Cruising Day - Main River with stops in Miltenberg and Wertheim

We left the Rhine River yesterday and entered the Main.  The Main River has low bridges so the sun deck is now closed.  All the chairs and umbrellas are down.  They even remove the railings.  The Main River has at least 34 locks.  Seems you are always going through a lock.

We were up early so had tea and coffee in the lounge until the dining room opened.  Sat with Bob and Kathy from Arizona and then Peter joined us.  Debbie sleeps in but she did come down before we all left.  Bob is a former Captain on the Lindblat Cruise Line.  Before that he was in the Navy for 20 years.

This morning we will be sailing on the Main.  We arrive in Miltenberg at around 11 am and will only be here for 2 hours or so.

The Main is filled with locks.  You enter the lock and the gates close behind you and the water rushes in to equal the level at the front end of the lock.

Just one of the churches along the river.

Miltenberg is picturesque with its main street lined with adorable half timbered houses.  We did a walking tour with Marie-Noel.  She was our guide.  Originally she is from Switzerland but now lives here with her husband.

Our entrance to the town.

The streets are all cobblestone and hard on the legs and feet.  But the buildings are beautiful and just what you expected.

Notice that the  floor between the first and second story is sagging.  The roof line is straight but not so on the next level.

One of the oldest houses in the town.  Was completely restored last year.

Just another home in the town.

The center of the square has a fountain in it.  Story is the stone mason who was in charge of building the fountain ran out of money.  When he asked the Mayor of the town for more money, the Mayor said no.  So he finished the fountain but the one little boy is mooning the house where the Mayor lived.

Notice the one little boy facing in while all the others face out.

After the tour we had some free time so we visited St. Martin Church and St Jackob Church.  They are both Catholic but very different inside.

This is the interior of St. Martin Church.  Very traditional.

The old pulpit.  They have closed it off and do not use it anymore.

The statues over the entrance to the church.

These are the two towers of St. Jakobus Church.

This is a side chapel in St. Jakobus Church.

The front of St. Jakobus Church.  Much different from St. Martin Church.

The organ in St. Jakobus Church.

We did some window shopping and found that Hello Kitty is world wide.  She is everywhere.

We were walking back to the ship where we looked back and saw the fortress up on the hill.

Here you can see the fortress.

We walked back to the ship in time for lunch.  We sat with Chung and Susan.  They are high school friends.  Went to PS63 in New York.  Chung still lives in New York but Susan has moved to Seattle.  They vacation together ever year or so.  This is the first river cruise.

The dining room on this ship is not set up properly.  They have six booths in the center front of the room with three on each side.  Each booth sits 6 people.  Breakfast and lunch is buffet style so to slide in and out in not convenient.  Plus, you can't see both sides of the windows.  With river cruising you are always passing something interesting.  At any rate, the dining room seems much more crowded than we had on the Vantage and the Vantage had more people.

We stopped in Freudenburg to drop off the tour groups.  Bob and I decided we would stay on the ship and nap.  We went through two more locks this leg.  We will pick up the groups in Wertheim.  We will only be there for 15 minutes, so we will miss it.  Both Bob and I thought it would be similar to Miltenberg.  Will find out if we made the right choice at dinner.

We continued on the ride and went through more locks but one time we shared the lock with the Scenic Ruby.

While we were sailing along, this water skier drove by.  We did not expect to see this.  The weather is still fairly cool but he was wearing a wet suit.

Dinner tonight is in Eriebnis Restaurant.  They have two different menus there.  This is the menu for week one.  If we like it, we will have to try it again for week two.

We sat with Rita and Ahmen from Ireland.  They have been married for 51 years.  They have not traveled very much in the past except they have been to the USA.  Dinner was good but Bob did not eat all his fish.  He said his was dry.  But a nice experience.

After dinner we returned to the cabin to read and lights out.  

Rhine River Sailing and Rudesheimer - Updated with pictures.

This morning we are sailing down or up the Rhine.  We are passing lots of castles.  Bob is up on the top deck taking pictures and I am in the lounge doing needlepoint and looking out the windows.  Will post pictures later.  It does take time to upload them after Bob edits them.

This is the only castle I have the name for.  This is Oberwesel.

In order for the tunnels not to be bombed during the wars, they were made to look like castles.  This kept them safe.

All of the above are castles along the Rhine River in Germany.

The hills are covered with grape vines.  Makes great wine.

More of the same.  So much to see along the way.

So the morning was quiet.  Worked on the blog but the internet is terrible on this ship.  It works when it feels like it.  Same with the TV.  Not sure what is going on.

Lunch was just a salad and ice cream.  We docked here in Rudesheimer where we boarded a cute train to take us to the center of town.  We wanted to take the gondola up to the Germania Monument but was told there were no more tickets.  But the papers said no need to sign up, included for everyone.  I was annoyed to say the least.  So we just decided to walk around this cute little town.

The cute little train that took us into town.

We stopped at St. James Church.  The oldest part of the tower dates back to the 10th century.  The parish church was founded in the 12th century.  In 1719 the church was totally renovated.  In 1766 the Romanesque church tower was given a bulb shaped top (onion dome) and a baroque high altar was built.  In November of 1944 the church was largely destroyed by heavy bombardment.  It was completely rebuilt after the war.

The tower of the St. James Church.

Front of the church.

Inside where it was really cool, temperature wise.

The rear of the church.

We continued walking through the town and stopped for some little shopping.  We then walked back to the ship.

On the way back, we saw a cute little family of geese.  And then I decided to touch the Rhine.  While I did that, I touched the Rhine dirt as getting up is much harder than getting down.

That's me touching the river.  Also getting Rhine mud on my pants.

Just enjoying a nice sunny day on the shore of the Rhine.  We do not know what kind of goose this is.

Taking the family for a swim.

This tree was planted in 1890.  The base is huge as you can see.  That is our ship in the background.

Back on the ship, we napped and worked on the blog.  The internet is so slow that I get tired of waiting.  Need to find a nice Starbuck's and upload some more pictures.

Dinner was the "Confrerie De La Chaine De Rotisseurs" dinner.  That is some special award given to cruise lines.  AMA is the only river cruise line to be inducted into this society.  Big deal but we do not think the food or service is so outstanding.

We sat with Kay and Marilyn from New Zealand.  They are traveling without their husbands.  Nice ladies.  And I had the lamb for dinner.  Finally got my lamb.

Back to the cabin to work on the blog.  But most of what I wrote did not get saved so I am putting it all in today.  Oh well.  Will add pictures later.  When you read update in the tittle  it means I have added pictures.

Cologne, Germany- Updated

After a great night sleep, we got up and dressed for breakfast.  Today we sat with Kathleen, Grace and Craig.  They are from Connecticut.  I think Grace is Kathleen's mother. 

We are on tour today but we cannot return to the ship until 6:30pm.  Something to do with cleaning of the ship by local people.  Everyone, including all the staff, need to be off the ship in the afternoon.  The staff do not know what they will do during the four hours they are banned from the ship.  What a mess!

The lock system is different on the river.  This was one of the many locks we passed through.  The gates go up and down and not side to side like the Panama Canal.  Very interesting.

We were in the yellow group and our leader was DD.  A young man with many political views which some we shared and others not so much.  I think someone told him to cool it because at the end of the day, he said he was not to be so political. 

We started with a walk into the city of Cologne. Walked by the river and viewed a train bridge that was distroyed during the war but they were able to pull it out of the river and reconstruct it.  So part of the bridge is old and held together with rivets while the newer part is rivetless. 

The supports of this bridge were destroyed by the Allies during WWII.  But the steel structure stayed together but in the river.  After the war was over, they rescued the steel structure and rebuilt the bridge. There is part of the new bridge which is not made with the rivets.

A new tradition is for the newly married to place a lock on the bridge.  Now there are thousands of locks of all sorts.

This is only a front of an old building.  The rest of the structure was destroyed but whoever decides to rebuild the building must keep the old front.  It is being held up with supports.

This is the tower of town hall.  The tower is a symbol of the Cologne citizens' sense for freedom and self confidence.  It was built in 1407 - 1414 as a symbol of power after they usurped the rule form the patrician families who had been in power until 1396.  The tower was almost completely destroyed during WWII.  It was reconstructed in 1958 .

In the square which used to be a fish market, we found this statue.  The four women are representing the fish caught in the river.  Actually there were only three kinds of fish so the 4th woman is crying because she has no fish.

The spires can be seen from all over Cologne.

They started building the  Cathedral in 1248.  It was never destroyed during the war because the Allies used it as a landmark.  The structure dominates the skyline of Cologne.

The inside is just beautiful.  One thing this Cathedral has that other do not is pews.

All of the stained glass windows were removed during the war.  Only one did not make it so they replaced it with this very modern window.

The floors are beautiful mosaic tiles.

The above is the Altarpiece of the City Patrons by Stephan Lochner.  The Central Panel is the Adoration of the Magi.  On the left is Ursula Wing and on the right Gereon Wing.

We ended the walking tour at the Cathedral.  Wow what a place.  It is too bad that it is so dirty but they have not had success in trying to clean it up.  The soot and all is now embedded in the stone.  We walked around the Cathedral for about 45 minutes and then had a few minutes of free time.

We gathered for lunch in a German Restaurant with typical German food.  Bratworst, etc.  And of course, beer.

Next we got on buses and drove out of the city to visit Schloss Drachenburg Castle.  Up there you got a terrific view of the Rhine River.  We wandered about the castle and took the cog train both up and down.  Then back on the buses and our return to the ship.

This is the cog rail that takes you up to the castle.

And here is the castle.  Can you imagine living in such a space?  I can't.

The view of the Rhine is wonderful.

This is some of the detail of the castle.  I love the tongue.

The gardens were in full bloom.  Nice to see the colors.  I think Gretchen would love these flowers.

More of the gardens.

 This is the center staircase.  I look little because this place is so big.

Dinner was with Stephen, Nancy, Peter, and Debbie.  Peter likes to talk about himself.  He sort of takes center stage.  Oh well.  I think the food is okay but Bob thinks he has had better.  I think we expected better than we are getting.

Back to the cabin and bed.