How beautiful this sail was from Budapest in Hungary through Austria to Germany at Nuremberg where historical WWII war crimes were tried and charged.

The houses were very much as you imagine or were taught perhaps – the squared off roof in Austria and the turrets and olde style castle styling of Germany – all beautiful and romantic-looking scenes in towns, cities and the river banks.

Peaceful, pleasant, weather warm and sunny for the most part, little hidden treasures like Bernstein and famous like Saltzberg where the Sound of Music was filmed and the Moon Lake and cliff nearby as well as the singing and dancing in the garden park.

These long heard of cities are lost treasures for me until now. I am so pleased to have visited and to continue to see others with history and scenery similar but different in their own ways too.

Next on the list is Krakow in Poland. I grew up with Polish neighbours, close friends of mine and my mothers, some curious history stories I got glimpses of then but can fathom more now and the Polish club of the local community since WWII soldiers stayed here in the UK.

We discovered accidental events with senior diplomats and head of services in a display of celebration we happened upon in our extra day in Nuremberg and the spa visit in our pre-cruise day in Budapest.