Regensburg- Fri, July 18

As I've mentioned before, Viking River Cruises do a great job with their program.  Lots of variety between relaxing sailing the river, viewing gorgeous scenery from the sun deck or air conditioned lobbies, dining room or staterooms.  Most people have a full door-window and/or little balcony as part of their room, but not us.  We are on the bottom level, so only have a little window, but we're mostly out of our room except to sleep, so not a big deal.  We are served three meals a day, with lots of choices for our dining pleasure.   The presentation is a work of art.  I like to eat and try things, so I've been eating....lots!  We don't usually eat desserts at home, but I've had to try some of the ones that are offered...just to let them know we appreciate their culinary skills, of course!

We have walking and/or bus tours everyday.  In between, they offer lectures, concerts, live piano music, games.  

I am going to brag a little.  I love playing games, but I'm terrible at Trivial Pursuit.  Most of my family usually don't want me on their team (although they don't really say that!)   But on this day on the ship, they had us playing "Last Man Standing."  They should have titled it:  "Last Woman Standing" because I won the first round!  It was mostly trivia about the crew and statistics of the longboat we are on.  They had given a lecture about it earlier--I wished I had paid more attention to the lecture or their brochures when I realized what the game was about.  But I made some lucky guesses, and I was the last WOMAN standing!  The prize:  a bottle of red wine from one of the castle areas!   A proud moment indeed!

We disembared at Regensberg, a 2000 year old community.    This is one of Germany's best-preserved medieval cities and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We saw the stone bridge that was the first bridge ever built over the Rhine during the Roman era.  It is now being refurbished.  Our guide pointed out a plaque on a building that indicated there was evidence some of the formations had been there since 718 AD.   Some of the streets were very narrow, and the houses had a slight curve to them.  

We went into the big St. Peter's Cathedral with it's beautiful stained glass. (The photo doesn't do it justice.)    Such fine gothic architecture. 

We also found a shop with lots of Bavarian cuckoo clocks, and a young woman giving a presentation about them.  One of the cuckoo clocks was just like the one my mother bought when she traveled with me in Europe in 1969.  My daughter now has that clock.  

We have been doing a lot of walking, mostly on cobblestone streets.  It has been getting warmer each day now.  We walked back through a street faire — signed a statement supporting Amnesty International.  It was written in German so we hope what we signed is what we would want to support!  There were other peace-type organizations there, too, including Green Peace, so it was fun to see the more progressive side of Germany on display.

For the evening entertainment on the ship, they brought on board three local singers who sang a variety of songs, changing costumes based on their music:  Opera, Sound of Music, and some fun tunes where they engaged the audience.  They were very good.

Passau, Germany Sat July 19

The captain does an amazing job steering our ship.  We are sometimes just 2-3 inches away from the wall as we go into the docks, or parked next to other longboats when we dock.  Several days we were not able to sit on the sun roof because the bridges were so low they had to take down all the chairs and rails, and the captain's wheel house gets lowered to where he only has a slit to see out of.  But that doesn't stop the cruise boats -- there are lots of them on the rivers, especially when we got to Passau.

Passau, our last city in Germany, is where three rivers converge:  Danube, Inn and Ilz.  The Inn (or was it Ilz?) River has a whiter look, so the Danube supposedly is bluer now, but one guide said it is really only blue if you’re in love or had too much to drink.

It is another very old town with narrow streets.   There is a Bishop's Residence and a 14th century Town Hall.   We saw many markings of where floods had destroyed part of their city, the latest just a couple of years ago with a high water mark.  

After a walking tour of the narrow streets, we went into the amazing St. Stephan's Cathedral, with it’s super ornate Gothic style.   The best part… the very best part ..was the organ concert in the cathedral.  The cathedral was packed for the noon concert.   Couldn’t see the organist, but saw the huge pipes — there are almost 18,000 organ pipes, 233 stops including 4 carillons.  It is the world’s 2nd largest cathedral organ — the biggest was built more recently at a Congregational Church in Los Angeles.  All five parts of the organ can be played simultaneously — and I think we heard them all.  It brought tears to my eyes to listen to such powerful, beautiful music.  Awesome!

It has become quite warm, so being in cooler cathedrals is a pleasure.  John and I went back in the afternoon to take a closer look at this magnificent cathedral and walk around on our own.  

Bamberg & Nuremberg, Wed/Thur

Went on walking tour of Bamberg on Wednesday.  Interesting city, with lots of history.  Large church.  Beautiful painted archways.    Gorgeous rose garden at top of hill with view of city — 60 varieties of roses.  

On Thursday, we took a bus from ship into Nuremberg.  Stopped at the staging grounds where Hitler gathered his soldiers for military demonstrations.  Went past the court house where the trials were held, but didn't get to go inside.  Our guide showed us pictures of how things looked at that time.  What a sad part of the German history.  

The central area of Nuremberg was very crowded, but an interesting area.  John and I went to a Nuremberg Museum, but it was another one of those huge museums where with lots of floors/annexes, so barely scratched the surface.  Lots of Renaissance art.  Then went to a German toy museum.  What a wonderful collection of German toys.

Had lunch in the city that day.  The best bratwurst sausages I've ever had.  On the top 10 food items for John is sausage and potato salad.  Then add in sauerkraut, German beer, and a pretzel, and it was a terrific lunch in a German city.

Miltenberg, Germany - Monday July 14

The Viking River Cruise program has such a wonderful mix of entertainment, lectures, sightseeing, dining, and/or floating down the River.  This morning they had a world-famous glass blower come on ship and do a demonstration.  He was very informative and witty, plus offered a great demonstration.  

During the afternoon we toured Miltenberg.   It was a very picturesque village.  Lots of half-timbered facades.  

Lots of little shops.  Most of our walking is on cobblestones.  In some areas, they've added little gold plaques to the stones, sometimes commemorating Jews who had been killed.

Then a bus ride through farmland to meet our ship.  But the ship was an hour late catching up with us because it had to go through several locks.  They used to be able to make reservations for the locks, but that has been done away with so the captain never knows exactly how long it will take.   We go through a total of 67 locks where they raise the water level (like on the Rhine) or lower the water level (like on the Danube).

Wurzberg - Tuesday, July 15

Tuesday, July 15 — Wurzburg

Disembarked at Wurzburg, and walked to an extremly ornate palace and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was built over a 70 year period, beginning in 1720.  Couldn't take pictures inside unfortunately.  Many riccoco designs, and baroque architecture.  The overhead fresco is supposed to be the largest in Europe (2000 sq. feet), and there was a fantastic mirror room.
We learned where the phrase “saving face” came from.  Women in that era wanted to look as pale/white as possible so they would heavily powder their faces.  They would also wax them.  Then they had to be careful not to get too close to the heat stoves or they would lose their face!  Paintings, chandeliers, ornate items everywhere. Many items were removed for safety purposes during the war. The gardens around palace were beautiful.

Wurzburg was the most severely damaged of the large cities in Germany — approximately 85% in ruins.   But it is beautiful now.

We tried to walk up the hill to a museum and some wineries, but the trail was closed for construction and didn't have the energy to find the alternate route.  So instead sat in a restaurant on the bridge to people-watch, listen to street musicians and have a glass of their local riesling wine.  Nice afternoon.

Passed lots of kayakers, bicyclists, people sunbathing or playing in parks as we left the city back on our ship.  

And again, had a wonderful dinner on board.  I told one of the staff I had only one complaint about the experience:  They have too many wonderful food options!  We're eating way too much, but then that's part of the experience, right?

Koblenz and Middle Rhine

What a beautiful day on Sunday, July 13.  We went on a tour of the Marksburg Castle high on a hill -- taken there by bus from our ship.   It's the best-preserved of all the castles on the Rhine,and appears much the same as when it was built  approximately 700 years ago.  We also got to see the torture chamber (with their various tools for torture--ugh!), the progression of the armor styles they wore, and the chastity belts women had to wear when their men went off for several years at a time.

The afternoon was the best!  Cruising down the Rhine, sitting on the top sun deck (nice weather), watching the numerous castles or fortresses on the hills as we floated by, and seeing the picturesque villages along the way and many vineyards -- Viking River Cruise did not do false advertising!  It looked like their ads on KQED, only we were seeing it live!   Passed the Lorelei statue/rock where sailors have been killed because it is so narrow and treacherous for boats.  Of course, our longboat had no problems.   We also saw lots of small RV/tent campgrounds by the river.


During dinner, we left the Rhine and began our trip on the Main River.  Also started the first of about 60 locks that the boat has to pass through.  The boat gets within a couple inches on both sides of rock walls sometimes, and waits in the lock for the water level to raise us up before we can continue on our trip.  Quite interesting.  Very impressive steering by the captain.

The World Cup was on TV that evening.  There sure were excited Germans when we disembarked the next day!

Are we having a great time?  You bet!!!!

Cologne

We had a brief German language orientation before we disembarked in Cologne, Germany on Saturday morning.  I wished I remembered more of what I learned in German language class from college, but that was way too many years ago!

We were divided into 6 walking groups, each of us led by a local guide -- ours was a wonderful, attractive young woman.   Cologne is a very old town, founded by the Romans.   There is an archeological museum that has many of the relics and some of the old sewer tunnels from that era.   In 785 Charlemagne founded an archdiocese there, and from the 12-18th centuries, Cologne led the world as the 4th Christian metropolis after Jerusalem, Byzantium and Rome.

The Dom, their huge cathedral, was very impressive.   Work on the cathedral started in 1248.  It wasn't completed until 1880.  We were in the cathedral square at noon, just as the newly elected archbishop was arriving.  The carillon bells rang for over half an hour -- wonderful, loud chimes that celebrated both the noon mass and his arrival.  The crowds were huge.  TV cameras, cheers.  Exciting.  Couldn't walk around the cathedral until after the noon prayers, so we went back later.  Supposedly the bones of the 3 Magi are buried in that cathedral.  The cathedral stained glass had very vivid colors. Much of the city was bombed during the war, but not the cathedral, although some of the stained glass had shattered and had to be replaced.





We walked past the excavation of an earlier Jewish settlement.   Many pogroms took place in 1423;  in the 16th century Protestants were persecuted;  in the 17th century many women were victims of

witch-hunts.

The perfume shop, Faria, was on our walk.  Sweet-smelling water began here, and the water was named cologne, after the city.  

We stood at the City Hall square and watched newly married couples leaving, with their friends cheering.  Couples have to be married in a civil ceremony before they can be married in a church.  We then walked to the bridge that crosses the Rhine where it has become a popular place for couples to write their names on a padlock and then permanently lock it to the bridge.  From one end to the other, thousands of padlocks adorn the fence.

There were many attractive bier hauses along the Rhine, so we had to have at least one glass of German beer -- I was happy sharing just a few sips of John's, but the picture looks like I drank the whole thing!

The crowds in the shopping area were packed.  It was a nice day, the World Cup was happening that weekend, the archbishop was there -- could be one reason the streets were packed.

That evening, after dinner on our ship, we had a wonderful piano-clarinet-bass clarinet concert in the lounge, which I thoroughly enjoyed.