While we slept off our dance fever, the boat made its way to our next port – Linz, Austria. From here, there are two day trips leaving by bus along with two stay-behind excursions.

As we’ve never been to Linz, and the weather was again chilly with rain predicted, we changed our plans and stayed for the walk around town.

Our group gathered together at 9:30 am and we walked along the waterfront to the Nibelungen Bridge to see the views. We then backtracked and headed into the main square of town. Our guide, Anita, did a great job of explaining what we were seeing and what we could discover on our own.

One building we entered had a city map on the floor on the floor. Not a little one, it was a detailed aerial map of the entire city of Linz. Too big to photograph, but really cool to see.

From there we cut through a side street and headed into the old town. We walked by lots of small businesses and residences. We eventually reached the old market area where the old Jewish Quarter was located.

In the old Jewish area, there was a very somber memorial. It was called the “Doorbell to Heaven”. There were nine names engraved on a stone tablet. Each name was related to a person who was killed during the war. Beside each name was a doorbell button. When you pushed the button, the doorbell would chime, ringing up to the person in Heaven.

In the old town hall, there was a fountain dedicated to Johannes Kepler, a scientist who discovered that the planets have an elliptical orbit around the sun. The Kepler space telescope was also named for him.

At this point, our guided walk ended, but Anita had given us directions to places we could visit on our own

Sue and I walked over to the New Cathedral, as it was fairly close to where we were located.

From the cathedral, we made our way to the main shopping street and then moseyed our way back to the waterfront.

Returning to the ship, we were happy to have beaten the rain. The dark clouds were getting closer, so we decided to just stay cozy on-board for the afternoon.

We had another scrumptious lunch. We started with some quinoa salad and a couple of BBQ’d chicken wings. For the main course, we had baked trout over asian rice with some roasted vegetables. Of course, there was linzer torte for dessert that was calling out my name.

With full bellies, we made our way back to our cabin. We listened to a little music, did a little bit of reading and then took a little nap.

When we woke up, the rain was pouring down. We later heard that the last excursion group had gotten caught in the storm driving back to the ship. They even encountered some hail.

Tonight would be the Captain’s Gala – beginning with a toast at the ‘Sip & Sail’ followed by an awesome dinner. The captain addressed the gathering and acknowledged the hard working crew. Everyone on board acknowledged them too with a round of applause.

The captain made his way around the room and toasted and thanked all the guests for sailing along on the AmaMora.

We were then invited to enjoy dinner together. It was another delicious meal. We had plenty of laughs and good conversation with our group. We’ll leave for home with many good memories.

For entertainment this evening, there was a performance by the ‘Sounds of Austria’. They were two women singers and a pianist who sang various arias and then finished with several selections from the ‘Sound of Music’. They were entertaining and included a few passengers in their show, including our own Parm!

After the show, we were tuckered out from the day and headed up to the cabin to relax and get a good night’s rest.