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Bamberg, Nuremburg & Regensburg, Germany – Grand European Viking River Cruise

4/28/2017

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bAMBERG

On our seventh day we visited Bamberg which is another small city in southern Germany. The primary attraction in this city is the cathedral which was built 800 years ago. The cathedral was another massive Gothic structure. Next to the cathedral was the New Residence which was built for Bamberg’s princes and bishops. It is always amazing to see the size of the buildings required to house these princes and bishops while the peasants did not always even have a roof over their heads.

The more interesting area of the town is near the river. There are many restaurants and bars mixed in with some nice shops. In addition to the bars there are two breweries in the center of town and they make a very unusual type of beer called rauchbier which means “smoke beer”. Our group bought one beer to have a taste and it lived up to its reputation – it tasted smoky and terrible! There was a beer fest going on in town while we were there. They had a little entertainment with a singer and an accordion player but mostly the festival was just one big tent that served beer.

The river that flows through town makes a great back drop to some great pictures with the city hall that is built on a little island in the middle of the river. Also along the river are some nice looking homes called Little Venice. All in all this was a very nice town to walk through and spend a half day.

nUREMBERG

On our eighth day we visited Nuremberg which is a large city of 120,000 people in southern Germany. This city is best known in America for the trials of German war criminals after World War II. Many famous Nazi’s were tried and executed. We did not take one of the optional tours to go into the courthouse but we were able to see it from the outside. Our tour dropped us off at castle top which has a large distinctive tower. This tower was almost all that remained after the Allied bombings of the city. The bombers left the tower so that they had a reference point to complete their bombing runs of the city. The city people considered moving the town after the war since there was so much damage but they eventually elected to rebuild each building using the same stones if possible. Today it is impossible to know that the city was once destroyed.

In the center of town at the Haupt Market there is a large church called Church of our Lady. This church has a large clock outside that has many moving pieces. At noon when the clock rang we watched the trumpet blowers on the clock raise their trumpets, the bell ringers on top ring the bells and various figures rotate around the clock. We have seen other similar clocks like this in past visits to Prague. In the market center we did try another Bratwurst and some ginger cake. Bavaria is known for their ginger cake and strangely enough it uses no ginger but many other spices that make it taste like ginger.

We took a short hike to a cemetery that was shown to us on our bus ride. We were fascinated by this cemetery because instead of “buying” a plot to be buried, you “leased” the plot. You could renew the lease but if your friends or descendants didn’t renew it, your bones were taken out and the plot was leased to someone else! This cemetery was also unique in that sometimes there was more than one person buried in an individual plot. Sometimes it was just a husband and wife and sometimes there might be 10 people buried in one plot over a period of 100 or 200 years. Tombstones in this cemetery dated back to the 1500’s. Almost all of the graves were covered in flowers and these were planted flowers as opposed to the cut flowers you see in the US. This was certainly a different way to be buried than we are used to seeing.

We walked around different areas of the city before having to leave. We saw many bridges that you could walk across to take pictures. There were many shops you could visit. People were bustling around this rather large city.

rEGENSBURG

On our ninth day we visited Regensburg which is a small city in southern Germany that was built over 1800 years ago. This city is one of the best preserved medieval villages in Germany and was relatively untouched during World War II. The city has a wall around it because the city was originally built by the Romans as a fort. There is a stone bridge across the river that was built over 1000 years ago. When it was first built it had towers along the river that would collect tariffs from any ships that past under the bridge. This was a standard practice of cities along the river to collect revenue for the town.

St Peter’s Cathedral is the largest church in the city and was originally built 1300 years ago. Due to several fires it has been rebuilt several times until 1320 and has changed very little since then. Although we went into the Cathedral to take some pictures of the beautiful stained glass windows, there was so little light we were not able to get any great pictures.

On the river is the historic Burstkuchen which makes some excellent bratwurst. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to sample any of these but many of the other folks in our party did and confirmed that they made some great bratwurst!
The town has many medieval buildings and is very fun to walk through. It also has many interesting shops that we took some time exploring. Another interesting item about this town was the many towers you would see. Most of these towers were not associated to churches or town halls, but were just built as an attachment to the residential houses. It was common for rich town members to build a tower onto their house. The taller the tower, the richer you were. Some of these towers are 5 to 8 stories high and did not really contain anything other than a staircase.

Before we left this interesting city we were able to make one more walk after dinner and take some night photos.

Sharon and Greg

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Wurzburg - Grand European Viking River Cruise

4/25/2017

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On our sixth day we visited Wurzburg which is small city of 120,000 people in central Germany. The primary attraction in this city is the Residenz which was built 400 years ago by the prince. This building had some similarities to the magnificent Hermitage in St Petersburg in a much smaller scale. The emperor would stay at the Residenz when he was traveling in the area. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside the building but we were allowed to take pictures in the gardens outside the building. These gardens were very impressive both for the flowers and the finely trimmed shrubbery and trees. In the back gardens it was amazing to see some of the vines (almost trees) that had trunks which had grown around the metal archways used to support the vines. It was a very large and impressive garden.

The city was also very nice to walk around. It had some beautiful churches and other medieval buildings. There were open markets selling fresh vegetables and sandwiches (bratwurst) for lunch. There were several bridges over the river in the town and one of them was a main gathering place for the town people who drank wine on the bridge while talking to each other. This was also a very different bridge because there was a lock on the one side to allow the ships to get up to a higher level on the river while the center of the bridge was dammed off preventing any boats from going directly under the bridge. There was a natural dam on the one side where the lock was, which created a series of small water falls for the overflow of water on the higher portion of the river to the lower portion.

Across the river on a hill was the Marienburg Fortress. This was a massive structure built over 800 years ago. We walked up to this fortress and were rewarded with some great views of the vineyards on the hillside of the fortress and the river/city below. We could also see our ship right below the fortress and was able to get some good pictures of it. The fortress itself was very impressive with the many towers and buildings contained within the walls. The walls around the fortress extended well beyond the buildings and encompassed a large area of the entire hill it was built upon. The view from the fortress to the river was amazing and the city looked so colorful down below. We were fortunate that the sun peaked out from the clouds allowing us a great opportunity to take some good pictures. While it took us over an hour to climb up to the fortress and walk around some of the walls to get inside, it took us only 20 minutes to go down a different side and come straight down to the river. It was a great walk in really good weather to end our visit of Wurzburg.

Sharon and Greg

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Grand European Viking River Cruise - Middle Rhine Scenic Cruising

4/22/2017

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Koblenz - Middle Rhine Scenic Cruising - Miltenberg – Grand European Viking River Cruise

Koblenz

In the morning of our fourth day we took a short bus ride to see Marksburg Castle. It was built 900 years ago to protect the town of Braubach. When Napoleon conquered Germany he used the castle as a prison. The castle ownership changed many times based on who was in power at the time. This is a very impressive looking castle that stands on top of a hill overlooking the village.

Viewing this castle provided a good overview on why castles were built and what the lifestyle was in the castles. We saw many cannons used at the time and were told that some were used just to welcome dignitaries when they came down the river while other had such limited range they really didn’t provide much defensive protection. As the cannon design improved they were able to build cannons that were large enough to fire at anything that floated down the river which provided a real defensive and offensive weapon. We were able to walk through the living quarters of the noble family that lived there and were amazed to see how small the beds were. People back in this time slept mostly sitting up in bed because they were afraid to die due to the fumes of the stoves that heated their rooms and these fumes tended to be more deadly closer to the floor. We saw the main room where they ate and entertained visitors. The long dining table was brought into and out of the room with all food and dishes on the table. The noble people did not like to see their servants work and their servants had to do all the food serving and dishes removal outside the room. There was a very strange outhouse attached to this room and when the noble person used it the door remained open and they were able to maintain a conversation with the other people in the room while they did their business. We also saw the evolution of armor that was used by the noble men and soldiers back in this time along with a workshop where the blacksmith did his work. It was very interesting to get a good perspective of how castle life was back in this time.

This Marksburg Castle was impressive but it was so amazing to see how many similar and even larger castles we saw later that afternoon down the river.

Middle Rhine Scenic Cruising

In the afternoon of our fourth day we just cruised along the Rhine River. The temperature was perfect and the sun was shining. You could sit up at the bow of the ship or the top deck and watch the beautiful sights while our cruise director, Carl, made announcements identifying the various sights we saw. This is something you don’t get to do very often in an ocean cruise ship unless you are doing an Alaskan cruise. The small villages along the river are so quaint and you can see many medieval buildings in the center of these towns. All towns have their very distinctive churches and many have city hall buildings with large clock towers. In the center of each town is a tall decorated May pole which will be used for their May Day celebration in a few weeks.

In the afternoon of our fourth day we just cruised along the Rhine River. The temperature was perfect and the sun was shining. You could sit up at the bow of the ship or the top deck and watch the beautiful sights while our cruise director, Carl, made announcements identifying the various sights we saw. This is something you don’t get to do very often in an ocean cruise ship unless you are doing an Alaskan cruise. The small villages along the river are so quaint and you can see many medieval buildings in the center of these towns. All towns have their very distinctive churches and many have city hall buildings with large clock towers. In the center of each town is a tall decorated May pole which will be used for their May Day celebration in a few weeks.

Miltenberg

On our fifth day we visited Miltenberg which is a small village of only 5,000 people in central Germany. It was originally settled over 2000 years ago but became much more well known when the Emperor of the time stayed there 900 years ago. This was one of the prettiest towns we have visited so far. The buildings were kept in pristine condition. Even though they were built hundreds of years ago they were well maintained to portray their appearance when they were originally built and when repairs were made they had to use the same construction techniques of the rest of the building. We learned about the signs and paintings in the front of the buildings so that you could identify when the structure was built, what the name of the original owner was, and what was sold in the store. All of these shops have creative signs that come off of the building like a sign post but are made with wrought iron that looks like an artwork. You can walk along the street and see each shop’s sign without even seeing the store front and typically will know what is being sold there. The shops along the streets had many interesting items to look at: bowls, dolls, clocks, toys and other things. Many people from our ship had a great time in buying souvenirs here. The churches, town square and other buildings were really nice to see. The town square had a fountain that was attractively decorated with eggs and flowers for Easter.

We took a walk up to Miltenberg Castle that was built 800 years ago. It is currently a museum but offers a nice high view of the city. We took many pictures from this vantage point of this picturesque city. This was a very enjoyable stop on our cruise.

Sharon and Greg

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grand European Cruise - Kinderdijk, Netherlands & Cologne, Germany

4/21/2017

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Kinderdijk

Our first day on our Grand European cruise was spent in Kinderdijk. This is a small village in a region of Holland that is well below sea level. Most of Holland is below sea level and the land is maintained by many dikes around the country and a series of canals that allow the excess water to flow out to the sea. Kinderdijk is best known for the nineteen windmills in the area that were created for the purpose of pumping the water from the regional canals to the higher level canals that allow the water to flow out to the sea. These windmills were originally built back in the 1700’s to control the water in the country. The operators for the windmills were part of the country’s Water Management Association and each member was considered a noble. They were well trained on the control and operation of the windmills and the responsibility of the windmill operation passed down to other family members. The whole family of the windmill operator lived in the windmills.

It was amazing to see how small the beds were and how cramped the living quarters were. Sometimes there might be 16 family members living in one windmill. Today the windmills are no longer used to pump water. They are strictly maintained as museums and for historical purposes. They are also a large tourist attraction for the country.

Water is still pumped today in Holland from one canal to another but large modern electric pumps are used to more efficiently pump large quantities of water that these windmills pumped over 300 years ago.

COLOGNE

Our second day on our Grand European cruise was spent in Cologne. This is the fourth largest city in Germany. It is best known for the large cathedral which you can see from anywhere in the city. It is over 500 feet tall and when built was the largest structure in the world until the Washington monument was built a few years later. Construction started in 1248 but it was not completed until 1888, over 600 years later! Still today the cathedral is the largest in Northern Europe. It is truly an amazing cathedral and the stain glass windows are very beautiful.

Besides the cathedral, Cologne is also known for “eau de Cologne” which Giovanni Farini created here in the early 1700’s. It was originally made as a medicine but the Europeans soon found it had a very appealing citrus smell. Eventually it was sold as a perfume and became very famous throughout Europe. There is a Fragrance Museum here where it also describes how Wilhelm Muelhens developed the famous “4711” brand which was named for the street address it was originally produced.

There is also a Chocolate Museum here that is another very popular tourist attraction. There are several melted chocolate fountains you can see or have some chocolate fondue. We did not go through the museum since we have seen the growing of cocoa and origins of chocolate in South America and the Caribbean when we have visited some of these ports. We did however visit the “souvenir shop” to pick up a bag of chocolate candy to snack on.

Besides sampling some chocolate we also had to sample some bratwurst and some Kolsch beer. We picked one of the famous brauhaus (beer house) around the cathedral and enjoyed the refreshing beer while tasting our bratwurst. The Kolsch glasses are very small and they have a specially designed tray to bring them to your table. If you don’t put something over your glass the waiter will continue to bring you a fresh beer whenever you have finished your last one. What a great way to get good service!

The large railway bridge across the Rheine River allows 5 or 6 trains to cross at the same time. The bridge is most famous for the many locks that have been placed on the chain link fence on the bridge. Lovers put a lock on the bridge to show their love and then throw the key into the river to show how everlasting the love is. We were told there are over one million locks on this bridge now.

The city has many beautiful buildings and history. Many of these buildings were rebuilt after World War II. Almost everything was destroyed except the cathedral during the war. Even the cathedral was seriously damaged a few times and required immediate repair to ensure it did not fall down. Like much of Germany the World Wars played a significant part in what the city looks like today.

Our ship did not leave until 11 PM which allowed us to go out for a final walk after dinner to take a few night pictures. The cathedral was beautiful in the early evening sky. This was a great city to visit and spend some time exploring. We ended up walking 15 miles in this city and still did not see it all.

Greg and Sharon

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grand european cruise - amsterdam 4.14.17

4/18/2017

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On April 14th we flew out of Atlanta to Amsterdam to begin our 15 day Grand European Cruise on the Viking Skirnir. Prior to the cruise we stayed two nights in Amsterdam and plan to spend 3 nights in Prague after the cruise. We have since left Amsterdam having three adventurous days exploring the city with some of our friends. Three other couples joined us in Amsterdam: the Mains, Perrins and Hess’. We stayed at the Radisson Blu which is a very nice hotel in the city center of Amsterdam fairly close to Dam Square and the Red Light District. We arrived at 8:30 AM on April 15th after our 8 hour flight and were ready to start exploring the city. Viking had transportation waiting for us to take us to the hotel after which we were ready to go see the city. Two couples went off to take the one hour canal boat tour of Amsterdam while two couples went off to purchase transportation tickets for some of our other planned activities. Later that afternoon 5 of us went off to play Pickleball. Although we were all operating on just an hour or two of sleep over the last 36 hours we were ready to play some Pickleball with the Amsterdam Club. Bill Hess had made some arrangements with their group prior to our arrival and the club was gracious enough to make a special time to play just for our group to be able to play with them. They even invited their sister club in Harlem to join us. We had 24 pickleball players total and had a really great time. Everyone in their club was super nice and seemed to enjoy meeting us as much as we enjoyed meeting them. After Pickleball we had an Italian dinner and then off to bed to catch up on some much needed rest.

On our second day in Amsterdam (Easter Sunday) we had a prearranged two hour Viking walking tour in the morning. This allowed us to stroll the streets while listening to our guide tell us many interesting stories and facts about Amsterdam. We walked along the many canals that the city has and marveled at the thousands of boats that are in the canals. Some of these are house boats where people live and we were told that most of these cost at least a million Euros and yet are less than one thousand square feet in living space. The apartments (condos) where most people live cost around $450,000 Euros for 800 square feet of living space. It is hard to imagine how people can afford to pay for this while living in such a small area. We are certainly spoiled in the United States! While walking along the narrow cobblestone streets you constantly have to be aware of bicycles speeding down the roads and bike paths. It is very easy to get in their way and many of them will just race on by you while just missing you by inches. There are tens of thousands of bikes in Amsterdam while cars are not nearly as prevalent. In the afternoon we took a train and bus to Keukenhof Gardens. We had traveled on this specific cruise to see Holland’s famous tulips in bloom. Mid-April is their peak season. Although you can see some in Amsterdam, this is nothing compared to what you see at these gardens which is about 40 miles outside of the city. Everyone in our group was blown away by the quantity of tulips there along with other similar types of flowers. In addition we were impressed with the many flower colors that could be seen. Equally amazing was the creative way in which they had designed the garden and different areas to present the various flowers that are grown there. It is difficult place to describe and the pictures can’t fully capture how amazing this garden really is. If you ever visit Amsterdam or Holland in late March, April or early May don’t miss this experience!

On our third and final day in Amsterdam, each couple did their own thing. Two couples had Anne Frank tickets and wanted to go to the Van Goh museum. One couple wanted to just take the trams and see different areas of the city. We walked the city like we always do when we visit cruise ports. We visited some new areas we had not seen in our previous visits to Amsterdam and we went back and viewed areas we previously had enjoyed. We like just walking and looking at the things that make each city unique from one another. Looking at the canals, locks and bridges in Amsterdam is always enjoyable and provides some great photo opportunities. The architecture and shape of the roofs on the many buildings is unique in Amsterdam. Looking at the buildings leaning to one side like the leaning Tower of Pisa is also very fascinating. After walking for several hours we took a break and found a pancake house that Sharon had heard about in one of our previous trips here but had never had an opportunity to try. These pancakes were like none that we had ever tried before. They were paper thin and you could fill them with fruit (apples, raisins, pineapples, cherries, etc.), meats (bacon, sausage, ham, etc.) or other things (cheese, nuts, seeds, etc.). If you wanted to use syrup they had a large bowl on the table with a large wooden spoon to scoop it out and pour it on your plate. The pancake was delicious and is certainly one of the Dutch specialties that you really want to try (The Pancake Bakery, near Anne Frank’s home). After taking this break we went off to walk some more until we eventually decided to board our ship. This was the first river cruise ship that we had ever boarded and it was certainly different than our ocean ship experience. There was no outside check in building to enter and go through the boarding process. Our luggage had already been picked up at the hotel and had been taken directly to the cabin. No one even meets you on the ship or prevents you from boarding. All you have to do is find the Customer Service desk, give them your passports and you are fully checked in two minutes later. Our cabin was not too much different from an ocean going ship and there certainly wasn’t any more storage area for our luggage that we had brought but we managed to find a home for everything. After going to the lounge for a brief overview of our cruise we went to the dining room that fits all 190 passengers. After dinner we went back into the city with two other couples in our group that had just flown in that morning (there was a third couple but they decided to get a little sleep). These couples wanted to see the famous Red Light District which is a unique area that attracts a lot of people at night. You can see the prostitutes in their small booths with their picture window (and their red light above it) trying to coax men to join them. You can walk the streets and see the clubs that offer various sex shows, coffee shops or the many bars along the way. There is even a church in the area built in the 1300’s for the prostitutes and sailors to help them be forgiven for their sins. It is just part of unique color of Amsterdam that some people like and other people do not. After our Red Light District tour we looked for a “Coffee Shop” where they sell marijuana but we couldn’t find any open at that time of night nearby. Amsterdam is one of the few cities in Europe that allow people to buy, smoke and sell marijuana. You can smell the very distinctive smell when you walk on almost any street at any time. After that we headed back to the ship where it departed at 11:30pm.

Our trip to Amsterdam was certainly enjoyable and we look forward to telling you more about each port we visit on this cruise with Kinderdijk being our first port that we stop at. After logging more than 80,000 steps in these three days we felts we covered a lot of territory to see as much as we could!

Happy Cruising!

Sharon and Greg