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Published: February 16th 2009
I should have written this travel blog quite some time ago but honestly the cruise was so disappointing that I couldn’t really muster the enthusiasm. Our problems started when we flew from Reykjavik to Amsterdam to join the cruise, for the second time with them Icelandic Air did not have the promised vegetarian food for us, because of the same problem on the inward flight we had called into their head office and been assured that they would definitely positively have it for us, several other passengers had the same problem with special meals that we don’t think that they could handle it. Their planes were rather old, uncomfortable and well overdue for refurbishment, the entertainment system could only be described as antiquated.
Since taking the photographs on this holiday I have decided to crop them all to 16:9 ratio so that they can be displayed to the full on a wide screen television. I will be making copies on DVD with music and commentary. Some of these pictures may not have been composed too well to this new ratio, I’ll try to get it right in future but I still have two more travel blogs in the old format to write and publish yet; after that I will be using new photographic equipment.
We arrived in Amsterdam and found the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam to be so good and efficient, by the time that we had strolled to the baggage collection our cases were just arriving; we went through the formalities in no time at all and were soon being met by out transport guide to be taken to the meeting point. We eventually arrived at our riverboat, the MS Tapestry and were in our cabin very quickly. The cabin was probably only fractionally larger than one on a cruise liner but it was so well designed that there was plenty of room with more than enough storage space, we unpacked our suitcases and still had many unused drawers and cupboards. If only they could make cabins like this on big ships.
After showering and changing dinner was being served. It was an excellent meal and there was always one vegetarian choice with each course, the food was top quality throughout the entire cruise. We felt quite sorry for a couple of the waiters who seemed to have bad coughs, we didn’t realise the consequences of this until a few days later when we found that many of the passengers, probably about 50% had come down with severe colds; some passengers who had been on several of these cruises told us that it was a regular occurrence.
The next day they took us on an included tour of the Amsterdam canals and very soon sailed past Anne Frank’s House.
The entrance to the house and museum is just a couple of doors away. A tour of the museum was not included but there would be time later in the day for those who wished to make a visit,
There are many bridges across the canals and this is a good example of the style used in Holland.
It doesn’t show too well from our barge but the following buildings are all leaning at different angles, they often appear on postcards. The experts say that they should last at least another 150 years so they continue to use them.
The are many older buildings in Amsterdam that survived WW2. Early in the war Germany had bombed and devastated about a square mile of Rotterdam, they did not attack Amsterdam because they wanted it intact to preserve the port facilities. With threats of further bombing of Amsterdam and The Hague the Dutch Government capitulated.
Here we see a highly decorated sailing ship.
And now our riverboat The Avalon Tapestry. You can see that each cabin has sliding doors; it is possible to turn the air-conditioning off and have these windows open. Such a good design and better than a balcony, wish cruise liners could be made this way.
Even if you haven’t visited Holland you will be aware that bicycles are a very important form of transport. Visitors soon realise that most of the bikes are inexpensive, the security chains being worth far more. There are cycle paths alongside most of the footpaths, do watch out for the cycles, they have right of way.
Not enough room for everyone so this is what you do or I wonder if this cycle was originally in someone else’s space.
We now visit Kinderdijk which is in the Alblasserwaard peat-bog area. It was one of the first areas to be drained in the 14th century using canals. The technology was very much improved around 1400 when the mill was introduced enabling water to be pumped to different levels using sluice gates to control it. The technology was much improved over the years in particular the introduction of two steam pumping stations in 1868. Eventually the pumping stations were replaced by electrical lift stations illustrated later.
The windmills are no longer used to pump water but some have been retained as a tourist attraction.
Here we have the modern replacement of the pumping station. The electrically driven screw lifts the water as required. They are highly efficient and can lift water at the rate of 1.3 million litres every minute.
We continue along the river passing through this vertical lift bridge.
Here we have the old and the new technology together. The local residents are encouraged to take shares in the modern wind generator projects. Some people find the noise that they make quite irritating but when you own shares it is like music.
We are about to go under the lift bridge, we were the last boat so the drivers waiting above will be pleased when it is lowered.
We wondered what this was at first but our guide explained that there are twelve hulls that have been constructed in China and delivered to Holland on a raft. All the superstructure and engines are included for final assembly; they will be working the river in just a few weeks.
An imaginative design for an office block.
This is not a ship; it’s another office block alongside the river.
A modern suspension bridge looks attractive near or far.
Riverside buildings in Rotterdam.
Had been looking forward to the Delft visit for a long time, hoping to see the factories where all the fine china is made. Turned out that there are no factories in the town, most of the manufacturing here is carried out by one or two people working in the back of a souvenir shop. We suspect that the best stuff is made elsewhere because what we saw being made was very ordinary.
Our boat was anchored a considerable distance away so we spent a couple of hours looking at the canals until the coach returned to take us back.
Here we have some unusual buildings which seem to be living units.
A brightly decorated block of units but we notice that they do have any balconies.
We have now been on the boat long enough to realise that we have a very good crew, they seem to work incredibly hard and enjoy their work, nothing ever seems to be much trouble for them. Every crew member seems to have more than one job which probably explains why everything is so clean and tidy mainly running well all the time.
Today we visit the war cemetery at Arnhem.
This cemetery is usually shown on videos as being huge with many thousands of graves, there are actually only 1514 but that is 1514 too many. It is always sad to walk around any war cemetery and to see just how young most of the soldiers were, such a waste of so many before they had even started to live.
This is the area where General Montgomery carried out Operation Market Garden with the intention of capturing eight bridges across the Rhine thus enabling a rapid advance into Germany. Things didn’t go quite according to plan resulting in Russian Troops reaching Berlin first.
According to our guide this ferry saw service during WW2.
On return to the boat we travelled to Cologne whilst eating lunch. You may be able to guess that these two became the main characters in the cartoon the Katzenjammer Kids published in the USA.
I do not know the story about this mooning sculpture.
There are many of these intricate sculptures around this small square.
Our first view of Cologne Cathedral.
Cologne must be the only cathedral that is required by law to have a street number, it is No 4. Could be useful if you are ever looking for it, No 10, No 8, No 6, ah it must be the next building!
Today we visit Coblenz
The Katzenjammers again.
Typical buildings in the towns along the Moselle River.
This limestone house seems to be a private residence.
Many street cafes and the weather was perfect.
Kinky.
They even have bikies here.
The tourist boats were busy. A few vineyards can be seen on the hillside.
The town is named after this castle
Our guide told us that many of these coaches have brought day-trippers from Italy.
Another view of our boat which was moored on the opposite side of the river to Bernkastel.
We now visit Trier. Quite an impressive local church.
Roman Ruins and some renovastions.
We think this building might have been used by archers who were guarding the entrance to the town.
A famous person was born in Trier but they do not shout about it, we almost had to bribe the guide to show this to us. This is the birthplace of Karl Marx. His politics may have been different to that followed by the current residents of the town.
The town pedestrian mall.
Our boat was not allowed to moor near to the town instead we tied up in this picturesque area.
Reichsburg Castle
Medieval Graffiti
Mosaics can be seen on this tower.
Another view of our boat.
Looking down on the river at the well maintained buildings.
Vineyards above the river.
We are now taken on a tour of the Reichsberg Castle.
I do not know the translation for this, hope it is not rude but I do like the typeface.
Some nice buildings in the town centre.
There are many locks on this part of the river; these are useful for keeping the water at the right level. On some rivers our kind of boat has difficulty passing under bridges when the water level is too high.
Sometimes we would pass through locks during the night. Our sleep would be interrupted because of the noise that the boat makes as it goes through the locks.
Many of the older buildings have been converted to hotels.
Here we approach the Loreley.
These are the rocks that caused the problems. Sometimes the boats would sail too close. There are many bends in the river at this point and years ago they would try to save time by cutting corners, not a wise move.
The navigators would claim that the Loreleys had tempted them onto the rocks with their singing.
Even graffiti here, I see one is dated 1957.
Neat vineyards.
Small town on the river with a lookout tower.
Part of the river is closed off with markers to prevent grounding.
A closer look at the tower.
And the modern control tower, this part of the river is single lane for boats our size.
Another hotel at Overwesel.
Small fort.
A quick tour of the Ruedesheim Music Museum.
These mechanical violins were amazing and had a beautiful sound.
Restored Steamboat, it had an authentic steam whistle.
This cellar had survived the war.
A treadle lathe.
Buskers Organ
Cabinet with mechanical dancers.
Interesting Building
Souvenir Shop.
A trip to Heidleberg with a tour of the castle, one of the few days when we had rain.
Our tour guide described this as the Leggo Arch. It was built as a birthday present for a 19 year old princess. All the stones had been prepared well in advance and overnight they were assembled here as a surprise for her birthday the next day.
Someone is supposed to have made this footmark when they jumped from the third floor, I didn’t believe it either.
Thought to be the largest barrel in the world.
Even has a dance floor above it.
The castle from the town.
Ands the town from the castle.
We have now arrived in Speyer
Speyer Cathedral.
Modern sculptures in the park near to where our boat was moored.
Most people know BASF as manufacturers of magnetic recording tape, they are actually the largest chemical company in the world and their plant alongside the river seemed to go on for several kilometres.
Today we visit France. We were a bit disappointed to find that the boat was moored in Germany and that we would be taken to Strasbourg by coach, it didn’t help when we later saw a Viking Tour Boat, that had been travelling close to us, had actually moored well into Strasbourg.
An excellent public transport system.
General Leclerc signed the French surrender document and later became involved in the French Resistance.
Cruel, we didn’t have time to go in.
Strasbourg City Centre.
A most unusual fountain, not sure what it was all about.
European Union Building.
Another of the glass boats that are terrible for photography, our guide was not of much help, very strong accent and poor English as most of them were.
Even though this was one of the best crews that we came across and the cabins were excellent the overall tour was rather disappointing. The beds were extremely hard and like most other passengers we slept on the doonas and used the sheets and blankets as covers. We had expected that the boat would moor close to the towns but we found that most of the time we were a long way off, coaches were provided but we would have preferred to stroll on and off as and when we felt like it rather than being regimented for the tours.
The ship was generally good but was let down by some of the technology. Often the sound system did not work which did not help for the evening briefings and the few lectures that we had. We hardly ever watch television but most of the time it was not working, being near to bridges etc., was blamed but when we left it still did not work. The satellite Internet system was so bad that they gave us a total refund, I would have preferred it to be working, when you rely on investments for your income it is essential that you can monitor them in these volatile times. Had the Internet been working the costs were rather high at €5 per hour, €15 per day though €30 per week would have been reasonable except that most mail services were blocked and you had to pay €3 for each E-mail sent and attachments were not allowed. These boats only run in the rivers so I cannot understand why they do not use a wireless system through the mobile phone network, it would have been much cheaper and more reliable.
The food and the dining room were excellent but we found the meals took too long. High quality wines were included but unfortunately many of the passengers were not used to this, after a short time the noise was unbelievable and tended to take the edge off dining.
In future we will stick to large ocean going liners for our cruises; our tours of Continental Europe will be with one of the better coach lines which we have found to be far more enjoyable in the past even though it does mean living out of a suitcase.
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Wonderful pictures!
How wonderful pictures! It seems that you are good at to take a photograph!