On sea days you will not find this group lolly gagging in the hot tub, sipping margaritas poolside, reading in a quiet corner, wine tasting, warming a seat in the casino, or sun bathing. No way. Intellectual pursuits, entertainment, laps on the deck, and shopping infrequent sales are about the only things powerful enough to pull us away from the trough. No time to enjoy the pod of dolphins frolicking off the side of the ship or the boobies flying low to take advantage of the treats the ship’s passing stirs up.

Two very spirited lectures filled our morning on Halloween. The first was on whale migration. Not your typical riveting topic, I admit, but Brent Nixon mixed humor with fun facts (think whale poop and ear wax), migration patterns, types and differences of whales, diets, lactating, and the astonishing size they can reach if they are lucky enough to live to old age. He had no problem holding our attention.

An equally enjoyable lecture was on the enormous treasure that has been lost to the sea over the past 2,000 years, most of which is waiting to be discovered. Mary Amanda covered shipwrecks with treasure lost and never found, the overwhelming majority, and shipwrecks with treasure lost and later found. Entire museums are dedicated to the bounty from individual ships. In today’s dollars the value of what’s been found as well as what’s still to be located is easily in the billions!

Today we took in a lecture on black tip reef sharks whose ancestors date back 400-500 million years. We learned that these night feeders are around five feet long, weigh in at 30 pounds, are color blind, immune to cancer, and have two pups a year that will probably not live to adulthood. Again, not your typical riveting fare, but when the microphone is in the hands of our new friend Brent it is suddenly all we want to hear about.

The stage was passed to Mary Amanda for a fun review of the history and culture of Colon and Cartagena which I’ll share when the time is right. Unrelated but special: Mary Amanda was wearing a skirt that her grandmother bought in Bogota in 1920!

In the spirit of Halloween, Dan decorated our table with confetti and trick or treat bags and he and I brought themed t-shirts from home which were fun surprises for our travel buddies.

I had a fun chat today with the head of the Captain’s Club, Violeta, a Celebrity employee of 20 years. She was an engineer in her home country of the Philippines before she decided she could help support her extended family better if she took a job with Celebrity and she has never looked back. She shared fond memories of her grandparents and the hard life they hoped she could avoid. They supplemented their income by harvesting salt. She described how they brought ocean water to a pond and by late afternoon the sun had evaporated the pond enough that crystals had formed on the top. Her grandparents scraped the damp salt off the top and formed a cone which was left to dry until it was ready to be taken to a salt warehouse and later sold.

Two relaxing days at sea, two more date nights, and six more contest questions had us ready for another shore day.

Entertainment these last two days:
Singer and pianist Heather Sullivan. Think Bette Midler meets Shirley Bassey meets Diana Krall to create a nightclub feel.
Comedy laced with magic or vice versa with Jason Bird. Excellent.
Claire Gobin on the violin in a spirited matinee.

For what it’s worth….

Today we sailed in water 14,700 feet deep.

After setting our watches forward two times, we were told to move our watches back an hour tonight. Say what?

We woke to another perfect day. Mid to high 80s with a chance of rain. Puerta Vallarta is new to all of us, so we chose the Highlights of the City tour to get acclimated. It was an afternoon tour, so we all scattered to the winds in the morning. Dan and I slept in, relaxed, and grabbed an early lunch; Hettie and Ronnie were a little more energetic; and the smarty pants in the group, Cyd and Rick, attended a string ray presentation that they said was FanFrickenTastic making us all regret we had been such slugs.

The ship was able to dock at the pier, so we avoided the hassle of tenders. The port in this city of 400,000 is clean, sophisticated, welcoming, and very organized. The buildings are a tidy combination of mustard, coral, cream, tan, and grey with red tile roofs. Unlike the desert city of Cabo, Puerto Vallarta gets 40-60 inches of rain, so it is green and lush by comparison.

Our guide, Victor, explained that the sleepy village of yore that depended on fishing, farming, and salt mining did not have electricity or an airport until 1970! The city got both rather suddenly because President Nixon was scheduled to meet with the Mexican president in this exact location and it was decided that it would make an unfavorable impression if Mexico welcomed the presidents in a location without either. Between the Hollywood press (see For what it’s worth….. below) and the meeting of these two presidents the area has morphed relatively quickly into the sophisticated beach resort it is today.

Fun fact: If you are born and raised in Puerto Vallarta you are referred to as a salty foot. Victor is proud to be a salty foot.

Fun Victor story: When he was six years old his grandpa gave him a pet iguana. One day he was walking it around town with a little iguana-sized leash and a woman asked if she could take her picture with it. He agreed willingly and much to his surprise, when she was done taking the picture she gave him $1.00. He said it didn’t take him long to figure out he and his pet could go into business. On a good day he earned $7.00, a tidy sum for a little guy.

A hurricane that had recently hit the area wiped out the bridge we were going to use to bypass downtown in order to get to the old part of town, so our bus driver had to navigate the colorful, narrow streets in the newer part of town. Victor said his dad refers to that as seeing Mexico without makeup. Once in the old part of town we visited The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, dedicated to the patron saint of Mexico. It was built in what was then the center of town between 1930 and 1940 on the site of a smaller church dating back to 1901. It is well maintained and beautiful inside and out. An impressive crown sits at the top of the church. Dan and I lit a candle for Josie’s Aunt Jerry.

Mexico has been the world’s primary source of fire opal for nearly 100 years. That being the case, Victor decided it was fitting to take us to a jewelry store that specializes in these stones as well as beautiful silver, another staple of Mexico. Cyd and I succumbed to the allure of high pressure and impulse buying and did the group (and Cleone) proud with the purchase of a small fire opal hippo (Cyd) and a fire opal ring (Schele).

Dia de los Muertos (may I suggest Pixar’s Coco) is November 1 which is wonderful luck for us because vibrantly colored displays were along the beach walk, outside the church, and on the walkway near the city center. All honored the dead. There were statues of skeletons 20 or more feet tall dressed in traditional clothing, colorful hats, and interesting accessories with skulls for heads and bamboo segments creating boney hands. A bit spooky by our standard, but intended in no way to disrespect the dead.

We stopped to watch a group of six, all dressed in traditional white, play (a harp and three guitars), sing, and dance (a woman and girl). They were wonderful and drew quite a crowd.

Our last stop of the day was to see a small park near Deadman’s Beach, the most popular beach in the city. An expat from Oregon is leading a beautification project which, when completed, will have all the surfaces, mostly benches and columns, covered in mosaic tiles. It’s easy to imagine how beautiful as well as colorful this attraction will be one day soon. A charming statue in this small park is made up of two small boys and a dog struggling to coax an uncooperative mule. It pays homage to the contribution of children and mules in the salt mines of the past.

We all enjoyed our day and agreed that Victor did a great job.

Our four-course dinner was delicious. I had already enjoyed chicken, beef, and veal, so I decided on shredded lamb shank rolled in phyllo. It did not disappoint. Dan had fish for the fourth day in a row.

Dan came up with another clever seating plan and hosted day three of his contest with questions about tennis balls, plastic in landfills, and a probability formula to estimate the number of planets that might sustain intelligent life.

Tonight’s entertainment: We thoroughly enjoyed Claire Gobin, a classically trained violinist who played show tunes, the Beatles, and classical pieces.

By the way: Just like in Cabo and Todos Santos, there was a very high rate of compliance with the mask mandate (regardless of vaccination status) in effect.

For what it’s worth…..

Puerto Vallarta is the final port of call in the TV show The Love Boat (1977-1986).

The state of Jalisco, where Puerto Vallarta is located, is the capital of mariachi music in Mexico.

Banderas Bay is one of the 10 largest bays in the world and easily the largest bay in Mexico. 

Gringo Gulch began to develop as an expat neighborhood on the hill above the old town
by the 1950s after American writers and artists were drawn to the area.

Puerto Vallarta has featured as the backdrop to a number of movies, including The Night of the Iguana which made the area famous in the 1960s. During filming, a married Richard Burton bought an also married Elizabeth Taylor (not in the film, BTW) a house, Casa Kimberly, for her 32nd birthday. For good measure, or more space maybe, he also bought the house across the street. They built a bridge between the two, presumably to escape prying eyes. Extensive US media coverage of the affair as well as the frequent fighting between the movie’s director, John Houston, and the film’s four stars put Puerto Vallarta on the map for US tourists. Fun fact: Casa Kimberly is now a boutique hotel.

Having rested up a full day on board the ship we were ready to explore the southern tip of Baja.

Sidebar: Matt, Murphy, Dan and I spent a fun, activity-packed (swimming with dolphins, zip lining,
golfing, rappelling, fishing, dune buggying) Thanksgiving here a few years ago.

We chose to spend our afternoon exploring Todo Santos, a small town on the Pacific coast an hour north of Cabo. It was initially founded as one of 18 Spanish missions along the coast. The quaint mission church is in wonderful shape and still open to the public. There are no remnants of Todo Santos’ sugar-cane producing past, but pearls, once a major draw, are still farmed in the waters of the Sea of Cortez. Artists and jewelers have discovered the charm of Todos Santos as well as tourists like us. We had lunch in the Hotel California, possibly the inspiration for the Eagles song by the same name; walked the clean, colorful streets; visited the small culture museum; and popped in and out of shops.

Our guide peppered us with fun facts on the way back to the vibrant, bustling adult playground of Cabo: the area gets 10 inches of rain a year; it’s part of a desert that extends into Arizona; the saguaro-looking cacti are not actually saguaro; and the average-income residents store water in black tanks mounted to the roof of their homes. When we passed a McDonalds’s he said, “I want to point out the American Embassy on your right.” It got the laugh he anticipated.

We had our third date night (possibly my favorite part of cruising) with Dan hosting day two of his contest. I retained a firm hold on last place. I was the only one who had a frozen margarita in celebration of our host country, but we all had delicious four course dinners. Cyd shared the only joke she knows; Ricky followed with the only one he could remember; and Dan topped them all with his three standards.

Part two of the contest was no easier than part one.
1) How many major-league baseballs made by Rawlings Sporting Goods pass inspection to achieve ‘pro’ grade each year?
a) 1.2 million
b) 2.1 million
2) Which of these things hit an all-time high this year? (Be still my heart…an easy one!)
a) Courtesy in Congress
b) Federal debt
3) With a lifespan of as much as 512 years, this animal is the oldest known living vertebrate.
a) Galapagos tortoise
b) Greenland shark

Entertainment: Vox Fortura, four classically trained tenors, captivated us with their harmony on classics, show tunes, pop, and rhythm and blues.

For what it’s worth…..

Cabo San Lucas together with San Jose del Cabo are known as Los Cabos.
Los Cabos is one of Mexico’s top five tourist destinations.

Each October Cabo San Lucas hosts the highest-paying marlin tournament in the world
with millions of dollars in prize money!

Contest answers: a,b,b

Considering San Diego is just over a half hour’s drive from Mexico, it was no time at all until we were sailing south along the 775 mile long coast of Baja California which is, by the way, the second longest peninsula on Earth!

A relaxing day was welcome after the anxiety of preparing for the trip, hoping we’d all pass the health screening, and getting across the country. The plan was to sleep away the morning, but that didn’t happen, so we jumped up and headed to a late breakfast. The pain au chocolate was totally worth it! The pastry station will be my first stop from here on out.

The day was beautiful, bright, and sunny with the Baja coast in view most of the day. From breakfast Dan and I headed to a lecture on luxury cruise ships of the past. Mary Amanda was a fun, funny, fast talking presenter who had no problem holding our attention. She started by explaining the difference between ocean liners of the past (minimal glass) and cruise ships of today (the more glass the better)! Ships from as far back as anyone can remember were primarily used to transport goods and the mail with only the crew in terms of passengers. The British shipping and logistics company P&O modified a few of their freight liners to accommodate a limited number of passengers in the early 1800s, but freight remained their focus. In 1840 the Britannia was built and could accommodate a whopping 119 guests and had a cow on board for fresh milk and a cat to keep the rodent population in check. There was one toilet and one tub for all 119 guests to share (you read that right)! In 1870 the Oceanic introduced luxury sailing and in 1900 the first actual cruise ship was built in Germany. Between 1900 and 1914 the cruise industry was thriving with ships from different companies and different countries vying to be the fastest and the fanciest. Among these was The Titanic which launched in 1912. 1913 saw the launch of Germany’s Imperator with a capacity for 4,594 guests! Think two indoor swimming pools, libraries, smoking rooms, lounges, chandeliers, hand woven carpets, and intricate wood paneling with the goal still being to get where you were going as fast as possible while basking in the lap of luxury.

World War I put a temporary end to all that when the luxury liners were refitted to support the war. After the war cruising was reimagined when Ile de France introduced not-in-a-hurry-to-get-there, or anywhere actually, travel. It was a light, bright, art deco ship where women were welcome at the bars for the first time! Revolutionary. Normandy is considered the very last of the great ocean liners. It was very popular with Hollywood elite in spite of dinners that lasted four hours. Don’t ya know the passengers had their fingers crossed that they’d be seated between captivating conversationalists? Amazingly the Normandy was launched during the great depression and had no problem finding luxury food items and guests willing to pay for them.

And there you have it: Over time the cruise industry has morphed into what we have today. Ships have added more and more glass to their fleets necessitating careful selection of routes in order to avoid weather that the ships could not withstand. Interiors are lighter, brighter, and considerably less ornate. Diners are no longer expected to sit through a dozen courses or dress in finery. Casual, comfortable, and relaxing have replaced hoity toity.

Besides learning all things cruise, we enjoyed small snacks that were waiting for us in the room, walked the deck for exercise, relaxed, and one of us tried his luck in the casino. Dinner tonight was one of our two fancy nights with the guys in optional coats and ties and us gals dressed accordingly. Over cocktails in the Sky Lounge, we exchanged stories about what we’d all been up to during the day. Dan managed the seating arrangement for dinner and gave us part one of an eight part contest he devised using a column from The Wall Street Journal.

Want to try your luck?
1) According to the US Federal Reserve, this is a good yardstick to gauge a potential romantic partner’s promise.
a) Credit score
b) Investment portfolio

2) What portion of NCAA Division I athletic departments generate enough revenue to cover the expenses of their sports programs?
a) 50%
b) 10%

3) According to the online dating service Match, straight men with this pet have a 5% lower ‘like’ rate compared with other straight men.
a) Boa constrictor
b) Cat

See why I am in last place?

Tonight’s entertainment: The Celebrity Singers and Dancers sang and danced to popular Broadway and West End shows. We all thoroughly enjoyed their high-energy, enthusiastic performance.

Pop quiz: What is the longest peninsula in the world?

For what it’s worth…..

The currency in Mexico is the peso.
20.8 pesos (MXN) = $1.00
1 MXN = $0.05

Tijuana is the largest city in Baja California.

There are four main desert areas on the Baja peninsula.

Every year gray whales migrate 10,000-14,000 miles round trip from the Arctic to Mexico’s
warm water lagoons! They make this incredible trek, the longest of any mammal, to mate and give birth.

The Wall Street Journal answers: a, b, b

This is our first major adventure since the covid-19 lockdown began in March 2020 and Dan and I are really excited to be back out exploring the world once again.

San Diego is where we met up with our cruise buddies: Hettie and Ronnie from Maryland, Cyd from Arkansas, and Ricky from Iowa. We all chose to fly in a day early to eliminate the stress of delayed or cancelled flights, nasty weather, and other possible surprises. Hettie and Ronnie, our cruise gurus, chose a hotel directly across the street from the pier, so it was no problem at all to pull our suitcases across the street this morning for our noon check-in. Besides the preliminary paperwork we had all done online there was a brief health screening on site that included showing our two-day-old negative covid test results.

The only downside to our trip is the last minute pullout of our trusty cruise pals Cleone and Walter. Cleone had not been given the all clear from her too-recent case of covid and Walter was chasing a kidney stone, plus he had been with Cleone (and thereby recently exposed) throughout her recovery.

Once on board, the first order of business was to beat everyone else to lunch, which was pretty much a total success. Then we confirmed our dining reservation, settled into our rooms, unscrambled an excursion debacle, and figured out, with all six brains working at full capacity, how to access Wi-Fi

We began our first of 15 triple dates with cocktails at 5:00 followed by a delicious four-course dinner! Not a one of us had a single complaint. We had cursed Cleone for not being with us to figure out Wi-Fi for the group but remembered her fondly when the breadsticks arrived. Walter had done a bang up job of seating arrangements cruises past, so we thought of him when we just sat willy nilly with no direction.

Tonight’s entertainment: Sam Fedele, former Marine and entrepreneur turned comedian.

Pop quiz: Did Dan go to the casino between dinner and the show? How much did he lose?

Big surprise: We were told we’d travel far enough east overnight to enter a new time zone, so we set our watches ahead one hour before turning out the lights.

For What It’s Worth…..

Over 200 cruise ships berth in the San Diego harbor every year.
The top employer in the city is the United States Navy.
The iron-hulled Star of India, the world’s oldest sailing vessel (built in 1863) still in
operation, resides in San Diego Bay.

Cameron Diaz, Tony Hawk (May 29 is Tony Hawk Day), RuPaul, Ted Danson, Tony Romo, Mario Lopez, and
Adam Driver were born here. Dr. Seuss spent the last four plus decades of his life here.
(San Diego’s Geisel Library in La Jolla is home to the largest collection of original Dr. Seuss manuscripts.)

San Diego produces more avocados than any other place in the country.

WD-40 was invented in San Diego by the Rocket Chemical Company in 1953.

The first drive-in restaurant in the United States was opened in San Diego by the man
who later founded Jack in the Box in 1951.

We woke in the city of charming canals, gabled houses, world class museums, more bicycles than people, and 1,500 bridges: Amsterdam. And of all things, the sun was out and the sky was clear! A luxury that had evaded us all week. No time for Dutch pancakes or stroopwafels for us though, since we transferred directly from the ship to the airport. There was no shortage of Christmas travelers, but we were early so not pushed for time. In fact all said and done we had a full three hour wait.

Our eight-hour nonstop flight on United passed quickly with two movies, two meals, and a nap. We left Europe at noon and arrived in Virginia at 3:00 o’clock to clear skies, unseasonably warm weather, and easy traffic home. Walter and Cleone, on the other hand, left Amsterdam two hours ahead of us, made two connections, and arrived home well after we were fast asleep.

Dan and I agreed that river cruising is a wonderful way to travel and it’s something we’d like to do again.

… Two Final Fun Stories …

Cargo ships ply the waters of the Rhine in huge numbers.
They have homes, decks, and parking places for cars and bikes at one end
and cargo holds at the other.
Our captain and his brother called one of these cargo ships home. The boys went to boarding school but were home for holidays and all summer.

Wifi in our room onboard the ship was inconsistent and unreliable
at times with the best signal often in the bathroom.
Sometimes I blogged sitting on the toilet lid using the vanity as a desktop.

 

 

Construction of hydraulic works for the drainage of land needed for agriculture and settlement began in the Middle Ages and has continued to the present day. Kinderdijk, the focus of today’s tour, illustrates all the typical features associated with this technology: dykes, reservoirs, pumping stations, administrative buildings, and most famously, a collection of 19 remarkably preserved 18th century windmills. It is the largest concentration of windmills in The Netherlands.

We walked off our ship and up a small embankment to the top of a dike and then down seven feet to the polder, or lowland, kept dry by the ingenious system of pumping water out of the polder and back into the rivers beyond the dikes. We were so low that from the polder we could not see our ship.

Our guide, a retired special education teacher, told us how lucky we were to have gotten the Storyteller of Kinderdijk (him) for our guide. He was fabulous, so you could say we did luck out. He explained the practicality of wooden shoes (dry feet) as we passed the willow trees from which they are made. The peat bogs that he pointed out provided fuel for fires and were a wonderful hiding place for sheltered Jews during World War II. He regaled us with the impact of Dutch settlements in North America and explained that The Netherlands traded Manhattan to the English for an African colony (currently  Suriname) rich in the wood needed for the construction and maintenance of their windmills. We found it intriguing that the placement of the slats used to support the huge, heavy sails of the windmills were used to signal good and bad news. In one position a death in the family is made public; in another position, a birth. During the war there was a special position to spread the word that the Germans were moving about the area. Another fun fact he shared is that the uppermost section of the windmills can rotate in a full circle, to catch wind coming from all directions. All this said, stations run on diesel fuel have replaced the windmills for pumping water, although the windmills are kept in working condition for backup purposes and for tourism.

All but a few of Kinderdijk’s 19 windmills double, as they did back in the day, as residences. Families rent them with the agreement that they will operate the windmills a given number of hours a year. They do not, however, have responsibility for financing the upkeep of them. (Upkeep is financed by a tax shared by all Dutch citizens.) It was a surprise to learn there is a waiting list for this opportunity. We toured the inside of a mill that at one time housed a family of 13 and were fascinated with how every inch had been used to its best advantage.

After a lovely afternoon in the cold and wind, we said our farewells to the Storyteller of Kinderdijk and settled in on the ship for the gentle ride passed more flat farmland, poplar trees, grazing Frisian cows, tidy villages, and silhouetted farmhouses. A farewell dinner and packing for our journey home ended the day.

… Who Knew …

Windmills originated in the Middle East, and tulips came from Turkey!

In December of 1888 Holland’s Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear
after an argument with his friend and fellow painter Paul Gauguin.

The Silver Skates: A Story of Life in Holland popularized the story of a little
Dutch boy, Hans Brinker, who plugged a dike with his finger.
It was written in 1865 by American author Mary Mapes Dodge
who had yet to visit The Netherlands.

The oldest music award in The Netherlands is called the Edison.
It is named after our famous inventor whose great-great-grandfather
immigrated to the United States in 1730.

Mata Hari, an exotic dancer and courtesan executed by a French firing squad during World War I, was part of The Netherlands’ Frisian minority.

Wake-up call was at 8:30 and inspite of the late hour we were not ready to get up. FOMO had us on our feet, however, and prepping for a walking tour of Cologne, the fourth largest city in Germany and the most flood-prone in Europe. The centerpiece of the city is its magnificent 14th century cathedral which was under construction for an astonishing 632 years! We were allowed a quick peek inside with just enough time to light a candle for Aunt Jerry, because services were being conducted on this very special morning.

Our tour guide, like all the others, was good and pointed out interesting things and told us fun stories. He showed us small brass plaques embedded in the walkways in front of homes where Jews lived before they were forced out…never to return. Each plaque has a name on it. The remains of a Roman sewer system were interesting as were the little naked bottoms mooning pedestrians from their places below statues high on the walls of city hall. Some date back to the 1400s. We passed a large memorial dedicated to elves. For real. You know, the ones that do our chores while we nap and stream Netflix.

Back to the ship for a light lunch and a gift exchange with Walter and Cleone. After we’d eaten and opened our gifts, Walter shared a little tribute he had written to Cleone in honor of their anniversary later this week and gave her a Kissing Chocolate. Cue smiles, oohs, and aahs.

Our afternoon was pretty open. Dan relaxed. I worked on the blog, attended a lively lecture on Germany, and took a walk along the river in the direction of the chocolate museum. I got back just in time to shower, change, and don my Santa hat for Christmas dinner.

Tonight’s entertainment was by far our favorite. A pianist accompanying a fantastic violinist had us spellbound. The concert was over just in time to bundle up and go outside to see the cathedral lit up as we passed under the bridge and continued our journey north. A perfect way to end Christmas Day.

… For the Record …

Cologne’s airport has the only runway in Germany that is also
an emergency landing site for NASA shuttles.

The first bottle of eau de Cologne was created here in 1709
by a young, newly immigrated Italian. I kid you not.

Sunrise: 8:34 a.m. / Sunset: 4:29 p.m.

The locks along the Rhine are free and open 24/7.

On this day in 1776 General George Washington crossed the Delaware River and surprised the Hessians (German troops hired by the British).

 

Christmas Eve morning was spent sailing the Middle Rhine, home to vineyard-blanketed hills and the largest concentration of Medieval castles on the river. Some on the right, some on the left, some grand, some in very sad shape, and some converted into luxury hotels. In their heyday noblemen built them to oversee trade, collect tolls, and defend kingdoms. A few of our fellow passengers got all decked out in their winter gear and stayed on deck the whole time no matter the wind or mist; we, on the other hand, ran in and out when a castle came into view. We also spotted the sculpture of Lorelei, a woman of such beauty that she reputedly caused sailors to wreck their ships by distracting them as she lay sunbathing nude along the river’s edge. Naughty girl!

The commentary that kept us in the loop all morning explained the small, fake castle facades we had noticed along the river. The story goes something like this: The Allies agreed not to target castles and palaces during World War II. Leveraging that lucky break Hitler ordered the entrances and exits to railway tunnels along the river to be embellished with castle-esque facades and, by golly, it worked. From the air with the technology of the mid 1940s these fakes could not be distinguished from the real thing leaving the railroad lines and tunnels intact.

The castles were behind us and lunch was over by the time we docked in Koblenz at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers. We quickly got organized for our walking tour of the small city. Right near the dock were three panels from the Berlin Wall that formed a memorial to the reunification of German at the end of the Cold War. There seemed to be no explanation for the giant thumb monument near the church. In the spirit of the thumb, there is a clock tower that has a man’s face on it. His eyes go right to left with each tick of the clock and his tongue sticks out three time every 15 minutes. Roosters on church spires, whimsical statues of townsfolk, and a roof with 24 windows doubling as an advent calendar are evidence that these locals must be fun folk. We lit a candle for Josie’s Aunt Jerry in the church, as we had done all along the way, and headed back to the ship. As we were dressing for dinner church bells all over town were calling worshipers to evening services.

Some of our fellow passengers brought seasonal spiritwear (a Santa dress, hats, sweaters, vests) which they either debuted at breakfast and wore all day or saved for dinner. We are keeping our Santa hats and the ones we brought to share with Walter and Cleone for tomorrow, but I did bring a special outfit that I worked around a buffalo checked vest that Deb and Tom gave me this Christmas. Just imagine the look of shock on my face and Cleone’s when we met in the hall looking like our mothers dressed us alike in coordinating black and white buffalo plaid! It was especially funny since we had both worn red and black two night ago. Matching outfits or not, we headed off to get our Christmas Eve dinner of veal schnitzel.

… SO WHAT …

Lederhosen originated in France. The highest quality britches are made of deer hide.

The location of the tie on a dirndl indicates the wearer’s marital status.

On this day in 1818 Stille Nacht (Silent Night) was sung for the first time (in Austria).

Koblenz celebrated its 2000th anniversary in 1992.

Otto Griebling, a Koblenz native, was a circus clown who performed
with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circuses.
He was one of only four clowns given the title Master Clown by Irvin Feld.

We woke up a short drive from Heidelberg, home to John Deere Europe. Our very entertaining French guide started our tour with a little laugh. After the last war men were looking for women with tractors. In small print: please send picture of tractor. On a more serious note he shared fun facts about Germany. For example, it is one of three countries (along with North Korea and Afghanistan) that has no speed limit on large sections of its autobahn. Germany is roughly the size of Montana and has 83 million citizens. With a birth rate of 1.6, it is in the process of figuring out how to integrate much needed ‘qualified immigrants.’ We came into town by the Marriott Hotel which has joined the urban honey movement by placing hives on its roof. He ended with another joke: How do you say 12:20 in German. Answer: 12:15. Grin.

Before we knew it we were offloading at the entrance of Heidelberg’s famous red sandstone castle. A  structure of some sort has been on the site since the early 1200s. It was added onto, burned, embellished, destroyed by war, damaged by lightning, expanded, hit by lightning again, damaged by war, more fire, and on and on. It slowly morphed into a gigantic fortress home with the plainest of architectural features at one glance and built-to-impress features at another. The imposing ruins perched 330 feet above the river dominate the hillside and offer stunning views of the river and city below.

In a cellar under the castle sits a gigantic 18th century wooden keg, the Heidelberg Tun, and its baby sister. At 23 feet high and 28 feet wide, it’s the world’s largest wine barrel with a capacity of 58,000 gallons! We got to see it and climbed the wooden stairs to stand on the platform atop of the Tun.

We had a couple hours free to roam the streets and squares of Heidelberg. Their Christmas market was being dismantled and required a crane to load dismantled pieces of the largest pavilions. We popped into a store dedicated to gummy candy: gummy pizza, gummy fries, gummy sushi, and of course bears in all flavors. We were on the lookout and managed to find Heidelberger Studentenkuss, the chocolate that has been made for the local university students since 1863 with its trademark silhouette of two people nose to nose. Its nickname Kissing Chocolate seems appropriate. A visit to the beautiful Church of the Jesuits brought the surprise of the day: a contemporary creche with a modern cityscape background, two paper mache popes, Mother Teresa, sheep herders, demonstrators, and biblical characters. None of us could find Baby Jesus or his manger. To confuse us even more, above the door on the way out was a lifesize, apple red, mechanical, female holy ghost with flaming hair and a little angel marionette in one hand.

Being back on board and cruising lazily down the river by early afternoon left us time to enjoyed a leisurely lunch, tour the wheelhouse, and attend a demonstration on how to prepare Rudesheim coffee. This local favorite is served in a special porcelain glass and is a mixture of coffee, brandy, sugar, whipped cream, and dark chocolate. Delicious was our verdict.

Late in the afternoon we started passing a few of the castles that have made this cruise route so popular. Some in ruins and some in wonderful shape. I Googled our location and then searched castles, so I’d know exactly where to look when the time came. Some of the castles still had intact toll stations.

We docked in Rüdesheim am Rhein for the night. A walk along the river led us to town. We enjoyed the exercise and fresh air before another delightful dinner onboard. An accomplished local glassblower demonstrated a few tricks of his trade before we all headed to bed after yet another satisfying day.

… Heidelberg …

Sunrise was at 8:19.

Heidelberg is home to the oldest university in Germany which dates back to 1386.
Twelve professors have Nobel Prizes!

The Heidelberg jaw, a fossilized human jawbone probably 500,000 years old,
was found in the vicinity in 1907.

The city was almost completely spared allied bombings during World War II.

… Rudesheim …

Sunset was at 4:29.

Rudesheim boasts one of the most quirky museums in Europe: Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet. Self-playing instruments are on display ranging from fragile music boxes to a gigantic piano-orchestrion to a snuff box with a musical songbird to Bernhard Dufner’s band of 27 automatic dolls and mechanical violins.