Dreaming of a White Christmas

Change of Plans

There were patches of blue sky and sunshine evident this morning and the snowfall seemed to have stopped overnight, so we packed our bags and went down to breakfast with the vague hope that the trains might be running after all.

Discussions over breakfast centred around the cost of Ubers to take us to Passau where we were due to meet the bus that would take us over the border and into Austria mid-afternoon, to meet our Danube Cruise ship, a-rosa BELLA. First things first, Stephen walked over to the railway station to assess the situation regarding train travel.

News came back swiftly that all trains for the next hour were still cancelled, so rather than take any risks we opted to book two Ubers which would take us on the two-and-a-half-hour journey to meet our cruise. Some $1500 Australian dollars later, we had two drivers booked to carry the 7 of us to our destination in good time for our connection. By 10:30 am we were zooming up the autobahn at eye watering speeds, through the black and white landscape that is Southern Germany at the moment.

Our car, carrying four of us, arrived at Passau Railway Station at ten minutes past midday and we waited another 40 minutes for the second car to arrive. Apparently, they had taken a slightly different route and had to pass through a checkpoint which had delayed them some considerable amount of time. Reunited again, we found some lunch in Passau while we waited for the transfer bus. News reached us that the trains from Munich were still not running, so at least we knew we had made the right decision in booking the Ubers.

All went smoothly; we were on time, so was the bus, and we soon found ourselves climbing over snow covered mountains, down winding roads, past pastel-coloured houses, their roofs laden with snow, with a backdrop of conifers, their branches weighed down with white powder, until finally we could see two ships waiting for us in the river below.

A-rosa BELLA and a-rosa MIA sat nestled side by side on the beautiful Danube at Engelhartszell – a breathtaking sight, as we wound our way down off the mountain. It was such a relief to be here after all the concerns regarding trains over the past 24 hours. Embarkation went smoothly and we were soon settling into our cabin – a very pleasant and comfortable space.

It was a little disconcerting to find all the information in the cabin regarding the offered excursions, including the tickets for the concert we had booked to attend in Vienna, was all written in German – this should have been a red flag, but at least the announcements regarding the welcome afternoon tea and the safety and information briefing were provided in dual languages so we waited for our luggage, unpacked and headed upstairs to the lounge on level 3. Here we sat through a ¾ hour briefing about everything to do with safety procedures, life on board ship and on shore excursions, all delivered in rapid fire German.

By the end of this our little group of 7 felt quite overwhelmed and confused. Where we the only non-German speakers on board we wondered? Apparently so. Kim made some enquiries and was told that there would be an English language briefing at 6:30 – but that information had not been provided to us on embarkation, or through the broadcast announcements. Disconcerted we made our way to the reception desk to enquire after the procedure regarding our off-shore concert excursion tomorrow evening, because we couldn’t read the information provided – which apparently involved us booking our own taxis to take us to and from the concert.

That resolved, we returned to the lounge to attend the English briefing – a very condensed 15-minute version of the earlier one, which at least cleared up some, if not all our immediate questions. We then made our way to the buffet dinner which we enjoyed all together at our English-speaking table! Tomorrow is another day and despite a few teething problems we are looking forward to waking up on the Danube and taking in the scenery as we float serenely by on our way to Vienna. We are passing through a deep lock as I write, so look forward to watching that process in the daylight tomorrow.

Now to make my way back upstairs to find a spot to post this blog, as the wifi doesn’t work in the cabins.