Author: Joe

So I got up at 7 after nearly 10 hours of much needed sleep, made sure I was packed up, and caught a taxi to Schiphol airport about 8 am; I had scheduled an 8:30 taxi, but got there early so left early. Once through security, I got a bite to eat and wondered off to the gate, where a plane awaited. Unfortunately, that plane was destined to go nowhere. First delayed for an hour or so, it was later delayed until 3:30; then the gate was changed and they had t0 bring in a new plane, which had to go through an extensive check-in process that took way more time than I would have expected. I will say that the thoroughness of the check-in procedure gave me some confidence that it was OK to proceed. We boarded about 6; finished all the checks that were needed and finally began our journey to Minneapolis/St. Paul at about 7pm. Unfortunately, that got us to our destination about 8; well after the only flight to Pasco was long gone.

By the time I worked out the arrangements for an over-night stay at Comfort Inn, got to the hotel and checked in, it was nearly 11 pm. So, with a wake up call at 4, to catch at flight at 6:30, I got a short night’s sleep, again. But this time things went smoothly, the flight was on-time, the gates didn’t change, and off we went to Seattle.

When I got to Seattle, I texted Dave to let him know that I expected to arrive in Pasco about 11, and was looking forward to seeing him. When I got off the plane, he was in the terminal waiting for me. My checked bag was the first off the plane, so we trotted across to his car, and I was home by noon. What a joy.

Hauled my stuff in and decided to go to Ice Harbor and restock beer before I did anything else; it was Tuesday and Moma Jo’s Geiser Daycare was still in session, but I was late (it normally starts on opening at 11) so had a chance to say hello to the guys. Did so, had a beer, stocked up. and headed home. After unpacking, I decided to do a self test for Covid, after a slight cough and a bit of runny nose for a couple of days. Unfortunately, the results came back positive, so sat down, texted all I had been in contact with, and resolved to pretty much quarantine until I tested negative.

Bummer. While on the trip, several people came down with Covid and either left the ship or, close to the end, just quarantined in their cabin. My symptoms are so mild I just couldn’t believe I had it, but I presume my self-test doesn’t lie. So I’ll quarantine until the results are negative.

So ends a great trip, but with the need to live quietly until symptoms are gone.

I had a taxi take me to the Heidelberg train station with a departure time of about 12:30 and an expected arrival at Amsterdam at 6:30. Everything started well, but before we got to Mainz, the train stopped (and stayed stopped for nearly two hours). That messed my connection up with two transfers, so I visited the on-board info agent who wrote me out a new ticket from Duisburg, the next stop past my first transfer, directly to Amsterdam (a slight improvement, since only one transfer, not two. So I went to the specified track, at the appropriate time, and stepped on the arriving train.

Unfortunately that train wasn’t going to Amsterdam. Instead, with delays (which added up to nearly an hour and a half) I arrived at the North Sea port about 10:30. Back to Duisburg, but with delays coming and going I didn’t arrive till about 2:40, too late to catch a train to Amsterdam. But I did catch the first train there and made it to the hotel by about 9:30. It turns out I didn’t have a reservation (which I made, but couldn’t fine the email confirmation) but being a long-time member of their rewards club, they found a spot for me. Moreover, while I was still eating breakfast, the lady that booked my room came in to tell me that a room was clean and available. Really good service.

So here I am, sleep deprived, but with the expectation of hitting the sack early and waking up in the morning to coffee, breakfast, and a quick trip to the airport for a 12:40 flight. First leg, DL 163 to Minneapolis-St. Paul, then DL 1411 to Pasco. I should be home by 8:00 tomorrow evening. Cross fingers.

I woke up Thursday morning after packing my bags the night before; had my usual breakfast in the hotel, then did my morning ablutions and headed for the train station. That meant dragging my bags across the street (maybe 30 yards), then stepping onto a #2 train (which turned the corner just before I crossed the street), then getting off at the second stop about 10 minutes after I left the hotel.

Went into the station, purchased a ticket for Heidelberg, then found my rail track and positioned myself to board the train when it arrived. It arrived shortly, I got on board, and had some help hoisting my heavy bag on t0 the overhead storage area. Settled in on window seat for four stops ending in Mannheim where we had docked earlier. The stop before I was scheduled to depart, I noticed a couple of Morman missionaries on the train with me. As they queued to exit, I stood up and asked, “Elder Barker, would you help me get my bag down?” And of course he did; we chatted, he and his partner were from Sacramento, California.

At the next stop, I got my bags off, moved things to the next platform, but unfortunately I managed to arrive at the train (I only had about 6 minutes to make the transfer — old and slow doesn’t cut it!) just as it departed. So I returned to the main station and looked for a train going to Heidelberg; there was one at 12:59 on Track 3, so I when there and waited. No train showed up on time, but I waited and took the first train on that track. That was a mistake. It didn’t go to Heidelberg, but instead to a suburb of Mannheim where we all had to leave the train. The ticket office was closed; no one spoke English, so I ended up loading my bags into a taxi whose driver agreed to take me to the Hotel in Heidelberg. It was a fairly expensive trip, but well worth it rather than drag my baggage up and down ramps at train stations.

So I arrived at the hotel in Heidelberg and asked the lady at the desk if she would call the Makedonia Restaurant for which I had a phone number to make reservations for dinner. Why there? Because the Genealogical Association of English Speaking Researchers in Europe (GAESRE) use to schedule a dinner there on the last Thursday of the month at 6:00 pm, which this day happened to be. So even if I didn’t really think they were still active, I figured I would go there and talk to whomever and see what I could find out something about that organization. But no luck: the place was closed, so I had a very nice meal in the hotel.

The next morning I got up and walked to the train station where I bought a ticket for Amsterdam the next day and a day pass on the local line to visit Sinsheim, a half-hour train ride south and east of Heidelberg. There are two reasons to go there: there is a tech museum that has a whole lot of Formula 1 stuff in it, which I figure Greg would appreciate; and by family legend, this is the town from which Christian, Johannes and Maria left to go to Philadelphia in 1750. They had to leave early because it was a long way to Rotterdam and they had to travel by boat possibly on first the Neckar, then on the Rhine past Amsterdam to Rotterdam. Quite a trip back in those days (as long a three months just from Mannheim to Rotterdam) even though I was able to do it in about 5 days. Cars, Motorcycles, planes, and all kind of military equipment; the museum did not disappoint.

When I got back to the hotel, I realized that there was not way I could drag my bags the distance I walked, so I arranged for transport in the morning to the train station. So by tomorrow evening, I will be in Amsterdam. Hope to visit the Van Gogh museum on Sunday. Stay tuned.

We started our journey into Basil about nine, and were at the train station before ten. I caught a taxi to my hotel and was able to check in early (for which I was grateful). I talked to the lady at the desk and she helped me find a place that sold charms for a bracelet, a shop called Pandora. She also showed me how I could get there and back on the tram, so after finding an ATM, I started on my adventure.

Hop on the 2 Tram across the street from the hotel, over the river to the Bankverein station, then a walk up Freie street to 81, the address of Pandora. It was a little confusing because I was watching the numbering on the left side of Freie, in the 70s, but then I noticed that the numbering on the right side was in the hundreds, so still a couple of blocks to go. So I found my place, did my shopping, and decided to take the same tram back that I took down.

When I returned to Bankverein, I realized that there was not 2 tram going in the opposite direction, so I took Steinenberg Street for a couple of blocks and was rewarded with a 6 tram that I knew from the map went by my hotel. So I hopped on and was shortly back at my hotel.

I spent the rest of the day reading, drinking an occasional beer, and just resting. After the cruise, I needed just such a quiet day.

We woke up docked in Strasbourg with three planned tours, mine being a culinary tour of the city. After a very light breakfast, we set out on the tours. Our first stop was a bakery, with sampling of a local sweet bread which all except the gluten-free folks tried. It was delightful and made a dent in the hole in my stomach from not eating breakfast. We next stopped at a sweet shop and tried macaroons, both the traditional kind and ones that were a specialty of the city. We stopped for an early lunch with another local specialty, something much like a pizza only on very thin crust covered with various cheeses, ham, onions, or anything one wants to put on it. I have the recipe, but the guide corrected the instructions, which said to bake for 20 minutes; no, the guide said, only about 2 minutes in a very hot over (which is consistent with what we ate). With lunch, we also had a glass of beer or wine. After lunch, we tried two other local specialties: the local cheeses (Munster and Emmental like) and a pretzel. I enjoyed the cheese; the pretzel was a bit salty to my taste.

One of the highlights of this walking tour was a visit to the “Minister” a Cathedral begun in 1176 and completed in 1439. In it is a horological masterpiece. Completed in about 1548, this clock tracks time, the days of the week, the months of the year, the phases of the moon, the position of the (at that time) known planets, and astrological signs. In addition, every hour (and we were there for one of these) an angel rings a bell, a male (of different ages) walks my death and rings a bell: if death does not respond, he continues on. All the symbolism and calculations that went into this clock movement is a wonder.

The temperature was over 95 by the time we completed the walk, so we were all hot and tired. But we made it back to the bus and then back to the boat. The crew had a very special program arranged for us after lunch and tea at the usual times. At 6:00 pm there was a cocktail party with drinks and snacks, then a sit-down dinner of six or seven courses, ending with baked Alaska. We were introduced to all the crew members, not just the wait staff and the AHI folks, the housekeeping crew and sailors also marched in, were introduced, and marched out. I heard tales later about how they suffered during covid, since most were unable to work.

Nothing on the agenda except disembarking in the morning. We woke up in Breisach, about 50 kilometers from Basil because the water we too low for us to make it into the city. For us not leaving on a flight or planned tour that followed the boat trip, we were dropped of at the train station.

Wonderful cruise.

The ship arrived sometime during the night at Mannheim, where another busy day was planned. The first tour was to Heidelberg Castle and after the castle tour a walk through old town. We boarded a bus after breakfast and drove from Mannheim to Heidelberg, skirting the town to approach the castle from the rear. The bus parked, we disembarked, then walked into the castle grounds. This was a castle destroyed not by Louis XIV, but by fire. Several buildings were destroyed when the roofs caught fire and collapsed, reducing the interior to rubble. But not all of it was destroyed and some interesting things remained. For one, it has the largest wine barrel ever built in its own separate basement room: the exact dimensions I don’t remember, but it must have been about 15 feet tall. I is reputed to hold about 58,000 gallons. But, of course it is empty. Why? Because it leaked badly. From a patio outside the entrance to the cellar, there was a stunning view of the Neckar River and old Heidelberg.

On the north and west side of the Neckar were the expensive old houses apparently built by professors at Heidelberg University, one of the oldest in Germany. The town itself, a city of about 160,000 inhabitants, has about 40,000 students, about a quarter of the population total. In the forest above the houses on that side of the river there were extensive paths, where students spent time when not attending classes, known as the “Philosophers’ Walk.” It was called that not because of any famous philosopher, but rather because all students back in the day had to study philosophy.

From the castle we drove down into the old town and viewed several of the old squares, a church and the market square. With free time there, I wandered about and stopped to try the local brew. The guide suggested a place, but it didn’t open until the time set to rendezvous back for the bus ride to the boat.

After lunch we boarded buses for a trip to Speyer, a town up river a little from Mannheim. It was founded as a Roman village and fort in about 10 BC and the grounds were used as the site for the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Stephen, completed in 1061. It is another example of the destructive doings of Louis XIV, but has been rebuilt to its former splendor.

We returned to the ship about 5, then before dinner we had a briefing on the disembarkation process. We will be gone from the boat by about 9:30, when it get prepped to return to Amsterdam the next day. I arranged for a taxi to my hotel as an “independent:” one not being bused to the airport to return home.

Our busy Saturday started with a walking tour of Koblenz, right after breakfast. We covered just the small part of the old city that is nestled between the left bank of the Moselle and the Rhine. The point of land where the two rivers meet holds a huge monument to Frederick I and just across the river, on the North side of the Rhine, is Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, a reconstruction of a fort destroyed by Louis XIV in the late 17th century. As with many of these towns along the Rhine, destruction and rebuilding seems part of their destiny. On return to the ship, we departed in an odd way: we were pointed upriver on the Moselle, so we motored backwards will we could pivot and point upriver on the Rhine.

Over the next seven hours, we passed through the Middle Rhine Valley, filled with castles (mostly reconstructed) and beautiful old towns with imposing churches and large chateaus. The most notable castles were the Stolzenfels Castle as we left Koblenz, the Lahneck Castle as we passed the Lahn River, the Rheinfels Castle near St. Goar, and both the Reichenstein and Rhinestein castles as we neared Rűdesheim, where we docked.

We were delayed for about an hour when one of the passengers got stung by a bee and went into shock. They fixed that part, but then she began vomiting and the crew called for help. An ambulance came, fixed things and we again were underway.

A scheduled excursion began at Rűdesheim, either to a wine tasting or a visit to a musical museum. I did the wine tasting, in a wine cellar: three whites, one dry, one medium and one sweet. I also tried a Pinot Noir, but none really seemed worth buying.

We left Cologne close to 11:00, and sailed most of the night down the Rhine. By early morning we had turned into the Moselle at Koblenz. The Moselle valley is quite steep, with vineyards on very steep slopes on both sides of the river. Up until the late 1980s, only white wine grapes were allowed to be grown in this valley, but there are now substantial red wine grape vineyards. It a beautiful valley, so after breakfast I went to the bow and just enjoyed the scenery. About 48 kilometers into the Moselle, the ship stopped and started reversing itself. We learned that the reason was that past that point, the river was too narrow for the ship to turn around. From that point, we reversed to the port of Cochem, about 5 kilometers.

Right after lunch we visited Reichsburg Castle. The castle was destroyed during Napoleonic times, but restored in the later 19th century. It is an impressive site, high on a hill overlooking the town of Cochem. There is a main tower, the last resort for warriors during a siege, and a “witches tower,” that was used to house convicted witches into the 16th century. The restoration of the castle made it into a fine country estate with interior rooms not at all like the original castle, but much more modern. It was an enjoyable tour with wonderful vistas of the town and surrounding areas. Afterwards, we did a walking tour of the town of Cochem with our guide.

Like many towns in this region, it started as a town probably about 3,000 years ago, became a Roman enclave about 2,000 years ago, later became an important regulator of traffic on the river, only to be completely destroyed by Napoleon in the early 19th century. Not only was the town destroyed, but the entire population except for about 400 individuals was murdered. Like many of the towns along major rivers, the rebuilding of the town incorporated both the old (what remained) and the new, often using rubble from the destroyed old to construct the new buildings. A pleasant walk back to the boat, which was conveniently parked right across from a wine shop, where I stopped and sampled both the local white and red wines.

After dinner it was Karaoke night. As usual, I only knew about half the songs by title but was able to recognize about half the others. It was fun. About 10 we started back to Koblenz.

The trip from Amsterdam to Cologne took over 24 hours rather then the 20 hours expected, so when I got up about 7, we were still a long way from our destination. so after breakfast, I busied myself reading and composing in my cabin.

At 11:00 I went to the lounge and heard a lecture on “Johannes Gutenberg: Changing the World One Letter at a Time,” by Peg Faimon, a professor and Dean at Indiana University. Very interesting; JG changed the world with his invention, and sadly, had it taken away from him by a court. He was later recognized and provided a stipend that prevented him from suffering in his old age.

After lunch and tea, we arrived in Cologne and separated into groups of about 10 for a tour of the old city of Cologne. Built on a flood plain, the city began as a Roman city in about 38 BC. The Roman city was surrounded by a wall about 2.5 miles in circumference and held about 35,000 people, with water supply, sewage, and all the advantages that Rome knew how to integrate into its cities. The river divides the city much as railroad tracks divided some other towns and cities — one side good (where the Roman city was), the other bad. As recently as the 1990s, the city has flooded, but now has a flood wall that prevents that. Nearly destroyed in WW II, the town was rebuilt integrating both the old that survived with new, modern structures. The old city has a cathedral that was started in the 1200s and left untouched for centuries but then completed in 1880 or so, by Frederick I of Prussia. Built in Gothic style, it contains the relics of the three wise men, and two other Christian martyrs.

Cologne is the New Orleans of Germany, with a carnival much like that of New Orleans, with King and Queen plus excessive celebrations going on for days. The local beer, kolsch, can only be brewed within a radius of the cathedral, and every brewer has a different version. It was a really interesting tour, but by the time it was over I was exhausted and returned to the ship.

At dinner I met a new couple from Memphis, and they asked, when learning that I was an alum of WSU, if I knew Lane Rawlings. What a coincidence. Lane and his wife, Mary Jo, have been friends since about 1968 when I returned to WSU after serving in the army. Small world.

Nine hours fifteen minutes and 5084 miles from Seattle, I landed in Amsterdam about 10:15 local time. Through passport control and customs I met with the representative from the tour company, AHI at arrivals area 3. I was one of about a dozen folks on the cruise. Close to noon we were lead to a bus, boarded and headed off to the cruise vessel, the Amadeus Queen.

Our vessel was quite new, built in 2018, about 445 feet long, 37.5 feet wide, has a maximum speed of 15.5 mph, and has 69 staterooms and 12 suites. It has a crew of 46 and holds a maximum of 162 passengers, somewhat more than are on this cruise. On arrival we went in to lunch, after which we attended a safety lecture, then picked up the key to our stateroom. At 4 pm, we attended a lecture on “Contemporary Europe” by Willem Moolhuijsen. After the long trip and little sleep, I struggled to stay awake, but mostly managed. After the lecture, most of the passengers left for a canal tour of Amsterdam which I skipped. The temperature was in the nineties, so an open boat tour just did not appeal. I whiled away the time to dinner by exploring the boat and reading one of the three novels I brought along, then started dinner by myself.

I was latter joined by Don and Candy Teeters, from North Carolina, whose entertaining conversation helped keep me awake till 9:00 when I went to bed.

The next morning I was up by about 6:00, after a not-great sleep and took coffee in the Panorama Bar prior to breakfast, scheduled early so we could tour the Rijksmuseum followed by lunch prior to returning to the boat for a 2:45 departure. At the tour leader’s suggestion I spent most of the time at the Rijksmuseum in the sections devoted to the great Dutch painters: Rembrandt, Vermeer and others. I also spent some time on another floor because I wanted to visit the section of the museum devoted to Vincent Van Gogh. There were no Van Gogh paintings on display, but the section was interesting because it traced the influence of Van Gogh on other Dutch painters. I am hoping to visit the Van Gogh museum when I return to Amsterdam prior to my flight home.

We had lunch at the Amsterdam Marriott, then returned to the ship. I parked myself on the bow of the ship to watch the departure and stayed there until time to dress for the welcome reception at six followed by dinner at seven.

Like many of the passengers on tours, I signed up for this tour through a solicitation from Washington State University. The tour company provided us with name tags that both provide a name and a University affiliation. As it turned out, though for me this trip was cancelled twice, there were two other Cougs on board, both elderly ladies. I also met a couple from the University of Washington. Most of those on this cruise were from the Midwest: Perdue and the University of Indiana. Separate receptions will be held for both these schools.