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Amsterdam, Rhine River Cruise & Southeastern France August 13 - August 20, 2005
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I flew from Nice to Cologne, Germany on August 9th where I spent two days in the city center, visiting the Dom and exploring the old section of the city. On Thursday I took the International Train up to Amsterdam where I met up with Cindy who had been visiting her sister in Grenoble for the last week. We took a full-day tour of Holland on Friday visiting the huge flower auction at Aalsmeer, porcelain production in Delft, the miniature city of Madurodam and city tours of the Hag and Rotterdam. Saturday,
we went out to the airport and met Mom & Dad whose plane arrived at 11 AM. We
ate lunch together near the hotel where Cindy and I had left our luggage and
then took a taxi out to the passenger ship terminal were we boarded our
respective ships for different week-long cruises up the Rhine River. Mom & Dad
were aboard the
MS Boticelli, a French ship headed to Strasbourg, France while Cindy and I
boarded the
MS Casanova,
The MS
Casanova has 48 cabins, most of which are full for this trip. Other than us,
the guests are all in their seventies, except for the ones that are in their
eighties. The ship itself is very nice. We will dine six times a day with one couple from England and another couple from Italy. Most
of the passengers are German, but at least a dozen of us We sailed
Saturday afternoon heading south to Xanten, Germany where we arrived in time for
a tour of the town Sunday morning. At 1:00 PM we continued on to Cologne where
the Pope is celebrating
‘World Youth Day’ this week. We were in Cologne for half a day, but it was
raining so we only visited the city for a couple hours. When we reached Koblenz,
we branched off onto the Moselle River towards Luxemburg, passing through
several locks
Cindy and
I spent all morning on Wednesday exploring Bernkastel-Kues and even walked up
through the vineyards to an old castle on the mountain. The boat headed back
down the Moselle River Wednesday afternoon, docking in Koblenz We were in Mannheim all day and took a shore tour to Heidelberg in the morning but skipped the Mannheim City tour in the afternoon. Mannheim was as far south as we sailed on the Rhine and so at 6:00 PM, we turned around and headed back up to Mainz where we docked at 10:30 PM.
We transferred from the ship to Central Station and took a train south to Strasbourg, France. At the Tourist Information Center we found a room at The Cathedral Hotel in the heart of the old city where we spent Saturday night. We also had a great dinner at The Maison Kammerzell which is situated in a 600 year old building in the square. Sunday morning we took a canal tour through Strasbourg before riding out to the airport where we rented a car for our trip back to Nice. We crossed over into Germany where we had arranged to pick up Mom & Dad and then headed west to Dijon, France. We found a
hotel and checked into the
Chateau Rouge in Dijon before 7:00 PM. One of my main
reasons for coming to Dijon was to see the mustard fields and possibly some
production. But after inquiring about such activities I learned that mustard is
no longer grown in Dijon, but is imported from Canada and only blended in
Dijon. We ate dinner in the old section of Dijon,
Monday we ate at the hotel and then drove south to Chamonix. It was raining so we did not get to see much scenery. I had made reservations at the same hotel where Cindy and I stayed last month and we checked into the Grand Hotel des Alpes. We decided to try to see the Mer du Glace as the cloud cover was low and mad it impossible to go up any of the lifts. We boarded the cog railway and got about half-way up the mountain when we had to turn back due to a rock slide on the tracks. It continued to rain so we stayed in the hotel most of the afternoon, but did venture out for dinner which included fondue which Cindy had never eaten. On
Tuesday, the rain had stopped so after breakfast we walked over to the base of
the Aguilla du Midi and took the two gondolas to the summit. The weather was
great at the 3842-meter summit and we took numerous photos celebrating the
highest point Mom & Dad had ever been.
We left
Chamonix at 2:30 PM and stopped to visit Richard Mazille en route to Lyon. I drove
to the Hotel Carleton where we registered and then walked over
We ate at the hotel Wednesday morning and then set out to explore Lyon by car. We drove to Old Lyon where Cindy and Mom visited the cathedral and then we drove up the hill to Fourviere where we could enjoy the view of the whole city. We drove to the Croix Rouge area, a former bastion of silk production where we visited a silk shop which had some old silk looms on display. We left Lyon in the afternoon, driving southwest to Avignon, where I had reservations at the Hotel Horloge in the center of town. Mom visited the Pope’s Palace, on her own, and then we all went out to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. Thursday morning we Mom, Dad and I walked over to Les Halles, the Avignon farmers market. It was still early so not much was open, but I did not think it was as impressive as some of the other markets I’ve visited in France. We stopped for breakfast on the way back to the hotel, and then checked-out and headed to the Pont du Gard. Arriving
just after 9:00 AM, we started in the museum before heading out to view the
Pont du Gard itself. It was a beautiful day and I took some great photos of Mom
& Dad
I followed the signs to Ales, driving about 25 KM. When I arrived in the town, I could not find any of the landmarks I had become familiar with during my last visit here two months ago. After driving around for 20 minutes, I realized that we were in Ales, not Arles, and I had driven in the wrong direction to the wrong town. Back on the highway, we passed through Nimes and finally arrived at our destination around 4:00 PM. I stopped at the Tourist Information Center and was directed to a wonderful hotel in the historic center of town. We checked into the Hotel D’Arlatan and went for a swim in their pool before venturing out to a small family restaurant for dinner. Friday we ate breakfast at the hotel and then walked over to the arena, one of the 10 largest ever built in the Roman Empire. We took a 45 minute tour around the town aboard the tourist train and then spent another hour shopping our way back to the hotel. We checked out at noon, but had one more meal in the square at the Café Van Gogh before starting back to Nice at 1:30 PM. We arrived in Nice at 4:00 PM, driving along the Promenade D’Angeles on the French Riviera. When we reached home near the port we unpacked the car, got Mom & Dad into the apartment I had rented them for the next week and then walked over to the port where we had another wonderful meal overlooking the yachts. |
a German ship to Mainz, Germany. We
made arrangements to meet in Strasbourg
in a week and said good-bye.
only speak English so
there will be announcements and tours offered in both languages.
and continued on to Cochem where we were able to
go ashore for a couple hours. We left Cochem at noon on Tuesday and continued
up the Moselle to Bernkastel-Kues where we docked for the night.
early Thursday morning where we joined a shore tour of the city and the Fortress
Ehrenbreistein. We were back on board before noon and sailed south on the Rhine to Rudesheim where we
took a vineyard tour before dinner.
Late Thursday night we left again for Mannheim where we arrived Friday morning.
We spent Friday
night on the ship and disembarked Saturday morning after breakfast. The
vineyards and castles along the Rhine and Moselle Rivers have been great, but
there has been little else to do but eat for the last week.
We went back to check
out of the hotel by noon and then drove over to the base of Brevant
where we took those lifts up to that summit and ate lunch at the restaurant with
views across the Chamonix Valley. 
to the restaurant area where we could find some traditional Lyonaisse food. Dad
ordered rolled calf’s head which was the most exotic of our four entrees.
with the giant stone structure in the
background. We viewed a film about the aqueduct and then left in the early
afternoon, headed for
Arles…or at least that was the plan.