Google BlogSpot cut off my entry on our river cruise at this
point so I have had to post it in two parts.
Therefore, to
view the first part please click here
Day 12 WERTHEIM -
MILTENBERG (continued)
The ship departed for Miltenberg during lunch, arriving late
in the afternoon for a brief walking tour along crooked cobblestone streets
lined with steeply gabled, half-timbered houses. Later, the ship left Bavaria
and the Main River behind.
Day 13 RÜDESHEIM -
KOBLENZ
We arrived in Rüdesheim shortly after lunch and Ann visited
Siegfried's Mechanical Musical Instrument Museum while I read more. In the
afternoon, the ship departed for Koblenz, cruising through the legendary Rhine
Gorge, beginning the most scenic part of our entire trip, a 41 mile stretch of
waterway comprising 30 castles & the famous Lorelei rock. This made for ideal scenic photographs and I
can't do justice to all but have selected a few. We arrived in Koblenz in the
evening and took a brief walking tour on our own after dinner.
Day 14 KOBLENZ -
COLOGNE
The ship cruised to Cologne in the afternoon, where we had a
walking tour through the old part of the city and visited the fabled
13th-century gothic cathedral. It was there that I had that epiphany of having
seen the cathedral before in its war-torn state from my father's photographs
(see the first part of this entry). The stained glass window
restoration was particularly impressive with even a modern new stained-glass
window, designed by Gerhard Richter, one of Germany's leading artists. Cologne is also known for its beer, and we encountered some very well-served fellows leaving a bachelor party. The ship
departed that night for Amsterdam.
Day 15 AMSTERDAM,
HOLLAND
After arriving in Amsterdam early in the afternoon, we enjoyed
a scenic canal cruise through this city known as the “Venice of the North.” Amsterdam
was the home of my parent company which meant we had been there several times before,
so the canal cruise was not new; however we hadn't done it in so many years and
it was Sunday, so all the "Sunday Drivers" were on the canal and it
was interesting to see the boat traffic.
I always love seeing the barge homes along the canals and of course was
again moved by the famous house where Anne Frank and her family once lived in
hiding.On the way to Amsterdam on the river there was lots of small boat traffic flying by.
Day 16 DISEMBARKATION
The day had an inauspicious beginning. Since we had such an early flight, AMA had ordered
a private car for us (all the buses were leaving later), but somehow it was
cancelled by another passenger (they had a private cab scheduled for the same 5:45
am departure time), so we stood around, mostly outside in the early morning
cold waiting for a replacement ride.
Nonetheless we got to the airport still with plenty of time, but we were
dropped off at the wrong terminal (this particular Lufthansa flight was
operated by United, different terminal, but no one told us that) so we had to
walk a mile with our luggage to get to the right one. Then we had to deal with a Kiosk From Hell to
get our boarding passes and to "upgrade" to "Economy Class
Plus". Flight went fine, but we got
into Newark pretty tired and had to get to our car in Ft Lee, and then started
our drive down to FL in the mid afternoon..
Made it to somewhere north of Baltimore, and as we were still on
European time, got up at 3.30 AM the next day (Tues.) to make it through
Washington before the Beltway becomes a parking lot. I had intended to drive the entire 1,000 or
so miles right home at that point. My
GPS said we'd arrive around 8.00 pm, but we finally had to stop in St.
Augustine, only 3.5 - 4 hours from our home, as there was intense rain in FL
and between our exhaustion and that factor, decided to call it a night. Finally arrived last Weds. morning to find
our other car's battery dead, although our house minder was supposed to have
run it!
All in all, a wonderful trip, but in my opinion two weeks is
a little too long.
Unlike ocean cruising, we were on the go most of the time on
a river cruise -- activities are heavily scheduled --and moments for reading were
fleeting Nonetheless, I had brought a
number of novels to read and managed to finish two. As this entry is already
long enough, I'll write up my comments in another entry later. Perhaps I'll include some other photos of our
trip as well (as if there are not enough already, but I have other favorite
ones of doors, windows, passageways, locks we transited, miscellany which I
enjoy photographing). If you landed on this site via one of the photographs, just
a reminder that there is a Part I, with other photographs of the trip, which
can be viewed here.
