It’s a small world and it’s 533 steps up to the top of the “DOM”

April 25, 2012

When I go on vacation I hope to NOT see people I know.  On this trip I have not met anyone that I know but I have to say it is a small world.  The hotel we are staying at is operated like a home.  The wife coordinates everything, is the hostess, our waitress, etc.  The restaurant here serves home cooking, prepared by her husband and I must say, it is great food!  The restaurant is very easy going and usually the guests all interact with each other during the meal.  We have spoken with people from Victoria Island, Canada, a guy from Seattle and a couple from San Diego.  Last night we were sitting at dinner and there were only Americans left in the dining room.  The couple to our left currently lives in Austin, Texas and the female of that couple is from Ft. Worth!  Then there was a single guy sitting to our right.  He heard the female say she was from Ft. Worth and he said he was stationed at Carswell AFB in Ft. Worth.  That peeked my interest because I too, was stationed for 4 years at Carswell AFB between 1985 and 1989.  This guy was there from 1986 to 1989 and said he was in the career field 81150.  I was the only one who knew what that meant because I was in 81152.  You see, 81150 and 81152 were both part of the 7th Security Police Squadron, Strategic Air Command.  81150 were Security Specialist and 81152 were Law Enforcement Specialist.  We all reported for work each day to the same place but the security guys worked on the flight line and the law enforcement guys worked on the main part of the base and sometimes we worked together when we conducted “exercises“ to simulate what the base would do if we were at war.  I didn’t know this guy or the couple from Texas, but what a small world to be in a small town in Germany sitting with people who share a common Texas interest.  

Our adventure today started again on the Autobahn.  Eighty Five mph in the slow lane and in the rain!  We started the day with doors on our car but somewhere along the A61 between Bacharach and Cologne a Volvo and a BMW blew them off going well in excess of 100!  J  

We made it though and parked underground in a parking garage.  When we emerged at the top of the stairs we were standing in a huge square in Cologne Center with the Cologne Cathedral in front of us.   I started taking pictures of this magnificent structure in front of us and a guy asked me to take his picture too.  I did and he explained that he was currently from Atlanta.  He asked if we were going to tour the Cathedral and we said yes.  He asked if he could tag along and again, we said sure.  He tagged along for a little bit before trying to join in on an English speaking tour and explained that his sons were part of the musical group Naturally 7.  They were in Cologne as the opening act for Michael Buble….Anyway, that was just kind of interesting.  

We spent a good deal of the afternoon touring the Cologne Cathedral.  It is quite the impressive place and, as many places in Europe go, it has been around for almost ever!  As we walked around with our pamphlet as our tour guide we learned that there are stained glass windows from the 1500’s, an altar from 1350/60,  the oldest remaining monumental crucifix in the Western World and a statute of Milan Madonna dating back to 1290 that was considered to be one of the three most important relics of the Cathedral because it was considered to work miracles.  We then wanted to see what we could from the belfry of the church.  In order to do that we needed to be 332 feet above where we were and would have to climb 533 steps up a circular staircase about wide enough for 1 ½ people.  It was one way up and one way down and all stairs!  The view was well worth it and wasn’t scary, but at one point was quite startling.  We were standing in the bell tower taking a few pictures of the five or so huge bells.  At 15, 30, 45 and at the top of each hour at least one bell tolls.  We were “fortunate” enough to unexpectedly be there at 15 minutes after the hour, standing about 15 feet from a bell that tolled right while Nika was about to pose for a picture!  Priceless!!

                                    
From there we walked around the City Center of Cologne, drank coffee and had a small sandwich (while watching some street entertainment) before getting back on the high speed road to our hotel.  A good meal of boar in a nearby restaurant and tomorrow we will be on our way to Switzerland!    

The castle and the merging of the Rhine and Mosel Rivers

April 24, 2012
On our anniversary we spent an easy travel day by car in the middle Rhine River area.  Our hotel overlooks the Rhine River and we had considered a Rhine River cruise but since we have a car, we are driving up and down the Rhine River to the same places the river cruises go.

We started our day with at visit to the Eltz Castle.  This is a pretty well preserved 8-story castle that is one of the few castles that was left standing after all the wars in European history.  They told us on our tour that the primary reason the castle remained standing after all these wars was because the owner played politics to keep it from getting destroyed.  We took a few pictures here but once inside, they prohibit pictures to preserve what is there.

After the Eltz Castle we went to the City of Koblenz.  This city is where the Rhine River merges with the Mosel River.  This looks like a very nice and fairly modern city with cable cars crossing the river near the point where the rivers merge.  There is also an enormous statute of Kaiser Wilhelm at the point where the rivers merge.  He is the dude that united Germany and I guess when you're that important you get a big statute.  :-)  During WWII the statute was damaged and partially destroyed by an artillery strike but it was repaired and rebuilt.  In 1953, Germany created a new anthem and united at this location to sing their anthem together for the first time.  

Point where the Rhine and Mosel Rivers merge

Kaiser Wilhelm statue

Koblenz, Germany

 2000 year history statue in Koblenz

Rhiner River area countryside

Germany. We got here as fast as we could...literally!

April 24, 2012
Yesterday we traveled by bus from the hotel to the Haarlem train station.  From Haarlem we took another train to Amsterdam and immediately transferred to an international train to Frankfurt.  From there we rented a car and are now in Bacharach, Germany.

I said we got here as fast as we could because, in Germany, apparently they like to go really fast !  Our international train stopped in Cologne and from there to Frankfurt there were no more stops.  That's when we learned we were on a high speed train!  We sped up and I said to Nika, "we're flying".  We were running parallel to a highway that was perhaps the autobahn and, as stories go, they like to drive their cars "pretty fast" on the autobahn.  If it was a speed contest, we were winning!  Soon, Nika said her ears were popping.  An American couple that was sitting a few seats behind us asked, "how fast do you think we're going?"  We were going 186 mph and that was cool!

Once in Frankfurt, we rented a car and then drove on the autobahn.  I've only ever heard stories and they're true!  If you move all the way to the fast lane to pass a car you better move right back.  It might be all clear behind you and then you blink and there's an Audi, BMW or Porsche coming up "really, really fast".  We were driving 80-90 mph in the slow lane! 

We made it as fast as we could to Bacharach!  We are in a 1000 year old building, that is now a hotel.  The hotel is in a town that was established in the early 11th Century.  Our room overlooks both the Rhine River, a castle on a hill and a vineyard.

 Hotel entrance

Our hotel room window is 2nd from the top in the tower.  The castle is on the hill behind our hotel.

 View from the front window of our hotel room.

 View from the back window of our hotel room.

 Out for a walk in Bacharach, Germany

 Bacharach sidewalk

 The town of Bacharach.

This paragraph will be for my friends who go by the last name of Johnson.  We ate our evening meal last night in the hotel restaurant.  It was interesting to see that Jagermeister is a drink item listed on the dinner menu.  Not sure if it comes by the bottle, glass or shot...lol.  (We shared a bottle of wine)

When we travel, Nika and I always take time to stop, look up and ask ourselves, were in the world are we?  We're in the middle of Europe probably 6000 miles away from home and we're off to see this area of the world.

Do you know how the name Amsterdam came about?

April 22, 2012
Today we took a day trip to Amsterdam.  We were told, true or not we don't know, that the name Amsterdam comes from 12th century sailors saying they were from an area by the dam that was on the River Amstel.  In essence, the sailors slurred it all together and the name Amsterdam was created.   In the 12th century it was a small fishing village and today it is populated by nearly 2 million people.

When we got to Amsterdam we had a reservation for a guided bicycle tour through the City.  There were 7 of us on a four hour excursion.  Our guide Karl took us through this very busy city and we learned that bicycles there have the absolute right of way over everything except the tram.  We were cautioned that the tram will always win!  There are more bikes in Amsterdam than people!  We cruised on our bikes through a park where we were shown a Picasso sculpture that was donated to that park.  We passed the Van Gogh Museum and several very old churches.  We stopped at Dam Square and cruised the red light district.  We crossed the oldest bridge in Amsterdam and saw windmills along with the rich and the poor areas of town.  In the end, we made it back to the bike shop safely....even the Australian girl who hit both a tree and a parked car on our excursion.  She wasn't hurt so I must say it was kinda funny.

After our bike trip we walked around some and went to a really cool liquor and dutch gin tasting room.  There we had a shot of one of their specialty drinks.  Mine was chocolate mint flavored and Nika says hers was very good, but not translatable or describable.  Nika's drink had a meaning of, "the shirt comes off".  The tasting room was established in 1679 and is named after Wynand Fockink.  Don't ask me who names their kid Wynand Fockink but this was a pretty cool and very busy place.  The bartender filled customers drink glass to the absolute rim and before picking it up, it was customary to "sip" from the glass.  

And of course, no trip to Amsterdam would be complete without a visit to see what the red light district is all about.  Photography in the window viewing area is prohibited and I really didn't feel like getting beat up by somebody's pimp today so I abided by the signs.  You can see in the pic though that there are 2 fine modern gentlemen "window shopping" (one wearing red and the other next to him in white).

An interesting day after which we took the train back to Haarlem and the bus back to the hotel.  Tomorrow we're on to Germany.  

The Parade

April 22, 2012
Yesterday after our day trip, we came back to Haarlem, had a really good meal near the Market Square and waited for the flower parade to arrive in Haarlem.  The parade distance covered 40 kilometers total and each float in the parade was made of all flowers.  The City of Haarlem cleared the Market Square for a parking place for the floats at the end of the 40 kilometer parade.  Once all of the floats arrived, they had a laser light show and some music.  Here is a look at some of their floats.

Haarlem Market Center waiting for parade to arrive

Keukenhof, Holland Day Trip

April 21, 2012
We are staying at a hotel outside of Amsterdam, Netherlands.  The hotel is in the City of Haarlem.  It is interesting to note that Harlem, New York was named after the City where we are staying.

Today we went to Keukenhof, Holland.  It might as well be known as the Flower Capitol of the World.  There we saw flowers, more flowers, followed by more flowers.  We spent a whole afternoon walking in what is basically the biggest garden we have ever seen.  It is written that it takes about 2 months to plant no fewer than 7 million flower bulbs.  Did I mention that we saw a lot of flowers?? !!  All of the flowering bulbs are provided free of charge by 87 royal suppliers.  What do they do with all these flowers??    At the end of the day, what a view!

I asked Nika if it felt like we were in Europe?

April 20, 2012
I asked Nika if it felt like we were in Europe?  We batted it around for a bit while we were walking around and then came to basically the City Center of Haarlem and  The Great Church of St. Bavo's.  We went in and quickly realized we were in Europe.

As soon as we walked into the church we saw a HUGE pipe organ.  The church was filled with music from this pipe organ and it is written that in 1766 Mozart, who was 10 years old at that time, played on this organ.  There are 5068 pipes on the organ and it is about 90' tall.

The church was built in 1370 and the floor of the church consists entirely of gravestones.  There are over 1500 gravestones in the church from the late 1500's to the late 1800's.

From the time the church was built in 1370 to 1578, the church was Catholic.  In 1578, the church became Protestant.

An interesting visit to this church and proof that we are in Europe!