The Rhine Gorge

Along the middle Rhine, there is a castle on average every 1.5 miles.  Most of the castles were destroyed or seriously damaged in 1689 by troops of the "Sun King", Louis X1V.  In the 19th Century, may of the castles were restored or rebuilt by the so called "castle romantics".  Our cruise directory described the Rhine Gorge as being like Disneyland...it is all a fantasy.

Koblenz, Germany

Koblenz means confluence and the town is at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle as you can see from the 3rd photo.  It is a cool little town and I wish we had more time to look around.  Some interesting things in Koblenz are sections from the Berlin wall (4th photo) and the clock in the last picture.  A knight was killed in the square and he swore his head would haunt the town from wherever it rolled.  The clock has a face below.  The eyes move left and right and the tongue sticks out on the hour.

Cologne

First stop Cologne, home of Kolshe beer and a Cathedral that towers over the city.

Canal cruise in Amsterdam

We had a couple of days in Amsterdam at the beginning of the cruise.  Bicycles were the number one mode of transportation...watch out because they do not stop.  We were able to to visit the Ann Frank house and take a canal cruise.

Tulip time in Holland

Lucky for us, the winter was cold and the lasted longer than usual in the Netherlands.  When we planned our river cruise from Amsterdam to Basel, we thought we would be too late for the tulips.  Thanks to the weather, we were that at the peak time.

Here are some photos from our trip to Keukenhof  (kitchen garden)  http://www.keukenhof.nl/ outside of Amsterdam.