Boomsmas in Europe 6

Sleep-in this morning but still we had to be on the sun deck for the Lorelei stretch where each side has charming villages, some conveniently named;

others with a castle overlooking them:

We stayed on the sun deck (top deck) all morning, passing the statue of the Lorelei who used to lure sailors to their deaths with her hair-combing and plaintive songs. Modern travellers are safe in their Spaceships with butlers handing out glasses of the local wine, a delicious Riesling purchased (in bulk) at the last stop. 

It was happy up on the sun deck with the sun shining, the butler appearing regularly to top up the wine and pretty village after pretty village in view. All this before lunch!

An Ancient Mariner appeared (there are several among passengers) to explain about the quaint little faux castles dotting the railway line running along the bank. They were built by the Germans in WW2 to disguise tunnel entrances so that the Allied bombers would think it was just a castle and not bomb it, thereby disrupting rail traffic. 

After lunch we moored at Rudessheim and a choo choo train appeared to convey us up through the village to Siegfried's Musikkabinett, a museum of automated music devices which Mary Leech had advised not to miss.

Our guide in the floppy hat. 

 Quite right, Mary! It was wonderful and I could have spent all day listening to the various devices play. The shop was a great temptation but I managed to resist. 

The village was crammed with buses and visitors and with a start I realised it was Saturday - time is blurring. Scenic passengers had free rides on the chair lift so we decided to give it a go. Marvellous! Wunderbar! Best event yet.  We soared quietly over a vineyard landscape with workers below hoeing and pruning and doing viticulture things while we looked out over the Rhine - our ship a dot in the foreground - to more hills, bigger towns, the river snaking away into the distance. 

At the top is Niederwalddenkmal, a hulking great monument to Germany's victory over France in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, one of the most visited monuments in Germany. 

 It's a fabulous setting. 

Down again, just as nice this time:

The village even more crowded. I liked this sign:

So we found a vine-shaded courtyard attached to a hotel where a string trio was playing pleasant music 

and ordered the local Riesling for me and a local beer for David with a picture of the Niederwalddenkmal on the label:

Back on the ship, we had a concert from a zither player, most enjoyable. 

Boomsmas in Europe 5

Woke this morning in Germany - the ship is so quiet and we slept well - moored in Düsseldorf and bussed to Cologne. David went to the Neanderthal Museum and I did the Cologne historical walking tour, starting outside the Cathedral. 

First stop was a Roman pavement excavated 12 feet below ground level, dated to 230 AD, probably the floor of a rich Roman's dining room:

We walked and walked in the Old Quarter, all rebuilt since the bombing of Cologne in WW2. The cathedral fared relatively well with only one corner hit by bombs. 

These are two iconic Cologne characters posing with our guide: if you rub the nose of the left one you get a happy, warm personality; if you rub the right nose you are lucky in money. So everyone rubs both. 

This man under the clock on City Hall sticks out his tongue when the clock strikes the hour. Across the square a statue moons back at him. They're a hooligan lot in Cologne. Except when it comes to their cathedral, started in 1248, nominally finished in 1880 but continually worked on since. 

Inside is very calm and quiet with beautiful stained glass windows 

We had to wait at Cologne dock for Scenic Jasper to arrive 

then it was lunch, barely time to draw breath and back into the bus to visit Castle Burg for a tour of the castle and dinner. 

That's the castle in stained glass, in real life the keep is shrouded in scaffolding as major restoration is underway thanks to a recent federal grant of 30 million euros. They have constant functions: a pop music event was setting up in the courtyard, a wedding reception was happening in the cellars and 168 Scenic cruisers were dining in the banquet hall. 

In the foreground is Angie from Millicent and her daughter Di. The entertainment was three medieval-style musicians on pipe, lure and drum plus singing and they were very good. Probably made the event, food was OK but not as good as the ship. 

Boomsmas in Europe 4

Amsterdam turned on its rainy face so we spent the morning before boarding the ship in the hotel lobby cafe - a Starbucks and very popular today. 

It was still raining as we bussed for 2 minutes around the block to the docks where Scenic Jasper and 10 other cruise ships were waiting. Scenic Jasper looks the newest and spiffiest, all gleaming chrome and white paint. They call it a Spaceship because there is so much space - certainly our cabin is bigger than others we've had. The shower looks overwhelming but turned out to be quite easy to operate:

Lots of lovely L'Occitane toiletries. 

Scenic is an Australian company and 90% of the passengers are Australian, interspersed with a few Brits, Americans and Canadians. I met Angie from Millicent whom I played bridge against at Robe recently so we will try for a game - if there is time in the busy itinerary. 

We spent the night at Amsterdam docks and next morning set off in bus trip to Edam and the heritage windmills of Zahnse Schans. 

At 8.30 am Edam (as in cheese) is a sleepy village with only a few people on bikes and a worker sweeping the canal. 

We saw the church:

the magnificent church cat:

and a lovely illicit glimpse into a private home:

Then we took the scenic route across what used to be Lake Beemster, 4 metres below sea level and ringed with dikes, which has been drained and turned into arable land for sheep, cattle, horses, fruit orchards and vegetables. Our guide waxed lyrical about the hortensias, which turned out to be hydrangeas of a brilliant red-pink colour:

We joined hundreds of tourists at the windmill park - a small group of restored windmills representing the hundreds that The Netherlands used to have. 

We've been given nifty little gadgets to hang around our necks with an earpiece through which we can hear commentary from a guide but David and I nicked off ahead and were rewarded by finding the last windmill is a reconstructed working sawmill - alas not working today due to no wind. 

David was in seventh heaven, questioning the guide and even tut! tut! going behind the ropes to look closer. 

The bus returned us to Amsterdam docks and Scenic Jasper in time for noon sailing and lunch, followed by a leisurely afternoon sailing between flat green meadows dotted with cattle and horses, sitting on our balcony with our Dutch cheese and gin and tonic, followed by the obligatory safety drill:

Boomsmas in Europe 3

Our foodie tour with Hungry Birds was fantastic. We met our guide, a Singaporean named Charmaine outside Macdonald's in the suburbs and quickly moved next door to somewhere more authentically Dutch - which was in fact Indonesian as Dutch food is heavily influenced by their many past colonies. In common with most of the places Charmaine took us, I wouldn't have looked twice at it; but inside what a treasure trove of spices, cooked dishes and fresh vegetables and the longest greenest snake beans ever. Here we had little meaty bites dipped in different sambals (chutney/jam) of varying degrees of chilli heat. 

At the next "tako" - Tjin's - we ate bom from Surinam, another colony in South America, inside baguette and so delicious! 

That's Charmaine, holding the tray. To get to Tjin's we walked through a vibrant market all along a closed-off street with stalls selling everything from flamingo-patterned scarves to hardware to the most luscious-looking strawberries - and no time to browse. 

And the flowers!

And the fish!

We stopped for fish and chips - Kibbeling - and herring. Loved the herring (in a small serve) and even liked the beer, Heineken naturally. Of the thousands of beer available in Amsterdam apparently Heineken is what you have with Kibbeling. 

Next stop Poffertjes, tiny little Dutch pancakes, a vehicle for lashings of best butter and maple syrup

Sorry to leave the market, but more awaited in the city, quite a trek through parks, over canals and through the flower market. Remember the flower market Jenny? David and I kept getting left behind through stopping and looking 

Ah...peonies!

At this tiny cafe we had spinach pie and exquisite green pea with mint soup. There are jars of biscuits on the table for customers to help themselves and take home for free - because the owner loves to make people happy with her food. 

Ah...more peonies, seen as we whizzed by. 

There had to be some culture so we stopped for a while at the sculpture of Rembrandt's famous painting "The Night Watch".

The pigeon seems underwhelmed. 

Then we dived off down an alley to a weird little bar that specialised in Dutch croquettes. Charmaine said to think of them as deep-fried gravy which is rather off-putting, but I liked them with a soft filling and crisp crumb coating.  This place has had virtually the same menu since it started in 1945, and it's not on the tourists' agenda. 

The croquette place around the corner is on the tourist trail and it's automated: put in your coin and receive your croquette. We didn't sample. 

Next stop Dutch Delicacy - the most amazing cheese shop. We'd walked past so much cheese but this was special. 

Charmaine with the two girls from Tel Aviv; we were an eclectic group, 4 Australians, 2 Swiss, 2 Israelis and Charmaine from Singapore, married to a Dutch chef. 

Inside we had a cheese tasting with Robert and a glass of South African wine

All the cheeses were good, especially the truffle cheese (dearer because made with real truffles.)

I was fascinated by the coloured cheeses

They are soft cheeses, flavoured with various pestos, and natural colours except for the bright blue which has food colouring. 

A beautiful shop!

Onwards and upwards - nearly finished now - to a tiny shop in a back alley with a line stretching around the block. Fortunately Charmaine had pre-ordered ours. This shop sells only one thing -  a chocolate cookie with white chocolate inside 

To die for! and certainly worth lining up for. In 6 months the business has built by word of mouth to selling 1700 cookies a day, hand-made on the premises in 2 little domestic ovens. 

You can go up-market and buy them 6 in a tin (a tin is going to Tel Aviv) or wrapped in a ribbon. 

Last stop - the pub across the lane where we had a final drink together. 

What a great tour - five hours of eating, drinking, walking and looking at a foreign city. Can't beat it!