Continuing upstream on the Rhine River, we stopped briefly at Koblenz, where we were bussed to Braubach to view the Marksburg castle.  The Marksburg is a castle above the town of Braubach and is one of the principal sites of the UNESCO World Heritage Rhine Gorge.  It was begun in 1100 by the Epstein family and expanded into a castle around 1117 to protect the town of Braubach and to reinforce the customs facilities. It was first mentioned in documents in 1231.  The castle was constantly being rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries.  The male line of the royal family went extinct, and the territories went to the Count of Hesse, who expanded the castle to accommodate artillery and added the round towers of the outer curtain wall.  In seizing and then abolishing the Holy Roman Empire, Napoleon gave the Marksburg to his ally the Duke of Nassau for his service. He used the castle as a prison and as a home for disabled soldiers. After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 the Duchy of Nassau became a territory of Prussia, which took ownership of the Marksburg.  Finally, it was sold in 1900 for a symbolic price of 1,000 Goldmark to the German Castle Association, which had been founded a year earlier as a private initiative to preserve castles in Germany.  In March 1945, the castle was damaged heavily by American artillery fired from the other side of the Rhine, though of the 40 hill castles in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Marksburg was the only one which was never destroyed.

After touring the Marksburg castle, we re-boarded the Viking Gefjon in Braubach and sailed upstream through the Upper Middle Rhine Valley (UNESCO World Heritage Rhine Gorge mentioned above).  It is an approximately 40-mile section of the Rhine exhibiting a unique combination of geological, historical, cultural, and industrial attributes.  We were struck by the 40 ancient castles built on the banks of the river, and the many vineyards on one side or the other on the terraced, south-facing steep slopes; because of the steepness, grapes are harvested by hand.  As an historically significant trade route into central Europe, we were further amazed by the number of quiet electric trains running on both sides of the river, and the heavy commercial ship traffic.  While small, the ships transport a large quantity of commodities; many of the captains have their family traveling with them, and most have automobiles on the stern of the ship. Also, along this stretch of the Rhine, many villages and towns were present, and showcased the unique Rhine Valley architecture.  We also observed small ship-building yards, and many tightly packed RV parks (few RVs with slide-outs were seen). Thus far, this part of the “tour” has been the most scenic.

Sailing from Kinderdijk to Cologne provided a good perspective of the countryside despite the overcast, sometimes rainy weather.  Most impressive were the river works and navigation system, many large churches, and interesting cable-supported bridges.

We both slept through the night, awakening to light rain as the long boat sailed the Rhine River the final few miles to Cologne.  After breakfast we joined our small tour group and explored the city center of Cologne.  The tour guide today was extraordinary, a native of Cologne, with a heavy English accent.  Cologne is Germany’s fourth largest city, and is located on both sides of the Rhine River less than 50 miles from Belgium.

Cologne was founded and established in the first century AD as a Roman city. During the Middle Ages it flourished on one of the most important major trade routes between east and west in Europe. Because of its close proximity to Britain, it was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II.  The bombing reduced the population by 95%, mainly due to evacuation, and destroyed almost the entire city. With the intention of restoring as many historic buildings as possible, the successful postwar rebuilding has resulted in a very mixed and unique architecture, with some buildings dating to the 1600s.

The primary tour item in Cologne is the city’s famous Cologne Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne, and a World Heritage Site, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day.  Construction of Cologne Cathedral started in 1248 and was stopped in 1473, leaving the cathedral largely unfinished. Work restarted in the 19th century and was completed, to the original plan, in 1880. It is 474 feet long, 283 feet wide, and its towers are approximately 515 feet tall. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second tallest spires (after Ulm Minster, the spires of which are 14 feet taller). Its two huge spires give it the largest facade of any church in the world. The choir has the largest height to width ratio, 3.6:1, of any medieval church.

We departed Amsterdam at 11:30 PM.  After locking through Wijk during the night, the first of 68 locks on our trip from Amsterdam to Budapest, we arrived at Kinderdijk (pronounced kinder dike, like kindergarden) at about 8 AM.  Kinderdijk is a village in the Netherlands about 9 miles (15 km)  east of Rotterdam. Kinderdijk is situated in a polder (low lying area surrounded and protected by levees, e.g. New Orleans) at the confluence of the Lek and Noord Rivers. To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built around 1740. This group of windmills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands. The windmills of Kinderdijk are one of the best-known Dutch tourist sites and have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.  Interestingly, our guide was a retired civil engineer who had worked for an American company (and I worked for a Netherlands company when I retired)!

Due to a lack of sleep during the night, we spent a good portion of the afternoon napping, though some time was spent on the sundeck observing the Dutch countryside (Donald) and in the lounge area reading (Kay).  It was quite interesting to note the river works and navigation system’s similarities to that of the Mississippi River.  And, many large churches and interesting cable-supported bridges were observed.   We attended the Captain’s toast prior to dinner, and after dinner attended a program on the art and culture of the Netherlands, sampling chunks of Gouda cheese.  Afterwards, we enjoyed visiting with Sid and Karen, and listening to live music in the lounge.  Kay even entertained the crowd singing Moon River.  The rest of the late evening was spent watching the PGA Championship on Sky Sport TV.

We returned to the hotel, and waited just a couple of hours—visiting with Chuck and Sue—before a minivan (because the streets near the hotel are so narrow) transported us to the Viking long boat, Gefjon.  We boarded with little fanfare—even the young captain was carrying luggage, the staff checked our name, and by the time we walked to the room, the luggage had already been delivered!

Late in the afternoon, we sat through a tour orientation in the lounge covering most aspects of the the trip, with an emphasis on safety; the orientation was too long and reminded us of a work meeting.  We had dinner with Chuck, Sue, Sid, and Karen.  During the course of the first couple of days in Amsterdam, and today on the Gefjon, we got acquainted with Sid and Karen from Ontario, Canada.  We find them very easy with whom to talk, especially since they are both golfers, and they are extensive travelers.  Tired from a lack of sleep, we retired early to the room, foregoing the live music and dancing.

We arrived in Amsterdam at about 12:45 PM Wednesday, August 12, collected luggage, and met the Viking reps for transport to the hotel Raddison Blu.  After checking in, we were in contact with Chuck and Sue Mercer from Alberta, Canada, who had arrived a couple hours earlier, made plans for later in the day, and immediately went to bed for a long nap.  Waking a bit refreshed, we met Chuck and Sue and walked a short distance from the hotel for dinner at a sidewalk cafe, followed by a brief exploration of areas near the hotel.  Though we both went to sleep after arriving back at the hotel, we awoke after a couple of hours, still on Arkansas time, 7 hours earlier than Amsterdam time.  We read, checked email, and otherwise killed time for another couple of hours before falling asleep again.

We awoke shortly about 9:15 AM Thursday, August 13, and rushed make the 10 AM deadline for breakfast  The hotel buffet was adequate, but certainly not great, and we were unaware of the pastry, bread, and jam table in an adjoining room until near the end of the meal.  From breakfast, we met Chuck and Sue at the Viking desk, picked up ear monitors to be able to hear the guide, Maarten, and left the hotel with other Viking passengers on the 10:30 AM walking tour of the Amsterdam city center. Maarten keep us busy some 2 hours discussing the history, canals, architecture, culture, etc.   We were surprised to learn that Amsterdam has about 800,000 people and 1.2 million bicycles—there is little room for cars on the “streets” and virtually no parking.  Both the bicycles and automobiles have the right of way, and with the density of traffic, we had to keep a watchful eye to avoid being hit!  There were several types of gables on the buildings and most had hoists incorporated into the structure.  Some leaned to the side because of foundation problems, and some leaned toward the street and canal to ease lifting furniture, etc. via the hoist.

This black building dates to the 1200s.

The canals were dirty and trashy by our standards.  We were blown away by the number of bicycles and riders, and not a single rider had a helmet.  They seem to have their own set of rules.  Seemingly, about 95 percent of the people on the crowded streets and sidewalk cafes were younger than 40, and if there was an obese person in the city, we did not see them!  Amsterdam is a “liberal” city and many of the coffee shops sold marijuana as well as hashish.  We were also surprised at the high number of cigarette smokers, and it was near impossible to avoid secondhand smoke.

After the walking tour, we traveled via tram to Rijk’s Museum, the national museum of the Netherlands, to mainly view the Night Watchman by Rembrandt. 

The 90-minute highlight tour featured art dating from 1200-2000.  Approximately 2.5 million people visit the museum each year.  From there, we waked to the Van Gogh museum but was deterred from touring its art by the long, long lines of people waiting to enter.  We returned to the hotel for a brief rest before joining Chuck and Sue for German beer, dinner, and a walk to the Red Light District where prostitution is legal.  Dating back to Medieval times, this area of Amsterdam consists mainly red-lit stalls with prostitutes advertising their “wares”, coffee shops selling marijuana, sex shops, and peep shows; few of the red-lit “stalls” had prostitutes, perhaps because it was early in the evening.  Further reading about this area indicated that most of the prostitutes were from eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa, and significant human rights violations via organized crime has been exposed.  The architecture of the area was quite interesting as many of the existing structures date to the 1400s.  We returned to the hotel, hoping for a good night’s sleep.

Kay and I finally were able to sleep several hours, despite it being in a couple of segments; our body is still adjusting to the 7 hours difference in time zones.  We awoke on Friday, August 14, with no plans despite it being our last day in Amsterdam.  We checked our luggage, and after breakfast walked the area adjacent to the hotel.  Both bicycle and auto traffic was much heavier than the previous two days, maybe because it was the start of a weekend.  We returned to the Red Light District, mainly to look at the architecture (sure), and I got busted—I surreptitiously took a photo of one of the prostitutes and she came rushing out of her stall and politely asked me to delete the photo as it was against the rules for photos to be taken. I was so flustered that it was difficult to find how to delete a single image, but with her assistance the photo was deleted.  Hopefully, you cannot identify the one shown in the window in the last photo. Visiting the Red Light District sure made an impression, but not a good one.

In late summer of 2014, we began conversing with Nan and George Laux about traveling together to do Viking’s Grand EuropeanTour, as they already had it on their radar for 2015, and we had added it to our second bucket list a couple years ago.  We tentatively agreed to plan for October/Noveber 2015, but the more Kay and I thought about it, the more we wanted to escape Arkansas in either July or August because of the oppressive heat and humidity, and remain in Arkansas in the fall, as it is generally one of our favorite times with moderate temperatures and great fall colors.  Also, the chance of rain in Europe is less then than in October/November.  Consequently, we jumped the gun, and shortly after selling the Norfork house and traveling to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas for the winter, we looked over various dates and selected August 2015 as our preferred choice, and immediately booked the trip.  Al and Sharon Crawford, and then Chuck and Sue Mercer opted to join us on the trip; regrettably, Al and Sharon had to cancel earlier this summer.  The Grand European Tour begins in Amsterdam and “sails” to Budapest, Hungary.  We added an extension of three days and two nights in Amsterdam, and later added a similar extension to Prague.

Pam Williams transported us to the airport in Little Rock to catch a early evening plane to Atlanta.  From there, we flew directly to Amsterdam, arriving on Wednesday, August 12.  Checking luggage at Little Rock, and going through TSA security was a breeze—we kept our shoes on, and computer, iPhones, and iPads remained in our carryon bags—a significant change since I last flew!  he flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam was not pleasant as the plane’s cabin temperature was too warm, the kids behind us talked and caroused all night with lots of seat bumps, the seats were just plain uncomfortable, and neither of us slept more than a few minutes despite taking a couple of Tylenol PMs.

We typically escape the heat of Arkansas in July and August by traveling north or west; not this year as we wanted to spend as much time in the new house as possible.  Of course last year, we were in the process of selling the house and had a relatively mild summer; again, not this year.  The last few weeks have seen most days with temperatures near, at, or above 100°.  And with the heat, we are seeing more butterflies, though not a vast variety of species.  One of the dying trees in front is a magnet for them, and they cling to the bark by the tens, if not the hundreds. Additionally, we have lots of dragon flies, and spotted this male(?) luna moth just outside the front door—it’s just a bit smaller than my hand.

Though we don’t have a “routine” yet, we do work out at the Coronado Fitness Center three times a week, and Kay exercises with other women at Mountainside United Methodist Church (UMC) and Christ of the Hills UMC two or three days a week.  I play golf on Friday mornings with a group, and try to play a couple of afternoons a week, usually solo.  And, we try to play bridge once a week with Jim and Jackie Morris (Jackie is a longtime friend of Kay’s from “bookclub”.  Otherwise, we stay in to escape the heat and humidity.  We have been watching a lot of British and Australian television lately, courtesy of PBS and NETFLIX.   We watch Father Brown, The Dr. Blake Mysteries, Death in Paradise, and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.  And, we continue to watch Major Crimes on TNT.  During the day, we listen to Pandora radio via the wireless SONOS sound system in the new house, and thanks to Bobby Altom for putting us onto Jeff Kashiwa.

We closed out Harper’s 3rd birthday celebration on Saturday accompanying her parents and her to the Memphis Zoo, and a Mexican lunch.  She was able to stretch the birthday celebration out a couple of weeks!  We look forward to seeing her again in early September.

Speaking of which, we’re taking a brief hiatus from the blog, and will post again in early September, before Labor Day.  Until then…

We were honored by a visit from Nan and George, arriving early Saturday afternoon; Nan is Kay’s sister.  After eating a pre-ordered pizza, George and I headed to the golf course for what was to be golfing mecca for 3 afternoons while Nan and Kay caught up on family news.  A Boston butt was smoked Saturday on the Big Green Egg, and for the first time, the fire started easy and the charcoal burned well.  Sunday was family day with the arrival of Karyn and family, and Ron and Cheryl.  It was fun watching them all reminisce about old family times.  After a meal of pulled pork, baked beans, slaw, and potato salad, the kids left, George and I headed to the golf course, and all was quiet on the home front.   Nan, accompanied by Kay, visited an old college suite mate on Monday while George and I again played golf.  Regrettably, Nan and George left on Tuesday morning after a wonderful visit.
Tuesday was a full day, though. I visited my sister who is doing physical therapy in Searcy after knee replacement surgery, followed by a quick trip to Maumelle to drop off shoes and other items left by Ridge and family on Sunday, and then attended visitation services for Glendis Malott, a cousin, who had passed away.  These services always provide mixed emotions as one feels grief for the family, but sees kinfolks not seen since the last visitation/funeral.  The rest of the week was uneventful, except for a visit from Susie Sweeten, a writer for the Village Voice.  The Village Voice is doing a piece on us as newcomers to Hot Springs Village; we don’t have a clue about the selection.  Here’s an unedited photo of Susie and Kay.

It has been a sad last week of July for us as we believe two of our large oak trees are dying from the stress of construction/landscaping.  We are hoping that they are just stressed, and will give them until early next summer, but it doesn’t look good.  On a happier note, our family celebrated two birthdays the last week—Harper is now 3 years old, and Matt celebrated his birthday the last day of the month.  And, the butterflies have suddenly appeared with lots of Red-spotted Purples, Red Admirals, Little Yellows, and others.