Vienna

Vienna has 2 million of Austria’s 8 Million people. It is very international, over 50% of the population are immigrants. The city-provided affordable housing consciously tries to mix people with different backgrounds to avoid the immigrant problems of other countries. We started with a bus tour, primarily along the ring road. The road was constructed where the city walls used to be. The center of the city consists of 1/3 parks, 1/3 government buildings, and 1/3 residences and businesses. Much more interesting was the walking tour, which crossed from one side of the ring to the other. 

Jewish Synagogue

First stop was the synagogue, which looked more like an office building than a temple of worship. This building survived, because the Nazi’s used the archives housed there to identify and subsequently kill over 70,000 of Viennese’s Jews. Vienna is primarily a Catholic city, in fact non-Catholic churches were banned until 1826. St. Stephen’s Church dominates the central city with it’s 450 foot tower. Some of us walked up the tower, others took an elevator up to the smaller tower. 

Atop St. Stephen's

One of the more interesting monuments is the Black Plague Monument dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The theme is that faith conquers the plague, but it also prominently shows Emperor Leopold with angels surrounding him. At the time, people thought that drinking wine or beer would keep the plague away. As we walked further we came upon the Hofburg, the Imperial Palace, where they were hosting the Italian prime minister. Nearby is the Spanish Riding School, but the horses are on vacation (from July 1^st), so we just saw some of the stables. Finally, we ended our tour in the Volksgarden, the people’s garden. Everyone was pretty exhausted from the 90+ degree heat. In fact, only a few folks ventured out that afternoon, because you would sweat through your clothes in about 15 minutes in the sun. I did take a short walk to a nearby island, where people were sunbathing.

Volksgarden (people's garden)

The story of a Syrian Refugee

That evening we had a lecture by Ahmad, a Syrian refuge. His father was an Aeronautical Engineer, his mother a nurse. They had lived in Aleppo, but moved in with relatives in a small town in 2012, because of the fighting in Aleppo. His father was ordered into the military in 2013, but instead fled to Turkey. The family joined him in a refugee camp in August 2014, the family of 5 lived in 21 square yards. Ahmad learned Turkish while in the camp. But he knew he had to make a life for himself. His father sold some land in their small village which provided money for Ahmad to find a better life. It cost him $1100 to take a rubber boat to Lesbos Greece. There were 66 people in the boat, and someone was randomly chosen to drive the boat. 6 hours to cross the sea, 2 days to walk to the nearest village, where they could buy food. Ten of them then took a boat to Athens and a bus to Macedonia where they were stopped by police and directed to a camp. Eventually they walked into Serbia, asking for new asylum papers every time they crossed a border. From here they took a bus to Belgrade where a smuggler said that he could get them into Hungary. Ahmad ended up using 3 smugglers, because each would take them only part way, and then demand more money.  He eventually walked into Austria, where he applied for Austrian asylum in November, 2015. He was granted asylum after 2 months. He was assisted in learning German, provided health care and rent and just today was accepted for a mechanical engineering degree in the technical university. "Austria has offered me a new life and I have no fear of being deported. The journey didn’t require just money, you had to leave your family, friends, and culture. Those who couldn’t afford to pay smugglers are still in the camps, facing terrible health conditions, it’s like being in prison."

His family was also smuggled into Greece, but he lost touch with them, and wasn’t sure they had made it across the sea. They took a different path and now live in Germany. His father and sister are employed there. But they were lucky, many more people were robbed by the smugglers, since you have to carry everything you own on your body.

Our program Directors wrote a poem about our trip:

The Great Rivers of Europe – A special journey

(A farewell poem by Program Directors Mihai, Stefan and Michal)

So you were sitting at home and drinking your tea

Wondering which part of the world you should see

You picked up the phone and booked this great trip

To travel the rivers of Europe by ship

From all over the States, you traveled to see

Europe, your Captain, your Crew and PD

But instead of seeing the Captain waving to you from the dock

We stayed in a hotel, ‘cause there’s been a trashed lock

Woke up in Amsterdam, we went to explore

Canals, cheese, tulips and bikers’ galore

What a free country, you’re looking around

Just where is that husband? He better be found

On the way to Cologne, we traveled by bus

We had a great time, except one of us:

Michal learned a hard lesson that in this great heat

There are things at gas stations you just shouldn’t eat

Then Koblenz was such a peculiar place

The eye roller stuck out his tongue and made a weird face

We hopped on a boat and sailed down the Rhine

And listened to legends about the castles and wine

The weather was perfect and great news we have got!

Staying four nights in Frankfurt – that we would not.

Not four, not three and not even two

A final night at the hotel, yes that would do.

Traveling eagerly to Heidelberg city

Poor students imprisoned, oh what a pity

The castle on top has a wonderful view

There is meat in Maultaschen, believe me, it’s true

On the way back, what a delight

The MS Adagio is coming in sight

We laugh and we cheer as we get off the bus

Cause the crew and the captain are waiting for us!

We have seen Wertheim! What a quaint little town

Where Glassblower Dieter was being a clown

Nice German families gave us coffee and cake

A lot of new friends on that day we did make

Ursula taught us the past of this place

Where Jewish folk had hardships to face

We started sailing on the river Main

To enjoy Wurzburg, its bridge and its wine

Rothenburg included! What a sweet deal

Exploring medieval times with zest and with zeal

There’s piggies in Schweinfurt and in Bamberg there’s beer

But where was that nice church, it’s not at all clear

We keep sailing for days and for days

All of the towns pass by in a haze

Regensburg, Nurnberg, Passau and Melk

What order they’re in? It’s getting harder to tell

We sail and we live and we laugh and we learn

And it the sunshine we stand and we burn

We relax at the ship and we have a drink

While Andreas talks politics and is making us think

In Regensburg city, packed full of towers

We ate local sausage to regain our powers

Brigitta explained to us how German schools work

Then we had dinner and again it was pork!

Then in Passau with its great organ so old

We ate pralines which were made out of gold

We entered Austria and we saw the Melk abbey

You have to admit, that wasn’t too shabby

All the way to Vienna, we have made our way

We’ve attended a concert – oh what a day

Exploring this grandiose, imperial city

The trip is now ending – oh what a pity

One final talk by a lovely guest

He was a bit different from all of the rest

Ahmad had really gone through a lot

And taught us to value the things that we got

So here we all are, our hearts filled with sorrow

And we will be bidding farewell when we come to the morrow

So to here’s to the Greens, the Reds and also the Blues

And here’s to our lovely and wonderful cruise

We know this is sad, for us and for you

But all things have an end. Only a sausage has two.

So let us all agree on this one thing my friends

It’s not farewell but until we meet again

Trip Summary

While we were disappointed that we had 4 days of busing and hotels at the start of the cruise, it was well-handled with lunch money for everyone and nice hotels in the center of town. The busing gave us more time in Amsterdam which many folks made good use of. As usual, the crew was friendly, the program directors were top-notch, and the food was great! I would highly recommend doing the Brugge pre-trip, we particularly would recommend the optional tour to Flanders Field. Nuremberg was a highlight of the trip, as were the educational speakers brought in. We had twelve of us that booked this trip together and we thoroughly enjoyed everyone's company. If you want to see more pictures and videos, a 23 minute narrated video is available on youtube. 

Most of our twelve at the Opera