Author: aapalmers@icloud.com

Monday 11th September
When we awake this morning we are gliding into Wurzburg, Bavaria, a much bigger city than Wertheim of about 130,000 people. A city of spires, domes, minarets and steeples. This is a very old medieval city, origins that go back into the mists of time. Christianity was brought to these parts by the Irish in 686, three monks a long way from home brought the word and are still revered today. The wine industry goes even further back to 500BC, there is evidence suggesting that the people from this area traded wine with the Greeks. Much, much later the city suffered heavily in the bombing raids by the British close to the end of the Second World War. 

The river is calm but adjacent to us waters spill over a rocky ledge that runs along the rivers edge for some distance. A big advantage of the river boat system is the ability to dock right in the centre of town, it takes but just a short walk from the docking berth and you are right at the heart of the city. No ocean liners can reach this deep inland, cruising a river is a completely different experience. Outside our window the sky shows splashes of blue but dark clouds are not far away. The temperature today will remain cool, maybe 16, 17c-62, 64f. 

After breakfast in the ships restaurant, we prepare ourselves for the day ahead. First a tour of the Bishop-Princes residence, a short coach ride to a huge palatial building almost the size of Versailles in France. Apparently his previous residence didn’t stack up for an important man such as his station commanded. The first corner stone was laid in 1720 but the “Residence” wasn’t Completed until 1781, by which time the Bishop-Prince who started the construction was long gone. Prince-Bishops started in Roman times when a secular leader was appointed instead of a roman commander, the Prince-Bishops then made all the regional decisions, but were answerable directly to the emperor. The interior designs are phenomenally over the top, baroque style, using only the best materials and artisans they could find from all over Europe. 

The entry way has two huge doors so that your horse drawn carriage could enter, drop you off at the base of the huge staircase and then exit the other door in a u-turn, all under cover. Once on the staircase you proceed slowly as the steps are designed in such a way as to slow you down and mount the staircase in a elegant fashion. As you look up you see the largest fresco ever painted, on the ceiling above, showing the world view as they believed it, Franconia as it was then saw themselves as the natural inheritors of the Roman Empire, the seat of all learning, arts, mathematics and power. The rest of the world is depicted as a savage place, Africa, the Americas and Asia. Australia just didn’t get a Guernsey in those days. Just the painting of this fresco alone took two years to complete, then there was extensive plaster work and marble sculpture, all this and we haven’t even moved passed the foyer. Then comes the waiting room where you might enjoy a glass of the local Riesling, all elaborately decorated beyond belief. Next the reception room where the Bishop-Prince would receive you, or the emperor if he was in town. But yes there is more, a mirrored room, made entirely of mirrors all hand painted in exquisite detail. Remarkable in that all the mirrors shattered in the bombings and had to be painstakingly reconstructed, talk about seven years bad luck. In total the residence has 400 rooms, hidden corridors allow servants to move around unseen with firewood to stoke the massive ornate cast iron stoves that openings face inwards towards the wall cavity, ingenious. Napoleon Bonaparte stayed here three times and so did Queen Victoria and Consort Albert but just the once. 

Finally though the building met a sticky end when the British bombed Wurzburg, destroying a good part of the buildings internal structure, fortunately they missed the roof at the front of the building and the frescos where saved. The building is now rebuilt but still undergoing internal renovation.

Then there are the gardens, we would have loved to spend more time looking around them, but guided tours wait for no man or woman. 

We move on by foot to the market square for a brief orientation of the town centre then we are set free to do our own thing for the rest of the afternoon. The skies look threatening one moment, then are sunny the next, the locals tell us summer is over, fall is on its way. We stop for coffee and a German sandwich of olive ciabatta, filled with cheese, sliced tomato and spicy salami. Then move on intermittently shopping for some essentials and sightseeing, a light sprinkle of rain sends us into a shop. Then sunny again we move on, then while in another shop a downpour, then clear blue skies above and we can move on for more sightseeing.

 Many of the buildings here where flattened a huge cultural shock to the country, but those that could be are returned to former glory. A medieval picture of the town I found showed how the town looked at that time, before the town was named even Wurzburg the towers and spires built then are still very evident today. The town is surrounded by vineyards that run down into the Rhine valley, even the castle, known as the Marienberg fortress, sitting high in the hilltop over looking the town is complete with its own almost vertical vineyard. 

Before we leave the town we take a quick walk partly over the bridge that leads to the fortress, erected in 1473 to replace a Roman bridge, the bridge is well known for the statues of saints or important people in the history of Würzburg such as the statue of Saint Nepomuk or the one of Saint Fredericus reminiscent of the Renaissance period. You can also see the statue of Charlemagne who was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in the year 800. The statues of the three Irish saints that brought Christianity to Wurzburg, Kilian, Kolonat and Totnan are also evident. An unusual local phenomena takes place on the bridge, there is a small wine seller at the bridges starting point, locals buy a glass of wine then proceed to promenade across the bridge, stopping here and there to sip and take in the river view upstream and downstream. Also here are lovers padlocks locked onto whatever can be locked onto indicating a lovers pact, fortunately there is not a lot of space for this, as I think it detracts from the ancient craftsman ship of the stone bridge and sculpture work. 

From here we descend the stone stairs to the river level with Mike, a fellow traveller who we had coincidentally met on the bridge, to make our way back to the River Duchess where she is berthed just a short distance away. Back at the ship and the end of the afternoon we are quite pleased, we have picked up some warmer clothes to cope with the cooling weather conditions in this part of the world, it is still a couple of weeks before we fly to Singapore where the shorts should make a come back.

A quick break and the cocktail hour is upon us along with our presentation of tomorrow’s events. Then to dinner, tonight’s fare is hors D’oeuvres, a tiny plate of anti pasta, vineyard escargot, Sauerkraut soup, and salmon. Amanda has the chef make her a grilled chicken Caesar salad, that they are more than willing to do and very well pleased she is with the result. The wines are nothing we recognise, local of varieties, a Silvaner white wine and Zweigelt red wine. Both interesting to try but not really to our taste. 

Another early start tomorrow, so well satisfied we make for our beds, we sail late tonight around midnight, no doubt to encounter more locks through the night as we move ever close to the Danube where we switch from upstream to downstream. 

Sunday 10th September
The morning that greets us today is beautiful, we have docked in the early hours at a small hamlet called Ferudenberg, when we draw back the drapes it is to shimmering sunlight on a calm river, reflecting puffy white clouds from the sky above. 

Below a bridge behind us two white swans swim lazily towards the ship, to check us out. The sounds of silence are all there is to hear when we open the balcony doors, just peaceful serenity. Behind the bridge sits a hillside of pointed pines dotted with deciduous trees just starting their seasonal colour change. In the midst of this a round castle turret flies two flags, further up the hill another square taller turret, part of the same castle built from local red stone, stands watch over the river below. In front of us the morning sunlight shimmers off the water leading the eye towards a river bend. A three quarter moon sits clear and bright in the blue sky above, the wind has dropped off from yesterday leaving a brisk but calm morning. 

We have stopped to pass through a lock just around the next bend, taking the opportunity for some braves souls to disembark with bicycles to take a bike ride to Wertheim our final stop for the day but still a few hours away. Around the bend we pass through the Lock, a fascinating experience, the gate opens, we glide in with less than a meter/3′ and 3″ on either side. The Lock gates close behind us, ahead of us the lock begins to fill with foaming water, as the water pours in the ship is raised almost imperceptibly higher and higher until we are all raised above the lock wall. The gates ahead of us open and we sail out into a channel that takes us through to another part of the Main river. 

We continue to float on serenely, hamlets and castle ruins pass us by, church bells ring in the distance calling the faithful to prayer. Sunday morning on the river peaceful, serene. Somewhere a German version of Mr Toad and Ratty are sunning themselves in tiny deck chairs on the riverbank, while Badger and Mole are napping underground after Sunday lunch. The landscape is engulfing me, time to wake up stop dreaming as we pull into Wertheim for our next scheduled tour. 

The dream continues, brightly coloured ginger bread buildings dating back to the 1500’s surround us as we walk into the market square under a low archway that once was tall enough for a horse carriage to fit through. Is this Alice in Wonderland territory or should I wait for the newspaper taxis to appear at the shore. The plasticine porters with kaleidoscope eyes are looking at me, is your audio device working sir? Ok let’s begin the tour.

This Rhine town floods a lot, so much so that doorways are covered with markings indicating the levels the flood waters have risen to, going back to the 1500’s. The archway we entered the market square by is only low because the river silt from flooding kept raising the street level until it is what it is today. The market square is full of pop up stalls, selling beer, wine and food, the Germans love a festival if there isn’t one then they create one. The cobbled stone market square is ringed by buildings that originally held all the guilds of the town, the coffee shop is still a coffee shop after 300 years, the bakers are thirteenth generation bakers. The town has a centuries old glass blowing tradition although we couldn’t see any of this today. 

This was a Protestant town with Catholics on the other side of the river in Bavaria there were often disagreements. Churches here date back to the fourteenth century, the castle that overlooks the town from upon high originates from the Twelfth century. 

Our brief tour of this magical town comes to an end, we return to our meeting place to catch buses for a walk in the woods, now we are back in faery land, or more precisely Hansel and Gretel territory, there are wolves in those woods we are told, I grab hold of grandma, you have to look after grandmas around these parts. A short bus ride over the bridge that fords the Main river here, also acts as the border between Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria then we arrive high in the hills over looking Wertheim. We reach our destination a dense forest that we are encouraged to enter, we walk along a gravel path, little creatures scurry away from us as we approach, is Mr. Wolf glaring at us with red hungry eyes from behind a nearby tree, eyeing off the grandmas in the group? We walk on finally emerging from the forest, following hand dressed moss covered dry stone walls made from the same local red stone, that stretches for hundreds of meters, part of a terracing project that goes back hundreds of years. The remains of old orchards rise above us and are visible below, In places we can now see the vineyards rising almost vertically above the stone wall in front of us. 

We keep walking leaving the forest behind, eventually coming upon a little bit if suburbia that leads us to a winery where we are to experience some local wines and eat some local pretzels. Usually I would think beer with pretzels but today wine will be the drink of choice. The vineyard is apparently a working one, specialising in hand crafted wines, made from hand picked grapes that grow high in these terraced vineyards that no machine could ever pick. We take our seats in a modern covered open structure opposite a very old barn now housing a couple of stainless steel fermentation tanks. The vigneron introduces himself, his family has made wine in this district for many generations, he invites us to try some of the wines. We are given one empty average size wine glass each, the first wine poured is a large helping of sparkling Prosecco. Next we meet the baker from the town, his family has baked here for thirteen generations, he is a humorous man to say the least, and begins to tell us the story of how pretzels are made. He introduces us to his son a nine year old, who demonstrates how pretzels are rolled from the base dough then twisted and folded to form the pretzel shape, after this a volunteer guest is invited to make one. He then opens up the floor to questions and so through a question and answer process we learn in a very humorous way all about the origins and making of pretzels. The baker is a natural comedian, with great timing, if you ask a question or answer one correctly your prize is a pretzel. The vintner jumps in occasionally to describe the next wine, each time a full glass is poured as we go through a Pinot Blanc then a Riesling then a red wine similar to a Pinot noir. All the time the dialogue between the vintner and baker is hilariously funny. This was no tasting every one agrees, more like a comic relief show with drinking. We switch to sharing a glass to try and slow down the intake a little. The afternoon speeds by the suns appearance is a welcome addition to the day, with the 45 minute walk here we are all certainly warmed up.

From here we return to the River Duchess and our pending presentation followed by dinner. Tonight our choices are an egg salad or a pot pie appetiser, the pot pie served in a small glass container. A soup, followed by sliced veal shank or breaded ocean trout, both served with carrots and broccoli. We opt for cheese to finish as the red wine being served tonight is worth continuing on with. Another Dornfelder red, light almost of a Pinot noir quality but a little more body, but very easy drinking, that just leaves you wanting more. Mike and a Pauline again join us for dinner tonight, between us we enjoy all the dishes although I must say my trout was still swimming on the plate, in just a little bit too much olive oil for my liking.

Once again the tables are cleared around us and we need to depart for our beds as tomorrow tours start at 9.00am.

Saturday 9th September
The River Duchess docks in Frankfurt early this morning, after traveling east since leaving Rudesheim, a distance of 196 kilometres, we have set our alarm as the tours start at 9.00am. Outside it is still dark as even the dawn seems reluctant to start the day. Through the rain spattered windows we can see from reflected light that it is wet, the asphalt walkways that line the Main river at this point are shiny with moisture. During the night we left the Rhine River and connected to the Main river, that will connect us to the Danube in the coming days. As dawn finally breaks we can see that it is not going to be a pleasant day to be walking around today. Ever hopeful we dress and go to breakfast, we have docked in downtown Frankfurt this part of the river is a linear park, trees and lawn line the pathways along the river banks, there is a lot of movement in the trees indicating a substantial breeze. The rain continues to fall, we decide not to partake in a tour today, if the weather improves by the afternoon we can walk to some points of interest not far away. We have visited Frankfurt before, really another big city so we don’t feel, as if we are missing much. Our cruise director Bence informs us that the locals are calling the city “Mainhatten” as the ever increasing skyline is looking more and more like New York.

A little about the River Duchess, these river boats are long 361ft/110 meters and thin 37.5ft/11.43 meters wide. This one carries at maximum 130 passengers, there are 109 on this cruise and a crew of 42. Bence informed us of the nationality make up last night, 55 Americans, 43 Australians, 8 Canadians, 2 Brits and 1 Swede. Built in 2003 to expand Uniworlds fleet of vessels she was refitted in 2012. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all served in the large dining room at the rear of the vessel in one sitting, breakfast is a combination buffet and table service, while lunch is a buffet and dinner a complete table service. The decor is opulent, I think French, marble floors, rich patterned carpets in the staterooms, French style furniture giving the feel of a floating palace. Our stateroom has gold padded embroidered walls, with matching curtains and bedspread. Tiny but compact with everything you need and every space utilised to maximum advantage.

 The bar lounge at the front is big enough to seat all the guests, has a small centre stage and piano. Plus of course a large very well stocked bar.

From here we sail again through the night and tomorrow morning south to Wertheim under apparently some extremely low bridges. The ship has to be prepared ahead of time, by lowering any protruding devices, antenna, radar even upper deck furniture has to be removed as apparently the clearance is only a hands breadth, going to be interesting. 

Cocktail hour approaches and we make our way to the lounge, the Rudesheim Riesling we enjoyed last night is the featured wine tonight another glass seems like a good idea. 

The day has brightened towards the evening, still cool but the rain has disappeared for now. The evenings presentation begins as we cast off and begin our journey, now south towards Wertheim. After a relaxing day we have decided to eat in our room tonight, trying to take a break from the onslaught of delicious food and catch up on some news. Dramatic skies lay ahead of us, the sun slowly sinking in our west creates reflected light patterns in the sky and on the river to our north and south of us. The river burbles away beneath us, the only sound a watery blop ka blop, blop, ka blop the sound that glassy waves make as they bounce against a ships hull. 

We pass through a lock, the concrete walls of which are so close as we pass through that you can literally touch them, although we have definitely had strict instructions not to open the stateroom doors and try.

We rise to the next level and move on further towards our next destination as the night closes in.

Friday 8th September
A brisk morning greets us this morning, the skies are grey, out on the river there is a stiff breeze. We hurriedly shower, dress and individuality make our way to breakfast, me leading the charge as I want to get top deck for the photos this morning. We have cruised through the night from Cologne, at about 8.30am we will pass Koblenz into a 30 kilometre zone that is known for its extreme beauty. The snaking Rhine river flows through steep sided valleys green with vineyards and natural vegetation. A mix of castles from long lost era’s stand guard over the landscape. Some mere ruins, some still breathing life as homes, tourist museums or hotels. After my quick breakfast, I rug up, and head towards the upper opened deck. We are cruising right down the centre of the Rhine at this point, the wind is brisk to say the least, continually changing direction as we follow the winding rivers course. The sun is still low in the sky giving little warmth as it struggles to break through the cloud. When it does the light thrown over the river is like polished copper rippled by the ships bow wave as it pushes the water gently outwards. I start to catch glimpses of the first castle and the camera starts clicking, trying to deal with the ever changing light conditions and the whipping wind. We float on through a fairyland of castles fit for a Rapunzel or even a Cinderella. Through green valleys of terraced vineyards and magical medieval buildings and homes. Our cruise director as set up the communications devices we all have and is running a commentary, Amanda joined me and is listening in while I am clicking away. The wind increases, the sun disappears behind the steep hills as we turn, those brave souls in short sleeves and shorts soon disappear, to appear later more appropriately dressed. The sun rises enough that the hills are no longer a competition, but the cloud cover increases, leaving only the suns ghostly image shining through. The stewards hand out hot chocolate laced with liquor to ward off the chill. Not wanting to partake of alcohol this early in the morning we stick it out but eventually, the time comes when the cold drives us inside for a hot beverage. 

We sit inside in the lounge and watch the scenic towns one by one appear and disappear as we pass them by bound for Rudesheim. Rudesheim is famous, mostly for wine, Riesling to be exact, Riesling is planted as far as we can see and is the speciality grape for this region. 

One after the other the colourful pristine medieval towns on either side of the river pass us by and we arrive at our destination. Here we are met by a blue and white train, not dissimilar to Thomas the tank engine, but on road wheels not a track and with a big Mercedes logo where Thomas’s smile would normally be. We board the train or rather the carriages and we trundle off to the centre of Rudesheim. Our chosen excursion today is The Niederwalddenkmal monument located in the Niederwald landscape park, accessible by a ten minute chairlift, overlooking the valley of the Rhine and was built in the 1870/80s to commemorate the Unification of Germany. The structure is massive at 38 meters tall or 135ft. With some trepidation we take the chair lift, the wind buffets us as we take off above the vineyards, forcing me to remove my hat in case it should blow away and float towards  the Rhine their to float forever back downstream from whence we came.

Our tour guide is again informative, not only about this regions history but also its wine industry. One particular winter speciality is a coffee drink invented here, sugar cubes, soaked in brandy are set alight then topped with hot espresso coffee then topped again with whipped cream and chocolate flakes, sounds good to me. The drink can also be adjusted for summer just add ice cream instead of whipped cream and let it cool.

We take the chair lift/gondola back down to the town where we have a few moments to wander around, first stop the beautiful Christmas shop, full of locally made Christmas decorations, carved wooden figures that represent Christmas themes, plus the odd made in china one no doubt. Here we do buy a small Father Christmas that is actually an incense burner but the detail in the locally made figure is beautiful. We move on, working our way back to the meeting point. The cute little alley ways are now starting to fill with people, at every turn there is a hidden restaurant, tables set ready for dinner service. In the meantime people are enjoying wine tastings from small cups served from open windows or ice cream from the many flavours available at a nearby stall. We reach the meeting point just as the little train arrives to pick us up and take us back to the ship, all aboard the road train winds its way back down to the river and back to the River Duchess’s docking point.

We don’t have a lot of time once back on board to relax, the usual presentations for the following days events take place around 6.30pm in the lounge bar over cocktail hour. While Amanda settles in to read a little of her latest novel, I download the days pictures of which there are many for review. 

We have had an invite to dinner in the covered area of the upper deck tonight, one of only twenty couples, the chef will prepare and cook all of the food for the meal in front of us in this space. 

The cocktail time comes around pretty quick, dressed for dinner we make our way to the lounge. Tomorrow we are in Frankfurt, we have chosen a “do as the local do ” walking tour. The cruise director Bueunos from Budapest informs us of our options and the surrounding points of interest. We dock right in the city centre with all the city points of interest within a 15 minute radius. The bar service manager Maria from Romania informs us about the wines available for tonight’s dinner, then we are off to the restaurant venue. We are seated with two other couples who are seasoned travellers, retirees like us they spend a good deal of their time travelling. One couple are from Seattle in the US and the other from Perth, Australia. The Perth couple are on their third cruise this year and have one more to fit in before years end, now that’s traveling. The evening is an enjoyable one, the venue though not good the sound from the twenty guests all talking at once bounces of the steel and glass making it very hard for conversations. At one point smoke fills the room fortunately the canopy above, we discover is moveable as the crew slides it back to allow the smoke to vent. The meal is a set menu, first a long glass plate with four indentations, providing room for four different tastings, a tiny cup of soup, a prawn sitting in a garlic aioli, a twirled conical dob of salmon mousse and a fried cheese ball with cranberry sauce.

This is followed by a creamy wild mushroom risotto then the main course of beef strip rolled together with bacon moistened with mustard, to make a meat roulade. This accompanied by a double baked potato and carrots. The wines are from the local area, we had brought with us from the lounge bar a local Riesling, we had heard a lot about this regions riesling variety today and wanted to taste a drop out our earliest convenience, the wine we had served to us was very good, not wanting to leave a half full glass it came along. We tasted the Pinot Blanc, that was the recommended wine but was not to our liking, however to match the beef dish was the local red wine variety Dornfelder, this is a locally produced dark-skinned variety of grape. Created by August Herold at the grape breeding institute in Weinsberg in the Württemberg region in 1955. The wine was outstanding, full bodied akin to a Cabernet or Merlot but lighter in style than at home. Dornfelder wines are typically velvety textured, slightly floral, often show flavours of plums, blackberries or cherries, this one no exception.

Our table is the last to break up as the others had drifted off to the lounge for entertainment or to their beds. Finally though with the tables cleared around us we feel obliged to move on. We decide to make for our bed as we have an early morning tomorrow for our Frankfurt tour. 

Thursday 7th September
The grey skies have continued, a small slither of sunlight filters through the cracks in our curtains from the east as dawn banishes the night darkness waking us up. Imperceptibly we have glided down the Rhine river overnight winding our way upstream around the many bends and out of the Netherlands and into Germany. Breakfast is first on the agenda, the brochure says sumptuous and that it is. With just about any food type you could desire, even an omelette chef making fresh omelettes to order while you wait. We continue our silent gliding, the ships engines barely perceptible, one feature of the room which is great is the so called “French balcony” this allows fresh to flow in through the open sliding door. Düsseldorf is the first town we pass through an old River port town, I have visited here in my past working life, as this town is the the location of huge medical products fairs held every year. This time though we are sailing through on our way to Cologne, arrival around 3.00pm where we will take an afternoon tour. The temperature remains cool around 15c as I write this.

We glide into Cologne, the mammoth outline of the enormous cathedral dark against a grey sky. From the top deck we watch the docking procedure as we tie up parallel to the high river walls, then access the river pathway directly by an access ramp to the ship.

We have decided on a walking tour of Cologne that takes in the Cathedral and then moves on to the nearby modern art museum, named Ludwig’s museum after Peter Ludwig a chocolate billionaire endowed 350 works of art to the then the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in 1976. The endowment then valued at $45m included works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, the city built a new museum to house the works that now has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It also features many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

This my third visit to the cathedral, it is still an enormous edifice that took hundreds of years to complete at one point in history the building works stopped for three hundred years and then began again. Now undergoing restoration work, the city is trying out different techniques to preserve and restore the blackened and crumbling stone for future generations. Consequently scaffolding is everywhere, reminding us of the famous Barcelona cathedral, the La Sagrada Familia that was also under scaffolding when we were there. Come to think if it even the Capitol building in Washington DC was covered in scaffolding when we were there, at least Big Ben wasn’t this time!

Inside though all is pretty much without change probably for centuries, the gigantic vaulted ceilings must have astounded anyone who came to see the building. Congruent with the internal scale, enormous stained glass windows bring in light adding to the eerie ambience of the main chamber. We wander around looking at the ancient religious relics and tombs of past bishops and other leaders. This is a Catholic Church so would have links to Rome, the town originally a Roman settlement Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, a name that was bound to be shortened, first to Cologne, then to Kuln as the locals now call it.

The name Cologne of course became synonymous with perfume, when under Napoleon, Cologne was part of the French empire. The famous 4711 brand created in the early 18th century by Johann Maria Farina (1685–1766), an Italian living in Cologne created a fragrance. He named it Eau de Cologne (“water from Cologne”) after his new home. Apparently these where stinky times.

We have listened to our tour guide as we move around Cologne and now we follow him to the Ludwig museum. After he leads the tour around the gallery he announces that he will leave us and that we can make our way at or own leisure back to the ship, a few of the group think he is joking but after we descend the architectural staircase to the ground floor he disappears. Although the German modern art he pointed out to us wasn’t to our taste, he was obviously a well versed student of art as his knowledge of these paintings and their apparent meaning was deep. The one painting I enjoyed the most was a Picasso portrait of an actor dressed for the part of a jester in harlequin outfit and partial makeup, very striking.

Our way back to the ship is through the cobbled streets of Cologne, that wind around parallel to the the Rhine.

Take any narrow alley to our left and you are back on the river. All around the memories flood back of our last visit here, much later in the year and colder. Comparing the pictures from 1994 and Cologne now is interesting indeed.

Back on the ship, we have to prepare for the captains gala dinner tonight, first the presentation of the officers and department heads then the dinner, one of the two formal dinners of the cruise. We make it just in time for the presentation, dressed in our finest evening outfits brought along all this way just for the cruise. Champagne and canapés greet us, the personnel are introduced by the captain dressed in a white dinner jacket and black tie, a humorous fellow, with his German accented English and vocal tone one can’t help thinking Arnold Schwarzenegger, or if your Australian Mathias Cormann, as portrayed by our countries comedians.

The presentation over, we make our way to dinner a five course affair, prawn cocktail, mushroom soup, chicken vol-au-vent, choice of sea bass, or veal chop, dessert of thick chocolate mouse, presented as a cube with mango sorbet on top and a twirl of hard mint chocolate. German wines to match a fruity Sauvignon Blanc and a Cabernet Merlot. Mike and Pauline, fellow travellers we met the previous night join us again for dinner.

There is to be entertainment in the lounge after dinner but dinner doesn’t end until 10.00pm so we decide give that a miss. An early start is needed tomorrow as we pass through one of the most scenic parts of the Rhine from around 8.30am, littered with castles, picturesque villages and vineyards.

Wednesday 6th September 
The rain has persisted over night leaving wet shiny cobblestones on the pathways below our hotel window. We have a late check out around midday giving us time for a leisurely breakfast before finalising our packing. The breakfasts are good here catering for all tastes, we still find it fascinating the variety of food people do eat to start the day. Breakfast over we return to our room and open up the windows looking out over the canal, buildings in Europe do tend to build up heat in summer becoming ver stuffy. The scene outside is quiet, mornings tend to be so, then slowly as the day reaches late morning the cafes and restaurants start to fill with lunch time crowds. We have made some observations about the people here, they are very tall, we check the statistics with Mr Google and sure enough Dutch males are the tallest on average in the world averaging 6′ or 180cm the other statistic is that the society is not as multicultural as the other countries we have visited and sure enough again according to Mr Google Dutch ethnicity is 79% of the population. With 17 million people in 41,543 km² there is not a lot of room for expansion. Compare that with Australia at 7.692 million km². 

We watch a little TV trying to catch-up on any news from home, mostly though a another potentially catastrophic hurricane, this one named Irma is heading into the Caribbean and has the worlds news attention. The hotel Pulitzer, is a great place to stay, fairly central in a city that is walkable or bike-able if you so incline. The name Pulitzer of course refers to the famous book prize of the same name, in 1960 Peter Pulitzer (grandson of Pulitzer Prize founder Joseph Pulitzer) saw great potential in the beautiful but dilapidated canal houses of Amsterdam. He purchased twelve houses along the Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht canals and created Amsterdam’s first five star hotel, references to books can be found around the hotel in subtly placed artworks.

Time arrives for us to depart, we checkout, our taxi arrives and we are off again in search of the River Duchess, we have the address a meaningless jumble of letters and numbers, (Ruijterkade oost IJRO6) hopefully this means something to someone, the concierge was most optimistic having seen many a traveller off to the same address, however it’s a little daunting especially when our Turkish driver asks us in very broken English where we are going and doesn’t appear to have any idea. We show him the address and his eyes light up, thank goodness. Actually the ride is a very short one, into the same district we canal cruised a couple of days ago. River boats are lined up double parallel to the docks, we spot the River Duchess tucked in behind another boat before the taxi driver does. We pull up, and alight, the driver helpfully wheels our suitcases right to the foot of the boats on ramp. Just a little incline, as the entry point is not as far up as it would be on a cruise ship and we are onboard and checked in. Just as well, as the wind off the river is chilly indeed, the coldest we have experienced since leaving home, now nine weeks ago. 

We have arrived about 1.00pm in the afternoon our rooms are still in the preparation stage, estimated time of entry around 3.00pm until then we retire to the lounge bar for a coffee and tea, happy to be inside as rain drops start to appear on the windows overlooking the river. On the opposite bank sits a building a modern building twenty stories high, above the cube of glass and steel sits a circular glass floor and above that again sits another square floor that is diametrically opposed and cantilevers over the circular floor below, on top of this a glass balustrade and within this space there are two giant swings that apparently swing out over the river, giving riders a nerve racking view of the river below every time the pendulum swings over the glass balustrade. In my picture of the building you can just see the swing in the topmost right hand corner. 

With nothing else to do except watch the river traffic, while the lounge slowly fills with passengers awaiting their room keys, that is how I fill my time while Amanda is hungrily devouring another book opposite me. A giant ocean cruiser the MRC Magnifica completely fills our window view as it glides by, the sheer scale of the ship highlighted when it’s bulk blocks out the buildings on the opposite bank as it turns following the curve of the river towards a passenger terminal closer to the city. 

A little later than suggested we are finally shown to our state room, stately it may sound but tiny it is. The bedroom is dominated by the large bed that faces out towards the water, we have a little dressing room and surprisingly a very large bathroom. Our valet, knocks on our door and introduces himself as Valentin, he shows us the rooms features and benefits that include a fully loaded bar, all included. Amanda is anxious about the laundry service, that too is included and picked up everyday, perfect. We unpack and as we do so the boat silently takes off from the dock, so quietly we don’t even notice it until objects on the bank opposite that shouldn’t move are doing so. The sensation is just of gliding silently along with just the most tiniest amount of rocking movement. Our stateroom has a so called French balcony that opens up allowing the outside in, the smell of the water and surrounding air combined with the floating sensation is wonderful. We have to assemble with the rest of the passengers in the lounge bar at 5.15pm for a mandatory safety briefing, this is conducted by our German Captain, Michael Hoffman. The briefing is carried out in an entertaining way, the Captain able to convey both the funny side and serious side of the safety and security briefings, keeping everyone focused on the message. 

As darkness falls we adjourn to dinner in the restaurant, the dinner menu has a variety of ingredients featured, I decide on mussels, out of their shells in a light broth, followed by grilled Plaice, a locally caught flat looking fish. Amanda has roast poussin (a very small chicken) with cauliflower, broccoli and carrots Both meals are beautifully presented and delicious. The wines a Pinot Noir and a white that is a blend of six varieties, served so quickly, then whisked away that we didn’t have the opportunity to identify them completely. We share our table with a couple from the Albury Wodonga area, enjoying conversation involved around family and travels, a very pleasant evening that all too soon sees us back in our room to be lulled asleep by the strange sensation that floating along a river in the middle of the night brings with it, and so into our river of dreams we float looking forward to tomorrow and the city of Cologne, Germany.

Tuesday 5th September
A gloomy day today, perhaps a taste of normal weather here in the Netherlands. I check the temperature at 9.00am and surprisingly it is 18c, not to bad, High will be 20c not a lot of variation. When we do venture out after breakfast there is no wind, maybe a very slight breeze coming off the canal. We are off to the Dam in “Amsterdam”, the central plaza that was the site of the original damming of the Amstel river and the origins of the cities name. All around the central plaza are magnificent buildings, typical of most European cities. We are heading for the Royal Palace, that originally started life in the 17th century as the cities town hall. The plaza or square is actually a rectangle about 200 x 100 meters of cobbled stone. Currently it is occupied by horse drawn carriages that will take you for a clippity clop tour of the area. 

Other than those, you can also find Batman, the Grim Reaper, a fellow in a golden suit apparently levitating in some magical way above the cobble stones and various other characters out to make a buck from the tourist. As we cross the plaza towards the Royal Palace one of the characters entertaining the throngs of visitors lets loose a wave of bubbles that float into the air and rise above us. 

The Royal Palace is still used by the current King Willem-Alexander, Queen, Argentinian born Maxima and their three daughters, Catharina-Amalia (heir to the throne), Alexia and Amelia. Apparently although the Palace is always kept in readiness for their use, it is not used as regularly as Buckingham Palace in London. The family preferring to live on their estates in Wassenaar about 42 kilometres south along the Dutch coastline. 

The main essence is that the Palace was originally the cities town hall and was built in 1655 on thousands of wooden pilings, that also form the foundations for most of the buildings in Amsterdam that are now lopsidedly sinking into the earth below them. The exterior stone was brought from Germany and the interior is constructed of sold marble. At the time the building was the largest in Europe. Amsterdam had four mayors in those days, the building held all the administrative staff they needed to run the city, accountants, tax collectors, judges, marriages where conducted there as where executions. This was truly the centre of life in Amsterdam at the time. Probably the most artistic merit goes to the intricate marble sculptures and reliefs found in all corners that took Artus Quellijn and no doubt a team of stone masons fourteen years to complete, the details phenomenal.

 The crowning glory though is the statue of Atlas high on the wall of the central hall overlooking three circular intricately maps of the worlds eastern and western hemispheres and the northern hemisphere night sky, inlaid with marble, ebony and brass the works show a map of the world as the Dutch saw it in those days. Australia is called New Holland and is joined to New Guinea, the tip of Tasmania beautifully drawn but joined to the mainland and named Terra Diminis, after Van Dieman, the Dutch explorer who was first in those waters. The Dutch were a major sea power in those days and had accumulated great wealth through trade with the Far East. 

It wasn’t until much later in 1806 after the fall of the Royal house of Orange and Napoleons brother Louis was installed as Louis the 1st of Holland that the town hall became a palace, then in quick succession his son Louis the 2nd of Holland took over. They both made a good many improvements to the Palace to make the building more liveable as it was reputedly an extremely cold draughty place to be in winter. One of the largest collections of empire style furniture still exists here in the palace to this day, commissioned by one of the Louis Bonaparte’s. The Palace briefly became the private home of a French governor who took over when Louis the 2nd fell from grace, only to be ousted himself when Prince William VI (son of Prince William V of Orange), returned to the Netherlands in 1813 when the building again became a royal palace and has remained so ever since.

All of this and more we gleaned from our audio tour after we purchase tickets and pickup our audio devices. Technology again, this time the devise doesn’t have so screen and you don’t need headphones, you simply point the devise at the point of interest station as you walk around and then hold the device to your ear like a mobile telephone and the narration begins. You can press a button for further information on works of art or move on to the next veiling point. All in all it takes us two hours to walk around and admire the Palace’s first floor, as a working Palace there is a lot though you don’t see.

Back out onto the streets we head for the nine streets district, so named because this grid of three rows of three streets equals nine. The narrow streets cross the canals that pass underneath, and age lined with smaller, almost tiny copies of the larger merchant houses that line the canals. They once held the homes of the services and trades people, now they are full of quirky little shops and restaurants. We just wander around taking in the atmosphere, the city is full of people, thousands of bikes line every street and every canal, amazingly they never seem to diminish. At one point we find ourselves in a market area that is selling flower bulbs by the thousands, of course tulips are the main bulb, but others like narcissus, snowdrops, carnations, violets, peonies or orchids are all there on what are supposed to be floating stalls, but it’s hard to tell that they are floating from the street front. You can also buy Marijuana starter kits in cans, this is Amsterdam after all.

We stop to take the occasional photo gradually making our way back towards the hotel. Amanda spots a barber and sends me in for a clip. Euro$27.50 later I am a little light headed, how much if I had hair I wonder! The day has warmed up just a tad, but now a light rain is beginning to fall, so we hurry back to the hotel that is now just a few minutes away. We decide to have an early dinner in the hotels bar bistro as it is now late afternoon, they actually make a great cheeseburger, that and a glass of rose and we are feeling done for the day. Besides we have to pack again tonight in readiness for our transfer to the river dock area where we will pick up the River Duchess, to begin our fourteen day journey along the Rhine and Danube rivers tomorrow. We are both excited, this is a totally new experience for us, one we are really looking forward to.

Monday 4th September
The weather gods are looking after us, brilliant sunshine greets us this morning. We have two planned, booked events today so we need to move our tushes, hustle our buns so to speak. Breakfast here at the Pulitzer is exhaustive, but we can’t dally, we do need to stoke the bellies with a quick meal before a busy morning and early afternoon. Our first appointment is the Van Gogh museum, I say appointment because the museum is so in demand that you have to book online at a designated time slot, the museum allows you only a 30 minute leeway in which to be late, after that you are shut out. We are due at the museum/gallery at 10.00am and the walk takes us parallel to one of the western canals, then south still following another canal until we cross over the Singelgracht a major canal that flows into the Amstel river, that then flows directly into the centre of the city of Amsterdam itself. According to Miss Apple this will take us about 28 minutes. We set off, constantly stopping to check our directions as our Australian voiced navigation takes us down streets and alleyways, unpronounceable to us and clearly just as unpronounceable to our guide, but she has a good shot at it. All the while we keep to a narrow pathway dedicated for mere walkers, while cyclists whizz by at a rate of knots in their dedicated wider lane, ringing their bells to startle you or to warn you of their impending approach, we are not sure which. Bicycles take all forms, small, large, some with passenger or goods trolleys out in front of the front wheel, others with kid seats in front or back. All ages cycle from one spot to the next, this is Amsterdam city centre, by far the easiest way to move around is by bike. There are 1.5 million bicycles in Amsterdam compared to a population of 800,000. This is not a car friendly place. As a pedestrian too, you have to be very careful, the many bicycles approach from every direction, charge out of alley ways seemingly without looking, the main aim it seems is to be in whatever place you want to be first. We wind our way around to our destination making good progress, quickly correcting our steps if the little man on the screen oversteps his mark. We arrive at our own specified time slot exactly on time, although a little hot, the day is sunny but still cool, the walk has heated us up. Once inside the museum we pickup our audio tour sets and proceed to look around. Like the British Museum, each item or painting is numbered, instead of typing the numbers one simply rotates a virtual dial on the audio set screen to select a number, then press play and listen. We take the approximately 90 minute “Explore at leisure tour” that starts on the first floor and extends to three levels. 

There are 200 Van Gogh paintings and even more drawings and sketches also a few by Paul Gauguin, a friend of Vincent’s but also an antagonist of sorts. The ear incident for example, sparked by a disagreement with Gauguin. A few points of interest about Van Gogh we hadn’t realised, his love of the Japanese style of painting, its simplicity appealed to him immensely. He painted the famous Sunflower painting five times keeping each version. In a year from May 1889 to May 1890 while a voluntary patient at an asylum at Saint Remy, Provence, France he painted 150 canvasses.

It takes us the full 90 minutes and more to take in all the works and listen to the stories about them, he wrote about his painting and sent the writings in letters to his brother Theo, some of those words are reproduced on the audio we listen to.

The time approaches for us to move on, we have booked a canal cruise, on the wooden canal boat owned by the Pulitzer at 1.00pm. We set off again using Miss Apple as our guide, she takes us on the scenic route, it’s all very scenic really. This time though we are directed towards the Holland Casino, then down on a pathway that takes us along the waters edge, this looks like a pleasant walk but our path is blocked after a short way and we have to retrace our steps due to maintenance works. We are conscious of the time and reroute ourselves, now having to pickup the pace somewhat. We finally connect with the Princengracht canal that takes us all the way to the Pulitzer. We arrive with just a few minutes to spare, just enough time for a comfort stop and we are on the platform waiting for the little boat named “The Tourist” to set sail. This little wooden boat was originally built in 1909 and has spent a good deal of its life plying the Amsterdam canals. The boat has a painted white hull, varnished timber window frames, with windows that slide down to open up the boat on days like today. Inside is small but plush, lots of varnished timber and brass with a beveled glass doored liquor cabinet. Padded seats on varnished bench seats are fit for a Queen and Prime minister, as it indeed was when Winston Churchill and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands toured the canals in her, after the defeat of the Nazis in 1945. In those days the little boat had a diesel engine, now fully electric it still plies the canals in a more ecological friendly way. 

We float around the canals for another ninety minutes, looking up at the street scenes, the narrow houses, three or four stories tall, standing at attention like soldiers that have stood on parade for hours and are now a little wonky. 

As we travel down the canals, permanent floating homes line the waterways, many have made their homes here for years, now they are allowed to stay but no new ones allowed in. The boat homes are in various states of repair or should I say disrepair. Some loved and cared for, some slowly dissolving into the brackish water around them. Now permanently anchored and immovable, they all are now property to be bought and sold, average price for a permanent water view euro$300k. 

We pass by a junction where you can see bridges line up ahead of you like a never ending reflection in a mirror. 

One part of the canal system takes us into the “Venice of the north” here the canal waters lap against the sides of buildings just like in Italy. Then we emerge out into the wider waters of the Amstel River, modern buildings and architecture front the wharfs of this waterfront district, a completely obverse and surprisingly refreshing side to Amsterdam city centre.

 Travelling back into the old canal system we find somehow we must have completed a loop, we are heading back down the Princengracht canal back to the Pulitzer’s dock and the end if our tour. 

The Pulitzer is situated on a corner between two canals, they occupy about four building facades on both canal facings and the interior spaces that run through the middle. Consequently the interior is like a rabbit warren, full of corridors and steps that change from one level of a building to another level of what used to be an adjacent building without you even realising. A central courtyard takes up some space in the centre of the complex, partly covered by glass passageways and dining areas and partly open for summer use. We make our way to the rear of the building where the restaurant “Janz” is, outside there are chairs and tables setup against the canal, so that one can enjoy a snack or drink from the bar, with a water view. We take a seat and order cappuccino’s, the coffee is good here, plus a Dutch version of bruschetta, not quite as the Italians would do it but enough to fill a gap until dinner tonight, inside at this very restaurant. 

After our break we decide it’s time to relax awhile in our room before dinner. 

Dinner time rolls around once again, I must admit I like the formality of it all, dressing for dinner and making an occasion and celebration of our night out together. 

The hotels restaurant, sits on a corner alongside a canal and a bridge that crosses over it. The long twilights are not only an English feature the days ends here linger on too! We are seated and I order a glass of champagne for us both while we discover the contents of the menu. The waiter suggests some oysters to go with the champagne, I order just two for me, as Amanda is not a fan, and we continue our menu investigations. We order a salad of beets, fennel, small squash, watercress sprouts, and a green vegetable, with a conical shape made up of tiny florets that tasted like raw cabbage (in a good way) with a puréed goats cheese and balsamic vinegar dressing to share and our main course, a lobster risotto. In Australia we think Lobster, expensive, but here, as in the US and England Lobster appears on the menu often and is not anymore expensive than say beef or lamb. Nowhere near the same size as at home though, but still tasty.

Along comes the salad but no oysters yet, I ask after them, they are coming I’m told. Meanwhile cyclists are still whizzing by the window, their hair flowing out from their heads, no helmets here as they make there way to where ever they are going.

We order a glass of Chardonnay in anticipation of the risotto that arrives with out delay but still the oysters are illusive. Our salad finished the table is cleared, ahh! the oysters are coming. I linger over the last drop of champagne, that the oysters would have loved to be part of but the lobster risotto arrives instead. I enquire again about the oysters, the waiter is surprised obviously having no idea that oysters had a part to play in this scene. I cancel them anyway, they’ve missed their opportunity for a starring roll. We resume our meal, the risotto is in a word fantastic, creamy and full of the Lobster flavour. We have had two waiters and two servers, they have not talked to each other all evening. Having finished our main course we are quickly offered dessert, yes we will take a look at the menu, but give us a break, let us finish our wine and digest our dinner just a little. The break extends on and on though with no dessert menu, until we ask for one. We choose some ice cream, chocolate for her and pistachio for me. The first waiter that offered up the oysters now puts two glasses on the table, we look at him, he quickly jumps in, some dessert wine for you sir, on the house, since we stuffed up the oysters, it appears the table behind us enjoyed them immensely. Behind the scenes some communication has occurred.

The night ends on a good note as I discuss the style of dessert wine with the waiter that has has served us, red, sweet and French very unusual, I have only had this style in Australia, more of a vintage port style, he doesn’t know the grape variety but it is good. We enjoy our ice cream and then return to our room to recharge for another day tomorrow. 

Sunday 3rd September
Early morning rise our ” I do like to be beside the seaside” alarm fades in at 6.00am rising to alarming levels, forcing us out of bed to shut the thing off. Once up we start the day, the pink haze of dawn lights up the sky outside our window. 

No time for breakfast, we sleepily ready ourselves to depart, checking out at 7.30am then waiting for our ride to arrive. The black Jaguar XJ arrives right on time, the surly driver jams our suitcases into the trunk/boot and we are on our way. Early Sunday morning blues, that’s my diagnoses, the driver puts the foot to the pedal that then hits the metal and we are off like Lewis Hamilton in a Grand Prix race. Sunday morning has its advantages less traffic for one. We sped along making very good time, once again crossing the beautiful old green painted iron work of the Hammersmith bridge with its gold embellishments, and horse shoe shaped gateways. 

We arrive at Heathrow airport in plenty of time, the British airways terminal alone is huge and seems quiet until we pass through security and into the departure gate area, where there seems to be thousands of people travelling somewhere. Luckily we have a lounge pass and can hole up there for a while, grab a coffee and something to eat. Our flight doesn’t have a gate allotted to it yet so we need to keep our eyes on the flight board. Some of the gates can take 15-20 minutes to walk to, but our flight does not leave until 11.45am, plenty of time to relax. We finally are allotted a gate that is only a five minute walk away. We board and take off, leaving the UK for our next adventure that begins in Amsterdam. British airways serves us a quick meal of a duck salad, very fancy but quite nice, before we are into our descent to Schiphol airport. As we fly in across the coastline we can see the towers of the army of wind generators as they rise out of the ocean below, blades rotating at full swing. When we land there is no wind, only sunshine and blue skies with scattered wispy clouds. We switch to our Australian passports, all the electronic passport entry ways lay idle with big red crosses on them. Technology has failed, that means a queue a mile long. The border control guys are just breezing through the ID process, just glancing at the passport photos and then at the faces and waving people through at a rapid rate. Are you here for the Metallica concert the agent asks me as I pass through, absolutely not is my reply. Once through we struggle through the enormous wave of travellers to the not to clear meeting point, our driver is there and soon whisks us away in his black VW station wagon, that seemingly smaller than the Jaguar swallows up our bags easily. The freeways take us quickly into Amsterdam, there it becomes more interesting as we share the narrow lanes that run along the canals with the hundreds of cyclists that are peddling madly along to where ever they are going on this Sunday afternoon. The cycling does seem frenetic, definitely we are going somewhere, this isn’t a leisurely Sunday pedal about.

With much dodging, weaving and ringing of bicycle bells together with the occasional near miss we finally reach our destination the Pulitzer hotel right on a canal. Annoyingly our room isn’t ready on our arrival and we are shunted aside with the offer of free tea, coffee and Internet services. That does placate us for awhile as we plan our next day in Amsterdam and I enjoy a great cappuccino coffee. We are out of merry old England now so the tea, err, not so good. Eventually after 90 minutes, feeling a little forgotten we check on our room, it’s ready, damn customers they always get in the way of ones day! We make our way to the room through a series of covered glass corridors that join several narrow building together to form the hotel. The room is great, on the second floor overlooking a canal, with a bridge to our right, over which endless cyclists pedal. Rows of stationary bicycles are locked up forming a line along the railings over the bridge. The canal itself is lined with small boats, wooden, steel and probably a combination of both, while larger tourist hop on hop off boats painted red or yellow cruise the canal in front of us alongside all manner of pleasure craft, clearly out for a Sunday drive, all creating a very colourful scene before our very eyes. 

We unpack enough for our limited stay as the sun goes down the lights come on outside lighting up both canal and street. The light from street lamps and signs along with the orange bulbs strung around the bridges stone arches throw a shimmering reflection on the water creating a magical scene. Tired From our relatively early start we order some room service tonight, fish and chips, Dutch style, the fish of unknown variety had a white translucent flesh encased in a crispy batter, tasty and melt in the mouth but the chips, well fairly ordinary. After Hawaii we shouldn’t order this dish nothing can compare. A glass of French Chardonnay tops off the meal. We catch up on some world news, the mad north Korean is still playing at war games while Texas floods are slowly subsiding.

Another day draws to a close, as we travel further east losing another hour in time. It’s later than we think as we turn the lights out on another day.