Heidelberg, Germany

Welcome to Heidelberg! 

Think of Heidelberg and you must immediately think of music, university students and drinking songs. This is a wonderful German city that has been popular with locals and visitors alike for generations.

The old town is dominated by the ruins of the castle that overlooks it...

You enter via the Elizabeth Gate as this celebrates (I think) the 400th anniversary of an aspect of the castle's history involving a Hapsburg Elizabeth. Recently our Queen (also Elizabeth and related to the said Hapsburg Elizabeth) and the German Chancellor attended a ceremony here.

Over summer there are stage productions here in the main square of the castle. Currently they are doing a Shakespeare and MY FAIR LADY on alternate nights.

The castle provides the perfect viewing area for photographing the town below...

After all that exploration it must be time to walk the old town streets...

and have that much anticipated coffee and CAKE! Cherry Cake is todays delight.

But we could have had this form of pavlova which is very popular and widely available

 Maybe even a beer at the appropriately named bar

Our meeting place to catch the return bus was here outside Heidelberg's oldest house (now a boutique hotel).

Farewell Heidelberg with one last look at the bridge...

Speyer

Welcome to Speyer.

It's Sunday morning, church services are underway - and all shops (except restaurants and beer gardens) are closed here in Germany.

Therefore let us take a walk free of tourists and shoppers and simply enjoy the easy walking nature of this little town.

We are docked opposite a beer garden situated in a park. By lunchtime expect this to be very busy.

Before heading into the town we pass the inevitable cathedral. Couldn't go in because of the service that was underway so no interior shots to bore you with today

but in the entrance a statue of the much revered Charlemagne...

The main street leading down to the Rathaus (Town Hall)

Memories of dancing the maypole in primary school came flooding back to me when I saw this maypole. At Underbool Primary ours was no where near as elaborate!

The ice-cream shops were ALL open, so this is my first taste for this summer in Europe.

I was quite attracted to this window display for "Six In The City"merchandise...

Time for lunch back on board the ship before we head on a short bus excursion to the city of Heidelberg this afternoon...

Strasbourg

Strasbourg, France is our first stop on the Rhine cruise.

If you are like us, we knew little to nothing of the city. To begin our tour we went on a 75 minute canal cruise as the old part of Strasbourg is something like a form of Venice. The wonderful old buildings were all built because of water access.

Today we enter the canals at a point where the European Union has two of their important centres here:

The Law Courts

and the Parliament Building

The glass-domed canal boat was not good for photos but here are a couple taken along the way:

Stepping ashore we head towards the Cathedral:

Summer means flowers - and they hang or are boxed everywhere. They bring such colour to the city.

And here we are at the square in front of the Cathedral

And the Cathedral exterior

This detail is found in the frieze above the door. It, of course, includes lions (which I adore)

The interior...

An amazing clock...

and the organ loft...

Being Saturday this was market day, so the streets were filled with pedestrians, stall holders and the regular store shoppers.

Even as we walked to our bus there were more canals. The city was an eye-opener to us particularly of their importance to the EEC, the fact that some of the best cultural television programs come out of the Arte cultural alliance based there, that it's a very important student city and that it's wonderful old buildings are very well preserved. It's nice to be so delightfully surprised.

But for now it's back to the boat for the trip to Speyer and Heidelberg.

Lucerne and Mt Pilatus

Note: I, Peter am now feeling very healthy and enjoying the holiday. Thanks to everyone who has asked about my condition.

Today we travel by coach to Lucerne and then to the top of Mt Pilatus.  For some readers this was be a nostalgic journey remembering a visit to these places some 15 years ago. Both places have stayed very firmly in my travel memories.

Let's begin at the Lion Monument, which is to me one of the most spiritual places of this world. The expression on the face of the lion is the epitome of agony and sadness. Just looking at him there is a direct, and very deep, connection to the soul. From whatever background we come, we as humans, instinctively connect with such spirituality. Sometimes whilst travelling there needs a moment to reflect, to ponder one's good fortune, to be spiritually reconnected to the lifestream. And so we began our day this way...

Of course the other reason to visit Lucerne is the bridge, and the one we see today is the reconstructed one following the disastrous fire late last century. Bedecked in flowers it is a mecca for tourists and white swans. 

No original paintings, but there is a good feeling of what they would have been like...

Everywhere you look there wonderful views of the surrounding mountains...

including Mt Pilatus. In the photo below you can see threatening cloud.

Lucerne must also have a pigeon problem. I thought that the visuals on the poster were subtle yet right to the point. The Anti Pigeon Feeding Society is watching!!!

And now for the ride to the top of Mt Pilatus. It begins with a 20 minute 4-seater gondola ride up to the second station where you transfer to a 40 person cable car.  Let's take a visual look:

Once at the top there are hotels, restaurants, entertainment, dare-devil hang-gliders parachuting from the summit, and great views. The clouds didn't bother us at all...

After a hearty lunch we descended to the valley floor via the other face of the mountain. This was on the world's steepest cog rail train...

We then left to board our cruise ship at Basel, about 90 minutes away. By this stage we had heard that in fact the Rhine was too flooded to allow the boat to reach Basel and therefore we had to travel a further 20 miles north. Was this new factor going to add to our litany of holiday disasters?

- along the way the bus driver was pulled over by the police who took about 30 minutes to check his driving conditions (they had GPS records that tracked his movements for that day). He passed all checks with flying colours. We just had to sit on the bus for the duration.

- he heard via telephone that no-one else could find the boat at the new mooring so he didn't then know where he was taking us

- when he did get the correct location out in the middle of nowhere on the Rhine we had trouble finding it.

Still, everything turned out for the best and once (finally) on board our journey northwards began.

Here's some of our travel companions riverside awaiting embarkation on the riverside. Notice the lack of EVERYTHING! We all took it as added fun, just another part of the adventure.  So the next blog we we begin to traverse the Upper Rhine...