Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

November 13, 2019

This morning we had a walking tour of Koblenz, which is where the Rhine and the Moselle rivers meet.  We were actually docked on the Moselle although when we left we made the turn back onto the Rhine.

At the confluence of the river there is the famous horseback statue of the King of Prussia and first German Emperor Wilhelm I. Our guide shared a lot about the history and was pretty negative about the French influence!

This statue was put up on the wall during one of the many times the town was flooded.  People believe that as long as she is watching, floods won’t happen.  But they do anyway because of the two rivers meeting here – as you can see with our guide pointing out the river levels at various times of flooding.

We visited several churches and statues.  There are parts of the Berlin wall on exhibit here.

Have to have at least one dog photo!

The thumb is an 8 foot tall brass thumb sticking out of the ground, in front of the art museum.

This 35 foot statue chronicles the history of the city from its beginning as a Roman settlement up through World War II.

There are many wonderful squares here and they are setting up for the Christmas markets.

Our guide told us that during the French period between 1794 and 1814 and continuing afterward, a large number of children who were born to French and German parents were named Jean. The popular name later morphed into the Schang per the local dialect and then into Schängel, which became a moniker for the residents of the region.

The most famous Schängel is a statue of a little prankster that periodically spits on unsuspecting tourists from his fountain perch on Willi-Hörter-Platz. The base of the fountain, built in 1941, contains bas reliefs of young boys engaged in other mischief, such as smoking, fighting, and mocking their elders. An inscription identifies the mischievous Schängel as the symbol of the town, and he graces manhole covers all across the town. The spitting feature was not on when we visited because of the coming winter season.

This clock on the Mittelrheinisches Museum  is a unique feature. As the clock strikes the half hour, the man’s  red tongue sticks out at the passersby. This is the face of highway robber baron Johann von Kobem who was beheaded in 1536. Now he gets his revenge on the townspeople every half hour. We saw it at 10:30 AM. Local legend says that if you see him sticking his tongue out, it will bring you luck. His eyes seem to follow you too!

It was another interesting and charming town with lots of history.

Tonight, we had the Captain’s dinner.  We had cocktails and appetizers in the lounge first, with an introduction of all the staff on the ship, followed by a delicious dinner. The photos are of the captain and Gabor and Jessie, our concierge and cruise director.  Jessie even wrote a poem for us and read it during the cocktail hour.  I loved the napkin folding with the paper bow tie.

Tonight we sail for Cologne and we will leave the ship at 6:30 AM to travel to the Dusseldorf airport for our flight back home.

What a wonderful experience we had – seeing so many places we had not visited before and sailing on this beautiful river boat.

November 11, 2019

We sailed through the last 2 of the 66 locks today and will leave the Main River and spend the rest of our cruise on the Rhine River. The part we will be on until we reach Cologne does not have any locks. It is pretty chilly and the leaves are still nicely colored but we are watching the world pass by from inside. First of all for a lot of the trip on the canal, the bridges are too low for anyone to be on the sun deck, and also it is too cold. We did use the hot tub before the deck was closed off.

Today Gabor gave the talk on Mainz and Jessie did a talk on European Architecture through the ages which was just fascinating. We have seen so many of the buildings that she referenced in her slides. She also gave a handout that covers most of the styles with examples.

We arrived in Mainz after lunch. In the morning on the ship they did the traditional Fruhshoppen which is sausage and beer In the morning. Lots of people went to that but we chose not to!!

Mainz is a bigger town than the last few (220,000 people) and it took a bit of walking to get to the main area. Lots to see, though. There happened to be a carnival festival in town and there was a bandstand with music and young people in all sorts of costumes on the streets and near the concert stage.

We visited the Mainz Cathedral which is built of sandstone and has 6 towers. The first stone was laid in 975 and it was consecrated in 1009!

Fooling around at the statues!

Mainz is known for being the birthplace and lifelong home of Gutenberg, the celebrated inventor and father of modern printing. We could see inside some of the museum but because it was Monday, it was closed. Two of his original 1452 bibles are on display in the museum, will have to see those next time!

The St. Stephen’s Church has beautiful stained glass windows designed by Chagall, the only church in Germany that has them.

There are two interesting towers that remain here and we saw both the wood tower and the iron tower.

We also had tried a delicious sugared pastry that was shaped like a pretzel. The bakeries here are hard to pass by. The wine is excellent too, and this area is the center of the wine industry.

I have to say the beautiful towns here sort of seem like a fantasy world, each one is more charming than the last. We only have 2 more days to go and it will be hard to leave, but it has been wonderful. We would highly recommend Riviera.

November 10, 2019

Arrived in Miltenburg this afternoon after passing through areas of beautiful vineyards. We walked through the streets where grapevines encircle many houses.

Well, this place did have naked lady paintings in the windows!

We visited churches, town gates and a Jewish cemetery before it got dark. The market square is remarkable and is surrounded by beautiful half timbered buildings. By the time we got back to the ship it was dark but an easy nice walk back and nicely lit up.

A cute kid’s ride, and yes, here is their movie theater – some English titles but not sure the movies are in English.

This is one of Germany’s best preserved medieval towns. Lots of flooding has occurred here. It is on the Santiago de Compostella route, evidenced by the marker with the scallop symbol. Rathaus would be the town hall not a house for rats. Oh wait, politicians gather here so..

Again, because it was Sunday most things were closed, just a few coffee shops and bakeries were open. But we wouldn’t have missed walking in this town for anything. We keep thinking they can’t get any more charming, and this was among the most wonderful. Many of the buildings have placques that date them to the 16th century!

Tomorrow we will be in Mainz then on to Rudesheim. We will leave the Main River and start the Rhine River section.

November 10, 2019

We arrived here early and could see the town as we had our breakfast. Jessie was taking us on a walking tour at 9:30 and she advised that it would be cold. It didn’t really seem that much colder than the crisp fall days we have been having, but we are always dressed for it.

We are spending But the morning here, at 11:30 we will depart and head for our afternoon destination, Miltenberg. I will do a short posting about that town separately.

Since it is Sunday, almost everything is closed, but it is a very attractive medieval town with many half timbered houses, and in fact, the only one painted with blue in all of Germany! It is called the Blue House and the color comes from using blue glass fragments.

We saw the narrowest house in Franconia and also a half timbered house that was being renovated so we could see what is behind the walls.

Other sights, towers and lots of beautiful houses.

The church bells were ringing long and loud and we could hear organ music coming from the church. We saw some of the same chalk markings on the houses that were evident in other towns, the Catholic blessing. The Protestant Collegiate Church is particularly interesting . It was built in 1383 and has two clocks on its tower. The one facing the castle has an hour hand only, while the one facing the town is a full clock. Outside the church is the Angel’s fountain made of red sandstone. It has two little angels holding the town’s coat of arms.

Lots of buildings have high water flood markings on them. This town has both the Main River and the Tauber River flowing by and it is the reason for the flooding here.

We did stop into the beautiful glass shop that was open. There is also a famous glass museum but it is closed today.

We made the big climb up to the Wertheim Castle on our own as Jessie’s tour was only about 40 minutes long. This castle was the original fortress that was built in the 12th century and is one of the largest and most beautiful castle ruins in Germany. It was partially destroyed by a powder explosion in 1619 and was heavily fired on in the Thirty Years War. It was fun to climb higher and higher into the castle ruins and the views of the town and the rivers was really something.

We got back to the ship just in time for sailing, then lunch and to enjoy the daytime sail to our next stop. The fall colors are still very nice and are seeing castles, towns, herons, swans, ducks and of course are passing through some locks.