Wednesday, 28 Aug 2024 – Sally was awake a long time before Jesse but it was cold outside the bed, so she stayed in bed for another hour or more. We put our luggage outside our door before 9:00 AM, then went down to the café. Again, we had the wonderful breakfast at the Hotel Okura. We stayed in our room until nearly noon. If we delayed any longer, we would’ve missed the bus to the Viking boat! Two buses took us to the river (quite a distance). Our ship was the Viking Lofn (not the Viking Vidar that we had booked). We were in cabin 209, which has a 45-inch-wide balcony so a full view of the river. The hallway continues a long way to the end of the boat, but (thankfully) our cabin is fairly near the reception desk and lounge. While investigating the ship, we met a younger Asian couple, Commy & Beatrix from Hong Kong. We had a safety drill and welcome briefing at 6:00 PM in the lounge. We made room for Commy & Beatrix next to us. Sally couldn’t understand the heavily accented English of the speakers! Dinner followed afterward. We sat with a couple from Melbourne, Australia (Morris & Anna). They were very nice, and we were some of the last ones to leave our table. Best parts of the meal: halibut, dessert (i.e. Crème Brulé), followed by cappuccino. Sally’s sleep was miserable again, with wakefulness from at least 3:00 AM on.
Thursday, 29 Aug
2024 – The ship docked at Kinderdijk, Netherlands,
a rural area with “19 remarkably preserved 18th century windmills.” Being extra tired from little sleep, walking
was a struggle for Sally and we lagged behind the rest of our group. It was sunny, only 68 degrees, but Sally wore
jeans, short sleeves, and boots – and was soon very sweaty! (She will wear sandals next time!) It was interesting but the group moved too fast, and Sally didn’t like
being always so terribly far behind the others, even though we could hear the
tour guide very well through our com devices. During the tour, we talked with Gary &
Imelda from Cincinnati. Gary was also
having problems keeping up with the group, but Imelda did not wait for him! The last part of the tour was going up into a
windmill, where a family with several children lived. But we didn’t make that last trek, just
waiting for the group where they had taken the last turn, and then we started
back. After finally returning to the
ship, Sally showered and napped for possibly 3 hours.
Friday, 30 Aug
2024 – The ship stopped at Cologne, Germany. Sally
really wanted to get out to see some of Germany, but she had a cold today with
runny nose, sore eyes, and a slightly uncomfortable stomach. (She stopped drinking any wine; instead, she
ordered cranberry juice, plus extra milk to use with her coffee.) And with dessert, we both ordered
cappuccino. The food has been very good.
Jesse went on the walking tour without Sally. Soon after the shore excursion started (1:00-4:15),
the ship set off again up river. Sally
learned that it was impossible to start walking with the group, and then turn
back toward the ship – because the ship didn’t stay in the same place!!! Sally tried lying down after the ship left,
but didn’t sleep; instead, she deleted junk mail from her laptop. (She should have been keeping up with her
journal but, instead, she let it lapse for 2 days!)
On the tour, Jesse boarded a bus,
which dropped them off at the entrance to Cologne’s Hohenzollernbrucke
bridge. In 2008, couples began
affixing “love padlocks’ to the bridge.
In just ten years their number grew to an astonishing 40,000 padlocks
inscribed with couples’ names and romantic messages.
To get to the Cologne Cathedral,
the tour group had to walk across the Rhine River via the Hohenzollernbrucke
bridge, which took about 20 minutes. When
you behold the cathedral, you may think it divinely inspired. But according legend, the devil himself had a
hand in it. The architect, Gerhard of
Ryle, was supervising his workmen when a stranger appeared and said with a
sneer, “you will never live to see its completion.” Gerhard angrily relied, “I would be the devil
that I shall finish what I started!” The
stranger revealing his satanic identity, said, “Then you have wagered your
soul, for before you finish, I will dig a canal from Treves to Cologne, and
have merry ducks swimming on it.” The
devil vanished and time passed with no signs of a canal. A relieved Gerhard continued working until,
one day, the devil returned. He showed
Gerhard an underground stream approaching Cologne, and boasted that ducks would
soon swim on it. One night Gerhard
muttered in his sleep, “Ducks will never swim underground without air holes at
every mile. Satan will never think of
this!” But his wife overheard him and
Satan tricked her into revealing the secret.
One day Gerhard stood atop the church’s north tower and saw a silvery
stream winding toward the city, with ducks paddling on it. Just as Satan reached to grasp his soul,
Gerhard leapt from the tower. For
centuries his spirit haunted the cathedral, until it was completed in 1880 and
his soul was troubled no more.
Jesse was one of the last
passengers to make his way across the bridge to the cathedral. Before releasing the group, the tour guide
gave the time and meeting point for the returning buses, as well as the
location of the toilets, which cost €0.50/ person to use. After completing a tour of the cathedral,
Jesse hung out with Gary & Imelda until they left the area to do a little window
shopping. When it was time, Jesse
started his walk to the bus. Not sure of
where he was going, he was relieved to see Gary & Imelda and walked the
rest of the way to the buses with them.
Saturday, 31 Aug
2024 – The ship docked at Marksburg, Germany. This time, Sally went with Jesse, and the tour
was divided into four groups (-A, -B, -C, & -D, each on separate busses and
separate leaders). We were on the “D”
bus. Jesse said that yesterday the guide
didn’t take their tour tickets, and the leadership was very loose. Today the leader kept talking, but after we
got off the bus, he was way ahead, and we were way behind. (Sally thought that
we would be a slower-moving group, but we were just in the last group.) To make matters worse, we were walking upward
on a road leading to Marksburg Castle.
Sally was soon worn out! When we
got to the top (where the W.C.s were located), there was a bench in the shade, and
we sat down. People were saying that the
steps inside the castle were very uneven and rather difficult to negotiate in
places, so we opted not to go in. (We’ve
been in other castles, and this wasn’t nearly as impressive as some we have
seen.) Time passed fairly quickly, it
seemed to Sally, with talking with other people for the last 20 minutes. Then we started walking down the mountain,
taking a staircase part way, which cut off the distance to the bus. Sally did get hot and sweaty again, just
walking. For dinner, we sat with the
retired KLM pilot (Clarence) and his wife (Carol), along with another couple
(Sandy & Richard). The pilot was
interested in genealogy, too, so Sally talked a lot with him. Later, in bed, between her burning eyes, bad
cold, and reliving the evening’s conversation, Sally didn’t sleep all
night. Jesse said he thought he had
heard her snoring, but she was very much awake all night! She did try to lie still, hoping to rest as
much as possible.
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