Rhine Gorge to Rudesheim

This morning we cruised through the beautiful Rhine Gorge, and looked at many castles perched on the tops of the cliffs as we drifted by.

 

After lunch we stopped in Rudesheim and visited Siegfried's Mechanical Musical Instrument Museum,  which had many of these mechanical instruments from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, some replicating a whole orchestra, all restored and working, it was fascinating to see and hear them; Lex thought of her dad who would have loved to have seen these marvellous machines. we were then treated to a local brandy coffee and then went on a  cable car  ride up to the top of the cliff overlooking the town and river. Beautiful!!

 

 

 

 

Cologne

Most of the day was taken up with cruising along the Rhine to Cologne where we arrived at about 3.45, which was very relaxing just watching the world glide by and the activities on the riverside. We then went on a walking tour of Cologne and it's incredible cathedral; work began on it in 1248 after the original cathedral was pulled down and it continued for 300 yrs until they ran out of money. It then sat unfinished for another 300 years until work resumed and it was finally completed in 1880s. There is a gold casket inside which they say holds the skeletons of the three wise men who visited Jesus; their remains were reportedly bought here but testing has never been done on them to verify that, however, tests on a piece of cloth is said to have proven it was made 200 years AD and was made in Damascus.  IF that timing is correct, it suggests it probably isn't them..but who knows!

 

We had a laugh along the way when passing a newish building and the guide explained that the word Rathuis that was written on it was pronounced Rat House and was actually the council house.  Some suggested some of ours should be so named.:-)

 

We are now on our way to the Rhine Gorges.

Muiderslot Castle

After a morning tour of the Amsterdam canals we went on a tour of Muiderslot Castle, built in the 1200's it is the oldest castle in Holland.

 

John's tooth seems to be settling down, it now just feels like someone has punched him in the jaw, and the painkillers prescribed are keeping it in check.

 

The food on board is great and the service is first class, better than most restaurants we have been to, maintaining or loosing weight would be impossible, and tonight we have the welcome dinner which will be a formal affair with many courses.

 

The boat is now underway, next stop Cologne Germany.

 

 

 

   

Amsterdam 2

Hi all,

Had a good day yesterday though John's tooth and mouth are still quite sore. He's on strong painkillers and has been assured it will settle down. We went to see Ann Frank's cottage but the line was so long we just took photos of the outside. Two of the photos show Amsterdam's thinnest house; inside it is only 80cm wide. After dropping our bags at the meeting point for them to go onto the boat we then took two trams to flea market and spent time wandering there before having lunch and going back to the meeting point. Really nice dinner on board.

Evening in Emergency

Travel the world, see interesting things, meet exciting people, and have root canal surgery while doing it, after an hour of extremely painful drilling and filling, John is still in some pain which he's told should be minimal tomorrow :) ouch.

Zaanse Schans

Good trip here, got a sleep on the plane and felt fresh when we arrived, found our B&B which was rebuilt in the 1600's and then made our way to Zaanse Schans where they have relocated many old buildings and windmills.

 

John has developed over the last 2 days a bad toothache so we're going to the hospital dentist tonight to see if they can do anything with it.

 

John & Lex

Amsterdam - Budapest Map

Amsterdam to Budapest