A Viking Voyage-Germany (Part 2)

The fourth day of our cruise, the ship docked in Koblenz just after lunch. However, that morning the program director invited all passengers to get comfortable in the lounge, terrace, or sun deck for a program she called "Travelers Along the Rhine", a commentary over the PA system about the UNESCO World Heritage Site castles we saw on either side of the river as the ship floated by.

It's always amazing to me just how old some of the European buildings are compared to something "old" the United States, which means something built after the late 1500s. The castles on the Rhine were constructed hundreds of years before that. At first I was sitting with Hubby Tony and our friends on the terrace, but the sun got too hot for me and I moved into the lounge, where I found a couch I could spread out on. At the end of the presentation we nabbed a table in the shady part of the terrace for an al fresco lunch.

After lunch we went back to our rooms and gathered our things for our walking tour of Koblenz. The city was founded more than 2,000 years ago as a trading settlement. 

The guide took us to:

• The German Corner (the intersection of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers), with its massive monument of Emperor Wilhelm I. The monument was destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in 1993 as a symbol of German reunification.

Wilhelm I monument

• The cathedral (Basilica of St. Castor, another UNESCO Heritage site), which was consecrated in 836.



Basilica of St. Castor

• The Old Town area, where we walked down several of the city's cobblestone streets. Most of the buildings were destroyed in World War II, but rebuilt in the original style.

After the tour the four of us took a cable car ride over the Rhine to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. There were several museums in the complex, and although most of the displays did not offer information in English, there was still enough to make the visit worthwhile.



Source




On Tuesday the ship stopped in Cologne, a cultural hub of the region. It was one of the most bombed cities during World War II, and although many of the historical buildings we saw looked original they were actually restorations



Not really built in 1234 😃

Once again the city had a noteworthy cathedral. The High Cathedral Church at Cologne is a huge, twin-spired Gothic cathedral which took over 600 years to build. It was constructed to house the Shrine of the Three Kings, believed to contain the bones of the Magi that visited the baby Jesus. After an explanation of the building's outside the guide gave us twenty minutes to explore inside. I barely touched the surface of everything there was to see.



Cathedral (rear side)

Every tour guide we had personalized the experience by inserting personal anecdotes and thoughts into the presentation. This one emphasized the difference between a 'local' bar and a 'tourist' one and gave examples of how you could tell one from the other in case we wanted to visit one in our free time. He also pointed out the best places to buy the original eau de Cologne perfume.

It sprinkled on and off throughout the whole tour, and close to the end it started to rain. Viking provided large golf umbrellas, but not everyone had picked one up as they got off the ship. When the guide said his goodbyes, instead of finding a good bar or souvenir shop our group went back to the ship for lunch.

In the afternoon, some of our group went to the nearby Schokoladenmuseum Köln (in English, Chocolate Museum). We decided not to buy tickets for the museum itself, but browsed in the large gift store. Tony and I bought some goodies for the kids, grandkids, and ourselves.