A Nederlof - Rhein & Moselle River Cruise

Amsterdam to Basel

For his 80th Birthday Celebration, Bob wanted to go on a European river cruise. We chose Avalon Waterways on the Rhine & Mosel Rivers sailing from Amsterdam to Basel. Then.... our departure?... pandemic. 2020 was cancelled. 2021 was cancelled. When we needed to pay the balance for 2022 -which made it non refundable - the cruise news was not pretty - many passengers stuck on ships in quarantine. 2023 it is instead. We're delighted our friends Michael & Delta join us.

With thanks to Delta for allowing us to post a few of her images as well.

Royal Deck

Panorama Suite #314 - 200 sq. ft.

Sky deck & the Bridge

Sky deck

When we go under a low bridge

Club Lounge with star coffee machine

Club Lounge Aft

Suites 52 - Staterooms 12 - Crew 37 - Passengers 92 this sailing -- Length 361 ft

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands - June 22

Embarcation

A 45 minute mid morning train journey from Rotterdam to Centraal Station in Amsterdam dropped us close to the ship embarcation point. We walked over, checked in, unpacked and investigated the shipboard amenities. Michael & Delta (Bob's cousin & our friends) also arrived and we enjoyed a catch-up. So far we like everything about our river cruise choice.

We have a 300 M walk to the ship

Carry On for me!

The first ship behind Bob is ours

Imagery II

Departing for the shipyard

The ship propeller was damaged on the last journey = we departed before dinner for a local shipyard in Dordrecht for repairs rather than staying put. The next morning we took buses back to the city for our canal cruise/tour.

AMSTERDAM - June 23

UNESCO World Heritage description: "The Amsterdam Canal District illustrates exemplary hydraulic and urban planning on a large scale through the entirely artificial creation of a large-scale port city. The gabled facades are characteristic of this middle-class environment, and the dwellings bear witness both to the city’s enrichment through maritime trade and the development of a humanist and tolerant culture linked to the Calvinist Reformation. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Amsterdam was seen as the realization of the ideal city that was used as a reference urban model for numerous projects for new cities around the world."

Michael & Bob are cousins

Least fun part of the day

Dordrecht

On our way to the Rhine

Slot Loevestein

Beach Day

KÖLN/Cologne, Germany - June 24

Bike Touring with Baitik, our Adventure Host

Cathedral image-cc

View in 1898-cc

Cologne Cathedral of St. Peter - UNESCO World Heritage description: "Begun in 1248, the construction of this Gothic masterpiece took place in several stages and was not completed until 1880. Over seven centuries, successive builders were inspired by the same faith and a spirit of absolute fidelity to the original plans. Apart from its exceptional intrinsic value and the artistic masterpieces it contains, Cologne Cathedral testifies to the enduring strength of European Christianity. " Note-cc photos (creative commons) are in the public domain.

THE MOSELLE/Mosel - June 25

We wake up on the Mosel River

... glide past numerous small villages

Hatzenport

Wine production is the No. 1 industry

Oberfell

Along the Mosel

We travelled through more than 60 locks on the cruise - some lifting us up - some dropping us down. Ship height is determined by the bridges we go under - ship width & length is dictated by the smallest lock on the river.

The Captain

We go left

This is the lock at Müden

COCHEM

This small town of around 5,000 inhabitants has been an important Rhineland wine trading centre since the days that the Romans introduced the vines to the area.

Stairway Art

High water lines

Vending Wine

Return your empties

The onion dome was built between 1959 and 1963.

Cochem Madonna, which was recovered intact from the ruins of the church in 1945.

By Hans & Käte Reihndorf, Cologne 1951

Silver Dude - Reliquary bust of St. Martin - 1512 CE

New Window - 2009

Old window

The Church of St. Martin - est. 1130 CE - rebuilt1456 - rebuilt 1933 - destroyed 5 Jan1945 - Rebuilt from the rubble 1959.

Cruising the Mosel

Underway

Happy Hour in the Panorama Lounge

Beilstein

Beilstein & Burg Metternich - 1129 ce

The town or Karden

The town of Neef

There's a festival going on in Zell

TRIER - June 26

UNESCO World Heritage description: 'Trier, which is located on the Moselle river in the West of Germany, was a Roman colony from the 1st century A.D. and then a great trading centre in the beginning of the next century. There is no place north of the Alps where so many important Roman buildings and such a concentration of traces of Roman settlement have been preserved as in Trier, the “Rome of the North”. In late classical times, Trier was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire; it was the seat of the prefects of Gaul, Germania, Britannia and Hispania and after the imperial reforms of the Emperor Diocletian was the seat of the vice-emperor (Caesar) of the Western Empire.'

Trier & Vineyards

The Ampitheatre

Cathedrals

The Roman Baths

Roman wall

Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) From the descriptor plaque:

"Karl Max is the most famous son of the city of Trier. Like no other, he analyzed the unprecedented dynamics of his own time and criticized growing inequality and exploitation. The 'Manifesto of the Communist Party' and 'The Capital' are today part of the UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. The recognition of his life's work beyond legends and ideological appropriation is of great concern to the city of Trier. His ideas were abused in the 20th century for the establishment and justification of dictatorships. His cause for thought can still serve today to refine our vision of the problems of modern times."

Porta Nigra - The Black Gate

Dismantling the concert stage

Town Centre - rebuilt after WWII

City Hall

There are only 3 original half-timbered buildings

St. Nicholas

A ladder was used to access the doorway

Built 1230 restored 1973

There's always time for Gelato

Choices!

Entrance to the Jewish Quarter

Founded by the Celts in the late 4th century BC and conquered 300 years later by the Romans, Trier is considered Germany's oldest city. In June 1940 over 60,000 British prisoners of war, captured at Dunkirk and Northern France, were marched to Trier, which became a staging post for British soldiers headed for German prisoner-of-war camps. Trier was heavily bombed and bombarded in 1944.

Saint Peter's Cathedral

The parish photo - cc

Hohe Domkirche St. Peter zu Trier / Cathedral of Saint Peter -- It is the oldest church in Germany and the largest religious structure in Trier, notable for its long life span and grand design. The central part of the nave was built of Roman brick in the early fourth century, resulting in a cathedral that was added onto gradually in different eras.

Medieval

Liebfrauenkirche / Church of Our Lady -- A Roman double church originally stood here. According to the church parish website, the Roman Emperor Constantine (272–337) made a large endowment in 326 AD that led to the first church construction there. After the southern portion had become dilapidated by around 1200, the Archbishop of Trier hired French builders from Champagne, who completely replaced it with the Early Gothic Church of Our Lady (Liebfrauen). It is, according to UNESCO, "the earliest church built in French High Gothic style outside France." The stained glass windows were destroyed during WWII - these are modern.

Aula Palatina-Roman Palace

Original door

New lock

Restored

Aula Palatina - "Roman palace basilica and an early Christian structure built between AD 300 and 310 during the reigns of Constantius Chlorus and Constantine the Great. Today it is used as the Evangelical Church of the Redeemer. The basilica contains the largest hall from antiquity - it has a length of 67 m, a width of 26.05 m and a height of 33 m."

We tie up to shore for an unstructured afternoon. The ship carries bikes and there are paths along the river. We don't have a pool - but there is a hot tub. Here's the only user we saw the entire cruise.

BERNKASTEL - June 27

Our favourite medieval town - although they are all starting to look similar.... It's the heart of Riesling wine production in the Mosel Valley. Doctor Vineyards are world famous with a matching price tag.

Bernkastel - view from our stateroom

Watchtower

Lamplighter's cubbie

Karlsbader Platz

Ancient olive tree

Karlsbad Fountain

Yes, of course

Opens late afternoon

Original ceiling

The city's oldest wine cellar & bar

When the populace didn't generally read, signage was creative

This was the Jewish quarter - plaques honor the families that owned the homes. The right side of the street was widened and rebuilt - the larger paving stones delineate the old street. The plaques say the people died fleeing the bombardment of 14 January 1945.

Bear Fountain

The medieval city centre - original half-timbered homes lovingly maintained

Archangel Michael

The Town Hall

Instant justice & sentencing

The medieval town center - 1606 CE - with the courthouse & St Michael's fountain. Now mostly restaurants & shops.

Spitzhäuschen: built in 1416, this distinctive building was originally built this way to allow for wagons to travel through the narrow alley running alongside the building. As well, tax payments in many cities in Germany were based on the area of the foundation of the building, which explains why “jettied” buildings were a common occurrence in medieval Germany, as taxes were not charged on wider upper levels. It's been home to a wine bar since the 1970s.

There's always time for a latte

Reisling on tap & an iced coffee

Lunch on the Sky Deck

Great guys

Another lock - room view

Then - just vineyards & villages

St. Maternushof

Kletterweg, Erdener, Treppen Vineyards

Shrine & Time

The handy harvesting machine

Prinzenkopf Tunnel - built 1878 - 453 m

Kaimt

Zell

KOBLENZ & THE RHEIN / Rhine - June 28

Ehrenbreitstein

German Corner - where the Rhine & the Mosel meet

Kaiser Wilhelm I

The Marksburg

The fortress was used for protection rather than as a residence for royal families. Of the 40 hill castles between Bingen am Rhein and Koblenz, the Marksburg was one of only two which has never been destroyed and the only one that has never fallen into disrepair.

Drawbridge Gate - 1st of 4

Next line of defense

Fuchstor / Fox Gate

Arrowslits

Arrowslit Gate

Rider's Gate

The incline has eroded

100 meter range protects the whole valley

The Great Battery - 6 & 12 pounders

Slate roofs don't burn

Original door

Upper Bailey Garden with +- 150 plants known in the middle ages

Spay on the Rhine

The kitchen is situated on the ground floor of the Gothic Hall Building from 1435. The kitchen was usually solely a place for the servants while the noble family dined in their own hall upstairs.

Beer & Wine barrels - no one drank filthy water

The kitchen

Grand kitchen fire - spits and hanging pots over the fire

Where servants ate

Small beds to sleep sitting up - lay down, you die

Bed chamber ceiling

Wall decor

To keep treasures safe

Great Hall - the very heart of courtly life. As a combined living and dining room, leisure time was spent playing chess or making music while rare entertainment as provided by travelling singers who would also spread news and gossip. A small passage through he outer wall leads up to the medieval toilet, a privy.

The long drop privy

14th century chapel

Original post decor

The keep

Stables - torture exhibition

The Armoury

19th c child's shoe

the "Gimbel Collection", a display of twelve life-sized figurines from 1880 which demonstrates the changes made to armour and weaponry from ancient to early modern times

Medieval blacksmith's shop & forge

Middle Rhine Valley

The UNESCO description: " The strategic location of the dramatic 65km stretch of the Middle Rhine Valley between Bingen, Rüdesheim und Koblenz as a transport artery and the prosperity that this engendered is reflected in its sixty small towns, the extensive terraced vineyards and the ruins of castles that once defended its trade."

The Marksburg

Kamp-Bornhofen & Burg Sterrenberg

Burg Liebenstein

Wellmich & Burg Maus

Burg Maus

Sankt Goarshausen

Burg Katz

Burg Rheinstein

16 ft statue - Lorelei- cc

The Lorelei - In the Rhine fairy tale of 1810, Lorelei appears as a distraught woman, sitting on a rock combing her long golden hair and luring the barges into their destruction. The Rhine, at the Lorelei is up to 82 feet deep and only 371 feet wide. Because this area is so deep and narrow, it is one of the most dangerous places in the World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley

Oberwesel

Freidhof Liebfrauen Kirche & Schloss Schoenburg

Kaub

Pfalzgrafenstein

Lorch

Burg Rheinstein

Burg Ehrenfels

A few more of the 60 or so of the castles along this stretch of the Rhine.

Pfalzgrafenstein & Burg Gutenfels - The castle keep, a pentagonal tower with its point upstream, was erected 1326 & 1327. It functioned as a toll-collecting station that was not to be ignored. It worked in concert with Gutenfels Castle and the fortified town of Kaub on the right side of the river. A chain across the river drawn between those two fortifications forced ships to submit, and uncooperative traders could be kept in the dungeon until a ransom was delivered. The dungeon was a wooden float in the well.

HEIDELBERG - June 29

Heidelberg is located on the Neckar River in southwestern Germany - known for venerable Heidelberg University, founded in the 14th century. Gothic Heiliggeistkirche church towers over the cafe-lined Marktplatz, a town square in the Altstadt / Old Town. Heidelberg, unlike most German cities and towns, was spared from Allied bombing raids during the war as Heidelberg was neither an industrial center nor a transport hub and did not present a tactical or strategic target.

Heidelberg Castle

The portico would drop to close the gate

The Economy Building for food storage

World's Largest Wine Barrel

The Grand Terrace view

Grand Terrace

Heidelberg Castle was the residence of the Palatine Counts and Electors from the House of Wittelsbach, who ruled the Palatinate of the Rhine from 1373 for over 400 years. The palace is a demonstration of their royal status and in its golden age rivaled the splendor of the imperial courts in Vienna and Prague. Prince-Elector Friedrich IV had the stately residential palace built between 1601 and 1607, on the pedestal of a previous medieval structure. The electoral family lived on the two top floors. The attic floor was reserved for the servants. In 1693, the Friedrich’s Wing was significantly damaged; it burned out in 1764.

Not imaginative here

An austere Calvinist church

Yuck - silly man

City Gate

Us

Of course we stop to enjoy

Iced coffees

The winning trivia team! Tom, Bob, Nancy, Bryan, Cherise, Linda, Michael & Delta

Speyer

UNESCO World Heritage description: The cathedral of Speyer was founded in 1030 by Conrad II and reconstructed at the end of the 11th century by Henry IV. One of the most significant examples of Romanesque architecture in Europe, it influenced the development of architecture in the 11th and 12th centuries. It served as a burial place of German emperors for almost 300 years. It was seriously damaged by fire in 1689. The restoration works in the 18th century, closely following the original structure, are one of the earliest examples of monument preservation in Europe

We tie up at the small town

Biking

Speyer

The Cathedral

Museum

STRASBOURG, France - June 30

UNESCO World Heritage description: "The Grande-Île and the Neustadt form an urban ensemble that is characteristic of Rhineland Europe, with a structure that centres on the cathedral, a major masterpiece of Gothic art. Its distinctive silhouette dominates the ancient riverbed of the Rhine and its man-made waterways. Perspectives created around the cathedral give rise to a unified urban space and shape a distinctive landscape organized around the rivers and canals."

It's spitting a bit

Market Day

Samples!

Fortwenger - since 1768

It's a hot chocolate mocha kind of day

Johannes Gutenberg

Carousel - 1900

Albert Schweitzer

Little Venice of Strasbourg

The Astronomical Clock

Happy Hour & Cruise Talk in the Panorama Lounge

Trivia winnings

THE BLACK FOREST / Breisach, Germany - July 1

Modern farm home

Old style farm home

Farm entrance

Most of the forest is like this

Day trip to the Black Forest - two hours each way plus time at the folk museum. Glad we went - I'd skip it next time.

Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof! / Black Forest Open Air Museum Vogtsbauernhof

House in the front - barn in the back

Thatch roofs are thick

The kitchen

The last lady to live here departed in 1965

Butter Churn

Pillows please!

The stove heats 3 rooms

Upstairs displays

Grain drying above the barn

Local folk dress

Ladies only wear this for special occasions

Farmstead of the District Governor

The Vogtsbauernhof is the only farm in the museum still standing in its original location. It was built in 1612. It represents the Gutach type of house which combines both living and working rooms, as well as animal stalls, under one roof. The largely wooden superstructure of the house usually rests on a basement made of natural stone. The half-hipped roof, with its sides sloping in all directions, reduces the wind loading area and reduces wear. The attic acts as a hayloft and is accessed via a ramp or a footbridge from the rising slope behind the house. The centre point of the living area was a centrally-sited stove. Heated from the kitchen, it simultaneously warmed the parlour as well as the bedrooms above.