I worked hard on this piece and it cracked. I will wait a few months for more drying and return it on the lathe.  Gary

Rhine River Cruise Last Report

June 14, 2019 Friday

We have been the boat is mostly staffed by Eastern Europeans.  I did talk to one waiter and he told me that he was from Bulgaria and had spent two years as a border guard there. 

Over the evening we were transported on our ship to Mainz.  Linda and I participated in our last Avalon included tour in the morning.  A bus drove us to Eltville Magnificent Rosses Walking Tour.  Our guide Linda guided us through a magnificent rose garden in the Castle of Sovereigns Elect n Eltville.  The garden was established in 1979 and it nowadays counts more than 350 different kinds of roses.   Altville is considered a rose city.  There are 12 rose cities in Germany.  

On the way to the tour, Linda told us that there are 16 states in Germany. The Rhine River is 760 miles long and is the second longest River in Europe.  The Danube is longer.  100,000 ships travel this river each year.  There are 82 million people in Germany.  There was to be 3 marriages conducted at the Rose Garden the day we were there.  We saw many people in wedding participation dress.  In Germany, a couple is required by law to have a civil ceremony.  On this trip, we have seen many grape wine plants. I had not realized what a big industry wine production is in Germany before traveling here. I took many pictures of the rose garden.  

On this trip we have visited 11 ports in the 8 days that we spent on the ship.  

June 15, Saturday

Today we left the boat and were bused to a nice Westin Hotel in Frankfurt. We stayed two nights in this nice hotel. We walked the streets on Saturday down town and it was very busy.  On Sunday, we walked and visited 4 different museums of 34 that were available for us to see.  We walked over 10,000 steps our next to last day in German.  The museums were very nice. 

June 18, 2019

We spent all day yesterday returning to our home in California.  We flew on Delta, which are partners with Air France.  Air France is my least favorite airline because of the extreme lack of room in their seats.  It seems that Delta had followed their lead and Linda and I were uncomfortable with the limited space in our seats.  We survived. They really wanted us to spend the extreme prices for more expensive seats.  CNN’s 2019 Travel best airlines and cleanest airlines did not include Delta or Airfrance.  Lyft was outstanding calling from Antioch Bart and had a James present within 5 minutes with a new Audi car to transport us to Trilogy. 

Over all conclusions of this trip:  My wife has been urging (nice term for nagging) to take this trip for years. It was a nice trip.  90% of the cities in Germany that we visited had been destroyed in WWII.  If I had to do a European River Cruise trip again, I would prefer to take the River Cruise on the Danube River because the cities on that river are more in tack and there would be more historical areas to see.  I think that overall Avalon Waterways provides a good tour of the Rhine River area.  I still have a bad taste in my mouth about the way we were treated when we experienced a bad gas smell in our room that lasted for hours.   I ate too much on this trip. 

I spent considerable time learning some German for this trip using the PIMSLEUR system and have no regrets even though I did not use much of it. 

Video in Koblenz taking cable car ride from Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. 

Rhine River Cruise 3^rd Report

Today is Wednesday June 5^th and we went on a long walk in Cologne that ended in an extreme down pour of rain.  Needed a shower afterwards.  We did the classic walk, which included multi-see sights, including the Old City and its soaring twin-steeped gothic cathedral.  We visited a restaurant for lasses, a brewery for beer and sausage and lastly the gothic cathedral.  Lisa, our guide told us that Cologne is the 4^th largest city in Germany with a population of over 1 million.  20,000 people a day visit the cathedral.  The cathedral is 525 feet high.  This city was 90% bombed in WWII.  Lisa showed us a picture during WWII and it appears totally devoid of buildings except the cathedral.  The church took 633 years to build and is made of Sand Stone.  Constant work needs to be made on it to keep it in repair.  I learned that “post” is the German word for “toast” while drinking.  We were glad to get out of the rain.  Linda discovered her raincoat did not keep out the rain. 

I need to write some about the boat we are on for this trip.  It is called the Avalon Waterways Panorama.  It is owned by Globus.  It has a capacity of 164 passengers.  It has a four decks and a crew of 47.  It was constructed in 2011.  It is 443 feet long and its suites are 66,200 square feet.  The food is very good and with two of the meals as buffets.  The evening meal is ordered and served similar to a sea going cruise line.  Water is provided daily in the room included. Most of the tours Linda and I went on are included in the price of the cruise. We have liked our accommodations here and the staff.  We needed to change rooms in Tuesday June 11^th in Dusseldorf because of a gasoline smell in our room that made us both sick.  There was some resistance to our room change and we worked through this by very direct forceful communication. 

In the evening, at 9PM I attended a musical performance by a violinist  Elisabeth Gebhardt and pianist Oksana Andriyenkoin a Villa Musica at Schloss Engers.  The boat merely pulled up to the side of the river, we ate and those that were interested walked a short distance and attended the top concert level performance. The performance was made in an ancient building that was wonderfully decorated in very old style.  The performance was greatly appreciated by those of us who attended and lots of applauding took place.  I had walked 13,603 steps today. 

June 13, 2019

Today we are to by pass 31 castles on this Stretch of the Rhine River.  In the morning, we took a leisurely-guided walk of ancient Koblenz, including a cable-car ride to Ehrenbreitstein Fortress for a spectacular panoramic view.  Our guide, Heike gave detailed information on the area.  All the guides have been good, Heike was especially good.  Like the other cities we have visited in Germany, this one was 90% destroyed in WWII.  They have done a very good job of rebuilding it.  She showed us a monument to the reunification of Germany and commented that East Germany has still not achieved the family income of western German families.  They are at a 2/3^rd level of the westerners.  The Romans, French, and Russians have conquered this area of Germany over the years. 

We took a cable car to the Fortress across the river. The Fortress was built for WWI and is highly fortified.  It was never attacked and not use tactically during WWII.

Please see the pictures at binghamevent.blogspot.com