Traveling Again Along the Rhine

These are the views that everyone imagines about the Rhine - the castles on the cliffs. And yes, they are surely there - this is just one example of how they often hover above a town. This one has been made into a hotel. And this one looks like a private residence. I'd love to see inside!Here's one of the many similar towns along the river, complete with church steeple, half-timbered houses, restaurant on the wall, and small dock. This is the notorious Lorelei Rock, a huge cliff just at a sharp bend of the river, which has sunk many a ship over the years. There is a sculpture nearby of the siren Lorelei, who lured sailors to their death, but I couldn't get a good photo of her. The terrain becomes a little less hilly farther down the Rhine, and vineyards are planted on every available inch. The train line follows along the river much of the way. And industry enters once again - this is a huge power generator (or whatever you call them).

I believe this huge double lock is actually on the Main River, which we enter next as we visit Aschaffenberg. Stay tuned.

Red Berries

We interupt this cruise to bring you a New England moment. I planted this shrub (and now I wish I could remember the name) about 7 years ago. The first 3 or 4 years, most of it got winter-killed. However, 3 years ago, the remaining little branches started to take off. Last year I got about 3 clusters of berries, but look at it this year! Wow! The photo doesn't do it justice - the orangy-red berries just glow in the sunshine. So far the birds haven't shown any interest in it and I hope it will stay like this for most of the winter. It's a cheery spot outside my front door. And another quick note - I attended "Stitches East" yesterday at the Hartford Convention Center. It's a full weekend of classes, tons of booths offering beautiful yarns and all kinds of other yarny goodies. I attended two classes - Log Cabin Squares and Colorful Edgings, bought a couple of books, got some yarn, saw the fashion show and attended the evening dinner - a full day but lots of fun. Hubster told me this morning (he was asleep when I got home at 11:30), that it made the Hartford channel TV news.

Koblenz

This is the pretty town of Koblenz. Here's a row of houses packed up onto the wall which protected the town from frequent Rhine river flooding.

And one of the ever-present church steeples peeking over the roofs. This was a courtyard and park - yes, that's a sculpture of a thumb. The medieval St. Castor Basilica can be seen in the background.

This is the courtyard of the Jesuit school.I love the creative mosaic tile decoration on this house. Love this pink house!I thought this house was a great blend of the best of old and new. An architect's office (I think) is in the modern extension of the old gatehouse. People still have a a right-of-way through the gate. We are here in the Ehrenbreistein Fortress - it is huge and I couldn't get a picture that captured it. The fortress is high on a hill on the other side of the river from Koblenz, and this view from one of the walls was the best part of being there. That is Koblenz spread out below, with the Moselle River coming down the center to meet with the Rhine in the foreground.Stay tuned for Aschaffenburg. Stay tuned for Aschaffenburg next.

Scenes along the Lower Rhine

When imagining a romantic cruise down the Rhine, you wouldn't expect an image like this. The lower Rhine (the end nearest the ocean) is actually quite industrial. And the river was full of barges carrying all kinds of cargo - you can see one of them docked near this site. There are also a number of nuclear plants.

But further along, you'd see scenes like this - cows and farms.

Almost all of the river has some kind of man-made border - stones or pilings. The trees control erosion, and look pretty too.

Typical town, always with a church steeple and a small dock.

Lots of campers enjoying the last few days of summer.

Here the boat is entering one of the first locks we had to pass through (57 in all). That's our captain guiding us in.

In a few days, I'll have pictures of Koblenz, the next city we visited.

Cologne and the Cathedral

The shopping streets in Cologne look pretty much like those in any big city, except the signs are in German. People seem to dress a little better in Europe than in the US - I think in the whole trip we only saw a couple of teenage boys with baggy shorts hanging around their hips. We saw one store window with a display of what they called "rap" clothes. Well-fitting jeans were the usual dress code. And European men commonly wear scarves, women too.This is the cathedral, one of the largest medieval cathedrals in Europe. Gorgeous, isn't it.

And here's what is right next to it. Also note the graffitti, which is everywhere in all the cities. Not on the cathedral, at least!

Impossible to get a picture of the interior - this is a sample.

And these are the original medieval stained glass windows - most of them were damaged in the War and replaced. The older ones are more intricate and beautiful.

This is allegedly the tomb of one of the Wise Men of the Christmas story. We'd like to believe he is in this beautiful gold casket, but who really knows.

Next time, cruising down the Rhine to Koblenz.

From Amsterdam to Germany

Leaving Amsterdam, we traveled a small waterway down to the Rhine, where we next visited the German town of Xanten. Here's one of the pretty shopping streets. Xanten was a Roman garrison town 2000 years ago, and most of the Roman ruins are gone. What is here to see are medieval buildings, including the town gate, below. From the gate, you could see the remains of the town's moat.

Every German city has its church, and Xanten was no exception. These are two views of the Gothic church, with some older Romanesque elements as well.

I love this guy standing under his little porch.

And there's the only windmill we saw up close. I didn't realize they are so huge.

Next, we travel down the Rhine to Cologne (German spelling Koln). Check back in a few days.

Amsterdam Streets, Canals and Bikes

This was my first impression of Amsterdam - bikes everywhere! Amsterdam has narrow crowded streets,

and wide thoroughfares. Trolley lines go down the middle.

These buildings and cafe are on the edge of one of the many canals. It was a drizzly day, which is pretty common in this low-lying, oceanside city. Then sudden bursts of heavy rain, followed by brief sunshine.

Old and new buildings side by side. The hooks at the roofline allow furniture, etc., to be hauled up, avoiding the narrow winding stairs.

We took a canal ride, circling and winding through the city. Lots of bridges. Note the bikes.

A view from the canal boat. Houses are built right on the canal with boat access, like Venice.

A visit to one of the world's famous museums, the Rijksmuseum.

No pictures were allowed, but I sneaked this one of the fabulous Delft porcelain. Sorry I couldn't photograph the Rembrandt and Vermeer.

And another famous spot, the Heineken brewery.

Invitation to a European River Cruise

The next few weeks of this blog will take you on the cruise Hubster and I took down several rivers in the heart of Europe the first two weeks of September.
First is an introduction to our ship, the Casanova. It was owned and operated by a German company, and the crew was mostly German and Hungarian, who spoke English much better then I spoke German (which is not at all). We were with an Elderhostel group of 18 other people (all extremely nice, I might add); there were also a large group of Canadians and a few Germans on the cruise.
So here's what the boat looks like, with room for just over 100 passengers and 40 crew members. with a shot from the sundeck, with our bartender Attila bringing us our "wishes", also interior photos of the registration desk, the lounge and bar, and the dining room. And I should add that we had a 4-course meal plus salad bar twice a day, huge buffet breakfast, and snacks in between.

Here's the little cabin where we lived for 14 days. The couches were made into beds while we were at dinner, and back into seating during breakfast. There's a bathroom with shower to the right of the door to the hall which you see below. We had wonderful views through floor-to-ceiling french doors.

And these are the people who made our trip so wonderful - the captain is on the left (I only saw him dressed up like this twice), the restaurant and housekeeping managers, the purser, etc. Not a great photo, but you get the idea.

So if you'd like to continue the tour, please check in every few days for another episode. Next up is Amsterdam, where we started our journey.