9 April 2017 - Day 9 trip - Day 7 Cruse - Surprising Bamburg

Nice breakfast,  It was a lovely sunny day and we were tour group 39G, took the bus into Bamberg, they dropped us off at a square with a lovely big cherry tree in full blossom. We walked down a few streets to another square with a statue of a man with a cat on his shoulder. E.T.A. Hoffmann, the author of the original story of the Nutcracker that the ballet was based on, lived  in a little house in that square.

Continued on through the windy little streets past a jewish memorial which was placed on a wall. It commemorated that  in this area 1664 - 1910 the Bamberg Synagogue stood. In the hub was the inn Wiebe Taube" or wiebe pigeon. 1941-1942 Jews from the city and surrounding areas of ghetto should serve before being transported to the extermination camps. a kind of sobering moment in our journey that day. 

The small streets had lots of lovely old buildings holding shops and restaurants. There were also lots of statues and fountains. 

We crossed a little river and saw the monument on the ground to the Witch trials. They burned more witches in Bamburg than any where else at the time and the bishop had to come and tell them to stop as they were losing most of the town. The first was a young boy who thought he was possessed as he had been listening to the over zealous priest who was talking about witches. 

 The town has some really lovely old buildings along it waterways with lots of little bridges back and forth along the little river which meets up with a bigger river. 

The town hall was built on a rock in the middle of the river in order to avoid paying taxes to the church back in the 16 or 17 century , there was a 3 D map of the town for the blind, at one end of the bridge to the town hall, so that they could find out where they were. The bridge going over to the town hall , was full of university students  and tourists sitting in the sunshine. the bridge continued over to the other side of the river with the town hall sitting in the middle of the bridge. It was lovely and so unique. I loved Bamberg.

On the other side of the river were lot of shops including the beer street where the beer wars of 1907 were waged. It seems that the beer makers in the town knew that they made the best beer and so started to increase the price of beer. The townspeople objected so much that they refused to buy it and drank the “Bad” beer instead until the town beer makers caved in and lowered their prices back to the normal ones. Three gentlemen were awarded merit in that they drank more of the “Bad Beer  than other towns people so that the towns brewers lost a lot of money. Too funny. 

 We ran into Patricia and her husband from the cruise and when I asked her what time it was she gave me all her watches and rings. She was quite Old and had dementia. Her poor husband, whose name I cannot recall right now,  was also old and had quite a time keeping track of her. I told him I would give everything back on the ship so that they would not loose them.

Margie and I  proceeded and came to a large square with a bakery and a lovely church which we went into. It had one of the loveliest confessionals we have seen in a long time. Back out in the square there was a statue or toy made up of three sections of three people that you could create.  I made my Bamberg boyfriend, but decided to leave him as he was three faced.  In the square there was a fountain with a Neptune statue and his trident was a fork. 

 We then went to  the Fulenspiegel restaurant and had a St Georgebrau Buttenheim beer which was pretty good. We ran into Chris and Jo from our cruise at the next table and chatted with them for a while.

 We all headed back to our pickup point through the narrow streets , past the interesting doors and buildings to the lovely blossoming tree.

Back to the ship and after depositing our newest treasures had a lovely dinner. The routine aboard was pretty much the same every day. After dinner we would go for the next days activities talks and then have some form of entertainment in the lounge if we decided to stay for it

. 

8 April 2017 - Day 8 Trip - Day 6 Cruise - Wurzberg

The morning was so lovely and  the river was calm and like glass we saw swans in the sunlight on the river.  We divided into our groups, we were 39C, after breakfast and got on buses to go to the bishops residence for our tour of the day. 

We arrived at a large parking lot to an even larger building with beautiful gardens with paths past     flow

 
flowering trees and lots of statues and fountains.

 We were not allowed to take photos inside the residence but did really enjoy all the beautiful rooms. Inside the library is wonderful and the games room ;with all the mirrors was fun. We did buy some postcards  in the gift shops on our way out. We then went into the town of wurzberg  with lots of church and markets ad the statue of the man tied up sitting on the stairs looking up to heaven. Supposed to signify the everyday troubles of man.  We continued on past more lovely buildings into a market square with more churches, the easter market in town was lovely and they had al the side streets decorated too.

We went into several churches one we almost interrupted an ongoing easter concert  but we ducked out again and came in a different door so as not to disturb them. 

We had a glass of wine on the bridge going over the river to catch our bus. I sprinkled mom and dad in the park right beside  where we were waiting for our bus, over a wall into a park below beside the river. Hope they like it there.

back on the bus and to the boat in no time. We put our newest treasures away and went for dinner with Judy and Bob. There were usually 6 to 8 people at a table  and every night we ate with some new couples.  

After dinner to the lounge for our talk about Bamberg the next day and some entertainment. To sleep with markets and churches in our dreams.

7 April 2017 - Day 7 Trip - Day 5 Cruise - Miltenberg

In the morning there was a glass blowing demonstration  by a German fellow and when asked for a volunteer to taste jaegermiester, I volunteered. It was not that bad really. I thought that that was all I had to do but I was rewarded for my bravery by getting to blow  my own glass ornament. It was very fun and he even offered to give me a whole bottle of Jeagermeister which I promised to share with the entire ships passengers but when he gave me the tiny bottle I told the audience that I would not share. It was a lot of fun. I the showed everyone my glass ornament. 

We then had lunch and when the ship pulled into Miltonberg we loaded onto buses and went on ur walking tour .Milton berg is very cool in that it has lots of medieval buildings. Lots of shops with signs to show what they sold -  bread, chocolates, candies, pretzels, beer. We tried to get into the giant for a beer but did not succeed in our mission. We did however find some lovely souvenirs in the small sjhops around the town. Even though it was grey day it was a cheery town. The main square fountain was all decorated for easter. 

We wandered down a small street and fund a fountain of three men peeing in the water the washrooms were loaded right there. We sprinkled Mom and Dad in the pansies by that fountain. We then wandered back to  square with fountains in the middle of it. And of course I had rt try and walk through without getting wet. Back onto the bus and then back to the boat which had moved to the other side of town so that we were further down the river than when we had gotten off. 

A quick visit to our room to put away our treasures of the day and off to dinner with new folks at a new table.  We met Leslie and Barry who were from England and quite funny. 

6 April 2017 - Day 6 Trip - Day 4 Cruise - Koblenz and Marksberg castle

 In the morning it was grey and rainy. We were  moored in Koblenz at a lovely park but we did not go into it. We walked with our tour guide past a few nice gardens and buildings to our waiting buses. Marskburg castle is up the hill not far from Koblenz 

We got off the bus and walked up a little bit more of a hill and gathered in the courtyard for someone from the castle to open the door with a big key. We had a tour guide from the castle and it was very interesting. The initial entryway was very rough broken cobblestones with stones pointing very way and missing completely so you had to be very careful how you walked but after the initial 100 feet it was pretty safe walking . 

It was a very cool old castle with arrow slit windows and spectacular views of the river from the top of the hill where  it was situated. We walked around the outside of the castle and then the inside. I sprinkled mom and dan in the rosemary bush in the narrow herb garden. There were Tin mines down the valley. There were crests and cannons and a very large kitchen with a huge fireplace. Narrow little laneways in-between buildings, upstairs , downstairs, bedrooms with great tapestries and stoves in the corners that were lovely. This castle also boasted an indoor bathroom which was very posh in those days. 

The oldest door in the castle was at least 1000 years old. There was a whole room filled with suits of armour from over the centuries. Back outside into the narrow lanes and into the torture chamber with its tools an accruements 

Our tour done we headed back to the ship for lunch . The remainder of the day was spent on the river viewing old castles and small towns, one old castle up on the side of a  hill was now a boarding school. The siren in the river warned sailors of dangerous rocks and bends in the river. The train tunnels were all decorated to look like castles so that they would not be bombed during the war. The most dangerous part of this stretch of river was a blind bend  so it had a lighting system so that captains would know if someone was already in the turn of the river.  There were beautiful vineyards terraced up the sides of the hills and little towns nestled into the valleys between the high hills some very interesting buildings , some of them in the middle of the river.

There were ruins of castles and castles in need of repair. There were churches of all sizes and names we could not hope to pronounce.  Beautiful little villages with medieval looking buildings. The smaller villages of Germany were not targets during the war so they were spared the bombing s of the large cities and all that history was saved. It was a lovely river afternoon with lots of vineyards and castles perched in the rocks.

Dinner came and we sat at a table of new people. Getting to know some of the people on the ship was interesting. There were mostly folks from Canada, England, and the US but all walks of life. We met dairy farmers from England and Canada, there were lots of retires folks too. After dinner we went for the talk about the next days activities and then there was music by the Russian couple played and she sang or she played and he sang. We went to bed.

5 April 2017 - Day 5 Trip - Day 3 cruise - Cologn, Cathedrals and Chocolate

We woke up and it was a  nice day but windy. We had a lovely breakfast and collected in the main atrium to go on our separate walking tours.  We were 39F, the older slower group. 

We headed up away from the port where we were docked and our tour guide told us about the history of the area and its buildings on our way to the cathedral of St Stevens. The entire area around the cathedral had been levelled by bombing during the war, the train station was located right next door and so that made it a target. The cathedral however was spared somewhat except for the side facing the train station. It was beautiful inside with lots of medieval art and artifacts. 

We then moved on to the old town past a museum of old roman artifacts including a large intact mosaic floor on display through windows. Luckily there was a washroom there so we all took advantage of that. We proceeded to old town with its Ratskeller building which its its town hall, there is a clock in the square with the carving of a mans face and supposedly he stuck his tongue to at the top of the hour. 

 We continued through the narrow streets back to the river and followed the river to the cruise ship where we said good bye to our guide. He was very good and did not keep us too long in any one place.

 Margie and I wanted to go and see the Lindt chocolate museum just down the river a bit so we went there and we enjoyed the history of Lindt with lots of old chocolate machines and pots for hot chocolate. we bought some for family and ate some of the schokoladen ourselves. We saw the biggest easter bunny I have ever seen and the machine where they made thousands of chocolates an hour. 

We went back to the square to see and had a hot chocolate waiting for the carving of the mans face to stick his tongue out but he did not, I guess he did not work anymore. he was still cute in his own way. 

We then wandered around and found a small pub the “Kastellsgafbchen” where we ordered a beer. It was good. We then walked back through the main square and down to the river and there was  a church with bells going on and a large crowd enjoying it. Back on board ship we put our treasures of the day away and went for dinner which was very good.

4 April 2017 - Day 4 trip - Day 2 of cruise - Kinderjyk - Amazing windmills

The morning sun drifted through the mist on the river. A few Canadian geese swam on the other side by the green bank and the ship got ready to pull up to the dock. After breakfast we all gathered in the main foyer and after docking  we left for our walking tour of Kinderjyk. Initially We could not see too much, but as we climbed the small berm or dyke and came to the top we could see windmills in the distance through the mist in the sunshine. The view was stunning.

It was still and quiet and absolutely beautiful. there was a single crane fishing in the water on the other side of the berm or dyke as our tour guide told us that the windmills were used for a few different purposes. One of the main uses for windmills was to pump water out of this low-lying area into a the river so that the farmland around it would not flood. it had been this way for at least two hundred years.

Our guide told us of the 2 new pumping stations and the mayor of the town and the old windmills. Even though they had now installed a newer updated pumping stations to remove the water and maintain a lower water level than all the old windmills could accomplish all together , many of the the old wooden windmills were still in use today. 

There was a lovely long walk along a canal which showed off all the 19 windmills at varying distances. The ages of the windmills varied with the oldest and the farthest way, being from the 17th century.  They were each made from either stone or wood. Our tour guide stopped at one that was fairly early on our walk and showed us how the mill owners would control the sails from the outside of the mill by climbing up onto a platform and using ropes, pulleys, wheels and wind speed and direction. 

We went into one of the mills with our tour guide explaining all the ins and outs of operating a windmill. It seems that people, whole families in fact, used to live in the mills. I never knew that or if I did I had forgotten it. Inside the mills were many small rooms on different levels, Small built in beds in the "bedrooms", dining rooms and kitchens  with stoves, small tables, chairs and cupboards on the main floor. the workings of the mill were all mixed up together with the living spaces and it would have been a very different lifestyle they must have led compared to ours. Parts of it were rather dangerous, I thought, and damp too, but it was so interesting.

I can imagine that it must have been very noisy when the mill was turned on though. We read a lot of the little information cards in each room about the building and the actual families that lived in the mill. A lot of kids sleeping in the same small beds. Cooking in the little kitchen must have been difficult for the parents even though they had china cabinets and stoves and all the modern conveniences of the times.  


After our tour of the windmill we "milled around " the mill taking photos of giant wooden shoes and of the other windmills further along the path. then we headed back to the ship. It was such a nice morning, sunny and warm with the few trees on the dyke in bloom with lovely white blossoms.

The walk back seemed longer than the walk to the windmills... but probably as we were busy looking at the dyke itself and the ducks and the  whole area. There was one spot where you could get framed in a photo like national geographic, but we did it backwards and so were in front of the frame.... still a nice photo.

 the ship was great to see and the day was only half gone so after lunch on board we went above deck and watched the scenery of Holland go by. a lovely dinner with very nice people, different ones tonight and then to  the lounge for the show of music , piano and singing. we did not stay late but hit the sac early. A lovely day.