Day Six - Strasbourg, France

This morning we woke up in the middle of the Rhine River with Germany on one side and France on the other.  The river has flowed as a barrier between the two countries at times througohut history.  We took a brief bus tour of Strasbourg, France.  The city is in the Alsace Region of France and has changed hands between Germany and France for hundreds of years.  (It is currently under French control, but there were people living in the city that had their citizenship change multiple times in their lifetime.)  The city was a Roman settlement in 12 BC, it became a strong and wealthy town during the Middle Ages, itsurvived multiple waves of the Black Plague, the town hall was pillaged during the French Revolution, it surrendered to the German Empire and then later returned to France after World War I, it was annexed by German troops in 1940, it was liberated and returned to France after World War II, it became the base of the Council of Europe and then home to the European Parliament.  Confused yet?  I am not sure how they could keep track!

We ended the bus tour near the old medieval customs house along the Rhine River in an area that marks the edge of the old city.  We walked along the cobblestone streets to the cathedral square in front of the more than 140 meter tall Strasbourg Cathedral.  It was begun in 1190 AD as a Catholic Church but was completed in 1880 AD as a Protestant Church because of the influence of the Reformation.  The cathedral is a mixture of styles and influences of the hundreds of years it took to build.  Its chapel was begun in the Romanesque style, but when the French gained control of the city the design was changed to the Gothic French style with an increase in stained glass and the construction of the tower and spire.  It is a unique cathedral due to its location and its numerous influences.  The French Gothic design was not completed traditionally in the 15th century because of the costs of erecting a second tower.  It is similar to the German Gothic style because it only has one tower spire but those tower spires were often in the center of the facade.  It was also similar to the French Gothic  style with its tower spire on the left side of the facade, but there is no tower spire on the right side.  According to our guide, the plans of the cathedral did call for a second tower spire but most money for church construction was often provided by those of great wealth to show off their wealth.  However, by the 15th century most merchants demonstrated their welath by providing construction projects that could brandish their names like schools and universities.

The exterior of the cathedral contains multiple life size sculptures nearly completely covering the wallsin stone.  Above the door, there is a carving that teslls the story of King Solomon who is seating on a throne surrounded by 12 lions which represented the 12 tribes of Israel.  Above that carving is a sculpture of the Virgin Mary with a larger pair of lions meant to acknowledge the connection between Judaism and Christianity.  The interior  of the cathedral has an open layout similar to most other cathedrals with stained glass windows.  On the right side, the windows contained the stories of the Bible and the windows on the left contained images of the former German emperors with castles behind them.  Also inside of the chapel within the cathedral is an elaborate clock that measures time in seasons, days of the week, hours in a day, cycles of the moon, and the place of the Earth around the sun.  How dis they do that so accurately?

In the afternoon, we walked through the German  town of Kehl on the oppostire of the RhineRiver from Strasbourg.  There was a lovely walking market that did not have the crowds found in Strasbourg.  We even happened upon a flower-filled garden with a world War I monument.  The spot was quite peaceful and was a nice way to end the afternoon of touring.

Tomorrow we are off to the Black Forest!

Day Five - Heidelberg

Today we traveled a bit away from the Rhine to Heidelberg along the Neckar River.  Heidleberg has ruins of a 13th century castle overlooking a lovely little town with the oldest university in Germany - Heidelberg University - established in 1386.  The town and castle were nearly completely destroyed during the war of succession, but the ruins leave the tale of a powerful castle held by an influential and wealthy lord.

The castle was located on the top of a mountain and surrounded by a moat that was never fully effective as a means of defense because it leaked.  (I think that is so funny as I picture a prince saying, "Well the duke's castle has a moat, so I need one too!")  As if the mountaintop was not defense enough along with the high walls.  By the time that canons were filled with gunpowder, there was not much that any building could do in a seige - moat or not!  Today the moat is (obviously) empty of any water, but does allow visitors to see the walls and drains.

We entered the castle through a bridge over the drained moat and passed through a wooden gate to enter into a large courtyard.  The courtyard is currently used for concerts and large events and offers a beautiful view of the ruins.  There is a rebuilt palace within the walls of the ruins that is not currently open to the public, but we were able to enter the wine cellars which contained what they claim is the largest wine barrel in the world.  It was so large that it took up an entire room in the cellar and they built a dance floor on top!  As part of the tithe (or taxes) that the peasants paid to the lord, many farmers would often bring wine to the lord  that was produced in their vineyards.  The wine was all pored into the large barrel for storage.  I do not know much about wine, but I can't imagine that the mixture was of the best quality!

After exiting the wine cellar, we walked to a balcony that offered a beautiful view of the town of Heidelberg below.  We saw many buildings, but they were not the original buildings that would have been seen in the 13th century because of a combination of war, flood, and fires throughout history.  We did see two buildings that were both made of stone rather than the wood used in the other buildings.  Holy Ghost Church may have physically survived, but it changed religious denominations frequently.  It began as a Catholic Church, but after the Reformation it became Protestant.  At one point, in 1706, both claimed possession and so they placed a partition in the church to give each their privacy.  The barrier was in place until it was removed in 1936.  The other stone building is currently a hotel, but 400 years ago it was the private home of a wealthy cloth merchant.

Today was a rather warm day with bright sunshine as we walked the cobblestone streets of the town.  Tomorrow we visit Strasbourg, France so I hope that the weather stays nice!

Day Four - Marksburg and the Rhine Castles

Today we started by docking in Koblenz where the Rhine converges with the Moselle River which contains a large statue of William I from 1897 to comemorate the unification of Germany.  It also contains three panels from the Berlin Wall for the same reason.  From there, we took a brief bus ride to the base of the mountain on which Marksburg Castle was originally built in the 12 century.  It is the only castle on the Rhine that was not destroyed by war and seige, but did have some decay from negligence that required renovations.  To reach the entrance to the castle walls, you must climb a switchback path at a 45 degree angle until you reach the outer walls of the castle.  Looking at the castle from the river, it is amazing that we made it up there and it no wonder that it was never destroyed by war.

From there, we made our way to the sun deck of the ship to get great seats for the cruise through a castle-filled section of the Rhine called the Rhine Gorge.  Every time we came around a curve in the river, we saw a castle, a castle ruins, a medieval church, an old town, or a combination of all of them together!

Every castle or town had a story attached to it that Rene, our program director, was happy to share.  I took more pictures than I can count while everyone else helped me by taking notes of the stories of each location.  There was the story of the brothers - both in love with the same girl - that end in a duel and a death by broken heart.  There was the zigzag area of the river that caused the crashes of many ships and was blamed on the siren song of a girl that was believed to sit on top of a cliff and sing.  The cliff is the Lorelei, named after her because of the legend that when she caused the death of a German prince and the people were going to capture her, the Rhine created a wave that rose to the top of the cliff and washed her into the river forever.


We had a great time with the cruising and spent many hours on the top of the ship watching the castles as well as the varied landscape.  There were so many vineyards alongthe river and up along the sides of the gorge.  I saw many ways to use terrace farming in this land.  There was one mountaintop that appeared strange to us because it was being stripped of land with heavy equipment carrying large piles of rock down the mountain.  Rene explained that the mountain is not actually German property.  It belongs to the Netherlands after the German sold it to the Netherlands for one Deutschmark in 1953 after the devasting flooding so that the land could be used to build up the sinking landscape.  While it was not pretty to see - in fact, it was quite sad to see the mark on the land - it was an act of charity in an attempt to save the Rhine that impacts them all.

We learned that the Rhine has long been an important method of moving goods and that the towns along the river were often very wealthy because of the trade they could share farther inland.  Today, after completing a series of canals and widening the river in many areas, cargo and passenger ships can sail from the North Sea to Black Sea.  The most common goods transported are coal, oil, sand, gravel, and container ships.  It was like a super highway on water!

Tomorrow we will tour Heidelberg and Speyer, so I better get some sleep!

Day Three - Cologne, Germany

When we awoke this morning, the ship was still making its ways to Cologne (or as the Germany's call it - Koln).  After breakfast, we decided to watch the ship enter the city from the sun deck.  The first thing that we saw was the cathedral of Cologne which the locals call the Dom.  I had never seen a ship parallel park between two ships!!  It was impressive. :)

Once we landed, we took a walking tour of the city which is the oldest city in Europe because it was an actual city long before the other towns of the Middle Ages were formed.  It was a city on the edge of the Roman Empire because the Germanic tribes of the time heldback the Roman Army from crossing to the east of the Rhine River.  There are several recently found Roman ruins beneath new construction including a nearly complete tiled mosaic floor which depicted the world of Dionysus.  In addition, we came across an excavation site of the old Medieval Jewish Quarter in which they found an old Jewish bath house of living water.  During thePlague, the Jews were blamed for the disease and were persecuted and later banned from the city of Cologne until the 19th Century.

We passed the building where the first Ode de Cologne was created and produced.  During the Middle Ages, the people of the city forced out the archbishop of Cologne and took power for themselves.  The city hall, called the Rat House is covered with the statues of people that have influenced the city and a clock tower with the "Snapper" beneath it.  The Snapper is a face that has a mouth that opens and sticks out its tongue at the top of every hour and then snaps its mouth shut.  This should give you an idea of the sense of humor found within the city that is also known for its annual Carnival Celebration since 1823 similar to Mardi Gras.

Our final stop in the walking tour was to the Cologne Cathedral.  Construction on the cathedral began in 1248 in the Gothic style in an attempt to build the largest cathedral in the world.  The foundation of a Romanesque Cathedral was completely removed and a new foundation that was 550 meters deep.  Construction continued until 1528 when the city ran out of money for construction leaving an enormous crane on the top of the cathedral unused as a sign of hope that construction would continue.  This hope was not realized for 300 years!!  The cathedral was completed in 1880 with the assistance of the entire German region which saw completing the cathedral as as a unifying symbol after war with France.

Inside of the cathedral are stained glass windows from periods throughout history from 700 years ago until the 20th Century.  The cathedral was bombed during World War II and was one of the only structures still standing.  The windows were removed after some of them were destroyed by bombings.

The cathderal was beautiful inside with the windows, the statues, the enormously high ceilings, and the other artwork located throughout the interior which was mostly an open area shaped like a cross.  The inside was described by our tour guide, Franco, as being as tall as a 15 story building . . . and that is all in one level!!

Day Two - Kinderdijk

When my head hit the pillow last night, I was asleep before I pulled the covers over me!!  The rocking of the ship kept my asleep throughout the night and when I awoke, we were in Kinderdijk with windmills outside the windows.

We attended a morning lecture on the history of the windmills in Kinderdijk and the rest of the Netherlands.  The purpose of the windmills is to pump water from the marshy land into the North Sea because nearly one third of the country is 20 feet or more below sea level!!  The area is called a polder and it contains many modifications to the land that allows for people to inhabit live in build so far below sea level without being inside of the sea.  The canals redirect the water to holding lakes and through the mills to be pumped out of the land.  Many of the more than 30 miles of canals in this area were originally dug out by hand in 1366 AD and this system is still used today in connection with water pumping stations.  The windmills that we visited are still in use, but they are not required to the maintenance of the water levels.

The windmills contains a wheel beneath the building that is similar to a wheel on a water mill that scoops up the water to move it to the holding tanks.  We were able to enter one windmill that is still functioning.  William climbed to the upper levels, but the stairs were more like a latter and I thought that it was too soon in the trip to fall and hurt myself.  (Don't worry - I do have a voodoo doll with me!!)

The windmills at Kinderdijk are a UNESCO site, so all repairs to the buildings must be done with materials that could and were used by the mill workers when they were first built.  Eight of the stone windmills on one side of the canal were built in one year in 1738 AD and eight wooden mills were built in 1740 AD.  Those built of stone were built in an area that was able to collect higher taxes and could afford the building materials.  The only down side was that the stones were so heavy that even while building them the mills would begin to shrink and tilt.  (The land is sinking with the removal of the water from the marshy areas throughout the country which posing an additional problem with water removal.)  Those built of wood did not sink, but they were in danger of fire.  With the pieces of the mill made of wood and rope, parts can rub and cause the fires from friction.  This was especially true when the breaks were applied to stop the rotation of the sails.

We have set sail this afternoon and we should wake in Cologne. :)  I hear they have a chocolate museum . . . I know where I will be going!! :)

Day One - Amsterdam

After two successful flights and two days, I am finally able to sit at the computer and type a post!  I will try to post a picture or two as well, but I am limited to WiFi for only two hours and it is not exactly high-speed. :)

Our first flight ended in Frankfurt, Germany.  We exited the plane and headed toward customs before checking in for our flight to Amsterdam.  We came out of the gate and noticed that there was a large mass of people in a small space that appeared to be walking in random directions just bumping into one another.  This is when i was informed that forming and using lines was not something that the Germany culture is particularly known for doing well.  We were able to locate an official to assist us in finding the correct customs area and found that there was a line of about ten non-European passport holders all waiting patiently in line for the next teller.  It was just hiding in the mass of pushing and wandering people.  When we passed through customs, William received the first stamp in his passport! :)

It was raining in Amsterdam when we landed and we were concerned that it would prevent us from being able to explore the city.  The people with Viking met us outside of baggage claim and the four of use had our own private bus drive us the 30 minutes into the city.  The driver was very nice and he shared a lot about his home city.

We could not check into our rooms on the ship until later in the afternoon and the rain was pretty well holding back, so we happily decided to explore the city and its lovely 60 degree weather!  William really wanted to see the Anne Frank House, so we hoped in a taxi and got in line to visit the museum.  The warehouse and work space that Anne describes in her diary appear smaller than we had imagined and the secret rooms in which she lived were bare of the furniture and belongings of those that were hiding.   According to the exhibit, Mr. Frank asked that the museum not recreate the rooms as they were before the family was captured and the goods confiscated by the Nazis.  The museum was simple in its design and layout without fancy exhibits and shows.  It was simply filled with her words and sparse images associated with her story.  I believe that simplicity is what made the museum so powerful.

After leaving the museum, we still had plenty of time, so we walked through Amsterdam to see the buildings, shops, and squares.  We noticed that there were many more bicycles and pedestrians than cars.  It would seem that the bicycle has been a major mode of transportation in Amsterdam since before World War I.  The streets are lined with piles of bikes in various conditions.  Some are locked to bicycle parking lot spaces and others are just leaning along a wall or piled in mangled mess that Mom described as looking like a piece of art that a museum would buy at a great price.  Evidently, bikes are so commonly stolen, that the act of stealing a bike does not warrant the police.  Stealing a bike seems to not be noteworthy as there are so many of them on the streets.

At this time, I have about 40 minutes of internet access and I want to try to post a picture.  Tomorrow we see the windmills!! :)

Ready for the next adventure . . .

Welcome!  I hope that you are able to join me on my latest adventure as I travel along the Rhine River from Amsterdam to Basel.  I will share my experiences, my thoughts, and hopefully several lovely pictures and maybe a video or two along the way.

I will be traveling on a river cruise that will dock and provide me with the opportunity to visit many remarkable places including UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and it works to preserve socially significant sites throughout the world.  There are sites listed from around the world.  You can find additional information at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list.

I will visit windmills in Kinderijk, Cologne's Dom gothic cathedral, Heidelberg University, and the Black Forest near Breisach.  I will storm Marksburg Castle, a medieval fortress near Koblenz, Germany.  I will enter the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Germany.  I hope to see the temporary home of Anna Frank in Amsterdam and the Romanesque Cathedral at Speyer.

As I prepare for the last day of school tomorrow, I look forward to continuing to reach my students by sharing this experience with them.  Please feel free to communicate with me along the way as I take this opportunity to expand beyond my classroom walls.