I missed a chance to get up at 5-am to see the remnants of The Bridge at Remagen. It was built in WWI to cross the Rhine River so that Germany could send troops to the Western Front. It was the famous bridge in WWII that was captured intact in 1945 and allowed 125,000 soldiers and equipment to cross before the Germans weakened the structure and it collapsed sending 28 US Army engineers to their death and injured 63 more. The taking of the bridge for a couple of weeks shortened the war in Europe. Claude Musgrove, US Army photographer, took this photo prior to its collapse.
The Rhine River is a very busy highway of barge traffic! If you've ever downloaded an app to search the skies to see what aircraft were in the air near you, you could do the same for barge or ship traffic.
After my turn in the bathroom I sat out on the veranda to watch the barge traffic.
We were approaching the industrial area between Bonn and Cologne.
Then when closer to Cologne you could see the old harbor area that had new apartment or condo buildings that were designed in the shape of cranes.
Here's a couple of tourists after breakfast.
As you can see in the background .. we're approaching the massive cathedral of Cologne. What a structure. We toured inside a couple of years ago on another Ama Waterways cruise. We're on our way to dock in Dusseldorf.
A couple more interesting views while cruising.
Just before lunch and the start of the afternoon excursions, we listened to Maddy explain more about the excursions and also what the next two days leading up to disembarkation in Amsterdam would look like.
After lunch the excursion groups for Cologne filed onto their buses while we opted to discover Dusseldorf. After getting our bearings and establishing a starting point on the map the front desk gave us, we struck out for old town.
Our first glimpse of Dusseldorf from the water.
When on foot we see .. St.Andreas Church :
It seems most of Dusseldorf was enjoying the restaurants and cafes in the old town.
Here's city hall ..
Here's the tower viewpoint from land with a tourist you know ..
We enjoyed visiting the inside of the Basilika St. Lambertus :
We went next door to a small chapel, St. Joseph Kapelle :
We walked down to the waterfront and it's very neat green area. A lively festival was going on.
Thankfully the threatening skies only provided a contrasting background! When we reached the AmaPrima we stopped in the lounge for a refreshment and some cookies. When back in the room we found a nice surprise :
Wow! Pretty neat. We got all prettied up and went to the lounge for a farewell cocktail and to show our appreciation to the entire crew who were re-introduced to us. Here we are at the Captain's table :
Sorry Maddy .. I leaned in too far! It was a very fun dinner. It was nice to hear more about the Captain and Maddy and Aleks. Dinner, of course, was delicious!
The white wine was .. Vereinigte Hospitien, county: Germany, area: Mosel, grape: Riesling
appetizer : grilled tiger prawn, lime risotto, tomato salsa, cress
soup : porcini cream soup, thyme foam, parma ham cookie
sorbet : raspberry, sparkling wine
main course : slow roasted beef tenderloin, slices of beef fillet, pate de canard, truffle jus, glazed vegetable, pumpkin mash
dessert : chocolate mousse, straciatella ice cream, pineapple confit
(sorry about the lack of focus)
and a 'goodies' plate
Another wonderful cruising day on the AmaPrima! We continue cruising downstream on the Rhine, going through two more locks before we reach Amsterdam. Jan & I are looking forward to cruising in a smaller boat through the canals. See you there.
Take care, Jan & Joe
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