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September 28, 2013

Rhine – Day Four – Wet entertainment and bed fun

Strasbourg was our first full-day port (or first full day aboard, or whatever). Interesting place. After a night of bumping and thumping (but not too badly) through locks, dawn found us docked along an industrial area south of town. However, what a nice place (better, I’d suspect, than civic-prided blight of New Jersey). A line of railway goods wagons stood in a neatly mown and tree-lined railyard, with swans swanning (sorry, but that’s exactly what they were doing) about between ship and shore. On a nearby road and sweeping bridge, bicyclists whizzed past with German efficiency and French pride. Unlike […]
September 29, 2013

Rhine – Day Five – Cathedrals and Triplanes

Talked my Canadian friends into taking the shore run into Speyer today. Did a cathedral tour that was pretty good (the historian guide was a bit flat, and sucked every element of soaring structure and arcing history from this tour). Then we went over to the technology museum, a place filled to the rafters with trains, planes and automobiles. I got to see two Fokker DR1 (triplanes), one of which was a spot-on replica of the Red Baron’s plane. I also got to see a Pfalz DIII, one of the prettiest (yet lousiest) front line German fighters (appropriate, since this […]
September 29, 2013

Flying Dutch (Review)

I always enjoy when a writer dissects a legend or myth, laying out the pieces like a watch and then reassembling them into something new. In Flying Dutch by Tom Holt, this is done to the legend of the Flying Dutchman. Poor Cornelius Vanderdecker. While on a slow merchant haul some hundreds of years ago, he and his crew got into the possessions of an Alchemist they were transporting and guzzled his bottles. The good news – they became immortal. The bad news – they stink to high heaven. I mean, a real stink, one that sees the fire brigade […]
September 29, 2013

That Dutch Beat

It’s no exaggeration that the Dutch are a nation of cyclists. There are more bikes than cars in the city of Amsterdam. The bikes have their own roads, own signals, and are pretty much equals with cars in all cases. It’s the way we should be. Regardless, I’ve noticed two things about Dutch cyclists that I’ve brought home to the states with me. The first, their beat. No, not their music – the cadence they cycle with. Me, when I ride to work (God knows when that will be, what with JB and her broken arm, and being the house […]
September 30, 2013

Rhine – Day Six – Wet Ink and Player Pianos

Woke up in Mainz this morning with more water above the boat than below it – gray skies and driving rain. Still. JB and I went out and joined the walking tour of the old city. Saw all sorts of old, wet buildings and got the idea that this city has been pummeled by everyone from the Visigoths to the American Air Force. It’s an odd collection of the medieval, the renaissance, all the way up to post-modern. I’d like to see the city and its hills sometime when it’s not sleeting down rain. Then we visited the Gutenberg museum […]
October 1, 2013

Rhine – Day Seven – Shooting the Gorge

Pulled back the blinds and looked out the next morning. First pleasant surprise: the tour boat locked to our side (with neighbors as close as a Brooklyn tenement) was gone. Second pleasant surprise: the clouds were gone too. We went up on deck as the crew cast off, the ship pivoting neatly in the channel and easing into the current. It was cold and windy (i.e. even more cold) with a wet spitty rain lashing at us. But we were all excited – the weather was better than yesterday (i.e. we could see the Rudesheim Mountains) and we were looking […]
October 2, 2013

Rhine – Interlude

Sometimes so much happens that you need to put in a side chapter to explain other details of the tour. A good writer shouldn’t have to do that, and can carry it in a sentence or two. So here’s my interlude. Thursday night was interesting. After a long dinner created by a local chef (I had some sort of beef patty things that I ended up literally licking the plate over), we retired to the lounge. There, a local trio of musicians (two guitarists and a violinist) played tunes classical and otherwise for us. I’ll say they were good, since […]
October 3, 2013

Rhine – Day Eight – How big is your bomb hole?

Started the day docked at Cologne. Interesting place – I’m actually sitting on the upper deck of the ship, writing this while looking over the riverfront. Anyway, we only had a half day here, so we got the usual walk through tour. The funny thing I’m noticing is that each of the guides tell us how pulverized the city center was in World War Two. That’s apparently a common theme here. And yes, I feel bad about the destruction and war is hell, but then again, I’ve seen bomb damage in London. “If you don’t want to lose your Ritz, […]
October 4, 2013

Rhine – Day Nine – Black hearts and round wheels

After a night bumping into locks, today we ended up on Amsterdam. Interesting city, of course, with all the bikes. No, I mean ALL THE BIKES. Unless you’ve been here, you have no idea how many bikes are here. Racks and racks of bikes. Every street has a bike lane. Bikes rule the city. While this might seem like Nirvana for me given my interest in bicycling, it didn’t come across as a particularly friendly city. Pedestrians are threatened by cars and bikes. People toss the finger and curse each other with great abandon. So, no, I don’t think I […]
October 5, 2013

Rhine – Day Ten – Broke her crown

The morning of debarkation. We’ve put the suitcases out in the hall with ribbons to show our transfer to the hotel. I’m walking down the hall, toting my carryon, calling out to an Aussie I knew. And JB, somewhere behind me and following, trips on some sheets left in the halls by the cleaners and faceplants. Crash! At first I was pretty angry – how embarrassing. Everyone’s standing around cooing and she can’t seem to tell where she hurts. I thought she was just shaken. But no, she can’t move her left arm. I’ll give them this – Avalon (the […]