October 26, 2016 — Strasbourg, France

Strasbourg - Canal

Strasbourg – Canal

Strasbourg - Canal Touring Boat

Strasbourg – Canal Touring Boat

Strasbourg - Cathedral

Strasbourg – Cathedral

Strasbourg - Cathedral Statue Detail

Strasbourg – Cathedral Statue Detail

Strasbourg - Cathedral Clock

Strasbourg – Cathedral Clock

Strasbourg - Kent and Albert Switzer at the Organ

Strasbourg – Kent and Albert Switzer at the Organ

Strasbourg - Asacien Museum Exhibit

Strasbourg – Asacien Museum Exhibit

From Karlsruhe we departed for a half day tour of the famous Black Forest spa town of Baden-Baden. This small town of about 55,000 residents is famous for its twelve salt and radon rich thermal hot springs that spring up from a depth of some 6,000 feet under ground. Once the site of Roman Baths, this picturesque town was Europe’s celebrity resort in the 1800’s.

We visited the the beautiful Lichtentaler Allee historic park set along the west bank of the Oos River. This park was believed to have begun in 1655 as a path between the town market and the Lichtenthal monastery. Between 1850 and 1870 it was planted with a wide variety of trees and plants. Today the avenue contains about 3000 native plants and trees including azaleas, alders, chestnuts, ginkgos, magnolias, maples, oaks and sycamore trees.

Adjoining the park is the famous Kurhaus or Casino Baden-Baden begun in 1838, where the rich and famous have come for more than 150 years to gamble. This extraordinary ornate and overdone casino is open from 2:00pm daily until 2:00am. The interior includes ornate gilded statuary, extensive wall murals, elaborate chandeliers, red brocade upholstered walls and more. They require gentlemen to wear a jacket and women to be well dressed for admission. Since it was before opening time, they allowed us to take a tour of the casino and to photograph inside.

Our next stop was the Trinkhalle or water pump house built in 1839 to 1842. This building has a 300-foot-long covered arcade lined with frescoes and benches to rest. Inside the structure there is a water faucet flowing non-stop with hot spring waters believed to have curative powers. The tourist information office and a restaurant are located in this building today.

We enjoyed lunch onboard and a relaxing afternoon on the River Splendor river boat. To fill the afternoon, they offered a wine tasting of local red wines, a high tea with a variety of delicious cakes and cookies and a tour of the ship’s galley.

October 26, 2016 — Strasbourg, France

Strasbourg is located in France, about 250 miles east of Paris near the border of Germany, with a population of approximately 275,000 residents in the city and 485,000 in the metropolitan area. The historic city center called the Grande Ile was classified a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. The city is mostly known for its sandstone Gothic Cathedral with its famous astronomical clock and its medieval black and white timber-framed buildings.

Strasbourg is an important center of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail and river transportation. The port here is the second largest on the Rhine River after Duisburg, Germany.

We started our tour with a drive through the city passing the European Union Council buildings and arriving at one of the small canals. There we boarded a sleek canal touring boat with a sleek Plexiglas cover to keep us warm and dry. We toured the canal around the old central part of the city, including a couple of locks that we needed to transit. Along the canals we saw many old timber homes and businesses lining the canals. Most buildings and railings were covered in colorful geraniums.

Once we disembarked the canal boat we took a walking tour of the central old town, including the Cathedral Notre Dame built between 1176 and 1439. The gothic style cathedral is extremely ornate with tons of detailed ornamentation, gargoyles, statues, and more. The interior includes a magnificent organ and a famous astronomical clock dating back to 1547. The clock has many moving parts, telling not only the time but the rotation of the moon, the zodiac signs, etc. Regularly, the clock would chime the time, and a bell would be rung by a little boy, and then some moving children would move in and out of a window at the top of the clock.

We then headed to St. Thomas church where Albert Switzer and Mozart used to play the more than 500-year-old organ. The organ looks very primitive by today’s standards—but for it to still function is quite amazing.

Next we headed to the Tanner’s District also known as La Petite France where there is the largest concentration of 300-year-old, half-timbered houses. With Rita and Leslie, we then stopped for lunch at a small French café for crepes and pomme frites.

After lunch we visited a very nice museum located in an historic, old half-timberd house where four families once lived around a central courtyard. They have an extensive collection of household items from homes over the years in the Alsace region. The collection includes furniture, dishes, dolls, building ornamentation, Jewish memorabilia over the years and so many more items.

After dinner we were entertained by a local accordionist and a female singer who performed a variety of mostly Edith Piaf songs. We thought that she was quite good but many others did not seem to enjoy her.

October 25, 2016 – Baden-Baden, Germany

Baden-Baden Casino

Baden-Baden – Casino

Baden-Baden - Casino

Baden-Baden – Casino

Baden-Baden - Trinkhalle

Baden-Baden – Trinkhalle

Baden-Baden - Beer Garden

Baden-Baden – Beer Garden

Baden-Baden - Beer Garden

Baden-Baden – Beer Garden

From Karlsruhe we departed for a half day tour of the famous Black Forest spa town of Baden-Baden. This small town of about 55,000 residents is famous for its twelve salt and radon rich thermal hot springs that spring up from a depth of some 6,000 feet under ground. Once the site of Roman Baths, this picturesque town was Europe’s celebrity resort in the 1800’s.

We visited the the beautiful Lichtentaler Allee historic park set along the west bank of the Oos River. This park was believed to have begun in 1655 as a path between the town market and the Lichtenthal monastery. Between 1850 and 1870 it was planted with a wide variety of trees and plants. Today the avenue contains about 3000 native plants and trees including azaleas, alders, chestnuts, ginkgos, magnolias, maples, oaks and sycamore trees.

Adjoining the park is the famous Kurhaus or Casino Baden-Baden begun in 1838, where the rich and famous have come for more than 150 years to gamble. This extraordinary ornate and overdone casino is open from 2:00pm daily until 2:00am. The interior includes ornate gilded statuary, extensive wall murals, elaborate chandeliers, red brocade upholstered walls and more. They require gentlemen to wear a jacket and women to be well dressed for admission. Since it was before opening time, they allowed us to take a tour of the casino and to photograph inside.

Our next stop was the Trinkhalle or water pump house built in 1839 to 1842. This building has a 300-foot-long covered arcade lined with frescoes and benches to rest. Inside the structure there is a water faucet flowing non-stop with hot spring waters believed to have curative powers. The tourist information office and a restaurant are located in this building today.

We enjoyed lunch onboard and a relaxing afternoon on the River Splendor river boat. To fill the afternoon, they offered a wine tasting of local red wines, a high tea with a variety of delicious cakes and cookies and a tour of the ships galley.

October 24, 2016 — Mainz, Germany to Karlsruhe, Germany

Mainz - Cathedral

Mainz – Cathedral

Mainz - Cathedral Cloister

Mainz – Cathedral Cloister

Mainz - Architecture

Mainz – Architecture

Speyer - Cathedral Facade

Speyer – Cathedral Facade

Speyer - Cathedral Interior

Speyer – Cathedral Interior

Speyer - Jewish Baths Entrance

Speyer – Jewish Baths Entrance

The weather was not cooperating on this day and we had a morning filled with rain showers. We started out the day with a walking tour around the city center. Mainz with a population of 225,000 is famous as the home of the invention of the moveable-type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the early 1450’s. We visited the Gutenberg Museum where we saw first hand how the printing was done with this new invention, the moveable-type. The first books using movable type were manufactured in Mainz. The museum has several original Gutenberg bibles, printed in Latin, now extremely rare and valuable. They keep them locked under glass and in a vault similar to one you might find in a bank.

The city has meandering streets which make it difficult to get your bearings on which direction you are traveling. Much of the city had been destroyed during the WWII but many of the old buildings have been restored or rebuilt in their original style. Mixed in with those are buildings from the 1950’s and 1960’s, which appear quite stark next to the ornateness of the classical architecture.

Included on our tour was a visit to the city’s cathedral started by Archbishop Willigis in the year 975. It was not completed until 1009. Like so many of these very old churches they have been partially destroyed and re-built numerous times resulting in an eclectic mix of styles and art. This church has a beautiful outdoor cloister, a huge main sanctuary, many side altars, a chapel and a crypt in the basement. Much of the art work and statues inside the sanctuary are extremely ornate.

Although Mainz is not that large, it is part of the Rhein Metro area comprising 5.8 million people and located just a 25-minute train ride from the Frankfurt Airport.

After lunch onboard the ship, we headed out on an optional tour to the town of Speyer where we saw another enormous cathedral. The Speyer Cathedral is known for having the largest Romanesque crypt in the world, built in the form of a hall. The crypt was consecrated in 1041 and is more than 100 feet wide, 150 feet long and nearly 25 feet in height. It contains many bone and other relics. The main sanctuary is enormous in size, but a bit simpler and understated in comparison to some of the others we have seen.

We then headed to the Jewish baths. Speyer was home to one of the most important medieval Jewish community’s north of the Alps. In the 11th Century, Jewish merchants, and bankers came to Speyer from Italy and France. The Jewish people coexisted peacefully with the Christians until the 14th Century when, for some unknown reason, there was an anti Jewish sentiment leading to the extinction of the Jewish community in Speyer.

In recent years a Jewish ritual bath built around 1120 was excavated and is part of a small Jewish museum. The baths are entered through a staircase down about thirty-five feet underground to where you find the pool of water. They still show the bath with water in it today. It was quite interesting. Several headstones from an old local Jewish cemetery are also housed in this small museum.

After dinner there was no entertainment provided by the ship. We retired to our room and read, responded to emails and rested.

October 23, 2016 — Boppard, Germany to Mainz, Germany

Bopped - St. Severus Church

Boppard – St. Severus Church

Boppard - St. Severus Church Interior

Boppard – St. Severus Church Interior

Boppard - View from the Ski Lift

Boppard – View from the Ski Lift

Boppard - Waterfront Home

Boppard – Waterfront Home

Boppard to Mainz - Views along the Rhine River

Boppard to Mainz – Views along the Rhine River

Boppard to Mainz - One of the Castles along the Rhine River

Boppard to Mainz – One of the Castles along the Rhine River

This morning we had a brief presentation by the cruise director about the town of Boppard and the things to see and do. We took our own walking tour around town with our friend, Kathy, to see two of the local churches, the town square and the main shopping street. The Church of St. Severus, with its two bell towers, was just beautiful inside with hand painted arches, an ornate altar, along with lovely newer stained glass windows. It gave off a warm and beautiful feeling, unlike many similar churches.

We then took a ski lift for a twenty minute ride up the hillside to a look out point where we could see the hairpin turns the Rhine River makes at this point. The weather was only in the 40’s so it was cold and a bit foggy, but the views over the river were still very nice. Train tracks run along each side of the river providing both passenger service and freight transportation. The river is busy with freighter ships carrying all sorts of commercial goods along the river.

For lunch we had a special Oktoberfest lunch with suckling pig, veal, sausages, sauerkraut, pretzels, and many other local favorites.

After lunch we cruised the Upper Rhine Valley, considered the most scenic stretch of the river, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Along this stretch we saw many castles, as well as the famous Lorelei Statue and Rock. In 1801, German author Clemens Brentano composed his ballad Zu Bacharach am Rheine as part of a fragmentary continuation of his novel Godwi oder Das steinerne Bild der Mutter. It first told the story of an enchanting female associated with the rock. In the poem, the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, is accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to death, the bishop consigns her to a nunnery. On the way thereto, accompanied by three knights, she comes to the Lorelei rock. She asks permission to climb it and view the Rhine once again. She does so and, thinking that she sees her love in the Rhine, falls to her death.

Due to the historic nature of this area of the Rhine, there are no bridges over the river and the area is preserved in its current state. People take water taxis across this part of the Rhine.

We arrived in Mainz, Germany about 8:00pm after cruising all afternoon. After dinner about thirty guests headed out to a local bar for the opportunity to see how the locals drink. The bar we visited was a beautiful building that resembled an old church that had been converted to a bar that also served food items. There were many open tables—being a Sunday night it was not too busy. We shared a drink with local passengers before returning to the ship.

October 22, 2016 — Trier, Germany

Trier - St. Peter Church

Trier – St. Peter Church

Trier - Church of Our Lady

Trier – Church of Our Lady

Trier - Porta Nigra

Trier – Porta Nigra

Trier - Palace Facade

Trier – Palace Facade

On this day we visited the town of Trier, Germany, with a population of about 100,000 people and is one of the oldest cities in Germany, founded by the Romans before the time of Christ. We stopped to see the Porta Nigra, the best preserved Roman city gate north of the Alps. We drove by the Barbara Baths, one of three sets of ruins from Roman Baths around the city. These baths were built in the second century and had extensive furnaces, pools, sewer systems and a heating system.

We visited the remains of an old Roman amphitheater where gladiators fought other men and exotic animals from tigers to elephants. Many of the fighters were slaves who were trying to improve their place in society if they could win several battles, unfortunately many did not survive the battle.

We saw a large simple church that was originally built by the Romans but later incorporated into a huge palace and later restored to a church. The church today has the exposed bricks and mortar but all of the ornate marble and painted stucco exterior are gone. Attached to the rear of the church is a small portion of the palace and a classical styled garden maintained by the city.

There is also an amazing Roman Bridge built in the second century to span the Moselle River and is still used to cross the river today. Our next stop was the Liebfrauenkirche or Church of Our Lady, built in the Gothic style, although the stained glass windows and the altar were quite modern in style and the altar was in the center of the church. Next to that church was another expansive church called the High Cathedral of St. Peter. This cathedral is one of the oldest cathedrals in the country and the largest in Trier. Portions of the church date back to the fourth century and it has been added onto and altered ever since. Outside the cathedral is a peaceful garden and cemetery courtyard. Below the main sanctuary is another chapel and crypt.

For lunch we visited the Weingut Georg Fritz von Nell, a wine estate that has been in the same family for more than 200 years. Here we enjoyed a four course lunch with wine soup, salads, pork steak that had been marinated for two days, scalloped potatoes with cheese, pane-cotta and of course, tasted six of their delicious wines. Kent enjoyed the red grape juice.

By late afternoon we re-boarded the river boat in the town of Zell and headed for Boppard on the Rhine River. After dinner we participated in the evening’s entertainment game called the Liar’s Club. Three members of the crew each told a story about the meaning of a particularly obscure word like Fullfart. The audience would then have to decide who was telling the truth. The table or team that had the most correct answers won a bottle of champagne.

October 21, 2016 — Bernkastel, Germany

Bernkastel - Town Square

Bernkastel – Town Square

Bernkastel - Wine Tasting Shop and Cellar

Bernkastel – Wine Tasting Shop and Cellar

Bernkastel - Narrow Timber House

Bernkastel – Narrow Timber House

Bernkastel - Wine Fountain

Bernkastel – Wine Fountain

Our stop on this day took us to the small town of Bernkastel, known as the International Town of Vines and Wine. This historic city is filled with gorgeous historic gabled timber-frame houses from the 17th Century. Our walking tour took us through the Jewish section of town, several ornate fountains, unique timber-frame houses and lots of bakeries and sweet shops. This is the sweetest little town that we have visited thus far. What it lacks in size it makes up in character and charm.

Kent went to the Jewish cemetery with a Jewish couple from New York city and Rita where there were 33 Gravesites in the cemetery. The Jewish lady found her acquaintance or grandparent’s graves among those buried there. The cemetery is located high above the river and city in the vineyards.

This region is well known for its Riesling grape vineyards and wines. The population of the town is only about 7,000 inhabitants. Our tour took us to a charming wine tasting shop complete with a cellar where we sampled several varieties of the local Riesling wines.

The afternoon was free for us to further explore the town on our own. Kent and I sat in a cute little coffee and pastry shop for coffee, hot chocolate and treats to watch the people go by.

There are remains of an old castle high up in the hill above the city but we chose not to walk up there to explore it today.

After dinner we had a troupe of young Can Can dancing girls direct from Paris to entertain us. They performed a variety of different dances, songs and comedy including some audience participation where several men were called on stage to try out their dance skills. Luckily we escaped the audience participation. The show was very entertaining and I think all of the guests enjoyed the entertainment. We had seen them on our Vantage river boat tour of France last year but we still enjoyed them and their high kicks.

October 20, 2016 — Schweich, Germany

Luxembourg - Parliament Building

Luxembourg – Parliament Building

Luxembourg - Church Interior

Luxembourg – Church Interior

Luxembourg - Kent having lunch with friends

Luxembourg – Kent having lunch with friends

Luxembourg - US Cemetery

Luxembourg – US Cemetery

The weather was very cold with day time highs at only about 50 degrees and some light rain. It was also cloudy and grey.

First thing in the morning we had a lecture about the Romans by Dr. Wolfgang Alt a local historian. He discussed how much of this region was controlled by the Romans and information about the roads, churches and bath houses that were originally built at that time.

An optional tour took us to Luxembourg city with a population of about 115,000 inhabitants. The country of Luxembourg is about 1,000 square miles in size (about the size of Rhode Island) and has a population of 525,000. Luxembourg is one of the smallest sovereign states in Europe and is headed by a grand duke, Henri, Duke of Luxembourg.

The city is built on a plateau in a large canyon atop high rampart walls. We visited the Luxembourg church built in the 1600’s and later added on to some 300 years later. The church contained beautifully bright and colorful stained glass windows, tapestries, murals and ornate carvings. We stopped for lunch with some new friends Rita and Leslie as it was extremely cold out and we wanted to warm up. The small deli/market with a restaurant had a plate du jour featuring roast turkey with a tomato and pea sauce, cauliflower, broccoli and some pasta noodles. The turkey was very dry and over cooked but being inside got us warmed up.

We also visited the Luxembourg American Cemetery where 5,076 American service members are buried. The 50-acre cemetery was given to the US in 1951 for free and without taxation in perpetuity. Most of the service members were killed in the Battle of the Bulge which was fought nearby in the winter of 1944/45. Resting here is the grave of General George S. Patton, one woman and 22 sets of brothers.

The cemetery is beautifully maintained similar to, although smaller than, the cemetery at Normandy in France. The lawns are perfectly manicured and the rows of white marble crosses are placed in perfect rows. The veterans from our ship participated in a laying of a wreath ceremony in front of the memorial before a guide told us about the local battles and stories of a few of the soldiers buried here.

October 19, 2016 — Cochem, Germany

Cochem - Castle

Cochem – Castle

Cochem - View from the castle

Cochem – View from the castle

Cochem - Interior of castle

Cochem – Interior of castle

Cochem - Town Square

Cochem – Town Square

Cochem was believed to be settled in the year 886 and today is a town of only about 5,000 residents. We visited the Reichsburg Cochem Castle built around the year 1,000 by Count Ezzo. The castle was occupied by many rulers of the time until the year 1689 when King Louis XIV of France invaded the Rhine and the Moselle area and the castle was set on fire and blown up. The castle remained in ruins until a Berlin business man of French dissent named Louis Ravene bought the castle and the grounds in 1868 and began to rebuild the castle. The castle was rebuilt in the Neo-Gothic style that was popular at the time and used as a family summer residence. Today the castle is still furnished with Renaissance and Baroque furniture collected by the Ravene family. Since 1978 the castle has been owned by the local town of Cochem.

You have panoramic views over the Moselle River from the castle as well as the surrounding vineyards and the entire town of Cochem. The castle tour took us through the main public rooms that are elaborately furnished in an eclectic variety of furnishings from many periods of time and regions of the world. There are taxidermy animals, Asian carpets and vases, elaborately hand carved furniture, stained glass windows and so much more.

After our tour of the castle we walked back to the ship through the charming village streets. The narrow winding lanes are filled with small shops, restaurants and bakeries full of delicious looking cakes, oversized cream puffs and Black Forest Cakes. Many of the buildings date back hundreds of years and feature unique architecture and ornamentation.

We set sail at 12:45pm for our next port of call. At 3:00pm Monika, our wine expert onboard, provided us with information about the local Reisling wines complete with a wine tasting.

The food onboard has been good but not exceptional. For breakfast they offer an omelet station plus a full buffet. The buffet always has fresh fruit, cereals, oatmeal, bacon, eggs, toast and a couple of unique items like French toast or stuffed crepes. At lunch they serve a choice of a hot or cold soup, a choice of two hot entrees and a sandwich option, plus an option of two desserts. For dinner there is usually a soup, an appetizer, a choice of three entrees and a choice of dessert. Red and white wine flows freely at dinner.

The desserts are often not as sweet as we would prefer and they often sound better than they taste. For lunch today they offered what they called lemon pie. Their version of lemon pie was a thin slice of white cake on the bottom with a lemon flavored whip cream filling and little sugar and covered with raspberry sauce.

The weather was rather cool today requiring a fleece and heavy jacket to go out in the elements. The morning was dry but by afternoon we had some light sprinkles and grey skies.

The afternoon cruising included miles of quaint charming towns and villages, several locks and endless rows of vineyards. Rising up from the waters edge are row after row of grapevines, often planted in vertical rows. The hillsides are often steep but they continue to plant the grapes as high as humanly possible. Maintaining these vines must be extremely difficult not to mention the difficulty they must have with harvesting the fruit.

After dinner they showed the movie Patton in preparation of our visit to Luxembourg the next day where General George S. Patton is buried.

October 18, 2016 — Koblenz, Germany

View of the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers

View of the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers

Koblenz - Statue of William

Koblenz – Statue of William

Koblenz Church

Koblenz Church

Loblenz Fountain

Loblenz Fountain

This morning we met with our onboard guest sommelier Monika, who gave us an informative lecture about the wines of the Rhine-Moselle region. She discussed the types of wines that we will find in the region as well as how to read the bottles to find the variety of wine, quality, etc.

The weather was clear, sunny and cool as we transited the river. The river is very built-up with many modern towns and villages along the way, contrasted with very old stately mansions and castles. Vineyards rose from the rivers edge steeply up the surrounding hillsides in perfect rows. Lush trees surround the towns, all beginning to turn shades of yellow, orange and red.

About 3:00pm we arrived in the town of Koblenz, a 2,000-year-old city strategically set at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers. Koblenz is an ancient city in central Germany, and a gateway to the terraced vineyards and ruined castles of the Rhine Gorge. In the center, a monumental statue of William the Great marks the confluence of the two rivers. A cable car connects to the hilltop Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, which hosts museums and cultural events.

We took our own walking tour of the city including the fortress Ehrenbreitstein which we reached by cable car. Occupying the position of an earlier fortress destroyed by the French in 1801, it was built as the backbone of the regional fortification system by Prussia between 1817 and 1828 and guarded the middle Rhine region, an area that had been invaded by French Troops repeatedly before. The Prussian fortress was never attacked. Since 2002, Ehrenbreitstein has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites Upper Middle Rhine Valley. The views from the fortress atop the hill are spectacular. You not only get a great view of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers but a great view over the city.

The town is very charming with a large central square featuring a fountain and statue representing 2,000 years of history. There are several playful statues around town including a young man who will spit water at you if you are standing in the wrong spot.

After dinner we were treated to a local classical music group called La Strada. One young man playing the guitar and two young women playing the violin entertained us for about 45 minutes. They looked to be college aged and were excellent musicians. Several folks napped during the concert but most appeared to enjoy the classical music.

October 17, 2016 — Arnhem, The Netherlands

Arnhem Stately Home

Arnhem Stately Home

Arnhem Shop

Arnhem Shop

Arnhem - Bridge Too Far

Arnhem – Bridge Too Far

This morning some onboard visited the National Liberation Museum in nearby Groesbeek. The Liberation Museum is set in the beautiful landscape near Nijmegen, Arnhem and the German border, a unique location: Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne operation in history took place here in September 1944 and Operation Veritable, the Rhineland Offensive, the final road to freedom in Europe, started from here in February 1945.

The museum brings the historical events of the liberation by the American, British, Canadian and Polish troops back to life. In the museum they saw the period preceding the war, experienced the occupation, celebrated the liberation and witnessed the rebuilding of the Netherlands and Europe after the war. Aromas, interactive presentations, diorama’s, models, original films and sound fragments captivatingly depict the liberation. The museum shows both young and old the current value and importance of democracy, freedom and human rights.

Not wanted to be depressed by memories of war, we chose to take an alternative panoramic bus tour of the Arnhem area followed by a walking tour in the heart of the city. Our tour took us through some stunning scenery from simple country cottages to large stately homes. Everywhere we went, there were lush green trees planted in rows surrounding each plot of land and many just beginning to turn colors in the fall air. We did drive by the fields where some 25,000 allied soldiers parachuted into the area in a failed attempt to take control of the bridges (one was the famous Bridge Too Far) crossing the local rivers.

In town we heard about the history of many of the old buildings and shops lining the pedestrian only streets in the heart of town. The shops used to have three dimensional figurines mounted on the front of the shops to tell passers by what they sold inside. For example, a pig’s head might indicate that it was a butcher shop where they sold pork, while a cow might indicate that it was a Jewish butcher where beef was sold but no pork.

We returned to the ship about 12:30pm in time for lunch and to begin sailing towards our next port of call Koblenz, Germany. Due to the low water levels and heavy traffic on the river it would take us about 28 hours to reach our destination. In addition to the many tourist river boats there are many commercial goods transported on the river.

For dinner, the ship had prepared a special captain’s welcome cocktail party and dinner for us. They served a four course dinner including lobster soup, veal tenderloins and crème Brule. After dinner they showed a film about the Andre Rieu Concert. Andre is a violinist and conductor who is trying to bring classical music to the masses by making it entertaining. In this case the concert including vocalists, ballroom dancing, ice skaters dancing, elaborate costumes all in a fairy tale setting of a stately manor home. We were not familiar with him but others said that he is often shown on public television programs.