May 8 - Wurzburg

Today we toured Wurzburg, another neat city with lots of colorful shops and crowds of people shopping. Our cities are quite boring in comparison. The big tour this AM was the palace of the "prince-bishop". The PB was a creation in the 13th century by Friedrich II. This made the bishop not only the religious ruler but also the secular ruler as well. Not very Presbyterian! When you see the opulence of the palace, you understand that the PB thought he was next to God, if not God herself! Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace. We took buses to the palace, but then Lucy and I walked back to the ship via the town center. A lover of Dollar Stores back home, Lucy was amused to find a Euro Store!

May 7 - Miltenberg & Wertheim

This day started out with a glass blowing demo on board ship by a master glass blower. He is as much of a showman as a salesman. His shop located in Wertheim -- a town with many preserved 16th century buildings. Neat place. First of all we stopped at Freudenberg for those of us who would take a bus and get to the town before the ship, as well as allow for two people to ride a bike (about 24 miles). The boat was about an hour late getting to Wertheim, so with a bunch of people waiting in the cold, the cruise director took all of us (about 100) to a local hotel and bought everyone a drink while we waited. Cruise directors stop at nothing to keep the people happy! When the ship finally arrived, we had a raptor demonstration in the lounge. The people who brought the birds were also waiting and just before we got on ship, they arranged for a hawk to land on Lucy's arm. Of course she loved it. Then there was the demo inside and I took lots of pictures. Why that was part of the program is anyone's guess, but it was very interesting and it just might be a high point for our animal loving Lucy.

May 6 - Koblenz, Rhine Valley & Rudesheim

No other river in the world has a greater concentration of castles or castle ruins than in the Rhine Gorge and we saw most of them along the way, albeit through drizzly rain. Still it was beautiful. I can only imagine what the scenery is like on a clear, sunny day.

Cruised by the famous Loreley Rock (though I never heard of it before). It marks a curve in the river where this woman disrobed and distracted ship's captains so badly that they ship would smash upon the rocks. :-)

Sigfrieds Kabinett Shop was strange -- some guy has devoted his life to restoring very old and large music boxes of all kinds. We weren't thrilled by that visit.

When we returned to the ship, we were given a sample of Ruedesheimer Coffee -- a special brandy is poured into a mug and set on fire, then doused with coffee and topped by whipped cream and chocolate flakes. Not bad, though I don't think the ship's version was as fancy as the official description.

All along the way we liked the narrow streets and the excitement of people shopping and eating alfresco -- even in cool weather. Never saw so much outside dining as we did on this trip.

May 5 - Cologne

Started out the day with a walking tour of Cologne, a city of 1 million. We didn’t find it a very charming place and it didn’t “feel” like a city of one million+ people. We toured the Cologne Cathedral which was very interesting. There was a decision on both sides of the war not to bomb the cathedral -- Hitler wanted to keep it for historical purposes and the Allies used it because it was such a visible landmark. If they found the cathedral, they knew where to drop their bombs. Supposedly the bones of the "Three Wise Men" are buried there -- note the gold chest.

There was an ice cream party in the afternoon. Supposed to be on the sun deck, but too cold so it was in the lounge. Dinner was not very good -- Black Angus steak which was tough and not very flavorful. Oh well. Would not normally order a steak on a ship, but the other choices didn't turn us on. We're not starving, however.

After dinner we took a walking tour of the city of Koblenz -- a city of about 125,000 -- very charming and quaint. It was 80% destroyed during the war and was rebuilt largely by the Marshall Plan. The MP shows what the human race can do if it sets its mind to it.

May 4 - Amsterdam

Toured Amsterdam this morning by canal boat and bus. We thought this would be a neat city to live in. It's one of the most densley populated cities in Europe. Small geographically, but about 800,000 residents in the city. Out small bit of free time was walking around a "floating flower market". Not really floating, but I guess that at one time in its history, it really was on barges. They didn't show us the red light district. They must have felt our group was a bit too sedate. There are 120 passengers and Lucy and I are among the youngest, though there are a few who are around our age. There's a large group of Canadians -- about 60 -- but their only connection is through a travel agency that made the arrangements, so there's no clique. Dining is open seating with no reservations, so it's easy to meet other people. Our first dinner was very good. It's all very relaxing.

That afternoon we went through the first of 68 locks. We climbed for the first part of the trip, then crossed the continental divide and then started to descend. All very interesting. The highest locks (3 of them) were 80 feet. Felt like a coffin when we were in them (at least that's what I think a coffin would feel like).

European River Trip - Arrival May 3

On May 2 we left Tampa, flew to Washington, and from there to Amsterdam. Gratefully we were not impacted by volcanic ash. The trip took us through 5 countries (Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary) and ended in Budapest. On the 17th, we flew to Frankfurt, then to Tampa via Chicago. Only complaints were the long plane rides and the cool and rainy weather in Europe. The dates we chose to go were not the best ones for Floridians.

Our home for two weeks was on the Amacello, one of about 8 such river boats of AMA Waterways. The room was small and we did trip over each other occasionally, but we survived!