10/5/14 Photos

This is a sideways pic of my BD swans made of folded towels.

Next we have flowers planted in a grapevine form.  The next shot is of flowers growing near our docking spot in Braubach.  Marksburg Castle is next.  The old tollbooth was on an island in the river. A chain would have been across the river's span and your choice was to pay up or be shot at with cannons.  The last shot is another attempt to show a small section of the many locks on the lovers' bridge in Cologne.

10/5/14 on the Middle Rhine

I was outside for quite a while, but have come in to get warm.  I am sitting on the balcony and watching the world go by.  The views here are quite spectacular - castles, small towns, old monasteries, and lots of waterfowl.  It is still cloudy and chilly, but no rain yet so I feel we are quite lucky.  We just passed cat castle on one side of the river and mouse castle on the other.  We also passed Lorlei rock.  This is the site in legend when a beautiful maiden sat and sang songs to lure the sailors onto the rocks - very similar to the sirens in Greek mythology.  It is also the deepest and more narrow part of the river.  After dinner tonight, we will leave the Rhine River and get onto the Main River, whick is a tributary.  We will sail through the night until we reach Miltenberg.

10/5/14 Koblenz to Marksburg Castle to sailing along the Middle Rhine

It is a bit cloudy today, but we hope it doesn't rain as some of the most beautiful scenery is supposed to be on this part of the Middle Rhine River.  After breakfast, Dave, Susanne and I took a walk in the park across from the ship.  Susanne eventually went back to the ship while Dave and I walked on into town.  Koblenz is quite charming: lots of tudor style buildings, etc.  A funny thing happened - as we were strolling, we passed an antique shope and in the window was a (fake, I'm sure as the price was only 46 euros) walrus tuck scrimshaw and engraved in the center was the Charles W. Morgan, New Bedford!  We stumbled upon a church yard on the way back to the ship and the gardens were magnificent!  They had wonderful flower arrangements woven into a variety of grape vine shapes.  Shortly after coming back we boarded a bus for a short ride to Marksburg Castle.  This was a medieval castle - the only one in Germany that was not destroyed over the years by the enemy.  We had a great tour through the castle and even got to visit the armory and the torture rooms.  We rejoined the ship in Brauback (the ship sailed while we were enjoying the castle).  We had lunch on the fantail so we could enjoy the scenery while we ate.  I have just come in as it is getting cold outside, but I am sittling in a small reception area where I can see out to both sides of the ship.  We have passed many vineyards on the slopes of the hills and are now at Boppard - a seaside village with many old hotels along the waterfront.  I am going to brave the outside again so will get back to the blog a bit later.

Cologne again 10/4/14

I just looked at the photos and I don't know what happened to the one of the millions of locks on the rail - it didn't come through for some reason.  I also noticed that I didn't mention the demonstration we came upon in the cathedral square this afternoon.  I finally found a policeman who spoke English and he said that it was the Kurkistanis (spelling?) protesting against Turkey.  There were hundreds of people in the demonstration so we very carefully skirted around the masses of people so as to not get caught in the confusion.  Although the demonstrators seemed peaceful, there were lots of policemen present and sometimes things can get out of hand very quickly.

On a happier note, after dinner tonight the restaurant crew gathered around our table to wish me a happy birthday, which was both a surprise and quite embarrassing, but very nice.  The chef made a lemon/mango mouse case, which was soooooo delicious!  But, that is not all - when I got back to the room, I found that our housekeeper had made a pair of swans on our bed.  They are beautiful and I hate to take them apart to get into bed.  I will try to post a picture of it tomorrow.

10/4/14 Cologne, Germany

Yesterday afternoon we had a champagne welcome in the lounge.  Unfortunately, the captain had some news that made some people unhappy.  When we get to Nuremburg, we will have to change ships so that they can correct the ship's direction.  It all has to do with a problem with flooding in June.  We will be on the Eistla instead of the Bestla when that change occurs.  The biggest problems will be trying to fit everything back into the suitcases and that we will have to get used to new faces as most of the crew stays with the ship.  I hope the new crew is as nice as this one!  We had a lovely dinner last night - carmelized scallops.  We came back to the cabin to read and then slept soundly through the night.

This morning we were still moving on the river and did not dock in Cologne until almost 10 AM.  We had a walking tour of the city from 10:30 until 12:30.  Cologne is not a pretty city, but there are many people here, which makes it a vibrant one.  We walked into the center of the city, saw parts of the Roman wall and sewer system, which still exist and then spent some time outside of the twin towered cathedral, the Kolner Dom.  This is Germany's largest cathedralThey started building it in 1248 and finished almost 800 years later!  We came back to the ship for lunch and then walked over to the chocolate factory - delish!  The museum was interested - explaining the history and origin of chocolate in its many forms.  We then walked through part of the production plant where we could see a variety of chocolates being made.  Apparently a popular item is a 10" soccer ball made of chocolate!  They were also making mini-bars (we got samples of those when we entered the museum), larger chocolate bars, and truffles.  At one point we passed a chocolate fountain.  A worker dipped biscuit wafers in the chocolate and passed them to us as we walked by - triple yum!  We went across the street to the mustard factory and were amazed at the variety of mustards available.  Lana, John and I continued on (Dave and Susanne were putting their feet up) and walked to the Hohenzollernbrucke Bridge which spans the Rhine River.  It is famous for all of the locks that are on the bridge railing.  They are put there by lovers as a sign of their enduring love.  The key is then thrown into the river so that the love birds would never be parted.  I have no idea how long this has been a tradition, but there are locks on every square inch of the railing.  We will have a live concert tonight after dinner so will catch up with you again tomorrow.

10/3/14 Kinderdijk to Cologne

We had a wonderful tour of the windmills here.  This is a World Heritage Site and preserves some of the older windmills.  The eight they have here were all built in 1738.  They are built of brick and have thatched roofs.  The sails come within a foot of the ground.  We had a tour of the inside of one of them and it was interesting to see how comfortable the families made the living areas.  They reminded me of how the lighthouse families lived in our area except that the lighthouse families were much more isolated.  It was foggy this morning and because of that I was able to take a few shots of spider webs - they were everywhere glistening in the sun as it burned through the fog.  Our guide gave a talk on the importance of the windmills for water management as over 50% of the Netherlands in below sea level.  We had a safety drill before lunch and we did quite well - about 7 minutes to have everyone counted and at stations.  Lunch was delicious - I had Dutch beef stew, which was really a soup - quite delicious as the veggies were al dente - yum!  I will have to be careful about the meals and I think they are trying to fatten us up before sending us home.  We are now traveling on the Rhine to Cologne, Germany and it is fascinating to sit up on deck and watch the scenery go by.  We have gone past small towns, a city and lots of pasture land with cows and sheep.  There are also a lot of waterfowl on the river - ducks, cormorants, gulls.  This trip is really quite fabulous.  I was able to put a few pix up, but it still is not coming easy.  I will write more later.

A few photos from Amsterdam and Kinderdijk

I managed to get a few pix on, but it was difficult - I hope to get better at it as time goes on.