Day 10 (Evening) and Day 11 Kolblenz

I finished up posting the blog for the day and realized how late it had gotten. I knew mom would be worried about me, so I headed on back. The boat was further away than I thought. In fact, there was a brief moment where I thought the ship had already left! I think my heart about stopped, however, after walking on a bit more, I finally saw the ship. I went to the stateroom and found mom. I was filling her in on the day’s events and somehow we missed the day’s wrap up and welcome reception. We realized dinner was already underway. I think they were trying to compete with the QM2. We had a 6 course dinner – but I will just say the highlight was the veal tenderloin. I would have to say it was one of the best meals I have eaten. We had a wonderful chocolate torte dessert and then went up to the lounge to listen to a little music. The “library” is in the back of the lounge where we picked up a game of Scrabble. It was an interesting game considering the fact that it had many German letters. We struggled through that and met a nice couple from Australia. After finishing the game we went back to the room so I could ice my ankle. I have messed it up somehow and it has been quite swollen for a week. I’m trying to see if I can get the swelling down with some ice on it. We are supposed to pass by the remains of the bridge at Remagen around 5 am, so we have left a message for a wakeup call so we can see it. Considering it is almost midnight I guess we had better get to bed.

Tuesday - Koblenz

The wakeup call came at 5:49 am, a little later than expected. I threw on a robe and went up on deck. There were about 5 other people who braved the early morning hour. We saw the dark pillars in the distance, but since traffic had already started up they couldn’t turn on the spots to see the ruins. I tried to take some photos, but to no avail. I went back to the stateroom and curled back up and slept for another couple of hours. Next thing I knew it was 9:00 and they were calling for a safety drill, but it was not mandatory. We quickly got ready as we did not want to miss the apple strudel demonstration. Two of the pastry chefs showed us how to make it, and boy did it look good. By about 10:00 am were we docking in Koblenz.

The walking tour began at 10:30. Our guide today took a rather fast walking pace to the trip because we had a lot of ground to cover. As with Cologne, much of the city is new, constructed after the WWII bombings. Koblenz is where the Rhine and the Moselle Rivers meet. It has a rich German and French history. There is a large statue to Kaiser Wilhelm I on the Deutsches Eck. Mom did well to keep up with the pace of today and many cobblestone streets. We did not follow the tour all the way back to the boat as we wanted to get a feel for the city center. The final part of the tour was to show us this clock that has eyes that follow you and that sticks out it’s tongue when the bells toll!

We also wanted to find a place to get a new battery for mom’s watch. We ended up in this little watch shop. He managed to replace the battery, and fix the clasp. He was extremely nice and directed us to a place for lunch. We are having lunch at the Brauhaus in the Altstadt area. We have ordered a very traditional German meal of Schnitzel, potatoes, etc. We are finally have a Kölsch beer since we did not make it back on land last night to have one. It is a very nice light German beer. The table next to us has just gotten their food and it is making me hungry!



We have just finished lunch and I would say it was interesting. My favorite parts were the mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. The sausages scared me – they were a weird consistency and tasted like liver. Mom took those over for me and I had her fried pork. It all worked out in the end. I wish I knew a little more German. We are now in an internet café and I will post for today. We will then go back to the ship for tea. We do not sail until tomorrow morning. I think that’s about all for now!