2:00 this afternoon I decided it was time to start packing

Jerry dropped us off and when we headed inside there stood Mark and Linda ready to check in also. Ernestine couldn’t find here driver’s license. She had left it in her other purse in St \240Peters \240we called Jerry to come back. He picked her up and took her back to get it.

Had an awesome time checking in and getting through security. I’m the only one though to just walk on through. Ernestine forgot to take her phone out, Linda forgot to take her watch off and Mark had a bottle of something that was over 3 ounces.

We are on the way to gate 14 and I thought the girl in front of me looked a lot like Michelle but started to dismiss it when a voice behind me said what are you doing here. It was Nathan. He and zmichelle were leaving from gate 13 to go to Florida for their wedding

Our flight is s delayed and we didn’t take off until 1:24. Going to make it lots more rushed in Newark I got to FaceTime the little ones before I left. This is an ERJ 135 plane. I would call it a puddle jumper!

Good bye

We got to see he New Your to City skyline as we were landing in Newark

This was my our first view this morning of the Swiss Alps

We landed in Basel after about a 45 min flight. I’m pretty sure we walked enough miles to get there without the plane!

Our rooms were ready so we got to go right in cool down and go to lunch. We went on a walking tour if Basel next.

First up was the fountain n outside of the art museum. They have them all over the city and it is not uncommon for people to swim in them

This church was built in 1039 ad a Catholic Church. After the earthquake destroyed it it was rebuilt. By then the Reformstion was in full swing and the church became a Lutheran church. It is still active today.

The church has 2 towers although it only started with one. The left tower is the tower of St George skating the dragons. The right tower is the Towrr of St Martins representing taking care of the poor and needy

The four figures on each side of the door have another story. The ones on the left are King Henry and his wife who did so much for Basel. The ones on the left are Adam and Eve. She looks very provocative and you wonder why they are there until you look st the back of Adam and see the serpent. They call them the do’s and do nots! \240There was a 5th figure right in the middle. It was the Virgin Mary. Needless to say when the Lutherans took over the church they got rid of that one!

Then we went around to the back of the church for the view of Basel

This is cool. They attach each side of a rope to the opposite sides of the river. Then they ferry back and forth without going off with the current

can the Black Forest \240area way off in the distance

The Baselisk is the official mascot of Basel Switzerland. It is located on many of the fountains around the town. I want to have a great shirt made for Myles that says Basilisk Basel Switzerland

We walked back to the boat because the 20 minute walk sounded like a better option than back up the hill to catch the bus taftet we had walked down it!!!! \240We got cleaned up, came for drinks , \240— I found a German Riesling from the Moselle region. That is my yo to drink on this cruise! \240I’m ready now

We walked over 9000 steps yesterday. That was over 4 miles

We followed the blue path on the map

The storks have built several nests in the area. One was atop a church steeple another was up on the power lines. That one we could actually see the mamma standing in the nest.

These 3 ladies show the various dress of traditional dress. The 3 different headgear shows the difference — the red is an unmarried young lady the Black is married and the glass one is the bridal headgear. It weighs about 6 lbs

Much if it is made up of Beach Maple Firs and Blue Spruce

Every time you turned a corner the scenery was prettier than the one before

The farmers are responsible for the clearings and they maintain them or they would grow back with in just a few years. Most of it is dairy farming. They have 9 to 20 cows each. The meadows cannot support large herds

The farm houses are large and one half is for the animals the other half for the family. This has not change much over the years due to the dee snows in the winter.

We headed back after about an hour and a half.

This young man gave a very interesting talk about how cucukoo clocks are made. It starts with the carving. Many families in the area work on the carvings during the winter. Each family works on different \240he explained how the fronts were carved the mechanism out in what each pendulum does and the music boxes in them

As we were leaving them goats were moving from one meadow to another. It was about this time that Ernestine remember she had left her purse and went running back for it

According to the folklore the witches come out on the night of the 30th of April. Our guide told us that it happened to him and his wife. The cat tried to wake them but when they finally woke up they were too late and the witches had blocked the door so they couldn’t get out. Their neighbor told them that to keep that from happening they must put a box of beer outside their front door on the 30th. The witches will take that and leave them alone. It has worked ever since

This is the white stag that tells the story of the red stag that was being chased by the hunter. To get away he jumped from one side of Hell’s Canyon to the other. He stands here laughing at the hunter because he got away.

Last look at the Schwartzwald

We really didn’t see a lot of this town. They have built a tunnel underground for the autobahn to go through so that the noise and the dust to not bother the people

Things seem very very clean in the towns. Maybe that is the only area we were allowed to see but our guide told us that this is the manner of the people. His neighbor sweeps the stoop and the street 2 times a day

After returning to the boat and eating lunch Ernestine and I set out to explore Breisach — the town where we docked

Fr m up here looking across the Rhine you can see France and the Vogues mountains. On a very clear you can see the Swiss Alps

Looking the other way you can see the Schwartzwald

This is the church we wanted to see bad enough that we climbed all the stairs

Compared to the Catholic Church sitting in the hill watching over the city!!!

After all that we did a little shopping and headed back to the boat to cool off

This is the Europe’s Consul. There are 47 flags one for each state in the European community

This was Emporor Wilhelm’s palace when he was in Strasbourg. He did not like it but was forced to stay anyway

This is St Paul’s cathedral. It has double spires. One faces Germany and one faces France

Soon after this we started our walking tour. This monument below was erected to honor General LeClerc. He vowed that France would not fall to the Germans until the water from the Rhine flowed into the Ille

It was market day and the sidewalk was full of open air markets full of fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses etc. much like Soulard except that these are taken down each night at the end of the day. They are there 2 days a week

This was a German music hall. Between the windows are reliefs of various Great Getmab musicians. When The Germans took over the city during WW II they were furious that Mendelssohn was included because he was a Jew. They demanded that he be replaced by Mahler. The irony is that Mahler too was a Jew. It has since been restored back to Mendelssohn

The curved chairs represent a person of importance

This is St Thomas Protestant Church in the heart of the city. When the cathedrals of the city were built they were all Catholic as part of the Holy Roman Empire then came the Reformation and they all became Lutheran. When the king of France took the area back over he was Catholic and was going to make them all Catholic again. They people argued and they were allowed to keep 6 of them Protestant

Yum!!!

This is the statue of Gutenburg. The single line etched into the scroll on the front says”Here is the Light” referring to his printing of the Bible

This bridge has been in operation since 1888

This is an active Nethodist church in the old part of town. The Methodist are known for going into the poorest parts of town. That’s why they came into here

This building was built in 1537!

There are 3 gates — one depicts the Nativity. The next depicts the Crucifixtion and Ascention and thev Third depicts Judgement Day

The windows on the left depict the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire in the 13 th century

The ones on the right are representative of the 14 th century rulers

The rise window depicts wheat which symbolizes trade and economy

This clock is renown. Besides the time it shows the phases of the moon the difference between the exact time in Strasbourg as opposed to Paris. The days of the week the zodiac the four stages of life I. Evil and Christ over all

From there it was 20 minutes of shopping and 20 min of walking back to the bus. Then a20 min ride and 2 min of walking back to the boat. I was exhausted. Didn’t want anything to eat just wanted something to drink. We are lunch upstairs on the top deck and then back to the room to relax the rest of the day

At 5 we a demonstration on how to make German pizza

It uses quark!

It was delicious

Tonight was German night. Some of the help was dressed I lederhosen. He was telling us that a traditional one is made of animal skins and costs about $600. They are most often passed down from father to son

The placement of the bow of the girls apron conveys her stays. If the bow is in the left it means she’s single and ready to mingle. On the right means married

Then we moved to the dining room for a tradionap taste of German food

We had red cabbage , sauerkraut, bratwurst, kielbasa, sauerbraten, dumplings, cheeses, beets, German potato salad, chicken schnitzel, soft pretzels, and lots of salamis, Black Forest ham and sauces

They also had macaroni and cheese but it was not like usual Mac and cheese

Then they offered us a tour of the galley

We have to go through 11 locks on this trip.

We went through on during dinner and this one about 9:30

Ernestine did not feel well after dinner. We had honk she has not been drinking enough water. She went back to the room and drank a couple bottles of water. She was feeling som better by the time I went Unheeded. I stayed in the lounge to play the music trivia

This is Mannheim Germany 85% of the town was destroyed during WW II because it has always been a major industrial center.

Heidelberg grew up around this church. It has many founding patrons buried here includes by the everlasting student. A young scholars uncle told him he would pay for his education as long as he was in school. He continued wo work on various decrees until his death at age 67!

I am continually impressed by the neatness if the homes and no yards to mow. However this house was so expensive that it sold for 3.5 mil then needed anothe 3.5 to refurbish it!

Heidelberg was an important part of the 7 electoral principalities that wee delegated the responsibility of choosing a king. If the king was gone from the country for any reason it was the prince of this electorate that was in charge.

Heidelberg quickly established itself as an intellectual area. It establish the first university

There is not a great deal of industry in Heidelberg. It’s best known product is Capri Sun.

This is the area given the buses to turn around in and to park. He pulled past the last bus in this line like he was going to park nose in and the next thing we knew he was circling the wagons!!

The castle overlooks the town and what is left of the castle sits in this location. The terrace here was built in the 16 th century to hold the canons.

The view is spectacular from the terrace. It is widely believed that the Americans did not bomb Heidelberg during WWII because they planned to use it as a base later. The British however did do a significant amount of damage

The moat is now a dry moat

As you can see only a portion of the castle was rebuilt after the French attempted to destroy it completely

This was once the gate to the drawbridge. Once you pass through you can still see the holes in the wall that are used to raise it

These 2 knights gourd the gate

This is the portion that was saved and rebuilt

The large round storage area towards the back of this picture was used to store their black powder

It is said that this relief of 2 angels holding a wreath of roses symbolizes the twins of the stone mason that was in charge of building this castle. They loved to play on the scaffolding while he wired until they fell and died. He was grief stricken and could not work until one night they appeared to him in a dream and told him that they were fine. In the morning when he woke there was a wreath of roses on his bed. He then finished the castle.

The figures here represent the gods that correspond to the planets

The figures on here show the family lineage of purines in this electorate.

The clearing half way up this mountain shows the climate of the side of the mountains it is a Mediterranean climate. They can grow fig trees olive trees etc

This is the view from the opposite side of the castle

Hitler built an amphitheater here to use as a propaganda tool

The tower shown towards towards the top of this mountain shows the location of a Benedictine monastery. It was constructed on the site to show the location.

From here we went down to the old town to shop. This is the oldest Protestant church. There was a gray desk of religious dissention in Heidelberg but it was not between the Catholics and Lutherans. It was between the Lutherans and Calvinistd

This house belonged to the wealthiest merchant in Heidelberg. It was not burned by the French because he could pay enough to keep it from being burned.

Last view of a georgeous city!

We returned to the boat at Germsheim

This afternoon we took a tour of the wheelhouse that had no wheel. It steered with a flat joystick!

It raised and lowered with a hydraulic lift

The boat was christened in March of 1919

We apparently sailed past a very wealthy area of the Rhine valley this afternoon. These houses were either very rich or wineries because we saw lots of vineyards

Ernestine and I walked into Rudesheim this evening to shop. Mark and Linda went to a German dinner and dancing and drinking party in the street

This is Market Street In Rudesheim

This was a beautiful church across the Rhine on our way back. It is called the chapel of Rocca. It was built in 1666 and rebuilt in the 1800’s after its destruction

Then we had a glass blower demonstration in the lounge.

Mark and Linda made it back just in time for the last of the demonstration. Then they started playing fun music. Linda just couldn’t help herself. She had to join the fun

Today we cruise the Middle Rhine area with all the castles and castle ruins. Then this afternoon is our wine tasting excursion

This is a monastery at Rudesheim. We have secured our spot on the upper deck of the boat ready for the morning

This statue is a statue of Lady Germany. She signifies the unification of the German states in King Wilhelmi I.

This is the remains of Klopp castle. It was founded in the middle of the 3th century by an Archbishop. In 1301 the castle was severely damaged in a siege by troops of King Albrecht I the coming lex was rebuilt in the late 19 th century and expanded

There was a tower located onboth sides of the river to begin with. Then would put a chain or rope across the water to prevent boats from going through unless they had paid a tax to the castle owner

Here we have Castle Rheinstein built in 1316 also by the Archbishop of Mainz for protection from the north.

This should have been spelled Reichenstein but I didn’t have the map yet and was guessing at the spelling based on he heavily accented English

Before the German states united they consistently fought each other to see whose oldest son would ascend to the throne in the death of the King appointed by the Pope. They hoped that having more territory would increase their chances with the Pope. Having no seen the trouble this caused the the came up with idea of creating by then 7 electorates to whom would be given the job of selecting a new king

If you look quite closely they the left of the yellow house you will see a very tiny castle that someone has built. Probably as a play house for children!

Castle Furstenberg ruins land have always been under cultivation even though the castle which was built in 1219 has not been renovated

The Riesling is the most popular grape here in the Middle Rhine region. It is because of the slate just below the soil level

This large church in the center and the smaller chapel up the hillside shows what happened in times of disaster or plagued. The surrounding peasants now ally came to town to attend services on Sunday morning.

However when under attack or in cases of plagues the city walls would be closed to outsiders so the rants had a smaller chapel outside the city gates where they could worship

This square pointed building is the toll house. It sat right here out into the water and was there to charge money from those who wished to use the river

This is the point from which the Germans chased Napoleon back into Francevin 183?

This is the town of Oberweisel Germany. It was a very wealthy city then as evidenced by the fact that it has 2 large churches. The town was built in the 14 th century at the foot of Castle Schoenberg

It was surrounded by 21 towers connecting the wall. 18 of which can still be seen today

This church actually incorporates one of the city towers into its spire

This is first view of “The Lorelei Rock

Modern day train system in Germany

The story of the Lorelei rock has become a renown example of legendary folklore. It was made into a poem and has also been set to music

The story says that a beautiful lady would always sit here on the rocks at the narrow part of the Rhine relationship vet and sing to the captains of the ships as they sailed by. They became so distracted by her singing that they would wreck their ships and die in the waters

Not to be outdone the local Archbishop thought he should have his share and the same power. He constructed this castle the locals called it the “ Mouse Castle because it was so small

Three times in a very short space you were stopped and made to pay or be overtaken by their armies

Just one of the many picturesque little towns along the Rhine river

Hirzenach

As they grew up both of the brothers fell in love with Angela. Henry was to shy to ever profess his live but Conrad was much bolder and asked he to marry him. This hurt Henry tremendously. Shortly before they were to marry Conrad decided to join a crusade. Not to be outdone Henry joined also.

This white building has come to be known as the White Castle

Outside of Boppardc are the vineyards. There are over 500000 grape vines in these vineyards

Marksburg Castle was built in 1231. This is the only castle on the Middle Rhine that has never been destroyed

This is the Stotzenfels Castle. It was totally destroyed and not restored until it was given by the city of Koblenz to the crown prince

This is the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress located within the city of Koblenz Germany where were are spending the night

At the end of this sidewalk is the confluence of the Moselle and the Moselle Rivers

At one time there was a pontoon bridge located here and this was the ticket office for it. Hitler destroyed it in order to keep the allied forces from following him

The main part of Koblenz was 90% destroyed by the bombings in WW II

This church was deemed a Basilica in the 1900’s

Moselle river is used primarily for recreation not economy

Grape vineyards of the Moselle valley

The grapes grow best in the soil on the slopes because it is covered with slate rocks

Mark Linda and Ernestine went good n a walk around the old part of Koblenz with Nancy tonight after dinner. My ankles were so swollen I stayed in the room

We set sail at 3:00 am for Cologne

Our guided tour left at 9:30 ths morning. Ernestine was not feeling well so she stayed back at the ship and Mark, Linda, and I went

Our guide ,Dirk, was extremely funny in that dry carefully contemplated humor. He started out telling us about the settlement of the area by the Romans in

Dirk explained the the Romans felt that civilization ended at the Rhine river on the other side were the German barbarians. They felt this way because the Romans were only about 5 foot tall and the Germans were 6 foot.

There is still a great deal of dissonance between the 2 sides

This is our first site of the Carhedral of Cologne

After walking up all those steps you expect to see the whole church and instead you are blocked by the Museum of Modern Art.

Just as the path to heaven is strewn with obstacles so is the path to the cathedral. Finally you have to pass through a narrow way to get there much like the path to salvation

This is the east end of the church called the choirary it was the first section to be built

The cornerstone which is about 1:/2 way up the 1 st level was laid in 1248. This portion of the church was finished in 1390

The church is the tallest cathedral in the world. It weighs 250000 lbs. the darkness of some of the stones is due to the algae and pollution. It cannot be cleaned or it will expose the soft rock inside. If a stone gets too. bad they replace it. If a number of them get to bad they will replace it using scaffolding

What makes this cathedral so unique is the fact that the entire Cathedral is built in the same Gothic style. When ch is amazing fir as long as it took time complete it

By 1509 they were up to the ground floor and 2 levels on the other end. They returned to work on it in 1850 and finished it in 1870

It is bigger than any French church. Apparently there is a great rivalry between the countries!

We were escorted inside and this is looking down the main aisle.

The side windows to the left

The side windows to the right. There are 10000 sq ft of windows in this building

When the sun is at a certain place in the winter it creates this pattern of light on the statues that are on every column. As it does it puts the shadow of the statue on the pillar behind it. As it progresses the shadows move around as the light moves

It creates the illusion the the shadows and the light are searching for something nothing. As It can only be explained as a miracle it seems as if the light is God looking into the very depths of the soul and the corners to see if all is well

The stained glass windows in the other parts of the church are all patterned or pictures

This shrine contains the bones of the 3 Magi. In my cynical self I want to know which 3 and how do they know. Did they do some kind of DNA testing!!

The gold leaf on this shrine is as thin as aluminum foil. How they got it that thin back then is a mystery to all

There are many Archbishops buried here in the cathedral and there is a crypt underneath

This is on the right side of the choirery

As is this

This is again looking down the center aisle this looks into the section that we sat down in. It is looking from the F———111111111 windowacross the chancel

The organ pipes on the left

From here we went outside the church. This is the Noethern Roman gate to the city. The city wall was just outside the cathedral church area

Looking the opposite way you see that the street is in the exact same place as the old Roman road that led to Rome. This is the oldest shopping street in the world. The Romans also used it for shopping

This is Market Square and one of the impressive houses from the early times. The fact that the merchant could afford a house like this would be like one of us owning a skyscraper in downtown Manhattan. The market stands on what used to be an island but the square clear paved area was once an arm of the Rhine River. The Romans built the paved square over the top of the river for their market place. Now nothing can be built there because it will fall in

Notice the 4711 building behind us. We took Ernestine back for a tour this afternoon and did some shopping

Shopping time

We were at Pete’s Brewhaus for dinner

It was really hot inside. No ac. Most places do not have it because it is so expensive

From there we went to the Puffin Brewhaus for more tasting

Netherlands means low land. At one time Belgium was part of the Betherlands but they spoke French while the working people spoke Dutch

The Dutch are the masters of water control. They create land. They have made floating villages

The traditinaIt k Dutch cheese is he Gouda. They specialize in hard cheeses created by heat and not by mold

We docked here at Kinderdyjk thiis afternoon for our trip to the windmill

The old windmills. Ernestine and I took a barge trip out to the oldest windmill in the area. There are 2 bosoms — reservoirs— in this area of Kinderdyjk. Eight reservoirs served each section. The windmills pumped the water out of the canals and up to the sckuss which emptied it in to the river on the other side of the dyke

The mills have a language. All their own. If the blades are crossed like an X it means the Miller will be gone and the mill resting for a long period of time. If the blade make a plus sign resting for a short time. If the blade is at 25 til the hour it means happy news such as a birth or marriage. If it is at 25 after the hour it means mourning

This is the mosvorimitive style in the area and the hardest to operate. The Miller must use weights to turn it to face the wind. It weighs 40000 kl is and is very dangerous to turn.

The blades can turn up to 129 km per hour. If they are going too fast they must be slowed down by using a heavy stone against stone. They had to be careful not to create too much heat and risk a fire

The mills had 2 doors because when the blades were turning it was dangerous to go out that way. If you were hit by the turning blade you could be killed. This was dangerous for the Millers family. They frequently had 10 plus children and they had to be watched and taught to use the other door

This the millers quarters. The kitchen was usually outside to avoid fire. It was put together with pegs so that it could be taken apart and moved if needed.

This would be the area to the chickens goats pigs garden etc. whatever might be needed to make your family as self sufficient as possible

The job of Miller was often handed down from father to son or occasionally to daughter. Because of this they often had a smallwindmill for the children to play with and learn on

Mark and Linda Nancy our cruise director myself and Ernestine

Upper deck. Last night of cruise

The last sunset from This the upper deck of the boat. God created it just for us

Bon voyage—until we meet again

We are cruisng in to Amsterdam this morning

At the dock waiting for the bus to the hotel

Pretty place!

This is the site I was looking for frequently over the nex 2 days. It means I get a chair AC. and ice!

This is a memorial dedicated to remember the site where the Germans shot 30 Dutch citizens because someone had done something to a German soldier that he didn’t like

We went through the tunnel and some street musicians were playing some beautiful classical music

The bar. Oh did I fail to mention this is the hottest day so far this year in Amsterdam and I’m walking 6000 steps!!!!!

Linda surviving

Behind the shade is a large glass window that looks into the bathroom

Bed

Bathroom

Tub behind shade

Elevators

Front lobby

This is called the royal palace now used as a city center. It has 13000 extra pickings underneath it. In 1770 it became the town hall of Amsterdam

We took the tram about 1/2 of the way to the Pancake house where we were served poffertjes

They are like little pancakes that puff up

From there we walked past the Anne Frank house on our way to the Cheese House

We had a very enlightening program and tasting of real Dutch cheese. It is made from goats milk and therefore perfect for lactose intolerant people especially. We also found the cheese guillitine that linda had been looking for.

From there we walked to a bar — did I mention that this is the hottest day on record— where we were first given Jenever. We had tasted it on the boat and were unimpressed however. He gave us some blueberry flavored that was quite good. — did I mention that the bar was NOT airconditioned.

Then they served us a meatball like substance. The Dutch grind up their leftover meats and vegetables, spread it in a pan , refrigerate it, scoop it up shape it in a ball and deep fry it. I had some on the boat that were really yummy. These were really awful!!!

From here he walked us back to the tram station and we had an unairconditioned ride home in an enclosed tube!

This is the view from our nice cold hotel roo

Thursday morning we started the day with our tour of the Anne Frank Haus. Linda has gotten directions and we did not have to walk much. However even the tram ride was improved this morning as it wasn’t quite so hot

They have built a museum around the house. Our guide yesterday told us that in the 60’s they had wanted to tear it down and build a factory here. Luckily that did not happen and instead it was preserved

This a scale model of the house at the time Anne lived there

This is the frntchurch if the house. The annex cannot be seen from the street

From there we went across he street and took Mark and Linda for poffertjes

We took the now hot tram back to grand central station and back to the street with the open air markets

I was determined to get wooden shoes for Kenzie but I’m pretty sure I nearly died doing it!! Oh I forgot to mention that Thursday turned out to be hotter than Wednesday 106 Fahrenheit. Hottest day Amsterdam has had since the 1950’s

Later in the evening we went to get supper and take a canal boat ride

Ready to ride!

Amsterdam became a city in 1300. It became a center for trade

In front of the maritime museum is a replica of the Amsterdam. A trading ship that went down at sea

This is the tallest windmill in The Netherlands. Now it is used as a brewery

It is thought that the Dutch got the name cheeseheads from wearing the wooden cheese molds as helmets during a war with the French

This is the Jewish section of town. After the war several Jews returned here to renew their life

This whole canal trip would have been lots more fun if it just weren’t sooooooo hot

From here you can see the 7 stone bridges

The empowers canal. The second main canal in Amsterdam. You can also see some of the houseboats that have helped to alleviate some of the housing shortage

These are the 7 dancing houses. Their pickings started to give way and they started to lean. The houses have been saved but cannot be straightened back up. They are in use today yet

Our view of the city at night

Friday morning departure

The first of many lines this morning at the airport

This is the way we usually wound up going places. Linda way in front followed by Mark then Earnestine then me bringing up the rear!!

Our plane

Flight in progress