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Published: August 16th 2022
ZAANSE SCHANS
Just outside Amsterdam, a working open air museum, it is just fabulous!Wednesday 10th was day of boarding, of course we knew, not to be boarding. Received an email from APT being transferred to Marriott Hotel Amsterdam to do first night on cruise, tours as normal next day, dinner and drinks at the Marriott, all good! Tour on 11th was to the Zaanse Schans, a village about 45 minutes outside Amersterdam. It is an open air working museum where they make cheese, the windmills crush rock for the base of paints, wood is produced, clogs are maid, food and beverages etc all in age old buildings, houses and windmills. We had a great morning but then had to board a bus for 5 hours to Frankfurt where our boat was docked, arrived there at 5.45. Checked in unpacked in our beautiful suite, it really is so lovely, and waiting for us in the room was a lovely bottle of Veuve Clicquot champers, such a lovely gesture! The night before in Amsterdam there were so many complaints, people were ringing their travel agent in Australia complaining that this was not what they had paid for.... FFS our poor tour Director Nick is not god, he cannot create water on the rivers! I think we
ZAANSE SCHANS
The windmills are old restored ones are only on for 5 nights and we have to change boats, like get off in Nurumburg bus to Passau to new boat identical! We have not missed out on anything, from where we are in Rudesheim, we bused back about 85klm, did Namady Castle Cocktail party which was just amazing! Princess Heide is such a charming lady and gave us history of this old dame, 14th century, Princess Heide and her husband inherited this castle in 1988 and have extensively restored it by raising money with concerts etc and now they have groups like us, weddings etc to help with upkeep,she also lives here in the top two floors. They also put us on a very small boat to do the Rhine Gorge with all the castles for about an hour, so we have caught upon everything. Saturday we are still in Rudesheim, tour of Siegried's Musical Instrument Museum which is an absolute hidden gem, there are over 350 exhibits dating from 18th-20th century and then for the gondola ride to the top of the hill germania, a monument there commemorating the end of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, it is one of the most impressive monuments I have
ZAANSE SCHANS
Looking over the farm seen. Rudesheim is a very picturesque little town with all the white white grapes being grown up the side of the hills. Very warm here today 34 degrees so was nice to get back to the boat for a couple of cold beers! We have visited Miltenberg sailed overnight, its a lovely old medieval town, suffered greatly from the war of the 17th century and residents could not afford to build new buildings so the old town remains a time capsule, with original buildings, oldest hotel in Germany dating back to 1411. Wurzburg is another gorgeous town, we did a tour of Wurzburg Residenz Palace, totally magic, the frescos were just amazing, its one of the largest in Germany, we were not allowed to take photos inside but I will post a couple from internet which really doesn't do it justice. Then a walking tour around town and BBQ lunch back on the boat with a glass of sangria to work up to the big walk to St Buchards Abbey a Benedictine Monastery, hundreds of steps to get to the entrance to the monastery but it was worth it for the view over the Main Canal and the town of
ZAANSE SCHANS
The cheese house Wurzburg. The Amareina has been great, done two chefs table dinners which is totally magnificent food and better wines, our suite is so very spacious and we will be in for a shock when we start our hotels again in 10 days time. You could not and should never eat all the food that is offered, breakfast, morning teas, lunch, afternoon teas, dinner and late night snacks... be like the side of a house! All drinks are included as well and they do good cocktails! Bamberg today another old ancient town that was not bombed during the war so some lovely old buildings still standing, had a walking tour for about 2 hours then free time to try their famous and well known smoky dark beer, it was quite nice! It a very interesting place with all different types of architecture. Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Romanesque etc. We had an excellent guide who was quite funny too. So tonight we have to pack as we will be in Nurumberg tomorrow and cannot get any further with the boat, so swapping over to its sister ship just outside Passau, doing tours in Nurumberg in AM then a 4 hour or so trip
ZAANSE SCHANS
Clogs everywhere on the bus. All part of this holiday experience.
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Ernie & Roni
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Love it love it. You are having an awesome trip. Brings back such good memories for us too having done that trip. Such a shame Europe/UK suffering such heat and drought. One cannot control weather!!!!!