Koblenz to Cologne

Friday 22 July
On the bus at 8 am to visit the Garden Show at Koblenz with our German guide with the Irish accent, Sebastian.

The garden show is held for six months every two years in a different city.

Some of the beds were very colourful while some of the exhibitions had themes relating to sustainability. One exhibition portrayed ways of making interesting gardens in cemeteries.

The cable car joins two sections of the flower show across the Rhine.

Koblenz is at the junction of the Rhine and Mosel rivers.

Three sections of the Berlin Wall stand in the garden as a graphic memorial.

We visited a church built on the site of a Roman Temple. Neolithic finds have also been made in the area.

We travelled to Cologne via Bonn. US soldiers occupied the city after the war.

At Cologne we went for a guided walk to visit the Cathedral which took 600 years to build. During the Second World War some of the glass windows had been removed and safely stored. The Cathedral was damaged and has been repaired. It is a beautiful building and replaced an earlier Cathedral building while at one time a Roman Temple was built on the site.

Many Roman remains in the city. When an air-raid shelter was built a complete Roman mosaic was discovered and has been preserved in the Romanic Germanic Museum. 

The old town hall was also built on a site that had once been a Roman governance building.

There is also an excavation of medieval Jewish sites n the town which will be incorporated into a museum.

A special cocktail gathering was held before dinner followed by the Captain's farewell dinner. Then off to Amsterdam at a great rate.

Wertheim to Miltenberg

Wednesday 20 July
Five swans and a flotilla of ducks glided past the window this morning.

Raining. Bike ride to Freundenberg was abandoned. We went for a walk in the rain to explore Wertheim.

Had a great guide, Udo, who showed us the sights including the leaning tower of Wertheim (built on sand and affected by constant flooding). Udo took us into the tower which had been used as a prison and we climbed up the spiral staircase to look down through the hole where food was lowered to the prisoners.

Wertheim is at the junction of the Main and Tauber rivers and subject to constant flooding. Udo showed us a bridge over the Tauber which could be raised when the river flooded. Gates can also be inserted between walls to try and stop the floodwaters coming into the town. We walked through the town and climbed to the castle.

We visited the shop, Bon-Apart, of Karl the glassblower from last night and purchased some items.

It rained most of the morning but it was a great expedition.

We returned to the boat which had travelled to Freundenberg where we had lunch while the boat continued to Miltenberg. In the afternoon there was another walking tour providing the opportunity to explore this small town which has a number of buildings dating back to the late 1300s. The rain had stopped.

After a German dinner the entertainment was provided by Pitchwork, a trio singing and playing instruments including piano accordion, cornet, flute and drum. The entertaining group provided a show full of energy.

Kitzingen to Wurzburg

Tuesday 19 July
We arrived in Kitzingen while having breakfast. It was a bright sunny, but cool, morning. A family of swans glided past our window this morning. Robin went for another bike ride while I joined a walking group around Kitzingen in the morning.

Kitzingen was a US military base after the war. There are many interesting buildings in the town including the synagogue

and the town's cemetery.

Another landmark is the Leaning Tower.

Other views of Kitzingen

In the afternoon we visited the palace at Wurzburg.

Magnificent. Opulent. Friezes painted by Tripelo. The Mirror Room was incredible. The central sections of the building with the domed roof remained intact during the bombing in 1945 but the sections with flat roof were destroyed.

Sunny afternoon - enjoyed walking around another town largely destroyed during the War but rebuilt.

View from the bridge particularly good.

On the hill is the fortress which was replaced by the palace used by the bishop princes until Napoleon strolled into town and evicted them.

In the evening there was a glassblowing demonstration in the lounge.

Bamberg to Schweinfurt

Monday 18 July
Bamberg was this morning's destination. The old section of the city has many medieval buildings. There was very little damage to the town during the Second World War so the buildings are mainly original.

Buildings visited included the cathedral and its precinct

including The Beautiful Gate

and The New Residence built 1697 - 1703.

View of St Michael's Monastry

Roof landscape of Bamberg

Bamberg has a variety of architectual styles.

The afternoon was a cruise down the river to Schweinfurt.

In the afternoon there was a talk about the European Community. Theme for dinner was medieval and the entertainers, Minniglich, performed medieval music.