I think this is the Rhine cruise in Germany

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Aug 27, Wednesday
Up at 5:45 a.m., suitcase out at 6:20, bkfst at 6:30, on bus at 7 a.m.. Rest stop at border, 50 cents. Got to Cologne about 10:15 to go to Cathedral. Had a “big hour” (Marieke's term) to get a snack, use restroom, and visit Cathedral. Cathedral is very large, huge stained glass windows; bought two postcards (E1,80). Used RR at MacDonalds (.50) and got small cheeseburger and small soda (E1,00 each) (Sprite - had a little uncomfortable tummy on long ride - one pill from another tourite, and borrowed a wrist band from Cindy).

Another lengthy time in bus to get to St.Goar for boat cruise on Rhine. One photo stop along the river at Remagen for bridge towers - of “end of war” fame, before getting to boat. Cruise was very nice, only 4-5 castles, but between the bus and the boat, we saw several castles on the hills along the river. Boat ride was about an hour; weather got quite warm, after being overcast all morning; took lots of pics most not very good, with motion and some haze and sun glare. Had snack on boat - beer and yummy Black Forest cake (E5.20); got small book with map (E4.50) It was a new boat, very nice (no charge for RR). Going along the Rhine is very scenic, with small towns, grapevines up steep slopes, fairly frequent castles, very green.

Back on bus and on to Heidelberg to have walking distant view of castle ruins there, very cute college town; we had forty minutes there - too long for castle view and not long enough to do much else (RR at tourist station 30 cents, with a turnstile). Backtracked to Mannheim to Holiday Inn hotel. Dinner included tonight - potato soup, roast pork, sauerkraut, roast potatoes, adequate portions; dessert was divine; small sweet-cream puffs topped with more whipped (not sweet) cream. Had two Kotzpitzer boch beers - very good (E3.30 each). So far, I'm eating way too much (and here I thought I'd lose some weight, with missing a few meals and walking around a lot). I think we do more walking tomorrow.

I started typing this on the bus, but that didn't work too well, with motion and sun glare. With plane ride, bus and boat rides, even in the hotel I feel that the room is moving - hope that goes away. I have a twinge of scratchy throat and nose and a few aches and pains - have been taking Airborne and sure hope I'm not coming down with something already.

Internet here is E7,00 for 60 minutes out of a 24-hour period (Swisscom, same as Amsterdam) I guess I should have signed up for some sort of prepaid plan to begin with. But my first attempt at uploading this didn't work anyway - the other computer didn't find the files on my flashdrive; hope I have better luck getting directly from over wireless when I do try that.

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