The Rhine - Arnhem to Koblenz


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Guess what? A prison ship! During the night we sailed to Arnhem. This is Paleis Het Loo, the summer residence of the Royal House of Orange from 1686 to 1975. The gardens were really quite beautiful. A close-up of the maze of hedges Here I am walking in the garden. We decided to take an optional tour (yes, it cost extra) to the Netherland's Open Air Museum. We saw lots of windmills and authentic houses. Two of the houses were donated in 2002, when a road was built through them. Each whole house with everything in it including the toothpaste and clothes, was picked up and moved to the museum. I liked the colors of this group of houses.
We climbed (you guessed it!) to the top of this windmill. Rich is on the other side of the windmill platform. Rich is going into the wheelwright's shop. The man inside was making a wooden wheel. This was interesting because my father's roots were in wheel and wagon making. Kids could turn this wheel to operate some of the machinery in the shed. When I was teaching, I presented the story of Sinter Claas (the Dutch Santa Claus and origin of the words Santa Claus) to the second graders. Here are the shoes filled with carrots and hay for Sinter Claas' horse. I thought that these cows were so strange with the white stripe around their middle that I chased them into the field to take the picture.
The ducks followed you everywhere, especially if they thought you had something for them to eat. Cologne Oops, Rich is sitting down again. We met Joe and Fran on the ship. Here they are rubbing the noses of these two statues in Cologne for good luck. Now it's our turn. This is a section of the Roman Sewage System that Cologne removed and raised from a depth of 9 metres under the city.
Cologne's beautiful cathedral The inside of the Cologne cathedral, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gary Jones, who shared an office with Mike Parr at GE, gets his Kolsch beer. Finally, the right kind of band-aid for my poor toes. Of course the directions were in several languages  - none of them English though. Lunchtime No, it's not moon over Miami, but moon over Cologne. Pretty cool, huh?
One of the castles that dotted the Rhine Another castle Remagen Bridge remains The wine fields seemed to defy gravity and go straight up the hills. Our guide in Cochem took us to this lovely street. Ginger, one of our travel agents is walking up another street in Cochem.
We enjoyed wine tasting in Cochem. Steve and Paula Barber sat at our table during the wine tasting. Castle