Marksburg Castle and the Rhine Gorge

We docked in Koblenz an hour earlier than our schedule so we went ashore and went for a walk around the town and along the other arm of the river.  As we arrived in to town there was an enormous statue probably some Prussian king.  We walked along to where the statue was located on a small square.

We returned to the boat for the excursion to Marksburg Castle,  a beautifully preserved 700 year old hilltop fortress.  It is an extremely steep and rocky path to the castle and I decided to stay onboard the ship instead and Colin went on the excursion.

Many of the castles on the Rhine are rebuilt versions of the original but Marksburg stands today as the best preserved castle because it sits atop a steep isolated hill on the a bend in the river and the formidable terrain discouraged enemies to the extent the castle was never attacked during the countless wars that raged around it through the centuries.

As soon as everyone was back on board we were on our way to sail through the most scenic part of the journey, the Rhine Gorge. 

We went upstairs to the sun deck to look at the scenery and the many castles and fortresses along the river and of course the famous Lorelei Rock.  The picturesque Middle Rhine is a river valley with precipitous cliffs, a castle perched on virtually every hilltop and quaint villages lining the river banks.  Myths and legends abound in this area, such as the story of the Lorelei, the beautiful siren of the rocks who lured sailors to their doom.

Steep vineyards line the banks of the Rhine and produce the famous Rhine wines.                

We remained up on the sun deck for the entire afternoon until it was almost time for dinner.  I haven't counted them, but I think I may have taken more than 100 photos of this very picturesque area.

 

More Cologne pics

Cologne

The ship docked about 10am and we left shortly after and boarded buses that took us into Cologne where we had a guided walking tour of the city for about 2 hours.   At the end of the tour we had the option of staying on in the city or returning on the bus.  We chose to stay on and use a shuttle bus later in the day.

 

 

it was a beautiful sunny day.  Our previous visit a few years ago was on a very wet and gloomy day and I didn't take any photos of the cathedral so it was nice to return and see it on a beautiful day.

Cologne was once a roman settlement and you can still see fragments of Roman ruins in some parts of the city and there are currently some archeological digs happening in the city.

We walked all around the city.  We stopped at a traditional Beerhaus for lunch.  An outdoor café where we each had a small beer local to the region accompanied by some Bratwurst, sauerkraut and potato salad.

We then were able to go and visit the cathedral.  The cathedral had been closed to visitors early in the day because it is a special day when they open the casket of the 3 wise men.  We weren’t able to see the casket of the 3 wise men.  The only way to do that would be to attend at service and the next one was going to be at 6pm.  If you did attend a service you could receive a special blessing and have a box of the bones of the 3 wise men placed on your head.  You would then be blessed for the rest of your life.

 

The cathedral is magnificent.  it is a gothic cathedral that was begun in 1248.  The building of it went on for 300 hundred years and then there was a 300 year gap before work began again and finally completed in 1880.  it is the largest gothic cathedral in northern Europe and has two soaring spires that symbolise the city and some beautiful stained glass windows.

We walked along the bridge that is in danger of collapsing under the weight of the thousands of padlocks that people have put on the bridge as a way of showing their affection for each other by locking your love wwith padlock and throwing away the key.  It is practised all over Europe now but this particular bridge definitely has the most padlocks.  My personal view is its just another form of graffiti.

Kinderdiijk

We woke up-this morning docked in Kinderdjiik, a village in the province of South Holland about 15kms from Rotterdam. 

There are 16 working windmills in Kinderdijk.  They are used to pump water from the polders using internal or external scoops into reservoirs.

We walked for a few minutes from the ship to the De Nederwaard to see the 8 mills that were built in 1738.

We arrived at one of the mills and the miller was there putting the sails on the blades and we watched him climb the rungs of the blades and spread out the sails.  He scaledd the lofty heights of the blade in a pair of wooden clogs..  He then started the blades turning and they turn surprisingly fast.  It was quite frightening to near them.

 

After our tour we returned to the ship as it began to sail down the Rhine towards Cologne Germany.  It will take until tomorrow morning to reach Cologne.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing and sitting up on the top deck watching the world go by.

Dinner onboard was a Captains Welcome Dinner and it started with an introduction in the lounge to the captain and all the heads of each area.  This was accompanied with champagne and canapes.

 

 

Our Viking River Cruise

We are now on our river cruise.  The internet is a bit slow and this is the first time I have been able to post on the blog.

We boarded our river ship on Monday around lunchtime.  The ship was moored in Amsterdam.  We travelled from London by train changing in Brussels to an Amsterdam train and arrived in Amsterdam Sunday evening.

We have been to Amsterdam before so only stayed one night.

I couldn't wait to get onboard the ship.  I was very excited about our trip and when they said we could get aboard at noon and have a light lunch I jumped at the chance.  We explored the whole of the ship, spread out over 3 levels with a huge rooftop terrace with tables and chairs and sun lounges.  There is a walk track and yes we have tried it !!!!  There's shuffle board, mini golf and a giant chess board.

There is a herb garden too that the kitchen uses for fresh herbs.

The 3rd deck has the lounge and bar and the aquavit terrace for more casual outdoor dining.  It also has a library and computer station if you don't have your own device.  There is also a coffee and tea station and a selection of biscuits and pastries.

The 2nd deck has the formal dining room, the main reception area.  Our cabin is on this level just past the reception desk.  We have a balcony cabin and can sit out on our balcony at any time.

Our cabin is lovely, quite spacious.  A nice comfy bed, individual air-con. heated flooring the bathroom.  We have a little fridge too.

We don't spend much time in the cabin though, preferring the rooftop terrace which gives you a panoramic view of the surroundings.

 

London

We are now in London.  Cant believe how hot it is.  The first day it was about 28 degrees and yesterday the temp soared to 32 degrees.

On our first day we just walked and walked and visited shops and arcades.  We went into Fortnum and Mason and wandered along the Burlington Arcade which is a covered arcade with uniformed attendants at each end and containing very high end fashion shops, but it is the architecture of the building and the uniformed attendants that bought us here.

 



When the temperature reached 32 degrees we headed to the water and took a leisurely boat trip along the Thames.  We got off the boat at Tower Bridge and found a lovely pop up café beside Tower Bridge.

It had false green green grass, deck chairs and brightly coloured tables and chairs scattered around and there was a silver caravan and combi van with a lift up roof serving food and drink and there was a bar serving beer and pimms.

We had a light lunch and drinks and sat in the shade people watching.  It was very pleasant.

 

RAF Cosford and the Severn Valley Railway

Today we visited RAF Cosford, a RAF Museum.  There is a display of 70 historic aircraft in 3 wartime hangers.  There’s a cold war exhibition and the 3 British V bombers, Vulcan, Victor and Valiant.  There is also a Dornier 17 that has been rescued after more than 70 years at the bottom of the sea.  There are only fragile bits of it left and it is in hydration tunnels being treated to preserve what is left. 

 

 

 

From there we drove to Bridgnorth to ride the steam train, the Severn Valley railway which winds its way to Kidderminster.  It takes nearly 2 hours to do that and is very scenic.   There is 16 miles of track that winds its way between Bridgnorth, Hampton Loade, Highley, Arley, Bewdley and Kidderminster.  think that is just about the longest steam train ride I have been on.  It is mostly pulled by full sized steam engines and you travel in historic carriages dating from 1912 through to the 1960’s.  We were lucky today and both our journeys were by steam train.

 

 



 

We then went to the pipe museum.  Both of us had imagined plumbing type pipes and when we arrived and saw that it was smoking pipes we were very surprised.  It was very interesting.  The old factory was abandoned when the demand for clay pipes ceased and left with everything still in it.  The factory you see today is just as it was when it ceased operations.  It is a bit eerie actually.

There is a display of the many styles of clay pipe that was made there and you can watch a short 1930’s film showing how the long stemmed pipe, called a church warden was made.  It is the only film showing how the pipes were made in existence today.

 

 

Our final museum today was the tile museum.  Again it was brilliant.  Showing many intricate designs for tiles from the Victorian times right up to the present time.  Most underground stations in London are tiled.  There were designs by William Morris and Willem de Morgan, of the Arts and Crafts movement.

 

 

Blists Victorian Village