Cruise Description

7 Night Cruise sailing from Passau roundtrip aboard Bolero.

Picturesque snow-covered landscapes with magnificent buildings: the Danube cities of Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna look absolutely spectacular around the time of the New Year. You will spend two nights in Vienna, with plenty of time to fully enjoy the New Year in this imperial city. And, thanks to our late mooring times, you can also take all the time in the world to enjoy Bratislava, Budapest and Linz until late in the evening.

Highlights of this cruise:

Passau
Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflussestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north.

Tourism in Passau focuses mainly on the three rivers, the St. Stephen's Cathedral and the "Old City". With 17,774 pipes and 233 registers, the organ is the second largest in the world. Organ concerts are held daily between May and September.

Passau is also known for its gothic and baroque architecture. The town is dominated by the Veste Oberhaus and the former fortress of the Bishop, on the mountain crest between the Danube and the Ilz rivers. Right beside the town hall is the Scharfrichterhaus, an important jazz and cabaret stage on which political cabaret is performed.

Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bratislava has a very pleasant medieval inner city with narrow, winding streets, a hill-top castle next to the river Danube, and many historic churches and buildings to visit. The old town is centered on two squares, Hlavne namestie (main square) and Hviezdoslavovo namestie (Hviezdoslav square, named after a famous Slovak poet).

Attractions in Bratislava include the castle which currently hosts temporary historical exhibitions and from whose ramparts you can see nearby Hungary, Austria and the Danube valley. Also visit one of the city's excellent galleries, for instance the Bratislava City Gallery at the Pallfy Palace, to experience Matej Kren's unique "Passage" installation.

Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. Cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, its extensive World Heritage Sites includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrassy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second oldest in the world. Other highlights include a total of 80 geothermal springs, the world's largest thermal water cave system, second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building.

Most of Budapest's famous sights are concentrated on Castle Hill on the Buda side, in downtown Pest and along the riverside walkways. The main sights on Castle Hill are the Royal Palace, the National Gallery, the Fisherman’s Bastion and Matthias Church. In downtown Pest the main sights are the Parliament Building, St Stephen’s Basilica, the Great Synagogue and the Jewish Museum and the Eotvos Lorand University.

Budapest is also known for its many hot and thermal springs. Budapest has 118 hot springs that supply the city’s many bathhouses and spas with warm therapeutic spring water. Such was the reputation of its springs that in 1934, the Budapest was declared the “City of Springs.”