Seville Day Two

Hola from Seville, 

When traveling there is nothing like a solid twelve hours of sleep to recover from a long flight.  I’m not kidding.  We had a laid back morning.  Cumulatively we spent about 30 minutes trying to turn on the stove.  

Our morning started with a walk to Emily’s school.  It is an amazing place that looked like it was built as a castle.  Her semester at the University of Seville is one that she‘ll never forget.  

From there we walked to the Seville Cathedral, one of the largest Gothic Churches in the world, home to the remains of home town boy, Christopher Columbus and to one of the most ornate sanctuaries in Christindom. 

After a very brief rest at a sidewalk cafe, we proceeded to our second tour of the day, The Royal Alcazar.   It’s an ancient castle which continues to serve as the “official” residence of the King of Spain when he is in Seville.  

Except for me stopping a Spaniard to ask where the entrance to The Alcatraz was, everything has been going smoothly.  

After another stop at a cafe for nourishment and rest we walked back to our home for a little time for rest and recovery.   Tonight we are meeting Emily’s host parents for a paelle dinner.  

13,000 steps in today (So far).

We Made it!

 We made it to Spain!

Except for a very long plane ride and a profound lack of sleep, every thing went exceptionally well -for which we are grateful.  The flights were on time, the TSA lines were not terrible, we were able to get a “cabify” from the airport and our apartment rental is great. 

   

After a very brief nap, Emily came to our place and started her job as our tour guide.  We walked along the scenic River Guadalquivir, stopping at an outdoor bar/cafe for a cold drink called Caslera.  It was cool and refreshing and authentically Spanish.  We then walked to the Park de Maria Louisa which lead to the beautiful Plaza de España.  Street Performers were dancing the Flamenco.   After a long walk back to our rental we ate “el Fresco” before turning in the night. 

We’re off to Spain!

 For the past semester, our niece, Emily has been studying in Seville, Spain and we’re going to visit her.  Cathy’s sister, Jeanne initiated the trip.  She asked Cathy to go with her, Cathy asked me, Jon Kolb wanted to come and it’s only logical that Jean’s other daughter, Ali wanted to go and if we make a stop in Barcelona - Kathleen agreed to join us for a long weekend.  

I’ll try to update the blog periodically as our little band of 6-7 people hop, skip and jump around the beautiful cities of Spain.  We plan on visiting Seville, Madrid and Barcelona.  

Home again, home again

 We’re home.

We had a great time on the cruise and we appreciate those who followed along.  I wanted to write about a few things that I really didn’t make time to write about while we were cruising. 

Our companions, Curt, Mary, Mike and Suzanne were wonderful.  We had virtually all of our meals together, shared most of our shore excursions together and spent plenty of happy hours together and we all got along splendidly.  

We are grateful that all the bad things that could have happened, didn’t.  Things like losing a passport, missing a bus, forgetting pills or rain gear, bodily injury, illnesses, delayed flights, getting lost, getting pick pocketed, losing a wallet or key or having a phone go dead.  Nothing bad happened and we are grateful.   

Our days were surely filled but never overwhelming.  Each day started out with a wonderful breakfast.  Think of a a very nice hotel-type breakfast.  There was a buffet but we could also order off the menu.  Each morning included a shore excursion.  Almost all the excursions included some free time to either shop, have a beer or coffee and time to look a round on our own.  Almost all of our excursions were included.  We chose 3 excursions that we had to pay for.  Lunch was sometimes followed by another excursion.  Each afternoon we were offered a coffee/tea and dessert time.  These were eventually followed by a one hour happy hour (drinks included in the price of the cruise).   After 15 minutes of announcements about upcoming events we had dinner.  Each night we were given menus which offered three choices each of appetizers, soups, main courses and deserts.  Wine flowed easily at dinner and again the wine was included in the price of the cruise.   After dinner there was entertainment in a large lounge type hall.  A tour of any kind is a great way to make sure you don’t miss any highlights of the city you’re in.  Being on a cruise we were also saved from repacking every day.   

While of course we were in tourist areas and normally with a local guide, language was never a problem.  Many people spoke English and many of them spoke it well.  The few times we had to ask a local person a question or get directions, we got by and they seemed to appreciate any effort we made to use their language.  One night our cruise director made this joke.  

A man from Switzerland came to the US.  He approached two young men and said in German “sprichst du deutsch?”  The American men looked at him with blank stares.  So the Swiss man tried French, “ parles français?”  All he got back from the Americans were more blank stares.  Next, the Swiss man tries Italian, “parli italiano?”   Finally he tries Dutch, “spreek je Engels?”  The Americans just looked at him.  The Swiss guy finally gives up and walked away.  

   As the Swiss fellow walked away one of the  Americans looked at his friend and says “maybe we should think about learning a second language.” His friend replies, “why, that guy knew four of them and it didn’t do him any good!’  Everybody laughed but sometimes I think there is some arrogance of showing up in someone else’s country without knowing anything about their language.  However, to be clear we could easily get by just using English.   

Thanks for reading. 

Ken and Cathy

Photo of our ship taken off the internet

Ken, Cathy, Mike, Suzanne, Curt and Mary

Our Ship

Amsterdam

 Today started off with a canal tour of Amsterdam.  Our guide was the first guide in whom we were disappointed. We did learn that there are 2900 houseboats parked semi-permanently in the canals.  When we got off the canal boat we had a choice to take a walking tour back to the ship.  That guide was very good.  

As we walked, we learned that this city of 920,000 people has over a million bikes.  Estimates say that 80,000 bikes are stolen every year.  10,000 are found each year in the canals.  During our walk we saw more “stumble Stones” the gold-ish little plaques in the side walks with the names of the Jews from Amsterdam lost in the Holocaust. We passed Rembrandt’s home and we learned about the East India Company and William of Orange.  Our guide pointed out to us how some of the multistory buildings are tipping.  We did pass two legal marijuana places and our guide pointed out where the red light district was but not much was made of these places.   

After lunch we took a trip to a living history type place.  The weather was laughably bad (pouring rain off and on and high winds).  The park was divided into four sections, a bakery, a cheesemaking area, a windmill area and wooden shoes making area.  Despite the rain and wind it was fun and educational.  

Rembrandt’s house

Stumble Stones

Bikes, Bikes and more Bikes

Leaning house

Windmill inner workings

Koblentz and Cologne

 We arrived in Koblentz in time for an independent walk around the city.  When we got off the boat the first thing we noticed was the huge fort above the city overlooking the river.  We walked a few blocks and went into the Basilica o St. Castor.  The present church was built in the 12th century.   A little further into our walk there are three panels of the Berlin Wall on display.   A short walk later brought us to a beer garden.   We also came upon the huge monument dedicated to the unification of Germany.  We got back on to the boat in time for happy hour, a wonderful dinner and dancing in the lounge.   

This morning we woke up in Cologne.  We had a one and a half hour walking tour of the city which of course was highlighted by the Cologne Cathedral. One of the things that make this Cathedral special is that it houses the relics of the Three wisemen.  Sadly when we reached the church, Mass was going on.  We went and had a coffee.  That Mass lasted one hour and 25 minutes.  There was a half hour before the next Mass and we could only get in if we were going to Mass.  So…. We lied.  An interesting thing about that Mass was that it was said by the Bishop.  One of the ushers referred to it as a high Mass.  Before Mass began the Cathedral bells rang for 20 minutes.   

We also learned today that 90% of the city was bombed during WWII but the Cathedral was spared.  She said the Allied planes spared it because the pilots used it as a navigational tool.  The City of Cologne is home to 1.1 Million people.

Koblentz

Berlin Wall

Fort is above us

Cathedral in Cologne

 

The Gero Cross

Blaneys, Moores and Winklers

Zoom in.  I think he looks like the Pope

Rudesheim

If today is Saturday we must be in Rudesheim, Germany.  We arrived here last night just before dinner.  The photo of the church below was typical of the views we were seeing from our ship last evening.  

Rudesheim is a small town of 10,000 people that sees two million visitors every year.  Our half day trip into town today was to see Siegfried's Mechanical Music Cabinet.  It’s a mechanical music museum - think player piano on steroids.  I’ll try to post a video.   One of the instruments played six violins and a piano at the same time. 

After our tour we were treated to a special coffee.  In brief, it was a great tasting Irish coffee with Chocolate shavings on top.  It was a brief walk back to the ship.

We left port about 1:00 and we cruised through the Rhine Gorge.   Our guide said this area has the largest concentration of castles in Europe.  Even if that is not true, there were a lot of them and this portion of the cruise was by far the most scenic.  

 

 Clock on the street corner

View from the ship

Rudesheim

Cruising through the Rhine Gorge