Exclusive Experiences on AmaWaterways Cruises

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

After 24 Europe River Cruises, we have been fortunate to participate in several experiences that are unique to AmaWaterways. We have written about some of these in other blogs but never put together a report about the unique features that are exclusive to river cruises offered by AmaWaterways.

We have several clients who will get to experience these events in 2023 and 2024, and we want to get them and you excited about what is possible on some AmaWaterways cruises.

So, let’s explore together and learn about some of the Exclusive Experiences offered by AmaWaterways. To organize this blog, we will present our experiences in the order we were able to participate in these unique offerings.

2009 and 2015—Zell

We experienced this small village on our Europe’s River and Castles cruises.

Zell is famous for its white wine (Riesling) Zellerschwartzkat (Zell’s black cat).

It is a small town of about 4,300 people. Among the sites to see here include an interesting market square, and the town hall has a wine museum. However, it is really famous for its brand of white wine and there is an interesting story about how the wine was named.

According to legend, a large quantity of local wine was being stored in barrels in a regional cellar. When people approached, a black cat jumped on the barrel from Zell and started hissing to protect its contents. Seeing the hissing, it caused the wine merchants to believe the wine from Zell was special and better quality than the other wines stored in the wine cellar building and they bought all the wine.

Today the black cat is the symbol of this town. It was a walled city but not much of the old walls remain.

AmaWaterways has an exclusive wine festival celebration in Zell. The local children, dressed up like black cats, provide a performance that everyone who has visited Zell on AmaWaterways will remember. I heard Kristin Karst, one of the co-owners of AmaWaterways, describe how special and unique this visit and performance is during a webinar—it instantly brought back great memories of this port stop.

AmaWaterways has a wine festival here, but the real treat is the children who visit the ship and perform songs and dances. It is a lot of fun and you will fall in love with this unique little wine village along the Moselle River.

The festival queen leads 2 children dressed as black cats from our 2009 cruise.

These pictures are from our 2015 cruise of the kids performance.

The town water fountain features the Black Cat.

Here were some of the wines we could taste during this festival:

2017 Bourg Wine Festival

Another AmaWaterways exclusive is a wine festival in Bourg. We got to experience this on our 2017 cruise called A Taste of Bordeaux.

Bourg is pleasant and picturesque small town perched on the banks of the Dordogne River.

This area produces excellent red French wine including merlot, malbec, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc.

The wine festival was held at the House of Wines. It was a lot of fun and we had a small band in period clothing to help us celebrate.

A view out of the back portion of the building towards the river at sunset.

2019 Lahneck Castle Tour

On the Enchanting Rhine, the Treasures of the Main & Rhine and other routes, there is an exclusive Lahneck Castle tour.

This is a great castle to tour, as it combines medieval fortifications, and great interiors. It was built in 1244 and destroyed in the Thirty Years War (1633). In 1852, it was rebuilt and fully restored in 1937.

It is a very interesting and pretty residential castle.

The stained-glass windows of the chapel date to the 1400s.

There is even a portrait of Queen Victoria, painted in 1840.

It is full of fine furniture, porcelain, ceramics, a 15th century kitchen complex and a fully furnished 3-story doll house.

2021 Nefertari’s Tomb

We got to experience this ancient Egyptian tomb on the Secrets of Egypt and the Nile cruise in December 2021.

The tour starts in the Valley of the Queens. We started day 5 of our cruise in the Valley of the Queens to view Queen Nefertari’s Tomb. Nefertari was the wife of Ramses III and his favorite wife. He made her a deity during his reign; she lived an elegant life; and expected an elegant life in the afterlife.

You are limited to only 15 minutes during your visit (the tomb can’t hold more than a limited number of tourists), and the Egyptologist guide is not allowed inside with their escorted group (they explained to us the questions that guests have often caused the group to stay beyond their allotted time). The Egyptologist encouraged us to take photos and he would answer our questions after we left the tomb to explain what the paintings symbolized.

After descending some very steep stairs, a wonderland of color and detail emerges—it was almost overwhelming—you will see the queen’s life journey symbolized by her interactions with the gods of that era.

Flash photos are not allowed and many sites in the tombs only allow cell phone pictures. The policy is unevenly enforced and often even if you pay a fee to use a 35 mm camera, the officials at the entrance to the site may deny permission to take photos with larger cameras.

Nothing remains in the tomb but the wall paintings. No other Egyptian tomb has this quality of preserved art works on the walls of the tombs in either the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of the Kings. They are stunning; detailed; and the best-preserved wall paintings of the various tombs we visited—we could really see and understand Nefertiti’s journey to the afterlife.

Here are the pictures of Queen Nefertari’s Tomb. The paintings on the tomb depict her journey to the afterlife and her life in Egypt during her reign as queen.

The valley of the Queens desert burial area

The steep stairs leading to her burial chamber

Nefertari before Thoth (god of the moon, wisdom, and knowledge) in the upper annex room

Nefertari making an offering to Ptah (on the right). Ptah is the creator god and the patron diety of craftsmen and architects.

Nefertari (on the right) making offerings to the gods.

This painting shows Ra, the sun god with the red circle over his head

2022 VolKach Wine Festival

This exclusive experience is part of the Medieval Treasures cruise we took in 2022. We attended a wonderful wine event in Volkach, Germany.

It is an exclusive event where the small town puts on a wine festival with grilled brats, white and rose local wines, hosted by the mayor with a band and traditional dancers.

It was a lot of fun—here are some pictures:

The town Hall and square where the festival took place

This was the singing and dancing group that entertained us

2023--2 Great Experiences on the AmaMagna

Wine Festival in Spitz

Spitz is a small village in the Wachau Valley. In an old monestary that has been converted to a wine cellar and restaurant, there is a lively wine tasting, complete with traditional music and some good white wines.

It is another fun celebration and an excellent glimpse of the culture of Austria.

Here are some photos of the event:

The outside of the winery and restaurant

Our hostess explaining the wine we are about to taste

One of the best wines grown in the region—Gruner Veltliner

Our host singing and leading us in toasts in German

Octoberfest in Vilshofen, Germany

Another great exclusive on AmaWaterways is Octoberfest in Vilshofen. Instead of just limiting the celebration to Munich during the last weeks of September and early October, the local populace of Vilshofen decided to greet guests who want to start their cruise in their small town with an Octoberfest celebration.

There are several benefits of starting a cruise in Vilshofen—the primary benefit is that it avoids a low water point on the Danube in Regensburg, so many cruises will not be disrupted by the lack of rain.

So, here is our experience in pictures from March of 2023 in pictures.

Anne with the festival queen dressed in traditional clothing

Prost! Anne, Cesario (our cruise manager) and Hank with good beer

Each of the tables had pretzels and we were served beer

Anne and Hank in front of the AmaMagna after the Oktoberfest party.

Our Final Thoughts

We all crave exclusive experiences. As you can see, there are multiple opportunities to participate in curated tours that will exceed your expectations.

We hope you enjoyed this report.

We are travel experts, ocean and river cruise specialists, and Europe destination experts. We have first-hand knowledge of almost anywhere you want to visit in Europe. We know our products and the vendors who sell them to you. We have designed special tours for dozens of clients, led several and will continue to find just the right vacation that will exceed your expectations.

When you are spending your hard-earned money for a vacation, you want an advisor who can match you with the right trip. You want someone who will understand your expectations and fuel your anticipation (or excitement) to get you the best possible trip experience. And, you want someone who can help you with the decision making process. We think we have all these qualities.

Whatever your Dream Destinations are, we are here to help you get the best possible vacation based on what is important to you! We will provide you high quality, expertly planned travel. Please give me a call 713-397-0188 (Hank) or email me at hschrader@dreamdestinations.com. We want to help you: Savor life…make memories…Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!

ANNE has earned a degree from the University of Houston in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Serving as the President of Visit Dream Destinations, LLC, since 2016, she is uniquely experienced professional travel advisor with over 26 years’ experience in the travel industry. Among her numerous certifications, she is a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) by the Travel Institute, considered the gold standard in travel agent certification and she is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC) by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), as well Luxury Cruise Specialist also from CLIA. Having traveled often to Europe since 1989, she has expanded on her certification as a Destination Specialist in Western Europe (DS) with extensive first-hand experience in luxury vacations. She holds numerous other specialty designations from individual vendors. An expert photographer, she delights in capturing the true essence of destinations to share with all.

HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 51+ years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). This recognized expert in cruise and leisure travel is a retired Army Officer, and taught World Geography for 8 years. He is a `71 graduate of West Point and has earned 2 master’s degrees. His other Certifications:

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

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