The Windmills at Kinderdyk

We then sailed to the Kinderdyk where there is a section of working windmills. We were able to go into one of them (steep, steep stairs). People do actually live in them.

The bus ride back

The bus driver took us on a scenic ride back by the North Sea - there were a lot of people enjoying the unusually warm temperatures (in the upper 70's).

August 5th - Delta Works

A Modern Dutch Windmill

The North Sea

We went on a tour to the Delta Works - it is a massive project to stop the Netherlands from being flooded from storms from the North Sea. Bob, of course, liked this engineering marvel.

Our first lock

We went through our first lock that evening - people who sailed before said all the new sailors run to the sundeck to see the first lock; they run a little slower for the second lock; by the 32nd lock, they just comment .... another lock.

Day 3 - We started sailing to Rotterdam

At 5:30 PM, we set sail to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. We expected to see beautiful scenery but it was mostly refineries and a few nuke plants thrown in.

Day 2 and 3 - Antwerp, Belgium

We arrived in Brussels at approximately 9:30 AM. We had a connecting flight from Frankfort. We were exhausted since we hadn't slept in 24 hours. When we arrived on the ship, we had lunch and then got our keys and luggage and went to our room for a nap. We didn't do much the first day just a little stroll around the town.

The next day we toured Antwerp, Belgium. There were about 134 people on the ship and they divided us into 3 groups (we were the blue group). Here are some pictures from the tour

Start of our trip

Since we are home and almost recovered, we are hoping to give a summarized account of our River Cruise. We won't put in all 2500 pictures.

Here we are at the Newark airport - we had to arrive 3 hours early and so we had time to snap a few pictures. Here is our plane and the New York City skyline.

Only one more day

Getting the internet is not easy in Europe. We were hoping for access from the ship however we had to catch a bus, then a train, and then on to McDonalds for internet access. We are heading back tomorrow for a long day of travel.

Trier

Trier ...
Roman Baths, Street Shopping, and narrow streets

Mosel River

We sailed up the Mosel - with plenty of quaint little towns and vineyards

Marksburg Castle

One of the highlights of the trip was the Marksburg Medival Castle - the only one not destroyed during the many wars in Germany. It is located on the Mosel River. It was not easy walking on the uneven flagstones laid on end and cobblestones.

Birds on Cranky Beethoven

We are in Bonn now and are heading back to the boat - don't know when we can post again but will try.

Some of the sights on the cruise

We saw cows sunbathing on shore - it is hotter here than usual.

We also saw this castle at 4 AM - some people on the cruise wanted a wakeup call but we didn't - but Bob heard people saying WOW. So we woke up - took this picture - said Wow, and then went back to sleep

Our ship - River Rhapsody

Okay let's try that again - we are sitting in a very hot internet cafe so excuse the errors.