ABC Tour – Canal, Cathedral, Clock, Countryside, Cute Towns

FRIDAY 15 JULY STRASBOURG AND ALSACE

A bit of background.

As we followed the Rhine along, we come to a section where the river forms the border between France and Germany.  Our first port of call was the French city of Strasbourg.  The city was founded by the Romans, but it has been a rather tumultuous area over time, being claimed variously by the French and Germans over many hundreds of years.  The city was German for 700 years, but in more recent times changing hands several times since 1870.  Unlike so many other cities, however, it was not destroyed during WWII.  It is believed that this is in part due to the fact both the Germans and French felt a sense of ownership of the city.  Strasbourg is now French and the people definitely feel French.

Our introduction to the city was on a canal boat tour.  The boat had a glass roof, so it was a bit  hard to take photos.

The weather was glorious, so it was a pleasure to be out and about.

It was interesting hearing all the history.  We learnt so much more than if we just visited on our own.  Some of the areas we saw on the canal were the very worst slums in past times.  They were used by the tanners, whose industry was dirty and smelly, scraping the flesh of the hides and using urine in the tanning process.  You can identify the old tannery buildings by the open eaves, where the hides were left to air dry over some time.  Many have since been closed in, but some remain open as a reminder of those times.

After the canal tour, we continued our tour on foot, visiting the cathedral.  The European cathedrals are such a contrast to the English ones, as they still have all their carvings and decorations, unlike their English counterparts, which were stripped bare by Cromwell and his cronies.

All the statues around the door arch would have been removed in England.

A famous feature in the cathedral is a planetarium clock.  Our tour was arranged so that we would be there when it chimed at 10.30am and see all the mechanical bits and bobs do their stuff.  It was quite amazing, considering the age of it.

The pipe organ was quite unusual and very ornate.

Outside, we had some free time to explore. 

We were tempted by this shop.

Just look at that!  All those yummy biscuits.  We did treat ourselves to a little goody bag full to nibble on. Not that we really needed anything more to eat.

We could have spent rather more time wandering around, as it was a lovely place and the buildings were just amazing. However, we had opted to go on an extra little excursion, so had to make do with the bit of time we had.

After lunch we hopped into a bus and travelled on the motorway for a while.

Our destination was the wine trail through the French Alsace region.  This took us through several pretty little villages.

Many of them were entrants in the local competition for the best floral display by a village. 

The village wells were all decorated beautifully.

Most of the villages were walled and the bus had to squeeze through the arched gateways.

Of course, we passed some vineyards.

You can’t visit the area without sampling some of the wares.  We called in at a cellar for a little tasting.

We expected to just be given a little bit to taste, but no, we were all sat down and the winemaker explained how to go about tasting the wine.

For novices like us, it was really interesting.

We brought a bottle home with us and will save it for a special occasion. (I’m sure we can find an excuse fairly soon.)

Then it was back on the bus to visit the town of Obernai for yet another guided walking tour and a bit of free time to have a wander around.

The day was finished off with the gala farewell dinner, although we still have one more night on board.  It was a lovely evening, so after the delicious meal we went up on the top deck to enjoy the sunset.

Only one more day to go.

ABC Tour – Cathedral and Castle (Fancy That!!) and Crew Show

THURSDAY 14 JULY MAINZ TO HEIDELBERG

Our days are starting to get into a routine on the cruise now.  After sailing through the night, a guided walking tour starts the day’s activities after breakfast.  This time it was through the city of Mainz.

Once again the city was badly damaged during WWII but still with enough surviving to be an interesting place to visit. 

The cathedral is a little different, in that it is of the Romanesque style, rather than Gothic.

The main highlight, though, is the Gutenberg Museum.  We didn’t know what it was about, but afterwards, we were really pleased to have visited.  You see, way back in the 1400s, Mr Gutenberg, using his metallurgy skills, developed a method of printing using metal letters.  He was, in fact, the inventor of modern printing.  We were given a little demonstration of how the printing press worked, but no photos were allowed in the main part of the museum.

Prior to his invention, it would take a scribe two and a half years to write out a bible.  With his invention, Gutenberg printed 180 bibles in three years.  He initially used vellum, but after using all the supplies of hides available, had to continue with paper.

If you were wealthy enough to purchase one of his printed bibles, you would have only received a pile of pages with black writing. Then you would have to take them to a scribe of your choice to write the title on each page and some of the text in red, and to do the fancy lettering at the start of each paragraph.  Then, you would have to take your pages to a book binder to be bound into two volumes.  Therefore, each bible is unique.

The museum holds one complete bible and half a bible.  There are only 49 still in existence.  They had the two volumes open at the same page.  One was only in red, blue an black ink, but the artist’s work was very detailed and fine.  The other volume would have been more expensive at the time, as it had much more colour in the lettering and quite a bit of gilding.  However, the workmanship was much cruder than the simpler version.

In the afternoon we had a second excursion, this time after an hour’s bus trip we visited Heidelberg Castle, famous for “The Student Prince”.  It dominates the skyline of the city.

It is one of Europe’s most famous castles and is, in most part, a ruin, albeit a very picturesque one.

The views are spectacular.

We had a bit of free time before our bus left Heidelberg, so as is becoming the norm, the boys found a cafe to sit and have a beer while the girls checked out the shops.

On board, after dinner, we were entertained by the crew, who put on a show for the passengers.  We all wondered what they would do, and they weren’t giving away any clues beforehand.  Well, it was wonderful.  They had some hilarious skits, one in particular showed us how a waiter should not operate.  It had us in stitches.  A highlight though, was a traditional Balinese dance performed by one of the girls.  It was just beautiful.

Everyone really enjoyed the performances and then started to let their hair down, getting up and having a dance. A lovely English couple on the cruise really enjoyed singing and we had them up singing duets.  As the evening progressed and the crowd thinned out, we all ended up having a sing-along.  We sang all sorts of songs. 

The Aussies even ended up singing “Kookaburra” in rounds, with the fellows and girls singing different parts.  I’d never have expected to have done that.

I think the evening was a highlight of the trip.

The Circle of Life and a OPAM Finish

Through the week we were saddened to hear of the death of an elderly dear friend.  However, he had been ill for quite some time, so it was a blessing that he is no longer in pain.

Life came full circle when we also received the news on Friday that some other dear friends had their first child.  They have called her Poppy Alexandra, which I think is a really pretty name.

This of course, was just the thing I needed to prompt me to get out my sewing machine after our holiday.  Our little sewing group met yesterday afternoon and I had these whipped up nice and quickly in amongst the chatter.  I love this pattern that Mum has been using for years, and now I use all the time.

I’m glad to have a little something finished for OPAM, so that I only ended up missing out on June.

ABC Tour – Coblenz, Castles, Castles and More Castles, Complicated Mechanical Musical Machines

WEDNESDAY 13 JULY 2011

Another early start, this time for a walking tour of Coblenz (Koblenz).  Like Cologne, it  was founded by the Romans and most of the city was destroyed in WWII.  However, there are still some lovely buildings to be seen.

There are also lots of quirky sculptures around the city and our wonderful, passionate guide delighted in telling us the stories behind them all.  She really brought the city to life.

Koblenz did not think that it was of any strategic importance in WWII, but forgot about being at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers.  Their big statue of Kaiser Wilhelm lasted until right at the end of the war, when it was destroyed.  The metal ended up being melted down and only the original head retained.  Finally, in the 1980s, a replica was built and the corner of the rivers is once again complete.

When we visited Europe in 2007 we rode our bike beside part of the Rhine River.  When we reached Koblenz we didn’t realise that any of these interesting old places existed.  It has been so much better this time around.

The section of the River we rode along was the Rhine Gorge and it is mainly because of the beauty we saw then that we came back this time.  We knew that we wanted to have a better look.  This afternoon we sailed along that stretch of the River and it was funny recognising some of the spots we had seen before. 

There are so many castles and picturesque towns and villages along this section of the River.

We were given a sheet which identified 27 castles.  No wonder it is called the “Romantic Middle Rhine”.

The town of Boppard.

The sundeck was the best place to be for viewing, but unfortunately it was a grey old day and quite cool.  Several passengers went and got blankets to wrap around themselves.

This section is really pretty, but at the same time is about the most difficult section to navigate.  Not only were there several tourist boats like us, but all the usual commercial river traffic.

This is the statue of the famous Loreley, who, legend has it, used to sit on a rocky bend of the river and distract sailors with her beauty and singing, which caused them to crash and sink.

River tolls were collected at many points in the past and a chain was put across the river from this castle on an island.  I took a great photo of Mick on the bike in front of this castle (in the rain) last time we were here.

When we visited last time we explored Bacharach, which is a walled town and truly lovely.  This time we just sailed past.

Can you vaguely see an iron basket hanging out from the tower at the front of this castle?  Well, apparently people were put in that basket as punishment.  Let’s hope they weren’t too scared of heights.

Of course, this is the home of the famous wine growing region.  Lots of vineyards on the sides of the hills.

Eventually, we left the most scenic part of the river and docked at the town on Rudesheim.  Here we went on another little walking tour and ended up at Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Instruments Museum”.  There was every type of whirdy girdy that you could think of.  This was my favourite.

Not only was it a pianola, it also had violins.  It is incredible that such detailed music can be played mechanically.

It was raining while we were in Rudesheim, but we can’t complain as it was the first rain we have had on the trip.  It didn’t stop us having a wander around the streets.  The boys found a cafe for a beer, while the girls explored Christmas Shops.  Imagine being here in December when they have the Christmas fares.

More pretty buildings.

Can you believe I took 382 photos today.  I think I got a bit carried away.

Have you also noticed something else?  Remember that I said this was the be the relaxing, wind down week before we go home?  Well I don’t know what happened there!!  To be truthful, it could be a lovely relaxing holiday if we wished to just stay on board and watch the world go by.  However, we have partaken in everything on offer as we don’t want to miss out on anything.

Another big day is planned for tomorrow.

ABC Tour – Cologne Sightseeing, Cathedral

TUESDAY 12 JULY 2011

We sailed through the night and this morning we were able to have a bit of a sleep in. We arrived in Cologne late morning. 

We passed quite a lot of industrial areas on the way.

The sight of the Cathedral and bridges is quite stunning.

After lunch we were met by local guides who took us on a walking tour of the old city.  We were each given a head set, which linked into the guide’s set.  They are brilliant, as we can all hear without having to get really close and them yell.

Like most of the main cities along the Rhine, it was founded by the Romans.

The old fish market square was our first taste of the old German architecture.  Just lovely.

Of course, the Cathedral, or “Dom” is the most imposing building.  90% of Cologne’s old city was destroyed during WWII, but fortunately the Cathedral survived. 

It dates back to the 13th Century and is considered one of the finest in Europe.  The 510 foot high towers were only added in 1880.

The beautiful medieval stained glass windows were removed  in WWII and put in safe keeping for the duration, so are now back where they should be.

There is a major archaeological dig taking place of the old Jewish Quarter of the city.

In our free time I explored the more modern section of the city.

Meanwhile, Mick climbed to the top of the Cathedral tower.  It is 503 steps and, as the day was quite warm, he said it was quite hard.

After such an effort we had to try the local “Kolsch” beer at one of the local beer houses. It is light and refreshing and comes in 200ml glasses.

Then it was back on board for the daily six course dinner before being entertained by a Belgian string trio.  What a treat. They were rather wonderful, after which we set sail overnight.