Blogs from Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Europe - page 8

This morning was greeted by dry, cool temperatures, 59F-62F, which pretty much makes you rethink your outfit for the day. Cargo shorts and short sleeve is not a wise choice. The reason being, is today we cast off, and go through the Romantic Rhine Gorge. Such great scenery, that I was planning to be on the sky deck, so I could see well, and take pictures without a window, or weather / ship radar mast in all the photos, off the bow of the ship. We had a wind of 15-20 knots, it was chilly, and I got my jacket. The breakfast was good, and we shoved off, and began the journey through the Rhine Gorge. This is one trip to Germany/Europe where I can say I saw more castles than cathedrals. There were 35 castles ... read more

It is April 29th, and we are starting to pack for our big bike trip in Europe. The first challenge is to fit all our clothes etc. into bike panniers (each of us gets 2) This is a good thing as it focuses us on what is really necessary when travelling. We have now done our final training rides as of yesterday (April 30th) and I have about 1400 kilometres since Feb 1st. We have been doing Salt Spring and Vancouver Island hills so the river valley rides in Europe should not be too tough but there is always wind.. As usual , the first stage is the ferry trip to Vancouver. We are leaving on the 0615 Long Harbour ferry , then bus to skytrain and on to YVR. We will then have a long ... read more

I wanted to do something spectacular for our honeymoon so I booked us on the Viking River Cruise Rhine Getaway. It starts in Basel, Switzerland and eight days later concludes in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Since my last name is Basel this is a place I’ve always wanted to go to. I booked it more than a year in advance as the Viking Cruises fill up fast. They are expensive but we had heard nothing but great things about them. I wanted to spend more than half a day in Basel which is all the Viking itinerary had scheduled so I deviated from their schedule for a fee so that we could go a day early. I also wanted to spend some time in Amsterdam and since the cruise schedule didn’t have any activities planned there I ... read more

After landing in Dusseldorf, we picked up our rental car and successfully maneuvered out of what I still think are the smallest(but cleanest) parking ramps in the world! First stop Koblenz, which is known for the geographical fact that the Rhine and Mosel rivers intersect there. We enjoyed our first German style breakfast in the brewery in Koblenz. Yes, it’s true that the locals enjoy a “kleine beer” (small beer) called Kolsch even with breakfast. Despite the rain, we walked briefly through the village to find the Duetsches Eck. One thing I noticed instantly were the large riverboats, transporting tourists on the Wine country tours on the Rhine and Mosel rivers. You could walk out beyond all the German State flags to the point where the rivers converge. There is a huge monument erected in the ... read more

So now we have secured our new apartment in Mojacar, Spain and that means it is time to say good bye to our beloved Zell, on the Mosel, Germany. We have had a holiday home here for 4 years. Then moved to our flat that we thought would be our forever home. So now it is time to move on to our next country. Zell is a lovely little wine village with about 4,000 inhabitants, it is midway between Trier and Koblenz on the Mosel river. Ferry boats travel in either direction and we loved spending a fall day floating along. Because of the locks along the river it can be a 2 day journey to Trier, that would take about an hour to drive to. We will miss Zell and all of it's fun little ... read more