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By Natasha Dragun.
Published in the July-September 2011 issue.
On its first cruise of the 2011 season, a luxurious riverboat offers a leisurely look at life along the Danube.
A soft splash breaks the morning still and sends ripples over the shimmering surface of the Danube. I peer over the railing of the River Beatrice, looking for signs of life. Beside me, captain Tom Buining doesn’t even blink. “Carp, maybe,” he shrugs. “Nothing to get excited about.” I’d been hoping to glimpse a beaver or maybe even a bottlenose dolphin – some say the mammals can swim this far upstream from the Danube Delta in Romania. “Don’t hold your breath,” says Buining, returning to the bridge.
At 125 metres, the River Beatrice is one of the longest, not to mention most luxurious, passenger ships on the Danube. Rooms and suites come with all the trimmings, from plush linens and flatscreen TVs to floor-to-ceiling windows, French balconies and cashmere blankets. There’s a spa room and small gym on the bottom deck, a restaurant and boutique on the middle one and a lounge, library and bar on the top.
Since she was floated in March 2009, Beatrice has carried thousands of tourists along the Danube between Budapest and Passau, a pretty Bavarian city at the confluence of three rivers. We’ll begin our journey in the Hungarian capital and alight in Germany. Within minutes of our disembarkation, an army of staff will begin stripping our beds; within hours, another shipload of passengers will step aboard and by the next day, Beatrice will have pulled away from dock and will be floating downstream toward Budapest again.
Budapest and Passau are only 550 kilometres apart by road, less by river, but the shallow-draft ship takes seven nights to cover the distance. That gives me plenty of time to laze on the sun deck and chat with Buining and his team about life on the water.
Europe’s second-longest river, the Danube begins in Germany’s Black Forest, where the Brigach and Breg rivers join in Donaueschingen, and ends at the Black Sea some 2,850 kilometres to the southeast. We’ll be travelling through four countries – the Danube passes through 10 in total – and countless cities, towns and villages, some so close to the banks that they end up submerged when water levels rise. At other times, the waters of the Danube are so low that cruise passengers are forced to abandon ship and continue their journey by bus. Thankfully, a comfortable equilibrium is maintained on our early-spring sailing.
I board the Beatrice with 100 or so other passengers in Budapest, where brisk temperatures – around 10˚C this early in the season – demand regular stops in coffee shops for cheese-and-peach strudel, hot chocolate and mulled wine. The Danube splits the city in two, with Buda (the hills) on the west bank and Pest (the flatlands) on the east; handsome historic buildings and cathedrals on the west, a modern business district on the east. We spend the first two days of the trip exploring the crooked cobbled streets of Buda, its World Heritage-listed buildings – some dating back to the 13th century – spilling down Castle Hill to the water where Beatrice is docked.
I’m still asleep when the boat departs Budapest on day three, but the city’s red-roofed houses and Art-Nouveau buildings stay with us until after breakfast. This will be our only full day on the water and I’m looking forward to spending lazy hours on the sun deck watching Hungary gradually slip under bridges and through locks into Slovakia and then Austria. As the river widens, a variety of traffic joins us on the water: wooden fishing boats, a coal barge, another passenger ship. We drift past the highlands of Dunántúl and the Danube-Ipoly National Park; I pull out my binoculars to get a closer look at centuries-old stone villages with names like Veroce, Dömös and Visegrád.
I soak up the spring sunshine and chat with Renee, a sixtysomething Texan on holiday with her husband. “This is my first river cruise,” she tells me as yet another castle drifts by. “I didn’t think I’d like it, to be honest, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised.” I’m similarly surprised to find myself nodding in agreement.
I’d anticipated gnawing my nails to the quick with boredom on a seven-night cruise, but I have to admit that I’m rather enjoying having access to a moving historical palette. Tomorrow night I’ll fall asleep gazing at the Romanesque arches of Vienna and will wake ogling a Baroque church in Dürnstein. Two days after that I’ll be in Germany, and the most challenging thing I’ll have done all trip is pull the cork out of a bottle of Austrian riesling.
When not spent boat- or village-spotting, hours on the River Beatrice are broken up with lectures and spa treatments – and lots of food. Breakfasts are indulgent spreads involving piles of pastries and creamy scrambled eggs; lunch might feature Hungarian goulash, liptauer (a spicy Austiran cheese spread) slathered on warm rye or, when we reach Germany, bratwurst sausages washed down with tall glasses of pilsner. In between, there is morning tea, afternoon tea and all-day tea – think homemade macarons and shortbread, cheesy bread sticks and choc-chip cookies – available in the Captain’s Lounge. And if I’d booked a suite, I’d also be offered fruit, chocolates and pre-dinner canapés by my personal butler.
Evenings begin with the "Captain’s Cocktails," where staff members pass around silver bowls of peanuts and pretzels, and oooh and aaah over guests dressed in gowns and suits. We sip Bellinis and politely applaud the ship’s pianist, Zoltan, who serenades us with everything from the theme tune from Chariots of Fire to Come Fly with Me. And then we make our way to the dinner table to eat some more.
With so much time spent consuming, it’s a good thing we have plenty of opportunities to explore our ports of call on foot. After docking in Vienna, however, there’s no time for strolling – we’re whisked off to a concert hall as dusk falls and the city’s wedding-cake buildings are cast aglow with spotlights.
The birthplace of Franz Schubert and one-time home of classical masters including Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, the Austrian capital deserves its reputation as one of the world’s most important orchestral centres. We watch musicians and dancers perform to Mozart and Strauss and end the evening eating wiener schnitzel back on Beatrice. And if that sounds like a cliché, wait until you hear about the chocolate Sachertorte we sample at the Hotel Sacher…
Leaving Vienna behind, we arrive in the tiny Baroque village of Dürnstein on day five. On one side of the town, vines of the Domäne Wachau estate spill down to the water’s edge; on the other, apricot orchards stretch uphill to a castle where Richard the Lionheart was held captive in the 12th century.
From here until we reach Melk, we’ll be in the heart of the Wachau Valley, arguably the most beautiful stretch of the Danube. For the next 30 kilometres, the river carves through a rocky gorge in the foothills of the Bohemian Forest. Steep slopes are cloaked in pines and vines and tiny winemaking communities dot the shore. In the distance, I hear a dog bark but otherwise, we drift through the valley in silence.
Drawing my curtains on day six, I see that we’ve arrived in Linz, Austria’s third-largest city and only a stone’s throw from the Czech border. It’s also within easy reach of Salzburg, a university town hemmed by the Alps that draws thousands of visitors for two main reasons: it has an exceptionally well-preserved Baroque city centre and a rather famous historical resident.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg’s old town in 1756, and from monogrammed chocolates and liquor bottles to eponymous restaurants and bars, the town’s entrepreneurs don’t let you forget it. Perhaps it’s the gloomy weather or the hordes of tourists, but I don’t find Salzburg’s cobbled streets all that beguiling. I use the rain as an excuse to escape the tour and spend the afternoon sipping hot chocolate slathered with cream at Café Tomaselli, the city’s oldest coffee house, before moving on to the Mozart Café – how could I not? – where I order sausages and sauerkraut and dumplings washed down with glühwein.
By comparison, our last destination is like spring on a plate. Daffodils and jonquils blanket the waterside park where we dock in the southeast German town of Passau, also known as Dreiflüssestadt – “the City of Three Rivers” – for the fact that it sits at the confluence of a trio of waterways: the Danube, Inn and Ilz. Buxom Bavarian ladies ring their bells as they cycle past the boat and tables spill from cafés onto the sidewalk, where locals sit in the sun sipping glasses of riesling.
I venture uphill toward the Pilgrimage Church of Mariahilf, accessed via 321 steps and still a working monastery. From here, Passau appears to have been plucked straight from a fairytale. Pastel-hued buildings with fanciful trims and turrets cling to waterside streets and medieval alleyways ring an ornate Baroque cathedral. A small paddle-steamer chugs around Passau’s peninsula and makes its way up the Danube and, for a moment, it’s lost behind the River Beatrice, bobbing in the distance. •
Photography by Natasha Dragun.
TRAVEL FACTS
getting there
Etihad flies to Munich (about a two-hour drive from Passau) via Abu Dhabi. Air France and British Airways offers onward connections to Budapest.
• Air France. 1300-390-190; airfrance.com
• British Airways. 1300-767-177; britishairways.com
• Etihad. 61-2/8024-7200; etihadairways.com
getting around
On of Europe’s most comfortable cruise ships, the River Beatrice’s "Enchanting Danube" trip takes seven nights and can either ferry you upstream from Budapest to Passau or downstream in the opposite direction. Cruise packages include meals and select drinks and daily land tours. A range of additional tours are also available – from helicopter rides over the Wachau Valley to trips to witness Hungarian cowboys – for an extra cost. 1300-780-231; uniworld.com
when to go
In 2012, Uniworld will operate the River Beatrice on her "Enchanting Danube" cruise between March and November. The company also offers a festive cruise package, "Danube Holiday Markets," in November and December.
further information
If you’re extending your trip pre- or post-cruise, the Hungary National Tourist Office and the German Tourism Association can help with travel tips. hungary.com or germany.travel
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