find that we would not be expected to scale the walls of any of the local churches.
The Amalyra docked a block or two from the old city center of Bratislava. Our guide showed us around some of the principal points of interest, gave us a thumbnail history of the city and then turned us loose to wander around the shops, squares and outdoor cafes or return to the ship. With a population of only 500,000, Bratislava is the smallest capital city of Europe. It is quiet, charming and unspoiled with well-preserved Neoclassical, Gothic and Baroque architecture.
That evening on the ship a group of musicians from Bratislava performed for us. Until departure time, passengers were free to come and go as they wished. Then at 11:30 p.m. the ship departed for an overnight cruise to Vienna. We’ve all heard the slogan “leave the driving to us,” but on a river cruise, you don’t even have to know you are leaving. At some point the ship shudders a little and gets under way, and if you aren’t paying attention you may not even know it’s happening.
In Vienna we docked in the Danube Canal at a suburb called Nussdorf. It was one of few places on the trip where we were not moored at the city center. But shuttles were provided to the most popular tourist sites and the ride was about 20 minutes. Vienna is an incomparable jewel, the capital the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and really the capital of Europe for 640 years until World War I. For classical music fans it has no equal. It was the city that great musicians flocked to for centuries, the home of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Strauss during the years in which they made music history. It’s also the center of Art Nouveau. The Amalyra was decorated with prints by Gustav Klimt, one of the foremost creators of Art Nouveau. Many of his originals can be found in the city. Vienna was also the place where Sigmund Freud revolutionized the study of psychology.
We were offered an orientation tour in the morning, after which we were free to roam until we felt like picking up one of the shuttles at 4, 5 or 10 p.m. and heading back to Nussdorf. The tour circled the Ringstrasse, the city street that was built in place of the old city wall, and then dropped us off near the spectacular St. Stephen’s Cathedral, where we began a walking tour of the old city center.
It was there in the Vienna suburbs that I first sampled the ship’s bicycles. The Amalyra maintains a small fleet of bicycles that are available to passengers when it is docked. The addition of bikes is a recent innovation of AMA Waterways, one of a number of ways in which the company has raised the service level of the river cruise industry. The bikes were sparkling, smoothly operating vehicles, with gears that switched with a flick of the wrist, hand and foot brakes, a rack for carrying parcels, and lights for night biking. I took one and cruised along the canal and into the business district of Nussdorf.
Vienna is a city you could explore forever. There is no end of things to see and experience. But after a day we were set to move on down the Danube into the Austrian countryside. Our next stop was Durnstein, a quaint town of only 1,000 people on a hillside overlooking the Danube. One of its claims to fame is that Richard the Lionhearted was kept prisoner there for a while. We took a tour through its steep cobblestone streets. A mini-train was provided for people with walking problems.
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