Amsterdam

I am getting very behind on these so maybe need to shorten them a bit. We are having a great time with so much to do!

We completed the river cruise in Amsterdam. Sailing the last bit was rather dull, both weather and sights as we entered the main shipping areas and competed with barges carrying up to 72 containers. Yikes! Eventually we docked and were off on our last day of sightseeing. We chose a bus and canal boat trip with a bit of a stop for free time right in the historic area.

First a canal cruise, battling with a closed roof and rain to get any photos. In general the gorgeous Dutch architecture with tall, narrow houses with stepped or curved gables, multiple bikes at every available place, including bike parking stations floating on the canals, houseboats licenced by the city and pretty bridges that lifted or curved.

Bike parking barge	Houseboat with garden
Bridge pier	Van Gogh type bridge
Nemo museum	Seven bridges in a row

Then we were dropped at the floating flower market, multiple shops stocking both tulip bulbs and huge bunches of tulips, 30 for E8 plus multiple other plants for window boxes and gardens. I don’t think Australian quarantine would be amused if I brought them back and I didn’t really want to carry them for 9 weeks anyway.

	Backs of the floating markets

A bus trip followed around the major sights. The traffic in Amsterdam is horrendous; un-coordinated traffic lights meant we stopped every 100 metres or so. It helped somewhat to orient us to the city but the only thing I clearly remember was the windmill a little outside the centre. Oh dear! It was a night to pack and say farewells.

Well, it fined up for a bit

Thatch on the windmill looks a bit like a face

Off the boat at about 9am in grey and windy drizzle, to our B&B room overlooking a canal on the edge of the red light district. It was an excellent location for sightseeing, getting the laundry done and finding reasonable meals. http://velvetamsterdam.com/ Breakfast was brought to the door in a hamper and was more than adequate and host David was very helpful.

View from our window

The highlights, the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum. We arrived early to the Rijksmuseum in steady rain and more or less went straight in. The crowds inside were totally unregulated and clustered in tour groups in front of the major works for long periods. We never did get close to the Vermeers. The Rembrants were magnificent and the detail in The Night Watch and similar were extraordinary. How to get that much shine on satin or filigree on lace? As we left the queues, even for ticket holders, were lengthy and well out into the rain.

Detail “Night Watch”	Detail “The Jewish Bride”
Detail	The library of the museum: a work of art in itself

This was our experience the next day for van Gogh. We stuck it out and got inside to fine a surprising gallery, full of detail and curatorial aspects as well as the art. Like the Irises should be purple and yellow, not blue and yellow. His red pigments faded really fast so purples became blues. Alas, no photos allowed.

We saw a few ladies in their windows which I hated. Didn’t try the coffee shops. Despaired at the groups of hens and stags rowdying through the streets, had a few good meals including Dutch asparagus, huge white stalks with egg dressing, exceptionally tender and tasty. Didn’t get to the Keukenhof Gardens because of the rain so no fields of tulips, though they would have been mostly finished anyway.

Verdict: Interesting and some major highlights, but wet and cold and bad for Nick’s chest. Sorry Amsterdam!

Next stop: Belgium

Cologne

Today on the ship was rather about planning disembarkation tomorrow; lots of colour coded luggage tags and all very organised. Kudos to our tour director who has done a fabulous job. Turns out it was her first river cruise as director.

After lunch we docked at Cologne, a city with a skyline of churches. Unfortunately cold, damp weather was set in and was to remain with us for days after. But off we went on a walking tour. It seems the city has been plagued with floods and the old flood wall no longer managed to hold out the waters, with two massive floods in three years submerging large parts of the city, so much so that people have taken to flooding their own basements with clean water to keep out the filth of the dirty river waters.

So a new barrier has been erected where upright metal poles are dropped in and horizontal panels slotted into place. Whether it will stand the weight of a big flood remains to be seen.

Much of the city has a patina of grime, not helped by the dull, wet day. The city hall has impressive spires and porches to demonstrate the city wealth; the cathedral was the highest building in the world before the Eiffel Tower and is in the perpetual process of being cleaned and renovated, a job for life. But it all just looked a bit miserable and grey.

Cathedral spires and train. The king dictated that the first thing one should see when alighting from the train was the cathedral. And it was done

Town hall spire. A modest little thing.

We were introduced to the original Eau de Cologne which is not 4711. Apparently the original was by a Mr Farina and there was dispute over the use of the name, eventually solved by the second company adopting its street number as a name. I tried the original Farina product and found it quite musty smelling, though many famous persons had used it and still do.

There are a few quirky sights around Cologne.

Bubble man

Bum; it seems to be pointed at the town hall

UPS, big or little parcels our speciality

After leaving our guide Nick and I visited the cathedral. It is too tall to photograph without distortion from the outside. It has great Gothic spires and a soaring interior, literally lifting the gaze heavenwards, as intended. Unusually, it has hanging tapestries down each side of the nave and the ambulatory behind the altar has amazing mosaic floors (which for some reason I didn’t photograph).

The high point is the golden reliquary of the three magi, supposedly holding their bones. The reliquary is indeed beautiful, though I see the contents as a bit akin to current internet scams “Have I got a deal for you!!!”

There was a magnificent Maesta (Virgin in majesty) and a particularly beautiful crucifix with a very lovely face, as well as several typical German gold altars which could be folded and carried.

Side of the cathedral	Nave	A beautifully robust St Christopher
The ancient crucifix		The Three Magi reliquary behind the main altar

 

On one of the altars a lovely annunciation diptych

 

Nearby was a museum of Roman remains, built there because an almost intact Roman mosaic floor had been uncovered. There is a deal of Roman archaeology throughout the town which is being uncovered and restored. It seems to really bring home just how large their reach was across Europe.

For us, back to the ship and the farewell cocktails and Captain’s dinner. He is a very young captain to be in charge of so much boat, but he did a magnificent job, steering safely through the Loreli where legend has it sailors were lured to their deaths by her seductive singing (actually a very narrow and shallow part of the Rhine with sharp bends) and rarely bumping the sides of a lock despite almost no room; the blue is the boat, the grey is the dock, photographed from above.




Tomorrow: Amsterdam and the final day of the cruise

Rudesheim and the Rhine Gorge

Rudesheim is apparently one of the most visited towns in Germany. It is tiny so I am not sure why, except perhaps that it is in the middle of vineyards and has numerous bars and restaurants and would make a nice place to visit on a summer day.

I think we stopped there to position ourselves for an afternoon cruising the Rhine Gorge with its spectacular castles and walls set in spectacular scenery, often with vineyards running vertically down to the water or more rarely, along painstakingly walled terraces.

The town itself is only a few blocks deep and comprises lots of picturesque half timbered houses, lots of hotels and lots of tiny, charming bars and restaurants. It is famed for its coffee in which brandy is set alight on sugar cubes, then drowned in coffee and topped with whipped cream and chocolate. You sure don’t feel the cold after that.

Street of restaurants

The famous Asbach coffee

We chose to visit Siegfried’s Mechanical Cabinet housed in a gloriously old, topsy turvy house. Here is a true labour of love; mechanical instruments from all over the world restored to play again. Everything from a hurdy gurdy to a Steinway Grand player piano which reproduced the playing of the individual artist exactly. Plus instruments that sounded like complete orchestras and the oompah of fairground merry-go-round music. Most were controlled by perforated paper or cardboard or metal discs with pins. Our guide was a charming French woman wearing period dress and hat, plus gloves so she didn’t damage  the machines, who herself looked like she could have been a restored mechanical woman. Unexpectedly wonderful!

Siegfried’s mechanical Cabinet	The player Steinway	This played by mechanical disk
A full orchestra	They are real violins played by the circular bows	A fellow traveller tries a hurdy gurdy

Then the gorge. I will not try to remember which castle was which, let alone the times they were built or destroyed. But it was all like floating through a fairytale scene. Some examples.

Gorgeous castle	Walls and towers
Ship shaped fortress in the river	Goethe, the oldest boat on the river, a paddle steamer

That evening we were invited to Schloss Namedy  to dine at the home of Princess Heide von Hohenzollern. They were a branch of the same family as the Kings of Prussia. The Princess has a castle to keep running and in the best tradition of the bossy lady of Country House Rescue, she has discovered that using the castle for weddings, meetings, musical soirees and APT cruise dinners is a way to get much needed funds. So that is what she does. Apparently she has contracted for 80+ of these dinners for APT this year, poor lady. However, she very graciously greeted us, allowed us to roam around some of her home and fed us dinner in the hall of mirrors, along with some very good piano interludes from what she terms “the upcoming young masters”, pianists of outstanding talent who are rising in their field. Nick and I led the procession into dinner (mainly because we happened to be closest to the door) but it did allow us to choose the best table.

Courtyard of the schloss

The welcome: one should always have someone to greet one with champagne on arrival	The red room
Dinner with the princess	Our master pianist

Food was medium to good, surrounds were lovely, service far too slow so we all wanted to go home to the ship by the end. But still, a lovely evening.
Next: Cologne

Miltenberg May 6, 2014

This pretty little medieval town was our stop today. Many of the houses are half timbered above street level, though it flooded so often that it was decreed that all houses should be of more substantial stuff at street level, such as stone or brick. These days they have arrangements to close access through the river walls to prevent flooding in the town itself.

The place is famous for a priest who, in 1960, rang the full peals of bells for 20 minutes to drown out a rally of the far right National League. Charged with preventing freedom of expression, he was eventually found guilty and fined, but the villagers paid his fine and he was “removed” from his parish to become assistant bishop.

From the city gate at one end of the main street, through the narrow town hemmed in by river on one side and hills on the other, to the church and market square at the far end is probably no more than a kilometer and almost every place is ancient and gorgeous.

Entry gate

Maypole

Main street

There are, of course, the ubiquitous signs advertising the goods sold below. Some of the oldest are on the shop fronts themselves, a double headed axe for the butcher for example. I don’t know the significance of the inclusion of the Star of David on the two hotel signs.

The statues on facades and corners have been lovingly restored and the date of original construction is often shown.

1581	Virgin and child

There is a large hotel in town. Legend has it that the builder asked the local bishop for 100 trees to build it and it has a curious resemblance to a ship. Our guide thinks it was built by a shipbuilder, perhaps put out of work by the fall of the Armada. It has housed kings from time to time, the last being Elvis, who visited for a drink when stationed nearby.

Note the curved line of the building

and the rear looking like the back of a galleon

The market place has a fine well and several magnificent houses, as well as the unprepossessing church. Many important buildings were in a local red stone (quarry owned by the bishop of course) and it is a not particularly attractive look; rather dark and dour as seen in the bridge.

Market square houses

The gatehouse and bridge

 

Next stop: Rudesheim, cruising the Rhine gorge and a Castle for a dining spot.