EUROPE 2015 ISSUE II

Kinderdijk Mill

We are in the midst of a “Grand European Adventure” along with our friends and neighbors Carol and Frank Sobtka.  It all started as a bit of a joke when I asked them what exotic place we should visit this summer.  Carol’s response, “you pick” and we left it there.  Well the next day what should arrive in my mailbox but the Viking River Cruise catalogue.  How I got on their mailing list in the first place I have no idea, but generally I just toss it in the rubbish bin.  This time I took a look at it and flippantly suggested we do their “Grand European Tour”, five countries, fifteen days, Amsterdam to Budapest, on the Rhine, Maine and Danube.  Carol called my bluff and here we are, almost two weeks in, sitting in the town of Passau on the German Austrian border.  

Tile Work Amsterdam

Now here is where I get extremely embarrassed by our extravagance.  Not only are we spending three extra days in Amsterdam and three in Budapest, we will spend a week in Switzerland and are meeting yet another couple, Carolyn and Jim Tabor in Paris for a week.  That makes six of us sharing an apartment in the Marais.  After that it is off to the UK to spend two weeks with Mick’s Dad and finally home in mid-October, just in time for Halloween and our annual pumpkin carving party.

So what is life on a riverboat like?  It’s a lot like being spoiled rotten.  Thank goodness there isn’t the excess that you find on ocean cruises.  There are three square meals a day, but not around the clock.  The portions are adequate but not excessive and there is always a choice between three appetizers, three entrees and three deserts.  The night they were doing a special, because mushrooms were in season, I heard that at least one patron, who did not like mushrooms, ordered three deserts!  I’m just sorry I didn’t think of it first. 

 

KINDERDIJK

Our first stop out of Amsterdam is Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  No lazing about this morning, after sailing through the night we dock in Kinderdijk (pronounced kinder dike) some time shortly after 6 a.m. and our tour is scheduled for 8:30.  It’s off for a quick breakfast and I think I have just died and gone to heaven . . .apart from your typical eggs, bacon and eggs there is an enormous plate of smoked salmon, with all the trimmings as well as sliced meats and cheeses.  Life is good.

Because we are quite literally moored across the street from the site, we are out on a guided tour before the place opens for business.  As a consequence the option of riding a bike or a cruise along the dike is not available.  Holland is a low lying land that was mostly swamp and marsh until these ingenious peoples drained the land, installed dikes and took to agriculture.  This is not a one-time thing but an ongoing way of life.  If ignored the sea and rivers would invade again and the polders would revert to swamps.   At Kinderdijk it all started with two canals that were used to drain the polders and direct the excess water to the river.  By 1740 this system became inadequate and they built a series of mills to pump the water out of the canals in to storage reservoirs and then ultimately in to the river.  

There are still over 1000 windmills in Holland that have been preserved.  They are all still operational and each has a miller, who lives onsite, must be able to operate the mills as a back up to the more modern diesel and electrical powered pumps that serve the same purpose.  

This excursion doesn’t last nearly long enough and by 11 a.m. we are back on board and cruising down the Rhine on our way to Cologne (Koln).  

Mealtimes are a big part of this cruising business, one seating only and no reserved spaces.  Once the daily briefing is finished on the upper level there is a mad rush, well as mad a rush as can be expected when the majority of those involved are of retirement age and greater.  There are those who stake out the window seat to ensure a good view.  Then there are those traveling together who must have a table for six and, NO, you are NOT welcome to sit here.  You never know who you might be sitting with, it could be an endangered species biologist from Moscow, Idaho or space technologies engineers from the Silicon Valley.  Politics run the gamut and there was the day when I had to apologize to the gentleman next to me when his fairly conservative viewpoints ran afoul of a pair of Canadians and our more liberal positions.  He was gracious but they did leave the table rather early.  

Monday, it must be Cologne.  Cologne was bombed during the war and as a

Cologne Cathedral

consequence has little of historical value to offer, at least in the city center.  I will borrow an image from the internet since even with a wide angle lens I cannot get an image worth posting.   We had a guided tour by a gentleman with the most amazing whiskers who shared his thoughts on being German given there was so little else to talk about.  He also bought several open faced sandwiches to share with.  It was a dish of highly seasoned raw pork topped with raw onions.  I am happy to report that nearly everyone took some to taste and although it was not a great hit at least we redeemed ourselves by being willing.  All that was missing was a glass of beer, which we remedied that evening with a pub crawl.

Kolsch Beer

Another borrowed picture, carrying a camera when drinking is probably not a wise move.  This is the traditional way to serve Kolsch beer, the beer of Cologne.  The glass are about 4 oz and the beer very hoppie.  It is meant to be drunk cold, as a consequence, small portions. But small portions does not ensure small quantities being consumed.  Once your glass is empty you can expect another to surreptitiously take its place.  The proper way to indicate you have had enough is to place the cardboard beer mat over the top of your glass.  If you wish to tip your server, you "buy" them a beer.  You can see there are probably 12 glasses in the serving "tray.  The server has essentially purchased all of these beers even before he knows he has a customer to consume them.  So when buying him a beer he has the choice of whether to consume it (which they sometimes do . . . delivering beer is a thirst business) oe sell it to the next customer.  

Next stop Koblenz and the Marksburg castle and the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress.  

View from Ehrenbreitstein Fortress

It was grey and foggy and ultimately it poured down rain.  That is our ship moored below and we took a gondola up to the fortress.

Marksburg Castle

Europe 2015 Issue I

We are floating down the Rhine on our way to Cologne (Koln), our arrival having been delayed by half an hour by forces unknown, to us at least.  So I guess it is time to begin an exploration of our adventures to date.  This is my third time in Amsterdam in the last 45 years and each trip has been something unique.  My first time, I was on my own, staying in hostels and hitch hiking across Europe doing the “Grand Tour”.  The food was odd, not nearly so many people spoke English and it poured down rain.  My most outstanding memories; the first, the hostel was co-ed, just a room full of bunk beds, a communal kitchen, and you had to leave the premises between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.  While the second is watching Fellini’s Satyr icon in Italian with Dutch subtitles because it was raining so hard and there was nowhere to go to get out of the wet.  

   

My second time in Amsterdam we stayed in a funky canal barge on the edge of the city center.  It would have been a flower child’s dream, lava lamps, bean bag chairs and macramé plant hangers.  We explored the Red Light District, ate Gouda Cheese and walked for miles dodging bicyclists. I guess I must have aged somewhat.  I haven’t quite fallen in to my dotage, but the creature comforts have more appeal with each passing year.  This time out it is a midrange hotel near the museum district, an easy walk to public transport, with breakfast included.   That said, Amsterdam is still a fascinating city and I have yet to leave the inner core to explore the suburbs. 

They say there are as many bicycles in the Netherlands, (aka the Low Countries, aka Holland and not to be mixed up with Belgium) as there are people and I do not doubt this in the least.  There are dedicated bike lanes that run between the car lanes and the sidewalk with their own traffic signals and protocols.  Do not walk in the bike lane, they will yell abuse at you and ring their bells in the most insistent and uncompromising manner.  If you feel a second class citizen when competing with vehicular traffic, Amsterdam’s bike lanes will truly make you feel powerless.  You see grandmas peddling home with their groceries, women in high heels and skirts on their way to work, businessmen in suits, young mothers with children variously strapped to them, riding in a basket at the front or perched front and/or rear on their individual seats.  One afternoon it began to rain, the only perceivable difference in behavior, a proliferation of waterproof ponchos.

Travel, it is all about expectations.  You build up an image of what it is you are going to see and do.  How it is going to smell, the cool breezes, the sunny skies the great works of art you will view and then there is the reality.  Reality, may not be as poetic as your expectations, but often times it is so much better.  Riding canal boats in the rain without one useful picture to show for your efforts is much more memorable than dozens of images that look exactly like everyone elses.  The memory of Gypsy soup that consisted of three mushrooms in a bowl of unidentifiable red broth and roast beef sandwiches that chewed as though they were made from the outside of the cow will remain far longer than the extravagant dinner of basil ceviche and fish cakes at the upscale fish bar.

I could give you the blow by bow of what we saw and where we went but instead I shall share a few more observations and finish  of with more pictures.  Have you ever considered what it might take to repair a road that is probably no more than 12 feet wide with four story houses on one side and a canal on the other . . . 

Did you notice, the building supplies are on a barge in the canal?

I reckon most of you have heard my story about needing to have a penny to use the toilet on New Street Station in Birmigham.  We seem to have set a new record 1 Euro ($1.10 appx) in Amsterdam.  

It is a bit questionable what of this will be saved and what I might lose.  We are sitting in a lock on the Rhine Main Canal and our internet connection is totally unstable.  More than that I am on the Espanol version of Google and can't find the translate function.  But more about cruising later.  

I have an internet connection, so am going to post this now,  More to come.