Speyer, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Black Forest and Home

Tuesday June 17

Speyer and Heidelberg

The ship docked at the ancient city of Speyer before breakfast.  Speyer has the largest Romanesque building in Europe, the cathedral completed in 1111 together with the oldest Jewish bath in Germany.

The other attraction in Speyer is the Technical Museum which contains, amongst other things, a Boeing 747, the original Buran Space Shuttle, the submarine A9, many other plane, boats, vintage cars and locomotives, just driving past the site was very impressive.  We had elected to visit Heidelberg today, so we missed out on a visit to Speyer

Heidelberg Palace

Modern Heidelberg can trace its beginnings to the fifth century.   The village Bergheim (Mountain Home) is first mentioned in that period, in documents dated to 769 AD. Bergheim now lies in the middle of modern Heidelberg and the people gradually converted to Christianity. In 863 AD, the monastery of St. Michael was founded on the Heiligenberg inside the double rampart of the Celtic fortress. Around 1130, the Neuberg Monastery was founded in the Neckar valley. At the same time, the bishopric of Worms extended its influence into the valley, founding Schönau Abbey in 1142. Modern Heidelberg can trace its roots to this 12th-century monastery.

The first reference to Heidelberg can be found in a document in Schönau Abbey dated to 1196. This is considered the founding date for Heidelberg. In 1155, Heidelberg castle and its neighbouring settlement were taken over by the house of Hohenstaufen. Conrad of Hohenstaufen became Count Palatine of the Rhine.  In 1195, the Electorate of the Palatinate passed to the House of Welf through marriage.

In 1225, Louis I, Duke of Bavaria obtained the Palatinate, and thus the castle came under his control. By 1303, another castle had been constructed for defense. In 1356, the Counts Palatine were granted far-reaching rights in the Golden Bull, in addition to becoming Electors. In 1386, Heidelberg University was founded by Rupert I, Elector Palatine.

Heidelberg Castle

Heidelberg University played a leading part in the era of humanism and reformation and the conflict between Lutheranism and Calvinism in the 15th and 16th centuries. Heidelberg's library, founded in 1421, is the oldest public library in Germany still intact. In April 1518, a few months after the proclamation of his 95 Theses, Martin Luther was received in Heidelberg, to defend them. In 1537, the castle located further up the mountain was destroyed in a gunpowder explosion. The duke's palace was built at the site of the lower castle.

In November 1619, the royal crown of Bohemia was offered to the Elector, Frederick V.  He was married to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James I and VI of England and Scotland)  He became known as the "winter king", as he reigned for only one winter before the Imperial House of Habsburg regained the crown by force. This overthrow in 1621 marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. In 1622, after a siege of two months, the armies of the Catholic League, commanded by Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, captured Heidelberg. He gave the famous Bibliotheca Palatina from the Church of the Holy Spirit to the Pope as a present. The Catholic Bavarian branch of the House of Wittelsbach gained control over the Palatinate and the title of Prince-Elector. In 1648, at the end of the war, Frederick V's son Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine, was able to recover his titles and lands.

To strengthen his dynasty, Frederick arranged the marriage of his daughter Liselotte to Philip I, Duke of Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV, king of France. In 1685, after the death of Charles Louis' son Elector Charles II, Louis XIV laid claim to his sister-in-law's inheritance. The Germans rejected the claim, in part because of religious differences between local Protestants and the French Catholics, as the Protestant Reformation had divided the peoples of Europe. The War of the Grand Alliance ensued. In 1689, French troops took the city and castle, bringing nearly total destruction to the area in 1693. As a result of destruction due to repeated French invasions related to the war of the palatinate succession coupled with severe winters, thousands of Protestant German Palatines emigrated from the lower Palatinate in the early 18th century. They fled to other European cities and especially to London, where the refugees were called "the poor Palatines".  In sympathy for the Protestants, in 1709–1710, Queen Anne's government arranged transport for nearly 6,000 Palatines to New York. Others were transported to Pennsylvania. They worked off their passage and later settled in the English colonies.

In 1720, religious conflicts with the mostly Protestant citizens of Heidelberg which occurred after he assigned a major church for exclusively Catholic use caused the Roman Catholic Prince-Elector Charles III Philip to transfer his residence to nearby Mannheim. The court remained there until the Elector Charles Theodore became Elector of Bavaria in 1777 and established his court in Munich. In 1742, Elector Charles Theodore began rebuilding the Palace but 1764, a lightning bolt destroyed other palace buildings during reconstruction, causing the work to be discontinued and no further work has been carried out since then.

After arriving in Heidelberg we walked to a funicular which was built in the 1800s and travelled to the first station to gain access to the castle area, as mentioned above no restoration work has been carried out since the fire in the late 1700s but there is continual maintenance to prevent further deterioration.  In the wine cellar of palace many wine barrels still remain, two in particular caught our attention.  The first has a capacity of 55,000 litres and the other 250,000 litres, the larger is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.  Above the cellars on section of the palace appears to be in good condition with glass in the windows but no-one seemed to go inside, the wing to the side was more of a shell following the fire caused by the lightning strike.

Walking through an arch and under the palace we were rewarded with a view over the old part of Heidelberg and the old stone bridge over the river.  Returning to the funicular we passed some of the houses of residence of the university and in some of these the students still conduct sword fights as they have for hundreds of years and a scar on the face from a sabre strike is considered a badge of honour.

Town Gate from Bridge

Back in the old town we walked to the town square still surrounded by many old buildings and a protestant church, many years ago the catholics were giv en the use of the church so a wall was built inside to separate the chancel and sanctuary, which the catholics used, from the rest of the church used by the protestants, the wall was eventually removed returning the church to the protestants.

From the square we walked down to the river and walked out into the middle of the stone bridge to look back at the old town and the town gate at the end of the bridge before returning to the ship.

Later in the afternoon we were taken by bus to some of the villages near Speyer where we were split into small groups of around six, and we were entertained for afternoon tea in the homes of several residents a very interesting experience, returning to the ship we sailed for Strasbourg before dinner.

Wednesday June 18

Strasbourg

As has happened on many occasions on these cruises we have moored at a new town before we wake up, often several hours before the planned arrival time, this morning we also arrived at Strasbourg early.

Strasbourg, the capital city of the Alsace region in north eastern France, is situated on the Rhine at the German border.

The Romans under Nero Claudius Drusus established a military outpost belonging to the Germania Superior Roman province at Strasbourg's current location, and named it Argentoratum. The name "Argentoratum" was first mentioned in 12 BC and the city celebrated its 2,000th birthday in 1988.

From the fourth century, Strasbourg was the seat of the Bishopric of Strasbourg and was made an Archbishopric in 1988.

Carousel in Strasbourg

The town was occupied successively in the fifth century by Alemanni, Huns and Franks. In the ninth century it was commonly known as Strazburg in the local language, as documented in 842 by the Oaths of Strasbourg.  The town was also called Stratisburgum or Strateburgus in Latin, from which later came Strossburi in Alsatian and Straßburg in Standard German, and then Strasbourg in French. The Oaths of Strasbourg is considered as marking the birth of the two countries of France and Germany with the division of the Carolingian Empire.

A major commercial centre, the town came under control of the Holy Roman Empire in 923, through the homage paid by the Duke of Lorraine to German King Henry I. The early history of Strasbourg consists of a long conflict between its bishop and its citizens. The citizens emerged victorious after the Battle of Oberhausbergen in 1262, when King Philip of Swabia granted the city the status of an Imperial Free City.

Strasbourg

A revolution in 1332 resulted in a broad-based city government with participation of the guilds, and Strasbourg declared itself a free republic. The deadly bubonic plague of 1348 was followed on 14 February 1349 by one of the first and worst pogroms in pre-modern history: over a thousand Jews were publicly burnt to death, with the remainder of the Jewish population being expelled from the city.  Until the end of the 18th century, Jews were forbidden to remain in town after 10 pm. The time to leave the city w Housesas signalled by a municipal herald blowing the Grüselhon.  A special tax, the Pflastergeld (pavement money), was furthermore to be paid for any horse that a Jew would ride or bring into the city.

Strasbourg Old Houses

After breakfast we boarded the coaches and were driven around the new part of Strasbourg for a city tour that took us past the Orangery, the town’s oldest park; the European Parliament; and the lovely ‘La Petite France’ neighbourhood.  The old part of Strasbourg is situated on an island and many of the buildings date back to the 1400s.  We walked down many lanes and alongside several canals, many of the bridges and houses being decorated with flower boxes which provide colourful displays.

Eventually our walk brought us to the cathedral, where our guided tour finished and we were left to fill in an hour and a half before returning to the coach, so we went into the cathedral where one of its highlights is a large astronomical clock in the east end.

After leaving the cathedral we wandered around several lanes and arrived at a market, food, clothing and hardware.  The range of food would be a “foodies delight” cheeses, sausages, processed meats, braun and others, plus a huge range of fresh meat, including poultry and rabbits, there were also stalls selling fresh bread, pastries and cakes and it took a lot of “won’t” power to walk past.

After lunch on the ship we set out to walk to the Orangerie park, named after the large orangery but now without orange trees.  Nesting on the roof were three pairs of storks with young and there must have been another twenty pairs nesting in the trees throughout the park.  We returned to the ship by another route along a canal past about twenty old cargo barges which have been converted into house boats, a round trip of one and a half hours and Ann asked the Captain if he had moved the ship a kilometre from its original mooring as it seemed further away.

Tonight was the Captain’s farewell cocktail party and dinner and we were included in the six people invited to sit with him, we had a very pleasant and informative dinner with the Captain explaining the many regulations for travel on the rivers and through the locks.  We spent longer than usual in the dining room and as a consequence we missed several songs from our guest artist tonight.  The ship will sail at 2:00 am so we probably won’t hear it.

Thursday June 19

Breisach and the Black Forest 

The seat of a Celtic prince was at the hill on which Breisach is built. The Romans maintained an auxiliary castle on Mons Brisiacus which came from the Celtic word Brisger which means water break.  The Staufer founded Breisach as a city in today's sense. But there had already been a settlement with a church at the time.

In the early 13th century, construction on the St Stephansmünster, the cathedral in Breisach, started and by the early 16th century, Breisach was a significant stronghold of the Holy Roman Empire.

We arrived at Breisach at lunch time and departed for an hour and a half coach ride to the Black Forest area.

Our first stop was at Triberg but whether it was for a toilet stop or to view the highest waterfall in Germany we weren’t sure.  Triberg  is a tourist town with many clock shops and hotels but we didn’t have time to explore and they wanted 5 euros to view the waterfall most people elected for a toilet stop.

Black Forest clockmakers are renowned for their precision clocks. Most of the mechanical clocks are now sold as antiquities as many factories were shut down after the First World War and the Second World War. A few factories survived the structural change.

Due to the rich mining history dating from medieval times, the Black Forest was one of the most important mining regions of Europe circa 1100.

The Black Forest was visited on several occasions by Count Otto von Bismarck during his years as Prussian and later German chancellor (1862–1890). Allegedly, he especially was interested in the Triberg Waterfalls. There is now a monument in Triberg dedicated to Bismarck, who apparently enjoyed the tranquillity of the region as an escape from his day-to-day political duties in Berlin.

16th century Farm House

From Triberg we drove to the Open Air Museum, this commenced when a farmhouse built in the 16^th century was purchased and opened to the public.  Over the years many old farmhouses and other buildings in the Black Forest area were purchased and re-assembled at the museum which now has six fully furnished farm houses and other building, including store houses, sawmills, hemp presses, a grain mill and blacksmiths shop.  All the building either have shingle roofs or were thatched with reeds. In the paddocks and barns there were old breeds of horses, cattle and pigs

Steam Train passing the Museum

As with many of our tours we didn’t have enough time to visit all the exhibits before we returned to the coach for the return trip to the ship which sailed at 9:00 pm for Basel.

Friday June 20

A quick breakfast before boarding a bus for Zurich airport and as we travelled on a ring road and motorway, we didn’t see any of Basel.

We are currently sitting in the Business Class lounge at the airport waiting for our flight to Singapore and then home.

Frankfurt

Monday June 16

Frankfurt

In the area of the Römer, Roman settlements were established, probably in the 1st century.  The name of Frankfurt on Main is derived from the Franconofurd of the Germanic tribe of the Franks; Furt (cf. English ford) where the river was shallow enough to be crossed by wading. Alemanni and Franks lived there and by 794 Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly and church synod, at which Franconofurd (-furt -vurd) was first mentioned.

Frankfurt was one of the most important cities in the following Holy Roman Empire. From 855 the German kings and emperors were elected in Frankfurt and crowned in Aachen. From 1562 the kings and emperors were also crowned in Frankfurt, Maximilian II being the first. This tradition ended in 1792, when Franz II was elected, his coronation was deliberately held on Bastille Day, 14 July, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. The elections and coronations took place in St. Bartholomäus Cathedral, known as the Kaiserdom (Emperor's Cathedral).

The Frankfurter Messe (Frankfurt Trade Fair) was first mentioned in 1150. In 1240, Emperor Friedrich II granted an Imperial privilege to its visitors, meaning they would be protected by the Empire. The fair became particularly important when similar fairs in French Beaucaire lost attraction around 1380. Book trade fairs have been held in Frankfurt since 1478.

In 1372 Frankfurt became a Reichsstadt (Imperial Free City), directly subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and not to a regional ruler or a local nobleman.

In 1585 Frankfurt traders established a system of exchange rates for the various currencies that were circulating in the city to prevent cheating and extortion, laying the foundation for the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.  Frankfurt managed to remain neutral during the Thirty Years' War, but suffered from the bubonic plague that was brought to the city by refugees. 

When we pulled back the curtains this morning we were about to enter the first lock on the Main River having left the Moselle River and sailed along the Rhine River for a while, we must have passed Koblenz while we slept.

Houses in City Square

We must have made good time with our sailing during the night as we arrived in Frankfurt one hour early but had to wait for our guides to arrive.  During the war Frankfurt was extensively damaged but a lot of the medieval buildings have been rebuilt in the old style, particularly in the area surrounding squares.  Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany and many banks including the Euro Bank have there headquarters here.  The Stock Exchange is the third busiest in the world.

We walked through gardens along the edge of the river before walking to the town square with the Old Town Hall and several rebuilt medieval houses.  From here we walked to St Bartholomew’s Cathedral, this has never been the seat of a Bishop but from the 16^th century it has been called a 

 cathedral due to it being the place of the coronation of German Kings and Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.

Frankfurt Opera House

From the cathedral we walked past the building where the German /Constitution was developed in the 1880s, to St Catherine’s Church, the first protestant church in the city which was built in the early 1500s.  We then walked along a narrow street lined with shops of all the top fashion, jewellery and other expensive shops; it should probably be renamed Millionaire’s Row.  

This street brought us to the Frankfurt Opera House the last place on our tour where the guide left us to find our own way back to the river and the ship.

Rhine Gorge and Rudesheim

Sunday June 15

Rhine Gorge and Rudesheim

We sailed through the night  and passed Koblenz and re-entered the Rhine before breakfast and around 9:00 we arrived at the start of the Rhine Gorge with all the castles lining its heights.  Unlike twelve days ago when we sailed through, the sun was shining, so we could leave our umbrellas and waterproof clothing in the cabin and sit on the sundeck to enjoy the views.

We arrived in Rudesheim around an hour early and snuggled up beside our sister ship, the Amacello, who wasn’t due to sail for half an hour and then we took her place at the dock.

This was our second visit to Rudesheim in twelve days and we elected to visit Siegfried’s Musical Cabinet which is a mechanical musical instrument museum housed in an old manor house, the home  in the past of an order of Knights of Rudesheim.  The owner and his son have collected examples of mechanical musical instruments from around the world and restored them to working order, from the tiniest music box to the largest mechanical orchestra.  There is an old Edison wax cylinder machine, wind up gramophone, old machines with metal disk with pins on the surface which play tunes in a similar style to a music box.

 

Several machines play a variety of musical instruments and operate with large paper rolls in a similar manner to a Pianola.  There was a grand piano pianola and one pianola with six violins which played to accompany the piano.  A most interesting hour was spent in the museum but we, like many others in our party would have liked to stroll through to look at all the exhibits after the conducted tour had finished.

Leaving the museum wandered through the narrow lanes and streets amongst thousands of people who were visiting Rudesheim for the annual Children’s Day festival.  Throughout the town there were several stages with entertainment for the children and many stalls with children’s activities and the parents were not forgotten with some stalls of interest to them.

If all this was too much for the parents they could rest at one of the many bars and restaurants dotted throughout the town and enjoy a “Rudesheimer Coffee” which consists of a special mug with a shot of Asbach brandy, this is set on fire and doused with coffee and topped with whipped cream and chocolate flakes.  Several of the passengers enjoyed a coffee which left some of the with a flushed face, or was it sunburn?

We returned to the ship and enjoyed a glass of the smoky bacon flavoured beer we were given in Bamburg which the barman had chilled for us while we were out.

After dinner we were entertained by the same singer who came on board on our last cruise and once again she managed to get nearly all the passengers up on the dance floor.

The ship didn’t sail till 6:00 the next morning so we had a peaceful night’s sleep.

Remich, Trier and Bernkastel

Friday June 13

Remich

We had made good time overnight and it looked that we may arrive in Remich well ahead of time allowing us to go ashore to walk around the town before leaving on our tour of Trier; however the last lock before the town was closed for some minor repairs so we lost all the time we had made up.

Remich is a commune with city status in south-eastern Luxembourg with just under 3,000 inhabitants; it is the capital of the canton of Remich and lies on the left bank of the Moselle River, which forms part of the border between Luxembourg and Germany. The commune is the smallest in Luxembourg in area.

After lunch we boarded the coaches to travel to Trier which is thought to be the oldest town in Germany founded in or before 16 BC. Trier which is called Treves in English is on the banks of the Moselle and lies in a valley within the important Mosel wine region. The closest city to Trier is the capital of Luxembourg, some 50 km to the southwest.

 The city is the oldest seat of a Christian bishop north of the Alps.  In the Middle Ages, the Archbishop of Trier was an important prince of the church, as the Archbishopric of Trier controlled land from the French border to the Rhine. The Archbishop also had great significance as one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

According to the legend recorded in the 12th-century Gesta Treverorum, the city was founded by an unrecorded Trebeta, an Assyrian prince, placing the city's founding legend centuries before and independently of ancient Rome: a medieval inscription on the façade of the Red House in Trier market,

ANTE ROMAM TREVIRIS STETIT ANNIS MILLE TRECENTIS.

PERSTET ET ÆTERNA PACE FRVATVR. AMEN.

"Thirteen hundred years before Rome, Trier stood / may it stand on and enjoy eternal peace, amen," reflects the proud city tradition.

In historical time, the Roman Empire subdued the Treveri in the 1st century BC and established Augusta Treverorum in 30 BC. The name is likely to be taken from the title Augustus held by the head of state at the time, Augustus Caesar. The city later became the capital of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, as well as the Roman prefecture of Gaul.

Porta Nigra

In the 4th century AD, Trier was one of the five biggest cities in the known world with a population of about 70,000 - 80,000 or perhaps up to 100,000.  The Porta Nigra an ancient Roman gate still survives in the city. Roman Trier was the birthplace of Saint Ambrose and sometime between 395 and 418 the Roman administration moved the staff of Praetorian Prefecture from the city to Arles.

The Franks seized Trier from Roman administration in 459 CE.  In 870, it became part of Eastern Francia, which developed into the Holy Roman Empire and relics of Saint Matthias brought to the city initiated widespread pilgrimages. The bishops of the city grew increasingly powerful and the Archbishopric of Trier was recognized as an electorate of the empire, one of the most powerful states of Germany. The University of Trier was founded in the city in 1473.

In the 17th century, the Archbishops and Prince-Electors of Trier relocated their residences to Philippsburg Castle, near Koblenz. A session of the Reichstag was held in Trier in 1512, during which the demarcation of the Imperial Circles was definitively established.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Trier was sought after by France, who invaded during the Thirty Years' War, the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the Spanish Succession, and the War of the Polish Succession. France succeeded in finally claiming Trier in 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars, and the electoral archbishopric was dissolved. After the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, Trier passed to the Kingdom of Prussia.  Karl Marx was born in the city in 1818.

As part of the Prussian Rhineland, Trier developed economically during the 19th century. The city rose in revolt during the revolutions of 1848 in the German states, although the rebels were forced to concede. It became part of the German Empire in 1871.

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 during World War II. The city became part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate after the war. The university, dissolved in 1797, was restarted in the 1970s, while the Cathedral of Trier was reopened in 1974. Trier officially celebrated its 2,000th anniversary in 1984.

The drive from Remich to Trier took a little over an hour in the coach and we drove around the town past old Roman Baths and an Amphitheatre before a five minute walk brought us to the Porta Nigra the old Roman Gate built around 1800 years ago.  Walking through the gate we found that there was an outer and inner gate which allowed the Romans to drop two gates to trap any attackers, allowing them to pour heated oil or fire arrows on those trapped.

Trier Cathedral and Parish Church

From the gate we followed the route of the old Roman road to the market square with many stalls set up selling fruit, vegetables and flowers, like many German squares it was lined with houses built 500 or more years ago.  On the way to the square we passed one house built in 1230 and originally didn’t have any doors or windows on the ground level, entrance being by ladder to the first floor , the ladder could be pulled up at night protecting the residents from intruders.

Protestant Church - Old Roman Throne Room

Following a small lane we came to another square in front of the Trier Cathedral, the early part of the cathedral was built in the 400s when the Romans adopted Christianity, next to the cathedral was a church which was rebuilt in the 1300s, having been destroyed years before by the Vikings.

Another old Roman building in town, also built in the 400s, the Palastuala or Roman Throne Room has been restored and is now used as a Protestant Church.  It is a large rectangular building with a flat timber ceiling and no decorations on the walls, just bare bricks and the size is another reminder of the skills of the Roman builders.

We had another hour to wander around the town before returning to the ship, arriving at 6:30 and immediately sailing downstream.  After dinner tonight we were entertained by a piano and violin duo and when we arrived at Trier, we docked briefly to allow them to leave the ship.

Saturday June 14

Bernkastel

The earliest evidence of human habitation (3000 BC) was discovered by archaeologists in Kues the village across the river.  About AD 370, Decimus Magnus Ausonius, the Roman poet and teacher at the Imperial court, wrote his poem Mosella.  Adalbero von Luxemburg, Provost of the Trier Monastery of St. Paulin, became Lord of Bernkastel in the early 11th century.

At the turn of the 8th century, a geographer described a place called Princastellum. This is said to be evidence of a Roman castellum in the 4th century near today’s Landshut castle ruin.

On 29 May 1291, King Rudolph I of Germany granted Berrincastel town rights. The castle, Burg Landshut, which was built at that time but was given this name only in the 16th century. In 1332, the town rights were reaffirmed by Emperor Louis the Bavarian’s Sammelprivileg (a kind of omnibus decree that dealt with many rights and privileges). Under the terms of the Golden Bull of 1356, Bohemond II became Elector and according to legend, he was brought back to health from a serious illness by a glass of wine, giving rise to the legend of the Berncastler Doctor winery.

In 1505, in an Electoral edict from Jakob II, the name Landshut for the archiepiscopal castle crops up for the first time.  Emperor Maximilian I spent a night in Bernkastel in 1512 on the way to the Imperial Diet at Trier.

The Plague raged in Bernkastel in 1627, and in Kues in 1641 and in 1692, Castle Landshut fell victim to fire and since then it has been a ruin.

From 1794 to 1814, Bernkastel was a cantonal chef-lieu under French rule, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Bernkastel and Kues were annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia.

Historically, the most important branch of industry has been winegrowing. Within the Bernkastel area, vines are worked overwhelmingly in steep-slope vineyards in an area of 5,844 ha.  A famous wine is the Bernkasteler Doctor, Its name traces back to a legend of the 14th century that the Archbishop Boemund II was getting over a severe illness by drinking a wine from this vineyard, then stating: "This wine is the true Doctor".  This small vineyard still exists today and is one of the most valuable vineyards on the Moselle and still produced the “Bernkasteler Doctor” wine but only around 10,000 bottles a year.

We arrived in Bernkastel before 7:00 am and after breakfast left the ship for a walking tour of the town, passing on the way into the town a pair of swans with their cygnets and a pair of native geese with their goslings sitting on the river bank.  The Moselle River, like the Rhine and Danube, has hundreds of pairs a swans along with ducks and geese occupying its waters.

Half Timbered Houses in Town Square

Bernkastel today, located in the middle of the Moselle wine-producing region. This charming town is overlooked by the ruins of Castle Landshut, and boasts over 500 years of wine history. During WW II only one bomb fell on the town so it still has its medieval marketplace, half-timbered homes and beautiful town squares with fountains dating back centuries.  We started our walk at the medieval watch tower built from slate, this has been incorporated with the baroque church, St Michaels as its bell tower.

Narrowest House in Bernkastel

Every little lane we walked along revealed more beautiful half-timbered houses, some with their second floor extending well past the ground floor; this is a result of houses being taxed on the amount of land they occupied so they could build large second and third floors without increasing their tax.  Several squares also contained fountains and a large bronze one near the river was decorated with the figure of the Archbishop receiving the “Doctor Wine”.

After walking around the town for around an hour and a half we were taken to a wine cellar where we had the opportunity to sample several of the different style of Mosel wine, from semi-dry to sweet.

Today the weather has deteriorated and is probably 10 degrees or more cooler than the last three, so even though we had some “anti-freeze” inside we decided to return to the ship to warm up and sailed just after lunch.

Moselle Vineyards

The Moselle River’s south facing steep sides are lined with vineyards and are so steep that the owners can’t use machinery, so all the work is done on by hand.  The soil contains a lot of slate and rather than remove it, it is spread over the surface around the vines so during the day it warms up and night it releases its heat which helps improve the environment for the vines.

Another difference between the Moselle and the Rhine and Danube, is that the Moselle snakes around between the hills with many 180 degree bends and in the space of a few kilometres changes direction several times and every kilometre or less is another small village, a more interesting river to travel along.

Cochem

Thursday June 12

Cochem

As early as Celtic and Roman times, Cochem was settled. In 886, it was first mentioned as Villa cuchema. Other names yielded by history are Cuhckeme and Chuckeme in 893, Cochemo in 1051, Chuchumo in 1056, Kuchema in 1130, Cuchemo in 1136, Cocheme in 1144, then Cuchme, and into the 18th century Cochheim or Cocheim.

Reichsburg Castle

Cochem was an Imperial estate and was pledged by King Adolf of Nassau in 1294 to the Archbishopric of Trier and remained Electoral-Trier territory until the French occupation began in 1794.  In 1332, Cochem was granted town rights, and shortly thereafter, the town fortifications, which still stand today, were built. Between 1423 and 1425, the town was stricken with a Plague epidemic. In 1623, Elector Lothar von Metternich brought about the founding of a Capuchin monastery. In the Thirty Years' War, the town was besieged, but not conquered. In 1689, King Louis XIV's troops first burnt the Winneburg (castle) down and then conquered the town of Cochem with its castle. Beginning in 1794, Cochem lay under French rule and in 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna.

Louis Fréderic Jacques Ravené bought the ruin of the former Imperial castle in 1866 and began its reconstruction.  Only after a bridge was built across the Moselle at Cochem in 1927 were the two fishing villages of Cond and Sehl amalgamated with the town in the course of administrative reform in 1932. This bridge, called the "Skagerrak Bridge", was dedicated on 23 January 1927. In the Second World War, great parts of Cochem's old town were destroyed.  Also during the war, the operations staff of the underground subcamp of Zeisig of the Natzweiler concentration camp between the villages of Bruttig and Treis was located here, at its height, 13,000 people were imprisoned and they provided slave labour for Bosch, which made spark plugs, ignition systems and glow plugs, which were important to the German war effort.

Moselle River from Castle

Old houses near Town Square

After breakfast we boarded mini buses to be taken to Reichsburg Castle which overlooks the town as the road isn’t wide enough for coaches.  The first castle was constructed over 1000 years ago and has been destroyed and rebuilt several times.  In the 1800s it was only a shell and a Berlin merchant purchased it to use as a summer getaway and spent, in today’s terms, 43 million euros to restore it, every room has a different style ceiling, some rooms have oak panelling with figures or scenes carved on them and other rooms have been painted so that the walls appear to have been covered with elaborate wallpaper.  Today the castle is owned by the town and with tourism and hiring for functions it pays its way.

Ann found a new friend

From the castle we returned to the town and walked around the old section, some of the lanes being too small for cars to drive along so we were able to admire the buildings without worrying about traffic.  The lanes eventually led into the old market square, very small compared to some towns we have visited, in the middle of the square was a fountain with St Michael on horseback and as expected the old town hall occupied one side.  We finished the tour at an old town gate with a small prison above and then wandered off on our own.

We remembered from our last visit that there was a chair lift going up to one of the highest hills surrounding the town, so we walked under the rail bridge and could see at its end the entrance to the King Wilhelm rail tunnel which runs for over 4 km through the mountain before arriving at the chair lift station.  A 10 minute ride brought us to the top and after a short walk arrived at a point of the hill that provided a wonderful view of the town and up and downstream of the Moselle River.

Returning to the town we walked back, over the stone bridge, to the ship and while we were eating lunch set sail to travel further up the Moselle.

Travelling along the river in every village we past there were dozens of motor homes lining the river bank and in some many caravans and the way they were set up looked as if they were there for the summer.  We were told that most of the motor homes were from the Netherlands and we suspect if they were all on the road at the same time there would be a traffic jam all the way to Amsterdam.

Volendam, Maastricht, Antwerp, Nijmegen and Cologne

Sunday June 8

Volendam

Flat Bottom Fishing Boat

Originally, Volendam was the location of the harbor of the nearby Edam, which was situated at the mouth of the IJ bay. In 1357, the inhabitants of Edam dug a shorter canal to the Zuiderzee with its own separate harbor. This removed the need for the original harbor, which was then dammed and used for land reclamation. Farmers and local fishermen settled there, forming the new community of Vollendam, which literally meant something like 'Filled dam'.

During the reformation Volendam remained a Roman Catholic village and as punishment the village was removed from all maps.  In the late 1800s a French artist visited the village and following his exhibition in Paris, many artists and visitors arrived in the village.  In the early part of the 20th century it became something of an artists' retreat, with both Picasso and Renoir spending time here and as a result of all the visitors the village was returned to the maps. The local hotel became a refuge for the artists and the owner’s daughters married artists, many of the guest couldn’t pay their bills so gave the owner paintings instead, today the walls of the hotel are lined with these paintings.

As mentioned above the majority of the population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, which is deeply connected to the village culture. Historically, many missionaries and bishops grew up in Volendam. Today there is the chapel of Our Lady of the Water of the controversial 'visionary' Mrs Hille Kok, which is located in a village park.

Happy is a man with his Smoked Eels

We arrived at Volendam just after lunch and went with the guide for a short tour, as we have visited Volendam on four other occasions we felt sorry for the other passengers as they weren’t taken to the lower part of the village with cottages lining the canals with pretty gardens and several pedestrian lift up bridges crossing the canals.

At the completion of the tour we walked to the smoke house and as has been our custom on previous visits, purchased some smoked eels and sat on a tiny beach to eat them with some bread and butter which we had saved from breakfast.  Now our visit to Volendam was complete.

Monday June 9

Antwerp and Maastricht

Immediately after breakfast we boarded the coaches for a one and half hour drive to Maastricht.  Driving through Antwerp we noticed ice piled up on parts of the road, the remnants of last night’s violent hail storm which caused a lot of damage throughout the city.

It is not known exactly when the Romans arrived in Maastricht, or whether the settlement was founded by them. It is known, though, that the Romans built a bridge over the Meuse in the 1st century AD, during the reign of Augustus Caesar. The bridge was an important link in the main road between Bavay and Cologne.

In the early Middle Ages Maastricht was, along with Aachen and the area around Liège, part of the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. The town was an important centre for trade and manufacturing. Merovingian coins minted in Maastricht have been found in many places throughout Europe. In the 10th century Maastricht briefly became the capital of the duchy of Lower Lorraine.

Old Town Hall

During the 12th century the town flourished culturally. The provosts of the church of Saint Servatius held important positions in the Holy Roman Empire during this era. The city's two main churches were largely rebuilt and redecorated. Maastricht Romanesque stone sculpture is regarded as one of the highlights of Mosan art.  Maastricht painters were praised by Wolfram von Eschenbach in his Parzival. Around the same time, the poet Henric van Veldeke wrote a legend of Saint Servatius, one of the earliest works in Dutch literature.

Shortly after 1200 the city received dual authority, with the prince-bishops of Liège and the dukes of Brabant holding joint sovereignty over the city. Maastricht received city rights in 1204. Soon afterwards the first ring of medieval walls were built. Throughout the Middle Ages, the city remained a centre for trade and manufacturing of wool and leather but gradually economic decline set in. After a brief period of economic prosperity in the 15th century, the city's economy suffered during the wars of religion of the 16th and 17th centuries, and recovery did not happen until the industrial revolution in the early 19th century.

Old Town Gate

We started our walk by remnants of the old city wall passing several old houses to arrive at the city gate which was completed in1229.  Inside the city wall we walked along cobblestone lanes lined with houses many dating back to the 1400s. 

As well as the main river Maastricht has a small river which wanders through the town and in places is disappears under houses and roads to emerge several blocks away.  One building where the river emerges has a water wheel on its side, walking inside we found that it was an operating flour mill which supplies the bakery at the front of the building.

Maastricht is still a predominantly Roman Catholic town with many churches, however at the time the French occupied the town the closed many churches with the view of separating the secular and church control of the city.  Many of the churches have been converted to other community uses.

Arriving at the city square we found there was a Protestant and Roman Catholic Church, side by side and in the cobble stones of the square a large plaque commemorating the liberation of the town on 13–14 September 1944.  Walking back to the coach through a shopping street of old buildings we walked through a little square named in honour of Andre Rieu, who was born in the town and went inside an old church which has been converted into a book store but with its decorated ceiling intact and many grave covers on the floor.  Boarding the coach we drove to the Chateau Neercanne where we were to have lunch.

Chateau Neercanne

The property was purchase by Baron Von Dopff in 1698 and extended the Chateau, this now contains a restaurant with a star rating in the Michelin guide.  Climbing the steps and entering the Chateau it became obvious the many of the rooms had been carved into the cliff, passing through several of these candle lit rooms we entered a large dining area of two rooms to accommodate our party and were treated to a lunch which justified the restaurant’s Michelin rating.

Antwerp

Returning to Antwerp we had fifteen minutes on board before leaving for a short walking tour of the city. According to folklore, notably celebrated by a statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend involving a mythical giant called Antigoon who lived near the Scheldt river. He exacted a toll from those crossing the river, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands and threw it into the river. Eventually, the giant was slain by a young hero named Brabo, who cut off the giant's own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen, akin to Old English hand and wearpan (to throw), which has evolved to today's warp.

Antwerp Town Hall

In favour of this folk etymology is the fact that hand-cutting was indeed practised in Europe; the right hand of a man who died without issue was cut off and sent to the feudal lord as proof of main-morte. However, John Lothrop Motley argues that Antwerp's name derives from an 't werf (on the wharf).  Aan 't werp (at the warp) is also possible. This "warp" (thrown ground) is a man-made hill, just high enough to remain dry at high tide, whereupon a farm would be built. Another word for werp is pol (hence polders).

The prevalent theory is that the name originated in the Gallo-Roman period and comes from the Latin antverpia. Antverpia would come from Ante (before) Verpia (deposition, sedimentation), indicating land that forms by deposition in the inside curve of a river (which is in fact the same origin as Germanic waerpen). Note that the river Scheldt, before a transition period between 600 to750, followed a different track.

We were restricted to a short walk around the town due to the planned departure time of the ship so we walked along the old dock area, some of which has been lost due to a river re-alignment past an old castle before turning down a lane to the city square.

A lot of Antwerp was damaged by bombing during the war and many of the old buildings have been replaced with modern ones.  Arriving at the square we were greeted by the old city hall bedecked with flags of provinces and cities in the area and in front was a large statue depicting the legend of the giant mentioned above.

 As it had started to rain we headed back to the ship because most people in the party hadn’t brought any coats or umbrellas with them.  It was a pity that we didn’t have more time to explore this historical Belgium town.

Tuesday June 10

Nijmegen

One of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, having been founded by the Romans in the second century.  The first mention of Nijmegen in history is in the 1st century BC, when the Romans built a military camp on the place where Nijmegen was to appear; the location had great strategic value because of the surrounding hills, which gave (and continue to give) a good view over the Waal and Rhine valley.

By 69, when the Batavians, the original inhabitants of the Rhine and Maas delta, had built a village called Oppidum Batavorum near the Roman camp. This village was destroyed in a revolt, but when it had ended the Romans built another, bigger camp.  In 98 Nijmegen was the first of two settlements in what is now the Kingdom of the Netherlands to receive Roman city rights.

In the 4th century, Roman power decreased and Nijmegen became part of the Frankish kingdom. It has been contended that in the 8th century Emperor Charlemagne maintained his palatium in Nijmegen on at least four occasions. During his brief deposition of 830, the emperor Louis the Pious was sent to Nijmegen by his son Lothar I. Thanks to the Waal River, trade flourished.

The powerful Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor was born at Nijmegen in 1165. In 1230 his son Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor granted Nijmegen city rights. In 1247, the city was ceded to the count of Guelders as collateral for a loan. The loan was never repaid, and Nijmegen has been a part of Gelderland ever since. This did not hamper trade; Nijmegen even became part of the Hanseatic League in 1364.

We tied up at Nijmegen just on lunch time mooring near the metal arch bridge spanning the Waal River, this bridge was one of several that, in September 1944, the Allies attempted to capture before the Germans could destroy them.  Another was at Arnham which a British airborne group tried to capture, this attempt was featured in the movie “A Bridge Too Far”.  The Americans were successful at Nijmegen but only a few British landed near the Arnham bridge and eventually had to withdraw.

Front of Palace

We had chosen to visit the 300 year-old palace and gardens of Het Loo, the former residence of the Dutch Royal Family, to get to the castle we had to cross the two bridges mentioned above.  Arriving at the palace the first thing we noticed that unlike other palaces in Europe the exterior was very plain and without the elaborate decorations we had seen on others.

Anglican Chapel in Palace

Before entering the palace we walked through the King’s Gardens which were very plain with just a large expanse of lawn with some small flower beds.  Climbing some steps we were able to look over the elaborate gardens and fountains which were available for palace guests, these gardens were very similar in design to several other gardens in Europe and Russia.

The first resident of the palace in the late 1600s was Willem III, later to become William III of England and it was the home of the Dutch Royal family for nearly 300 years.  Many of the rooms were decorated and furnished in the style of the residents in the 1700s but some rooms, including a bathroom remain as they were when used by the Royal Family in the 20^th century.

Formal Gardens

We spent around one and a half hours in the palace and gardens before strolling along a tree lined road to the Royal Carriage House and stables.  Exhibited there were many examples of different styles of carriages, the harness rooms with well-maintained and polished harness, also included in the display were many old and reasonably modern vehicles used by the Royal Family.  An unusual display was two small prams built for the Royal Princesses to use during WW II, they were gas proof and had a small pump on the outside so they could be pressurised in the event of a gas attack.

Leaving the palace we drove back through the town of Apeldoor with its modern houses, many with thatched roofs set in a pleasant woodland environment before arriving at the woodland and heathlands of a National Park, these are located in the highest part of the Netherlands, 106m.  Amongst the woodland were several estates with old mansion buildings originally owned by rich merchants.   Leaving the woodlands we slowly descended to arrive at the town of Arnhem and another half an hour brought us back to the ship where tonight we ate in the fine dining room situated in the stern of the ship.  Every night 20 to 24 passengers eat here and are treated to a five course menu and cheese, together with fine wines, the menu remains the same for the first week before changing in the second week so every passenger has the opportunity to dine there twice.  The serve of each course is quite small so we were able to enjoy them all.  The menu is the same for all ships and cruises as this is the third time we have experienced the week one menu on this holiday, this being our third cruise.

Wednesday June 11

Cologne

We arrived in Cologne at 9:00 am and it doesn’t seem a week since we were here on the previous cruise.  Because we have walked around Cologne several time before we decided that today we would visit the Chocolate Museum which was only around 200m. from where we are docked.

Chocolate "Fountain"

Our entrance ticket to the museum was a small wrapped chocolate; maybe this is why the museum is amongst the top ten in Germany.  As well as displays on the growing and harvesting of the cocoa bean, there is a small heated display with several tropical trees and plants and after around 20 years one cocoa bean was produced.  Leaving the glasshouse we walked through a display with operating equipment, on a miniature size, showing the processing of chocolate, together with old processing equipment before coming to a chocolate fountain, actually a large vat, where we were given a wafer biscuit dipped in the chocolate.  This area also contains a miniature plant which made wrapped tiny chocolate bars similar to those we received at the entrance.

From this area we walked through another museum area which had artefacts from the ancient civilizations which used the cocoa bean and traced the progress and use of chocolate through the centuries, with displays of various drinking vessels and the development of the café society when chocolate was first introduced as a drink.

During lunch the ship sailed and passed back through the Rhine Gorge which we had sailed through seven days ago, the weather being better than a week ago when it poured.  After dinner we were entertained by singer and we made a brief stop at Koblenz to drop him off before continuing down the Moselle River 

Amsterdam and Start of Next Cruise

Thursday June 6

Amsterdam

Cruising along the Rhine we arrived at Amsterdam just after lunch.

Amsterdam's name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the city's origin as a dam of the river Amstel. Originating as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age, a result of its innovative developments in trade. During that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds.  In the 19th and 20th centuries, the city expanded, and many new neighbourhoods and suburbs were planned and built. The 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Amsterdam's founding is relatively recent compared with much older Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean that there was already a settlement then since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat, used as fuel.

Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306. From the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely because of trade with the Hanseatic League. In 1345, an alleged Eucharistic miracle in the Kalverstraat rendered the city an important place of pilgrimage until the adoption of the Protestant faith.

We were planning to go on the trip to Zaanse Schans a village with many old houses that have been rebuilt on the site; this is surrounded by farms and traditional Dutch activities.  However I felt that my last blood transfusion had reached its use by date so we went by Metro to the hospital in central Amsterdam for a blood test.

We only had to wait about 20 minutes to be seen by a nurse and another 15 minutes to see a doctor who ordered blood tests and an ECG.  I was then seen by a registrar and about 3 hours after arriving was admitted to a ward for a four unit transfusion which started around 7:30 pm.  Ann left at 9:30 to return to the ship as it was obvious that the transfusions were going to take some time which was just as well, as it was nearly 4:00 am when they finished and I had to wait for the results of a final blood test before I could leave.

The night nurse then advised that the account would be sent to my home, very trusting, and phoned for a taxi.  I arrived back at the ship at 4:30 am charged up to face the next two weeks.

Friday June 6

Today was the end of the Budapest to Amsterdam cruise and all the passengers had left by 11:30 and the new passengers for the Amsterdam to Basel tour started to trickle on board, many having just flown in from Australia.  This fact became obvious after dinner when there were only around ten passengers in the lounge the rest have retired to their cabins.

Sitting in our cabin before dinner more than 50 yachts motored past together with numerous small craft of various types.  It is the start of a long weekend and we wondered if they were heading somewhere for a regatta.

Saturday June 7

Amsterdam

Today the tours available last Thursday were repeated for the new passengers, so we didn’t miss our trip to Zaanse Schans.

As mentioned earlier this village is comprised of traditional Dutch homes re-located from around the Netherlands and are still used as residences or bed and breakfast providers.  In the village and nearby are six traditional windmills, several still in use, the one we visited is used to grind pigment for paint and other uses and another nearby was used to drive a saw mill.

From the windmill we walked to a small cheese factory which produces cheese every day from cow, goat and sheep milk, after a short talk on cheese production we were able to taste the various styles of cheeses produced.

 

Our next visit was to a clog factory which produces clogs using machines made 75 years ago, the techniques haven’t been improved and these machines still produce an excellent product.  To shape the outside of the clog the machine follows a clog clamped as a template, in some way similar to a key cutting machine except it is three dimensional.  The inside of the clog is hollowed out in a similar manner, following the inside shape of a clog clamped beside it.

After lunch we left the ship to visit the Hortus Botanicus, one of the oldest botanic garden on the world founded in 1638.  It was founded after the plague to grow herbs which were of vital importance for medicine and doctors and pharmacists practiced with herbal medicine there.

In the 17^th and 18^th century Dutch East India Company ships brought exotic ornamental plants and spices to the Hortus.  The gardens are quite small, only 1.2 ha. but has over 4000 different plants displayed in outdoor gardens and glasshouses.  One small glasshouse also contained a display of butterflies, nothing as extensive as the butterfly house at the Melbourne Zoo but the locals are very enthusiastic about it. 

Queen Elizabeth

Because of the size of the gardens it only took us two hours to walk around all the garden beds and glasshouses and we returned to the ship in time to see the “Queen Elizabeth” depart, she had been moored around 100m. away and it’s size made the Amalyra look like one of her lifeboats.  After boarding we had two hours to prepare for the Captain’s Cocktail Party and Welcome Dinner.

After dinner we were entertained by a violin and guitar duo, La Strada, playing classical and gypsy music one of the most entertaining performances I have attended and the hour of the mini concert just flashed by.  We remain in port tonight and sail for Volendam  at 9:00 am in the morning, so we can have a sleep in in the morning.