Day 3 - Amsterdam to Cologne (September 1)
This morning I got up at 6:00 AM while Tina slept in. The sun was just coming out and it looked to be a beautiful day. The ship had traveled all night since leaving Amsterdam, in order to get into Cologne by 2:00 PM. Grabbing the NetBook, I went upstairs to the lounge to check email and work on the blog. Coffee and a pastry got my day started. Shanda joined me about 6:45 AM before we went back to our cabins to get Tina and Denise to take them to breakfast. Once we got seated in the dining room, Tina leaned over and said, “Happy 18th Anniversary dear.” At least this year we both remembered the day before so I wasn’t in too much trouble - heh, heh.
After breakfast we sat on deck and watched the river traffic, took pictures and read. At 10:30 AM there was a beer tasting in the lounge along with German meatballs, roasted pork, veal and big fresh-baked pretzels. Waiters brought everyone a small chimney glass of the local beer. We all had a taste along with our food before returning to reading and relaxing.
Along the way we passed numerous industrial complexes for loading containers onto barges, sand and gravel loading stations, LNG and Gas stations, coal loading stations, electricity generation plants and others not identified. Ship traffic was very heavy both ways plus there were numerous barges tied up to docking stations, ready for loading. The girls went to lunch around12:30 PM while I worked on organizing our photos.
By 1:30 PM we arrived in Cologne and tied up to the quay where a boarding ramp was run out and secured. We each received a small receiver and ear bug for our walk about town and tour of the old Cathedral. For the last three hours it had threatened to rain but held off. Just in case we grabbed our rain coat and umbrella. I almost took them back to the ship, but we were no sooner away from the dock and it started to rain. And it kept raining for the entire tour as we threaded our way through the cobblestone alleys of the re-constructed “Oldtown“. Even our tour guide was having trouble.
Finally we decided to go off on our own and headed for downtown and shopping. Using a local map and asking questions we found our way to the main shopping district and browsed our way along for about fifteen blocks, picking up a few items as we went. The entire street was closed to all vehicles making it a big outdoor mall. There were lots of restaurants and coffee shops with covered outside seating where we could take refuge if it got really bad, but it never did. Even though it rained the entire time we were out, we still had a pretty good time.
We returned to the ship around 4:45 PM, turned in our receivers and retired to our cabins to change clothes and get dried off. Since we’d all been taking pictures we spent the next hour downloading photos onto the computer before going up to the lounge for the daily briefing. By now we all realized how tired we were and almost skipped dinner, but with a stiff upper lip, we managed to hold on and went into the dining room like the good troupers we are - heheheh! Diner was good and the couple who joined us were very interesting, talking about their home outside Sidney, Australia. By 9:00 PM we bid our table guests good night and retired to our cabins. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day.
This morning I got up at 6:00 AM while Tina slept in. The sun was just coming out and it looked to be a beautiful day. The ship had traveled all night since leaving Amsterdam, in order to get into Cologne by 2:00 PM. Grabbing the NetBook, I went upstairs to the lounge to check email and work on the blog. Coffee and a pastry got my day started. Shanda joined me about 6:45 AM before we went back to our cabins to get Tina and Denise to take them to breakfast. Once we got seated in the dining room, Tina leaned over and said, “Happy 18th Anniversary dear.” At least this year we both remembered the day before so I wasn’t in too much trouble - heh, heh.After breakfast we sat on deck and watched the river traffic, took pictures and read. At 10:30 AM there was a beer tasting in the lounge along with German meatballs, roasted pork, veal and big fresh-baked pretzels. Waiters brought everyone a small chimney glass of the local beer. We all had a taste along with our food before returning to reading and relaxing.
Along the way we passed numerous industrial complexes for loading containers onto barges, sand and gravel loading stations, LNG and Gas stations, coal loading stations, electricity generation plants and others not identified. Ship traffic was very heavy both ways plus there were numerous barges tied up to docking stations, ready for loading. The girls went to lunch around12:30 PM while I worked on organizing our photos.
By 1:30 PM we arrived in Cologne and tied up to the quay where a boarding ramp was run out and secured. We each received a small receiver and ear bug for our walk about town and tour of the old Cathedral. For the last three hours it had threatened to rain but held off. Just in case we grabbed our rain coat and umbrella. I almost took them back to the ship, but we were no sooner away from the dock and it started to rain. And it kept raining for the entire tour as we threaded our way through the cobblestone alleys of the re-constructed “Oldtown“. Even our tour guide was having trouble.
Finally we decided to go off on our own and headed for downtown and shopping. Using a local map and asking questions we found our way to the main shopping district and browsed our way along for about fifteen blocks, picking up a few items as we went. The entire street was closed to all vehicles making it a big outdoor mall. There were lots of restaurants and coffee shops with covered outside seating where we could take refuge if it got really bad, but it never did. Even though it rained the entire time we were out, we still had a pretty good time.
We returned to the ship around 4:45 PM, turned in our receivers and retired to our cabins to change clothes and get dried off. Since we’d all been taking pictures we spent the next hour downloading photos onto the computer before going up to the lounge for the daily briefing. By now we all realized how tired we were and almost skipped dinner, but with a stiff upper lip, we managed to hold on and went into the dining room like the good troupers we are - heheheh! Diner was good and the couple who joined us were very interesting, talking about their home outside Sidney, Australia. By 9:00 PM we bid our table guests good night and retired to our cabins. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day.
We're still having difficulty with a week internet signal, please stand by for photos.
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