Grand and Glorious Curmudgeon

We docked overnight in Amsterdam, after a delightful breakfast we had to wait for about an hour to board our busses to the Prestana Hotel. After we got organized and separated into groups, we started off on our walking tour of Amsterdam. We walked for two hours looking at the housing design, 16th century tax avoidance with minimized frontage.

We rode the tram line back towards the hotel, so we got a hands-on demonstration of riding the tram. After we got back to the hotel at about 11:30am, we were able check-in early so we went up to our room and rested for an hour.

After our rest we went back out and walked 5-6 block to the Number 4 tram line. This time we bought two 24-hour passes and we rode it three stops up near to where we saw some canal tour boats. After wandering around for a couple of blocks, we discovered the “Blue Boats” that offered 45minute cruses of the canals. We got signed up for the 4:00pm cruise.

See Kate’s website for the pictures. We spent 45 minutes driving up and down the canals of Amsterdam. We saw dozens of houses from the 1600’s and houseboat and boats lining the canals dated from the post=WWII housing shortage through the 1960’s when the city finally cracked down and stopped issuing permits.

After the boat we took two trams back to near the hotel and got two very expensive hamburgers and got back up to the room to plan our second full day. Tomorrow, we have tickets to the Van Gough Gallery at 9:30 am. We want to also see some Rembrandts, and maybe stop ty the New Church where Lindsay and I attended Midnight Mass on Christmas 1980.

So we docked in Cologne on the Tuesday Morning. We were really looking forward to Cologne because of the photo Poppi took in 1945 showing the Cathedral above the ruins. Kate tried walking over the bridge just in front of us to try to replicate the shot.

You can see that Kate nailed it. The church to the left, The Great St Martin’s Church. was rebuilt and completed in 1985. We will see it later on our walking tour. But first, the famous parakeets of Cologne. It started in the late 1960’s

The tour started off on docks where we moored. We walked through some of the rebuilt buildings, 80% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed during WWII.

We the came to the Great St Martin’s Church, this time from the front.

We walked through a couple of squares and came out to see the below.

The windows over the side doors are new since the existing ones were destroyed during the bombings. We will see them from the inside lit by the morning sun.

It’s 10:00pm now, and so I will leave the Cathedral for the next post. It is absolutely amazing inside.

I’m baaack. With only one day dropped out due to DNS problems. I am back on Starlink.

On the appropriately named Sundeck, with Aperol Fizz meanwhile back on the way to Koblenz.it was castles, some restored some not, up on the hills and down on the river primarily to exact tolls on goods coming upriver.

And finally, one on an island with a tragic story of a bride and his mother improsined for love.

There were at least 20 castles and ruins on a stretch of the river, each with a story or two or a legend. We finally moored about 3:00pm in Koblenz right in front of a statue of Wilhelm I. The statue was built by his grandson, Wilhelm II, Willie Jr was German Emperor until the late contretemps that ended in Novembert

Our tour guide walked us through town, past a church that was founded athousand years ago, past a section of original Roman wall that was two thousand years old and eventually brought us to a tower erecte4d in the mid-90’s to celebrate 2000 years history in Koblenz.

But Koblenz actually goes back 2000 years to a Roman fortification on the edge of the empire on the Rhine. Across the River were the Franks which the Romans had an uneasy peace with.

After we got turned loose from the tour we rode the cable cars up to the fortifications on top of the other riverbank/

Our ship and a sister ship moored.

It was a quick up and back down for the view we returned to the ship for a good dinner.

Next stop is Cologne, and the famous Cologne Cathedral.

Today is the lovely village Wertheim on Easter Sunday. Wertheim is a small city, about 33,000 inhabitants, just across the border from Bavaria, but still in the wine growing areas of Germany. The biggest feature of Wertheim is the ruined castle above the city.

The above is a view of the castle in town.

Hiking up through the town.

After climbing and climbing we finally got to the top and could look down on the Main and see the ship.

Early clock, before they developed the technology for a minute hand, it’s about 11:20am.

This is the town well, just down from main square. We walked back to the tourist info station to catch the train back to the ship for lunch.

About 14:00 we got underway for Koblenz.

So we had left off while climbing the grand staircase. We enter the next room which was where your guards waited (of course in the fifteenth century you had guards).

The decorations are all in stucco, that is plaster, but plaster raised to a high art. The corners are all in martial themes. Leaving your guards (probably standing at parade rest) you enter the next room to be received by the Prince-Bishop.

This is one of the several rooms off the next room. If you expand the picture and squint at the bottom of the central mirror you can see me taking the picture.

This is the ceiling of the Mirror room in case you think it wasn’t over the top.

The entire second floor is in the same over-the-top baroque style. It was so good that when Napoleon visited in 1813, he booted the Prince-Bishop out and declared this was Emperor-level stuff.

After the Residencz, we walked down into town and we heard the legend of St Kilian, the German Irish saint. He converted the local Duke but told him that he couldn’t be married to the brother’s widow. She got all butt-hurt and had him and his two companions killed.

Almost right next door is the Official Cathedral of Wurzburg.

We continued walking and would up on the fourteenth century bridge over the Main River.

With that we walked back to the ship and took a nap. Next stop, Wertheim.

Wurzburg was largely destroyed by firebombing on 15 March 1945, at the end of WWII. Most of the buildings were damaged or destroyed, including both wings of the Residenz or the home of the Prince-Bishop. The Prince-Bishop was the local power in Franconia, combining the secular power of the local Dule, along with the church power of local Bishop.

Over the years most of the damage has been repaired, as well as the central part of the Residenz, which survived mostly intact.

A carriage would drive in the left huge door, unload in an enclosed courtyard and proceed up the grand staircase on the left. On the ceiling above each of the four walls represents Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

That is just the stairs to get you up to the outrageously overdecorated rooms above, that will be posted later today.

Bamberg was listed as a cruising day as we were dropped off at 9:30am took a 4-hour tour of the town and then joined the ship upriver at the next lock.

Bamberg was founded in 902 and under Henry II of the Holy Roman Empire and his wife, Cunigunde it was greatly expanded and for a while was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire. It expanded greatly in the 12th and 13th centuries.

One of the disputes that arose was where to build the town hall (Rathaus). The Prince Bishop refused to donate any of the land for it, so the city fathers built it on a rock outcropping in the middle of the river.

There were lots of buildings dating back 7-900 yeas ago. With narrow winding streets with lots of pedestrian only access. Our guide was from Belarus, came to Germany to study at the University in Bamberg several years ago,

One drawback on it being Good Friday was that aside from some bars and restaurants and an occasional souvenir shop everything else was closed. We broke for an hour of free time at 11:15 so Kate and I walked back to the souvenir shop which was across the street from Schlenkerla while Kate shopped, I got to try some Smoked Beer or Rauchbier.

The Rauchbier had a very distinctive taste, not too unpleasant (although Kate would disagree). They recommend getting three samples to be sure but I think I will pass.

After the beer we walked back to the pick-up point and got back on the bus for a half hour or so ride to the next set of locks where we got back on board.

When we woke up, we were in a lock, hard up against the port side. What was odd is that we were going down rather than up as we had been doing for the entire trip. If you refer to the previous chart with the dotted yellow line which illustrates the continental divide. We were past the peak and descending towards the North Sea.

It was a very tall lock, probably a 15m one. There was one more tall lock before we docked near Nurenberg. Interesting side note: I asked Grok what the difference was between -berg and -burg. (see the link above)

Our scheduled tour of Nurenberg doesn’t start until after lunch so we caught an early bus downtown. It was about a 20-minute bus ride to downtown. We got walked down to the central square and turned loose for about two hours.

We walked through the Easter Market in the square and Kate bought some souvenirs.

In one corner of the square was “Schöner Brunnen” or Beautiful Fountain. It was completed in 1396 and has been restored several times.

Overlooking the square is the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). It has a famous glockenspiel, but it only goes off at noon and we missed it today.

We made it back to the bus and returned to the ship for lunch. After lunch we boarded the bus and did our driving tour of Nurnberg.

First stop was the Zeppelin Field; the site of the Nazi mass rallies in September 1933-1938 (1939 preempted by invasion of Poland).

As you can see much of the stands are being refurbished. The next stop was the old coal fired power plant for the grounds.

The building was kept but if you look closely through the trees, you can see where the Eagle and Swastika were chipped off. The building has been completely gutted and now houses the local Burger King franchise.

That completed the WWII portions of the tour, we then drove up to the Nuremberg Castle(s). Although heavily damaged by the bombings and occupation by the US in WWII, it has been restored with the original 4 round towers and gates into the city.

With that done, we were again dropped off for a couple of hours of free time before the bus back. We stopped and got some gingerbread assortment and had some coffee and dessert in a store that specialized in desserts.

We then drove back to the ships and shortly afterwards got underway heading for Bamberg.