Paris, France

We left the Riverboat on Friday morning from Amsterdam to board the train for Paris, France which took 2 1/2 hours to get here.  We were amazed at how fast the train went – 300 km/hour.  That was a little too fast for our liking and we were facing the back of the train all the way, in other words riding backwards for that length of time.  I found later in the day that I felt very unsteady and everything seemed to move around me.  I wasn’t sure if that was from being on the riverboat or the movement of the train going so fast or a combination of both.  It took until today for me to lose that feeling.  We arrived in our hotel and that evening we had tickets to go up the Eiffel Tower at 9:30.  We ate at a little café we found on our walk to the Eiffel Tower and then headed over to the Tower for our tour.  It is amazing how busy it was even at that time of night!  Here are a couple of pictures:

The café we ate at with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Looking up at the Tower with it illuminated…..very pretty at night-time.  We went to the second viewing level; none of us were brave enough to go right to the top. 

A view of the city from the top of the Eiffel Tower at night. 

This is a day-time picture we took while on the Paris City Tour this morning. 

The famous street in Paris with all the high fashioned stores!  Brian wouldn’t let me near them!

 

Brian and Roseleigh patiently waiting for Richard and I as we were taking pictures.  See the Café Fouquet’s behind them.  This is a very famous café where celebrities frequent and also where they meet agents to sign their contracts, etc.  Very very very expensive.  We saw one item on the menu for 890 euro!!!!! Just a coffee costs 7 euro.  Unbelievable how expensive it is to eat out here.

The Opera House

On our city tour, the bus stopped for a “cappuccino break”,  These are our friends, Richard and Roseleigh. The cups had “Richard” on the cup and the saucer; so Roseleigh asked if she could buy one and they told her to just take one!  They were very nice in this place and the Cappuccino was delicious!!

This apparently is “modern art” at one of the old Presidential Palaces we visited.  This was in what would have been a courtyard.

Window display at Louis Vuitton.  Pure Gold…….another incidence of “modern art”

We saw so many places today that I have no idea what this place is but nevertheless, the history of this city was really interesting.  We really enjoyed the city tour today. 

As with our last cruise two years ago; a bunch of people in our group have a terrible cold/flu and we are steering clear of them.  We had brought surgical masks with us just for this reason alone and today we used them on the bus as we don’t want to catch whatever these people have. Most of them don’t care they are sick either and spreading their germs; they merrily get on the bus and cough and hack away barely covering their mouth.  This is one of the things we really dislike about travelling with a big group of people but it can’t be helped I guess.  Hopefully, we steer clear of any germs! 

We are now anxious to leave Paris (2 days has been enough) and I am really looking forward to heading over to London, England and meeting up with family again and also not have to worry about a language barrier!!  We will be very sad to say good-bye to Richard and Roseleigh though as we have had a great time meeting up with them on this trip.  That has been the highlight of the whole trip and we have had a really good time with them and a lot of laughs too!  Tomorrow we go to the Montmartre  which is a bohemian/artistic region of Paris and tomorrow night is a farewell dinner cruise on the Seine River.  Then Monday morning we again board the Eurostar train through the chunnel to London, and I will make sure we are not travelling backwards on this train! 

I have not been able to put a picture video together in the last few days as the internet has been way too slow and times out when I’m trying to upload anything, so I am going to wait until I get home to put one together then.  I may not get a chance to blog again until we are in England.

Cologne and Amsterdam

These are cities that we have already been to on our last European River Cruise; so they don’t have the same impact as they do when you visit them for the first time.  On this particular cruise we seem to be on the boat more and really do not have a lot of time to spend in the ports we stop at.  On our last river cruise, we would travel at night and in the morning be at our next port and would then do the included tour that was provided by the Riverboat cruise and then have the rest of the day to do what you want.  On this one, we seem to only have time for the tours and about an hour on our own before we have to board again.  Nonetheless, we are still enjoying it and have met some other people on the cruise as well and it is quite enjoyable hearing about other people’s lives, what they did for a living, how many children, grandchildren they have.  Of course, there are no young people on these cruises!!!

Here are a few things we have seen over the last couple of days:

We stopped in a place called Anachbach late in the evening and on taking a stroll around town found the village was surrounded by an old fortress. 

You can see where the fortress was damaged, probably from World War II.

This is the top deck of our ship (it has a hot tub that nobody ever used!).  They had a special day of German Bavarian Sausages, hotdogs and pretzels plus German beer.

Cheers to Roy!!!!  Brian had a beer for you!

More Bridges…..

This is how close we come going under the bridges!!! Another picture for you dad to see how they put the bridges together – this particular one was brand new – they haven’t even opened the road on the bop.

We cruised through to the Netherlands now and what a difference in the countryside – now everything is totally flat where Germany was so mountainous. 

Now in Amsterdam – a typical windmill

Brian thinking of Roy again…..

Everything is built on water in Amsterdam, so under the homes, they were built on wooden stilts that go down to the sandy layer underneath.  Some of these wooden stilts are rotting, so the houses start to lean.  I don’t think I would like to live in a house that was tilting! These homes are also very small and staircases are narrow.  They use a pulley that ties to the top to move furniture and such through the windows!!

Our tour was a Canal Tour today and this was going down one of the many canals.  Very interesting city for sure. 

Now we are getting ready to disembark our ship.  Tomorrow morning we head for the train station to get a train to Paris.  We are really looking forward to being in Paris; can’t believe we only have one week left now!  England will be the highlight for us on Monday when we meet up with Geoff and Lynn to spend a few days in England with family before heading home. 

August 27, 2013–Cochem–Moselle River

We were really looking forward to today as we got to go on a 20K bike ride around the village of Cochem.  When we first woke up, it was quite cloudy (again!) but just as we were about to start the ride, the clouds dispersed and blue sky and sun came out; so it ended up being a very enjoyable ride with everyone taking off their jackets along the way.  Our guide, Marcus, was quite good and gave us a lot of history in the area and the nearby castles.  In this area of Europe, wine making seems to be the main industry and the hills and valleys are covered with wine-yards.  Here are a few pictures we took today:

One of the castles that overlooks the village of Cochem. 

Rows and rows of grapes all growing on the mountains. 

We stopped here in a little village that we walked around and then had a “milchekaffe” (coffee) in the café. There are so many cafes and restaurants wherever you go.  I wonder how they all stay in business.

After the bike tour, we had to be back on our boat by 12:00 and then we sailed down the Moselle River back to the Rhine River.  Brian and I took a walk, around and around the top deck of the boat trying to get a little more exercise to try and wear off all the food we have eaten.  I tried to cut back a bit today on what I ate but it is so hard to do that once you see the food.  Here are a few pictures we took along the way. 

 

Going through one of the locks. 

Our Hungarian Captain steering boat in the loft!

I thought of my dad when we saw this bridge as it was huge; a highway spanning the Moselle River.  My dad would love to see the cement girders or columns holding this bridge up!

My dad worked at a pre-cast cement company where they made bridge structures.  Dad, how do you think they ever got these structures up in amongst the mountains and the river?  It is mind boggling to think how they would have constructed this bridge. See picture below for the other columns.  Amazing!

I forgot to post this picture yesterday as I thought of my brother, Roy, as apparently this is the gondola where Elvis Presley sat in one of his movies, G.I Blue and sang Wooden Heart…something like that anyway!

These fountains are quite common although I am not sure exactly what they are for but our friend, Richard, said that many many years ago they used to be public baths and drinking fountains.

I so wish we could take our dogs into stores, restaurants and cafes as they do in Europe.  This little dog goes to work with his owner and just sleeps in a crate.  We met another lady sitting in a café with a bichon mix who was from Scotland and she and her husband were travelling with their little dog and they take him everywhere they go; they don’t have to worry what to do with him when they are in restaurants or shopping, he just goes right along with them.  As long as the dogs have their vaccinations and are well behaved, they are welcomed anywhere.  We are so backward in Canada; we are just too paranoid about germs.  As one woman said, her dog is cleaner than some humans and much better behaved as well.  So true!

August 26, Rudesheim, Rhine Gorge and Koblenz

This morning we docked in Rudesheim.  We had already been to Rudesheim on the last cruise we took 2 years ago and where we had seen the Siegfried Mechanical Museum.  So this time we took a Gondola ride up the mountain over the vineyards.  It was another cloudy rainy day and we were not dressed properly for going on the Gondola as it was so windy and halfway up the mountain, it started to rain and we started to shiver with being so cold.  Our tour guide was a bit boring so we walked around on our own a bit and because we were so cold, we got back on the Gondola and came back down to the town of Rudenshein  We were told to make sure we had a Rudesheimer Coffee and Apple streusel and after the gondola, with being wet and cold,we all looked forward to the coffee. They put in 3 sugar cubes, the Asbach brandy and then light it and stir for a minute.  Then they add coffee and top with cream!!  It is to die for!!

Richard, Roseleigh, Brian and I enjoying our coffee and streusel!

After doing a bit of shopping in the little village of Rudesheim, we headed back to the boat for lunch, then we sailed the Rhine Gorge, heading towards Koblenz.  Unfortunately, because the day was so windy, cloudy and cold, we had to sit on the top of the boat wrapped in blankets but it was enjoyable to again watch the countryside with all the small towns and castles we went by. 

After dinner tonight, we arrived in Koblenz and then decided to take a walk through the town.  We ended up getting lost as our boat was docked on the Moselle River but we ended up walking to the Rhine River and couldn’t find our boat.  We then saw a couple of people we recognized from our boat who had done the same thing and they found a local lady who was out for a walk and she took us back to our boat!  We were all so thankful to her as we would have really struggled trying to find our way back; so all in all we had quite a long walk!

This is the nice lady who helped us find our boat!!

We are now heading to Cochem tonight and tomorrow we are going on a 20K bike ride and I think we are all looking forward to that because of all the food we have been eating and feel we need to get in some good exercise to burn some of this food off.  We just hope the weather is cooperative tomorrow as it would be nice to have a sunny day after three days of cloudiness and rain! 

Speyer, Germany

We sailed this morning from Breisach, Germany, sailing up the Rhine to Speyer.  It has been a very cloudy day and the plan for today was to visit the Speyer Technical Museum, then walk around the town of Speyer, visit the Cathedral in the center of town and just taking in the sights of Speyer.  Unfortunately, we only made it to the Technical Museum and then it started to rain and it has been pouring rain all day.  We had a really great time walking around the technical museum seeing all the classical cars, locomotives, walking through a 747 Jumbo Jet and a space shuttle along with all other technical wonders. Since it was raining so much, we decided against going into Speyer and spent a leisurely day on the boat instead.

Tonight, we had a Chaine des Rotisseurs dinner which is one of the world’s most prestigious culinary organizations for which APT Corporate Chef is a member.  Our choices tonight was either “lamb” or “haddock with mussels”.  Brian and I were not keen on the choices but we both decided on Haddock with mussels while Roseleigh and Richard had the lamb.  They thoroughly enjoyed the Lamb but Brian and I were not as keen on the fish.  Anyway, at least we gave it a try!  The dessert though was wonderful! I have put a picture video together showing the things we saw in the museum and some pictures of our meal tonight. 

We are now off to Rudensheim, Rhine Gorge and Koblenz tomorrow and we pray the rain is over and we have a nice weather day!

Breisach/Black Forest

The internet is quite slow on the boat, so it takes quite a bit of time to upload my picture videos.  See the posting below of our day in this area and here is the picture video I uploaded today. 

Day 4 & 5– Breisach, Germany

We finally boarded the riverboat yesterday. Here is a picture.

Just down from where we boarded the boat is a point in Europe where three countries come together and they have erected a sphere marking where each country joins.  It is 3 sided and you can walk around stepping into each country as you do – no passports needed!! The points are of Switzerland, Germany and France. 

Our riverboat left port around 4:45 a.m. Saturday and we arrived in Breisach, Germany around lunch-time.  Our choice of tour today was a tour of the Black Forest – best known for Black Forest Cake and Black Forest Ham! The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.  It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and the south.  The main industry for this region is tourism. This is also where the Cuckoo-Clocks were originally made and still are today and you could buy a Cuckoo Clock and they would ship home for you!!  I wanted one but Brian said no that the cuckoo would drive him crazy and they were too expensive.  They were beautiful though!

The biggest Cuckoo Clock in the world!

Just some of the clocks. 

This hat is called “hat of the 14 saints” of the black forest region and if a woman wore this hat with the red bobbles it meant you were “available”; if they were black “you were not available” (I assume single or married)!

From the Cuckoo Factory, we headed to a place called “Titisee” which was quite a unique little village with lots of shops.  Roseleigh and I finally found some “Swiss/German Dresses” for our granddaughters! Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the village – I think Roseleigh and I were too excited to find some shops although the men were not so keen. We stopped for a coffee and a slice of Black Forest Cake and overlooked Lake Titisee. 

Lake Titisee with Black Forest region in the background. 

We are just getting ready for dinner right now, so I will post this and then I am going to put a video together later which I will add later tonight. So if you don’t see a video below, come back later to view some more pictures.