Tuesday, October 22, 2013

This beautiful town Koblenz has a history that dates back to the Romans, who established a military stronghold in the town around 10BC.

From Koblenz we travelled by bus to Marksburg Castle. While many of the castles on the Rhine are rebuilt versions of the originals, Marksburg has retained all of its initial construction despite over 800 years of change and turmoil and still stands today as the best preserved castle on this river. The main reason for this is that it sits atop a steep, isolated hill on a bend in the river. This was discouraging to enemies so that the castle was never attacked during countless wars that waged around it through the centuries.

Marksburg Castle

Sharon on the top floor of Marksburg Castle



View of the river from the castle

Wine Cellar



Kitchen at the Castle

After touring the castle we were bussed to the ship’s next stop in Braubach.Along the Middle Rhine we were travelling in a river valley with numerous castles perched on the very high hilltops and beautiful villages along the river banks. They remind us of the villages that some people build for decoration at Christmas time.

Monday - October 21, 2013

Today we are in Köln (Cologne) Germany, the 4th largest city with a population of about 1 million. Kölner Dom is the largest gothic church in Northern Europe. Construction of the cathedral was started in 1248  and was halted in 1473, leaving it unfinished. Work restarted in the 19th century and was completed, to the original plan, in 1880. It is 144.5 metres  long, 86.5 m wide and its towers are approximately 157 metres tall. Pictures do not really tell the story of this magnificent structure, one has to see it in person.

Cologne has more than 100 traditional brewpubs and the city's most famous beer is Kolsch, however, we can't tell you if it is any good, since we did not sample this brew.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Today we visited the windmills  at the World Heritage Site in Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is created from a Polder. A polder is a tract of lowland reclaimed from a body of water, often the sea, by the construction of dikes, followed by drainage of the area between the dikes and the natural coastline. The water inside the walls of the dikes is pumped out, thereby reclaiming the land. In the case of Kinderdijk, a series of Windmills were built and at one time more than 150 windmills existed in this area of the Netherlands. Today only 16 remain.

Friday, October 18

Today we went on a Canal cruise tour. There are so many canals and they are lined with boat houses that were made legal at one time because there was a shortage of space. These boat houses have electricity, water and gas connections. Some of them looked quite liveable and had been done up quite nice.
After lunch we walked to the area where the Anne Frank house is then just wandered our way back to the area of our hotel.
In the evening after dinner we visited the carnival that was set up just a few doors down from our hotel. If you look in the background you will see that the carnival is set up right in front of the Royal Palace. The one very tall ride was swing like seats that took you up 60 METRES! What a view that would be!
Tomorrow we will be leaving our hotel and making our home for the next few weeks on the Viking Aegir.

October 17, 2013, Wooden Shoes and Windmills

Today we visited the Dutch country side, went to Zaanse Schans, the picturesque windmill village with its typical green-timbered houses and warehouses. Other highlights today were visits to the fishing village of Volendam with a cheese factory tour and to Marken where we saw a local traditional clog (wooden shoes) maker.
Then after dinner we took a walk in the famous Amsterdam 'Red light district'. Sorry but we did not get any pictures to share there!




One of the machines used in the village of Marken to make the wooden shoes

Fishing village of Volendam

                        A couple of the original windmills in the village of Zaanse Schans

                                                                      Countryside view

 

A special pair of wooden shoes used to propose marriage, called wedding shoes.

Wednesday, October 16

Today we went on a walk just checking out some of the streets, canals and flower market.

Made our way to the Rijks Museum  https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en
Also tonight when we were out looking for a restaurant we stumbled upon the famous 'Red light district'. We didn't stick around but everyone tells us it is a 'must see' experience. Perhaps we will go for a walk over there in the light of day!

 

 

 

walking along some of the streets and canals in Amsterdam

The Beurs van Berlage is a building on the Damrak, in the center of Amsterdam. It was designed as a commodity exchange by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage and constructed between 1896 and 1903

Rijksmuseum

 

Rembranndts Night Watch

Amsterdam - October 15, 2103

We left Toronto around 6:40 pm yesterday and arrived in Amsterdam around 7:40 am local time or 1:40 am home time. Got to our hotel too early to get our rooms so left our luggage there for safe keeping and went for a walk. It is a rainy day here and cool so we found a coffee shop and browsed a couple of shops to just kill some time without going too far till we could get our rooms. We are right downtown and it looks like there is a lot to see and do in the next few days.  I am not sure if it has been a long day or a short night, but we are feeling better after a few hours nap. It is getting near dinner time now so we will be heading out shortly to find somewhere for dinner and will get into some more serious exploring tomorrow.
We just wanted to get this started and hopefully will have more to share in the coming days!