**** Note: Usually my blogs are, at the most, only about a week or two behind. This one is probably my personal best(worst?) blog slacker record. I mean what is a measly three months among friends?
The time has come to leave our ship. We have landed in Nuremberg. We were not only leaving the ship, but we were also leaving our new friends. After gathering our belongings and saying our goodbyes, we were shuttled to our VRBO in a suburb of Nuremberg where we spent a few days.
Bamberg, a town in Bavaria, is another town cited as one of Germany's most beautiful towns. In Bamberg's case and based on my rather limited knowledge of most of Germany's towns, I would say that Bamberg does live up to it's reputation. It doesn't hurt that the old town of Bamberg has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. Bamberg is known for it's medieval streets and buildings.
Another day, another German Medieval Town. Rothenburg ob der Tauber (hereafter called plain old Rothenburg) is one of Bavaria's top tourist destination. It is one of only three towns in Germany that still have completely intact city walls and many people consider it to be the best-preserved medieval town in Europe. The Nazis called Rothenburg “the most German of German towns” and when the Americans arrived, the order was given not to use artillery during the taking of the town because of it's history and beauty. It also has one of my personally most scariest times on this trip.
Traveling the three rivers, many sights are seen. The rivers have been dammed (they have dams on them) and as a consequence the rivers have been tamed. Instead of rapids and waterfalls, there are many different water levels. Nowadays, to navigate these waters, a ship has to go thru an extensive lock system. I'm not sure of the exact number of locks that we went thru but the number 52 sticks in my brain. The locks are extremely narrow, and when we are in the locks, there are only a few inches on each side of the ship. For safety reasons, we were told that we should not touch the sides of the locks.
While Michael and Marina decided to do the Gondola ride overlooking the vineyards and Rudesheim, I opted for the Mainz Walking Tour. Mainz is another ancient Roman city but it is also the birthplace of one of the most important men in our world's history.
From the ship's dock, we had to take a 45-minute bus ride to get to the town of Cochem, another typical Medieval German town. The main reason to stop here was to visit Reichsburg Castle, a mighty castle located on a hill above the town. We will finally get to actually go inside a castle. Woohoo!
We are traveling on the AmaCerto, another one of those river boats (I've been told I am supposed to call them ships, but oh well). The particular cruise we are doing is called Europe's Rivers and Castles. We will be on three different rivers - the Moselle, the Rhine and the Main. Each one of these rivers had a very differene distinct feel. The Moselle - a smaller river but home to Riesling Wine, The Rhine - 32 miles with 35 castles (or maybe 35 miles and 32 castles) and the Main, a very small, very rural feel.
We came aboard in the afternoon, got settled in our staterooms and attended the mandatory safety meeting. After dinner and an evening classical concert, I came back to my room to find the customary chocolate on the pillowcases. Yup, I think I am going to like this. It seems that I am going to have to get used to everybody calling me Ma'am or Miss Cindy. Around 5am, the ship set sail for our first stop in Trier.
