We are skipping the optional Schönbrunn Palace visit. We visited Schönbrunn Palace in 2019 on our Vienna to Amsterdam trip.

We visit Vienna the next two days. We came two days early on our 2019 on a Vienna to Amsterdam river cruise, and have seen a number of the sights in Vienna. Today, October 26, is Austria National Day. The treaty was signed in May, but the last foreign soldier left on Oct 25.

The ship spent the night docked at Dürnstein. We sailed by, but did not stop at Dürnstein in 2019 on our Vienna to Amsterdam river cruise.

In the morning we visit Melk Abbey. We visited the abbey and sailed through the Wachau Valley in 2019 on a Vienna to Amsterdam river cruise.

This morning our group has a tour of the historic city center of Linz and a tour of Mauthausen concentration camp in the afternoon.

Today we leave Prague and take a bus trip to Linz, stopping in Český Krumlov on the way. Český Krumlov is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We’ll board the ship in Linz.

There are some optional tours today that we are skipping. I had visited Prague in 2016, and had some cash left over from that visit that I brought along on this trip. The Czech Republic had changed their banknotes since 2016 to include additional security features and my notes couldn’t be spent. I was able to go to the Czech Central Bank across from the Opera house in the morning and exchange my old notes for the new ones. It was an interesting experience.

Today is the official start of our tour. We divide up into our groups and meet our program directors this morning, the go for a tour of the Old Town Prague.

Today is the first day our of tour, but it’s mostly on our own as folks are arriving today. We meet our Program Director this evening.

We arrived in time for supper yesterday. We are here a few days before our tour starts to see some of Prague on our own.