We're home

Long day of travel, but we're here safe and sound. Now to get used to the time change.

Regards,
Steve

Amsterdam - We Can't Get Them to Take Our Money

This is a shout-out to North American credit card companies - please get with the program and add security chips and PINs to our credit cards.  Thank goodness we hadn't spent all the cash we had taken out for our trip, otherwise, we would not have been able to buy our train tickets to the airport or tram tickets for travel in town.

Amsterdam - Georges Likes His Chicken Spicy

Today is the final full day of our trip and it has been great.  We left the ship around 10:00 this morning, after having said our goodbyes to our new friends made on the trip.  We walked about 600 m from the ship to our hotel and luckily they were able to give us our room immediately (as we have all our luggage plus what we bought).  

We decided to walk and go see the Anne Frank house.  The museum itself has changed since I was last here 20 some odd years ago!  It has a very well laid out plan and they added in pictures of how the Annex would have looked while Anne and her family were living in hiding.  It was still a very powerful and moving experience.

We had lunch at a lovely restaurant along one of the canals and pumpkin seemed to be the specialty of the house.  I had a wonderful cheese, tomato, lettuce and cucumber sandwich on very fresh pumpkin bread with a beetroot, spinach and roquefort salad.  Steve had a roasted pumpkin soup and a Croque Madame with a fried egg on top.

We walked back to the hotel and had a late afternoon nap.  

We asked the hotel's concierge where native Amsterdammers like to eat and they made reservations for us at Long Pura, an Indonesian Speciality Restaurant (www.restaurant-longpura.com), where we had the Rice Table (spelled Rijsttafel) Dinner (similar idea to tapas).  It was an incredible experience (Dad you would have loved it).  We chose the 3 course meal which starts with lamb, fish, shrimp and pork satay (it was nicely spicy, but I was very glad we had ordered beer to drink).  This was followed by the main Rice Table Dinner, which saw 9 different bowls of food put on our table along with saffron rice in a banana leaf and various condiments.  Finally we finished with a dessert course.  I was so glad that that was our final experience on our European Epicurean Adventure.  

 Ginger pumpkin soup

 Jennifer's sandwich

The salad.

 Croque-madame.

 The rijsttaffel warming the plates.

 Satays.  Clockwise from top left:  pork, fish, shrimp, lamb.  The sauce on the lamb was prepared right at the table.

 Georges by the flower.  No tears for him. 

 Georges with flowers in his hair.

The main course.  On the rijsttafel (clockwise from top left):

Egg in spicy coconut sauce,

Pork in sweet soya and ginger sauce,

Vegetables in mild coconut sauce,

Beef in coconut milk sauce,

Chicken filet in Balinese sauce,

Shrimps and peteh beans in spicy coconut milk,

Fish in sweet spicy soya sauce,

Lamb in spicy coconut milk sauce.

IN front the rijsttafel: cold vegetables in a peanut sauce and yellow rice steamed and service in a banana leaf.

Relaxing in a banana leaf boat.  The striped food is a tradition Indonesian sponge cake.

A view from a bridge.

Georges

Introducing Georges, Legoman's new name.  More of an explanation to follow - but we needed you to know for the following post.  The Ali family gets an honourable mention for their plethora of suggestions (but we're keeping the chocolate).

Amsterdam – Where Your Clothes Shrink 2 Sizes

In the middle of the night, we crossed into Holland.  Jennifer was up on deck early in the morning to witness going through our last lock for the trip.  It was huge.  They definitely take their waterways seriously.  It was a lazy morning, as we weren’t getting to port until 1:00pm.  We spent the morning packing.  After lunch, we boarded a bus to a river canal cruise around Amsterdam.  It was interesting to see so much activity on the waterways and canals.  We also saw a bike or two (joking).  We were told that there were about 750,000 bikes in Amsterdam.  They are everywhere.  Biking in cities must be international, because, just like Toronto, they don’t stop for pedestrians or stop lights.  They do have designated bike lanes integrated into the roadways, which makes them stop even less.  And no helmets!!!

The canal cruise dropped us off a little walk away from the national art museum, or Rijksmuseum.  We saw the Rembrandt’s famous Night Watch painting.  Impressive.  From the museum we walked back to the ship instead of taking the bus back.  It’s better to see and experience the city at street level instead of in a bus.  Amsterdam is very commercial in some spots, very touristy in others and unique in others.  Walking along or over canals is very refreshing.  We skirted around the red light district, but may go back tomorrow.  And before anyone asks, yes, we saw people smoking pot and got whiffs of it as we passed cafes.  On the way back to the ship, we checked out where our hotel was for the next night and how to get there.  We could actually see the hotel from our ship, so we knew it was close.  We got back to the ship and after nice walk through the city in the sun, we were ready for a beer on the sun deck. 

Tonight was the Captain’s Farewell cocktail and dinner.  We dressed up in our finery for champagne in the lounge before dinner. The shirt I wore to the Welcome dinner seems to have shrunk as soon as we entered the Dutch waters, as it seemed a little tighter tonight.  Dinner was very good.  We started out with an amuse bouche of mushroom and cappuccino soup.  Next a smoked salmon and shrimp terrine, followed by a pumpkin ravioli.  Some sorbet in kir royale to cleanse the palette before the main course, surf and turf.  Filet mignon and shrimp.  Dessert was a baked Alaska.  We finished off with a drink in the lounge.  We got back to the room, there was a thank you package from the ship.  It included a picture of the staff, and printouts of all the dinner menus for the entire cruise.  I guess I didn’t need to take pictures of the menus.

Tomorrow, a leisurely day in Amsterdam. We’re getting tired and ready to get back to routine.  So after posting for 3 weeks straight, apologies in advance if I don’t post tomorrow.

 

Lizards are taking over Amsterdam.  As you can see, Lego dude is scared.  Of course, the 1' tall lizards looks like Godzilla to him.

Canal along the Rhine in the Netherlands.

Canal in the city of Amsterdam.

Dinner.  From left to right:  Salmon and Shrimp terrine, pumpkin ravioli, suft and turf, baked Alaskan.

Cologne - The Tour That Seemed to Last Forever

Note:  The Germans pronounce and spell Cologne differently:  Koln.  This morning started out a little different.  After breakfast, we were treated to a history of the Roman Empire in the Rhine area.  It was a very interesting and informative talk.  We had a walking tour of the city.  Our guide was a little strange.  While she was very knowledgeable (she indicated she was an archaeologist by profession), we found that she did not talk about main historical highlights of Cologne, but rather sights that (in my opinion) she thought were neat.  We saw a naked St. George (don’t ask) and a statue of two guys talking.  If you rubbed the one guy’s nose, it was supposed to bring you good luck.  We passed by the Cologne Cathedral.  More on that later.   

Cologne is known for its Roman History.  Our walking tour finished up at the Roman Germanic Museum, where our guide conducted a tour inside. By this time, we were getting a little antsy with our guide and ready to bolt.  The museum had some well preserved artifacts. There was an impressive mosaic tile floor that was unearthed and the museum was built around/top of it.  The mosaic had over 1 million tiles in it.  The guide indicated that when the G8 conference was in Cologne a few years back, the leaders ate dinner on the tile floor.  At one point, I zoned out on my tour guide and listened in to another group.  It was interesting and informative.  There was a large plan of the old Roman town posted on the wall.  She said that the Cathedral was built over part of the ruins and that there was a stairwell in the corner of the church that led down to the Roman ruins. 

The tour finished and we headed back to the ship for lunch.  It was about a ½ hour walk.  We walked down the main pedestrian/shopping street.  It was a little before noon and crowded.  Cologne has a Lego store in it, so we stopped in on the way back.  Our friends have a 5 year old that loves Lego, and we wanted to get him a mini-figure keychain that said “Germany” on it, similar to my Canadian Dude.  We did find something creative and only available at the Cologne store.  Sorry Pete, you’ll have to wait until we get back to find out what it is. 

After lunch, we headed back to see the Cathedral.  It is the largest gothic style cathedral in the world, and (we think) the 2^nd largest cathedral in the world after St. Peter’s at the Vatican.  It took over 600 years to complete.  High ceilings, intricate sculptures, beautiful paintings.  We went down to the crypt where the archbishops are buried.  The have a plaque on the wall indicating all the (arch) bishops of the area/church, dating back to 313.  The last one on the list is Pope John Paul II in 2005.

Cologne is also home to a chocolate museum.  Something that we could not pass up.  The museum was interesting.  The first level was dedicated to chocolate production and where all the ingredients come from.  They had a small room that had real cocoa bean trees in them form warmer climates.  The room was environmentally controlled with lots of windows.  You had to enter and exit through an airlock to keep the temperature and humidity constant.  It was muggy in there!  The first level also had old production equipment and a small scale production line that made small individual chocolates.  The 2^nd and 3^rd  levels displayed a historical account of products, posters, cups, pots to serve hot chocolate etc… Of course, no trip to a chocolate museum would be complete without a trip to the candy store.  While not as big as the one in Switzerland, it had a larger selection of chocolate offerings.  Now for the most amazing part, we did not buy anything.  I will pause for everyone to pick themselves up off the floor.

Dinner was good again.  We sat with Brian, Anne, Roger, Ann, Peter and Joan again.  Jennifer had the broiled fish with beet risotto.  I had the grilled pork tenderloin with braised witlof.  Just before dinner, as we were cruising, I got a few pictures of the sunset.  It was amazing.  We said goodbye to Cologne around 6:00pm and will dock at our final stop, Amsterdam around 1:00pm.

 Shout out to my favourite mother-in-law.  We thought of you when we saw these.

To our nephew Noah.  Here is your boat. 

 Naked St. George.  You can tell its him by the sword and dragon.

 The Cathedral.  It was too big to get the whole thing in one picture.

Good bye Germany.  See you again.

Koblenz – Who Kidnapped the Kaiser?

The name Koblenz is derived from the Latin words for city at the confluence of two rivers.  Koblenz sits where the Moselle flows into the Rhine.  We docked there around 3:00am and will be staying here for 24 hrs.  There is a big statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, at the point where the Moselle and the Rhine meet.  It is ~36m tall and he is sitting on a horse, looking out at the 2 rivers meeting.  In WWII, the Americans pulled down the statue (no reason given).  It was never found.  Apparently, a number of years later, the head of the statue turned up in a farmer’s field.  In the mid 1990s, a copy of the statue was erected on the spot of the old one.  It is magnificent to see. 

Today started out with a walking tour right from the ship (yeah, no buses). We walked through the old town, saw a fountain called the History fountain that depicts 2000 years of history in Koblenz.  It was amazing to see.  We were taken to the Schaengelbrunnen (Brunnen means fountain).

The schaengel (little john) is a symbol of Koblenz. Since Koblenz was conquered so many times in it's history there were many children fathered by invading troops. The male offspring of these relationships were called "little johns". The expression dates back to the time, when Koblenz belonged to France ( 1794-1814), when plenty of boys got the name JEAN, but the local people could not pronounce it correctly and called them SCHANG.  This statue represents the people of Koblenz's disregard of foreign authority.  Every few minutes, little Johnny spits water from his mouth.  The spray shouts out at least 15’. 

We saw a couple of old churches and finished off with seeing a clock that has a human face underneath the clock.  The eyes move back and forth every second.  When the hour chimes, he sticks out his tongue for every hour that it chimes. 

Lunch was a traditional German lunch that included 3 types of sausages, sauerkraut, spatlese and other things.  I decided to be German and order a beer for lunch.  The food was good, but heavy. 

The afternoon was spent going to Marksburg castle.  It is the oldest and only completely surviving castle (since about 1200) in this area of Germany.  It was quite impressive to see.  During it’s life, it was upgraded so that it could withstand attacks as technology improved (cannons, bigger cannons etc…)

Our tour also got us entrance into the BUGA (pronounced ‘booga’).  It is a horticultural show that has been going on for at least 4.5 years.  There are 3 sites throughout the city.  One ticket gets you admission into all three locations.  We entered the Erhenbreitstein location, which is located across the river on top of a cliff.  There were interesting things there.  The space is huge, and not all flowers.  We rode an aerial tram down to a lower section just behind the Deutsches Eck.  In the Deutsches Eck location, there was a waterpark that a certain 3 year old would have loved. 

We headed back to the ship for dinner.  Dinner was good.  I had a German dish called Sauerbraten as a main.  It was beef, cabbage and dumplings.  Jennifer had a tomato tart.  There were eight of us, a couple from South Carolina (Roger and Ann), Brian and Anne from Australia and Peter and Joan from the UK.  We had dined with Roger, Brian and the 2 Ann’s before.  Brian and Anne had never tried ice wine before and we were curious to see how German ice wine (eiswein) compared to our great Canadian stuff, so we broke open a bottle.  Brian and Anne were celebrating their 48^th wedding anniversary a few days ago.  It was good, but did not have the depth that Canadian ice wine has.  Everyone enjoyed.  Peter and Joan have not had it in years, so it was a nice surprise for them.  It turns out that they have family that live in Etobicoke.    

Only 2 days left.  Where did the time go?

 The History Fountain.  The detail on each level is incredible. You can see fire and smoke on one of  the levels.

The 'Spitting Boy' fountain.  Don't get too close. 

I'm watching you.  The story goes that the person whose face we see was wrongly sentanced to death for a crime he did not commit.  His last request was to have is face hung from the highest building.   

 Not much to this picture  It's a statue of a lady on top of a wall.  It was right outside our ship. 

The Deutsches Eck from Ehrenbreitstein Fortress.

The Deutsches Eck as seen coming down on the cable car.  He looks pretty good for being kidnapped.

Hallo from Koblenz (yes, they all say Hallo).  That's the Erhenbreitstein Fortress in the background. 

Bernkastel - Batlle of the Bands

The day was similar to Trier, but we’re closer to town than we were in Trier.  We walked around town ourselves, skipping the group walk.  We walked through old streets, with half-timbered houses.  We saw the oldest building in town, from the 1300s.  It was small and a little crooked.  There were also some interesting fountains that we photographed.  One of the most interesting things we saw was cigarette dispenser mounted on a wall in the public square, just like you used to see in the 70s and 80s.  We had a group wine tasting at 10:30 this morning, so we met up with the group.  We got there a little early, so we waited for the rest of the tour to show up.  While waiting, 2 small marching bands passed by us.  There was a festival/competition going on in the town square.  One of the bands stopped and when they found out we were tourists from North America, they played a song for us.  Quite amusing.  It reminded us of an Oktoberfest band. 

After the wine tasting, we headed back onboard for lunch on the sundeck.  Again, a sunny day and a temperature around 24C.  We sailed up the Moselle with Koblenz as our destination late tonight.  We passed the lowest bridge on the route.  We were not allowed to stand up when we passed under it.  You could reach up with your hand while seated and touch it.  Some more wine and beer while cruising.  Our curling season starts tonight.  Sorry we can’t make it.  Go team! 

We spent most of the afternoon, relaxing, Jennifer used her noise cancelling earphones to listen to music and block out the loud talkers on board, it was quite therapeutic.  We had cocktails again with the AMEX people and had dinner with them.  The appetizer was pears with thyme, a really good combination, the soup was fine and the main was turkey with a cranberry gravy.  Finally for dessert we had a lemon tart, which was quite good.  We played a River Quiz game in the lounge and went up on deck to see Reichsburg castle lit up as we passed by after dinner.  For me, seeing the castle at night was a real highlight. It was lit from flood lights at are on the ground in front of it.  It looks like the castle is floating in the air. The lights of all the the shops along the waterfront were also very picturesque.  Now it’s off to bed – we have another full day tomorrow.

 

The ship that time forgot

The one is for all the George Clinton fans

 

Some old buildings in town.

A view along the Moselle

Everybody loves a dude that brings wine to the party. This is from a fountain the depicts the history of wine making in the area.  This scene shows how the villager loves the Bishop of Berkastel, because he gives the wine at the festival.  EvenLego dude was at this party.

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Trier - The Oldest City in Germany/Best Day Ever

I am prefacing this blog post with the comment that this has been our favourite day on the cruise to date.  We went 'exploring' on our own, like we normally travel and then finished it off with a lazy cruising afternoon and an awesome dinner.  It doesn't get much better than this!

We stayed in port overnight and had an early morning start.  Today was the city of Trier, the oldest city in Germany.  It dates back to 17 BC.  It used to be an old Roman fort, complete with a walled city.  We boarded the bus (like lambs…) and went above the city to Mt. Peter to get some good views looking down on the city.  We passed by the old Roman amphitheater on the way up.  Jennifer and I would have liked to visit it, but it was not on the itinerary.  After the views from up high, we boarded the bus again to head down to the city.  We passed by the Imperial Thermal baths of Emperor Constantine, and a really huge building whose only purpose was to store the emperor’s throne.  We got off the bus at the Porto Nigra, the highlight of the city.  It is the oldest part of the wall around the city that is left.  It was actually the gate (porto) to the city. As soon as we got off the bus, we left the group, as we wanted to see some other stuff.

We walked up through the pedestrian part of town back to the Imperial baths.  Along the way, we passed by an old palace and a beautiful garden.  Outside a museum that we passed was the right foot of a statue of Emperor Constantine.  The foot to above the ankle was about 1.5 m high.  The whole stature would have been pretty big.  We got to the imperial baths and saw the other foot on display outside the entrance.   Our tour guide had previously explained the bathing process.  It started out with getting naked, ‘constitutional’, then sauna, followed by massage, hot bath, tepid bath and cold bath.  The baths were supplied water through two aqueducts.  The baths were fascinating to see, as we could go into the areas and under ground.  We came back up to the surface and had a great view of the remaining wall.  It was nice to be able to get up close and personal for a change, instead of seeing it from a viewing point with a tour guide. 

We walked back through the pedestrian zone part of town and grabbed a quick bretzl.  We walked to the Porto Nigra, snapped some pictures and headed back to town.  We decided to skip the bus ride and walk back to the ship, as we haven’t done any good walking since the cruise started.  We knew the general direction of the ship, and would eventually hit the river.  However, when we got to the river, we had overshot the boat and ended up downstream.  We followed the river back until we got back to the boat.  In total, it was probably about 6 or 7 km we walked that day.  It was sunny and hot, and we beat the buses back, so we grabbed a beer and went up top to play some shuffleboard.  I beat Jennifer 2 games to 0.

We cast off around 2:00 pm to head back downstream to meet up at the Rhine River.  We will be docking in Bernkastel tonight around 9:00pm (~65 km).  Some things we did while up on the sun deck:  drink wine, drink beer, sleep, read, play Fluxx, eat chocolate.  We saw a professional water ski team practice while we were waiting to go through a lock.  After we got out of the lock, about 8 Canadians (including Jennifer and I) sat in chairs along one side of the deck and did the wave as we passed by people on the shore.  We got some great reactions.

Tonight was a special epicurean dinner.  It started out with cocktails and then we had the dinner.  They broke out the good wine for tonight.  We started out with a glass of sparking Riesling before dinner.  The amuse bouche was a blue cheese mousse.  We had a Moselle trout with horseradish crème fraiche on a potato crepe.  The next course was a beef broth with cabbage, potatoes, carrots and diced meat.  Both of these were served with a Riesling wine.  We had our choice of main, and we both chose the grilled veal fillet mignon with porcini sauce and sauerkraut mashed potatoes.  This was served with a red wine.  Dessert was vineyard peaches with pistachio ice cream and spatlese sabayon.  It was served with a dessert wine, a Riesling auslese, aka late harvest Riesling.  We both agreed it was the best dinner to date.  We sat with a great couple from Australia, Brian and Anne, and two retired teachers from Oregon, Anita and Mary Lou.  We’ve dined with both of them before. Brian and Anne are really nice.  They are on a 7.5 week trip that has taken them to Hawaii, New York, London and a week in Switzerland.  After the cruise, they leave to go to South Africa before heading back to Australia.  They joke that they are spending their kids inheritance.  ‘Good on them’. 

 Big throne room building.

Looking up at what's left of the original wall of the baths from the lower levels.

 Jennifer - Just the right height to be a Roman.

A great view from a viewing platform.

This place was huge!

The Porto Nigra.  Also big. 

(L) Trout appetizer, (C) Veal main,  (R) Dessert

Can Con - Updated

Having been on the cruise a little longer, we've gotten to figure out a few more canadian couples:
2 couples from Edmonton
The "Milton Group"; 1 couple from Guelph, 1 couple from Campbellville, and 1 single from Milton.
1 couple from Collingwood, ON
2 couples from (outside) Ottawa
1 couple from Vancouver Island (need to confirm)
1 couple from Kitchener, ON (need to confirm)
1 couple from Waterloo
1 couple from Quebec(need to confirm)

That's five provinces with representation. 

Luxembourg – Home of the Schleck Brothers (no we did not see them)

We had a lazy start to the morning as there was no scheduled activity, but we did watch the Moselle go by from our cabin again.  We “slept in” and only went to breakfast when it opened at 7:30.  After breakfast and showering, Jennifer went up on deck to enjoy the passing scenery, however it was cool and one of the crew members brought her a nice thick blanket to keep her warm (much appreciated Florin!)  We passed under one of the lowest bridges on the trip and staff members advised her that she could not stand up until we were clear of the bridge (the wheelhouse was dropped to accommodate the low clearance).

Claudia, the tour director, gave a very informative and candid presentation on Germany today, see poster below for one of the slides that was presented.  The talk was immediately followed by Bloody Mary happy hour – yeah for Jennifer!

After an early lunch, we boarded the buses for the trip to Luxembourg. 

First stop was the American Military Memorial from the Battle of the Bulge in WWII.  The grounds were immaculate and the design was fascinating.  One passenger was particularly moved, as he had fought in this battle and found his division’s movements on the maps commemorating the battle.

Next onto the city of Luxembourg, which has a long history and was particularly difficult to attack/capture due to the cliffs upon which the battlements were built (and then torn down this century).  We visited the Grand Duchal palace (which has one measly guard in the front and one in the back), the rest of the Luxembourg  army (a total of 1,000) is off on a mission in Eastern Europe (who would want to attack Luxembourg nowadays, other than an anti-capitalist due to the number of banks they have).  We also found out the two official languages of this small country are French and Luxembourgish (who knew that was a language). 

We wandered around the old town and stumbled upon…a dessert café (Relais rated)…where we had to stop for a little treat.  Steve had a Tartelette Normande (mini apple pie) and Jennifer had an Ile Flottant (soft meringue islands, floating on a sea of Crème Anglaise, topped with caramelized sugar and almonds).   We then walked back to the bus while avoiding teenagers occupied with PDA. 

Dinner was very good, the highlight was the Crème Brulee (sorry no pictures), we sat with a “new to us” couple from Vancouver and we discussed the Canadian content on the cruise, we’ve determined that 50% of the provinces are represented.  They were a well travelled couple (of course they don’t rival Aunt Lana and Uncle Leo, but who does). 

We’re now on the sundeck under a clear cloudless sky, admiring the constellations shining down from above, while enjoying a delectable glass of wine – life is rough.  In the distance, we can see the captain of the ship who looks like the dude on the back of Fishermen’s Friends cough drops. 

A picture of the pristine WWII war memorial at Luxembourg. 

Luxembourg sits atop  cliffs that have been carved away from 2 rivers.  This is a shot from one of the them.   

While a little blurry, this picture is from the presentation on Germany.  The section of the presentation was on Germany and beer drinking.  This picure is of a poster of a doctor encouraging Germans to drink beer, as it is good for your healh.  The poster outlines the benefits of drinking.  I'm sure Employer Assistance Programs would have a fit!

The yummy Iles Flottant at the cafe. 

Lego-dude looking over Luxembourg.

Cochem and Ediger Eller –Strudel and Wine

We had another early start, but this time from our bed.  We are now on the Moselle River and as we were awake at 5:30, we opened our curtains and watched the sun rise over the vineyards as we travelled along the river.  We’ve determined the best time to have breakfast is 7:00 when the restaurant opens, as there’s only about 5 other couples up at that time – so you can get whatever you want quickly. 

We docked in Cochem and due to a miscalculation on our part about the rest of the cruisers, we ended up with the group that includes the “gentle walkers”, it took awhile to get the shuttles loaded.  However, we went up to Reichsburg Castle and had a very entertaining guide take us on a tour of the 7 furnished rooms of the castle (there are at least 50).  We also saw replicas of suits of armour from other castles, including one that was supposedly worn by a wee little guy who was the originator of the saying “Kiss My Ass” which is apparently much worse (and insulting) in the original German.  We were then taken on a city walk, which we opted out of when we found a wine store that offered tastings – we bought several bottles of wine (including a German Ice Wine (Eiswein)).  As we meandered, we came across a little café/bakery that had Apple Strudel, so we had it heated up and ate it on a bridge while watching the boat traffic go by on the Moselle.  We had a little free time before lunch and went to the Mustard Museum where we tasted several mustards and determined which ones we were going to bring home with us.  Steve got a couple of fairly strong mustards.  Back to the ship for a buffet lunch.

We had to stay in the same groups for the afternoon excursion to Ediger Eller, where the mayor (in ceremonial robe and tam) met us at our buses.  He took us on a walking tour of his village (and set quite a blistering pace, I’m very happy to say, before being reined in by the cruise manager) and then we were “treated to” (imprisoned for) an organ concert in the village church (which also had a strange smell to it).    It was your standard grand European church, although I really liked some of their modern stained glass windows (Jesus stomping the grapes looked like a character from Clone High).  We left the church and went to a local hall, where we were treated to a wine tasting, more words from the mayor and a showing of a ½ hour German wine making movie that was made in the 1950’s for German school children (where the mayor provided a running commentary, including pointing out the young people in the movie by saying – that’s my next door neighbour who is now 78…).  The mayor sang songs and got us to join in.  The only song we knew the lyrics to was Ein Prosit, which we learned at Oktoberfest in Waterloo, so I guess our university educations were not a waste.

Dinner was sadly uninspiring.  After dinner was a music quiz in the lounge, however 95% of the questions involved songs/movies made before we were born, so we sucked the big one on it (our other team member knew the songs, but couldn’t think of most of the names or movies, so we were SOL).

How much is that strudel in the window?

 

A view of Reichsburg castle

The rails around the keyhole allowed the drunken lords to get the key into the keyhole.   

Looking down from Reichsburg to Cochem.

Sir Kiss My Ass

Wine tasting in Ediger Eller.

Lego dude (still looking for a good Canadian name) enjoying the wine tasting.