Cruise Planners "On the Road" - River Cruising on AMA Waterways - Paris to Amsterdam on Ama Lyra - November 4-14 2014 - Day 8 and 9 - All Inclusive - Learning about Mainz & Rudesheim

"All Inclusive" is an interesting concept - this is our first experience with an all inclusive cruise of any kind.  Generally, we don't bother with cruise line offered excursions.  We are experienced travelers and accustomed to finding our own way to the places we want to see.   In a non-all inclusive environment, adding excursions means the price of your vacation just seems to keep going up. As a result, we've never seen the value of paying someone else to go see something. So what have we learned on our first all inclusive cruise?

First, we learned so much from our local guides -- we had no idea of the back and forth of France and Germany over the past 450+ years - we'd heard about this war and that war but you don't even begin to understand the effect of this much war until you understand how long this went on.  All but two of the castles we saw on the Mosel and Rhine were completely destroyed by the armies of Louis 14th (leave no stone unturned) in the late 1600's and early 1700's.

Then there are the Netherlands whose King is connected directly back to France - Napoleonic period - a monarchy had no place in Dutch history until the early 1800's when Napoleon's brother was installed as King.  I am sure this is all middle school history to students in Europe, but to a middle aged (ha!) American, this is what you end up learning when tours led by local guides are offered each and every day of your cruise.  The places you see have infinitely more significance when they are place in historical context and you begin learning about people and places from the people from these places...

So, what were we seeing?  Mainz and Rudesheim - two cities along the Rhine (or Rhein) - both to the north and east of where the Mosel meets the Rhine in Koblenz.

In Mainz, we did a "Tastes of the Rheinhesse Region" tour.  Starting in Koblenz, and continuing into Mainz, Rudesheim, and Cologne -- in contrast to the German cities along the Mosel -- most of the cities on the Rhine  were essentially destroyed by Allied bombing during WWII.  When you consider their location - along a main line of communication (the Rhine) and most containing major rail yards, their importance to Germany's war effort and thus importance on Allied targeting lists is obvious. This meant that most of these cities along the Rhine have been rebuilt since WWII but in many cases, they have been restored to their traditional look using pictures that pre-date WWII.

Our Mainz tour was a complete blast because we were there on one of the most important party days of the year - the start of "Carnival" - the 11th day of the 11th month at 11:11 am.    We saw all kinds of people in crazy costumes running around as we walked from AmaLyra through the downtown streets to our tasting location in downtown Mainz.

Historical District in Mainz, Germany

Timber on Stone buildings (1400-1600 construction) in Mainz

11/11 at 11:11 party preparations

Museum honoring the man who invented movable type printing - In Mainz

Costumes Aplenty - but no beads...

Main Church in downtown Mainz

Getting ready for Christmas Market in downtown Mainz

Rhinelanders love a party

Tastes of the Rheinhesse Region location

 

Yes - before lunch - good Red wine in Germany

Feasting before lunch

So after wading through the Carnival crowds back to the ship, we were greeted with warm towels and mulled wine on AmaLyra - I could get used to this kind of service.  After a short lunch cruise, we reached Rudesheim - another picturesque town along the middle Rhine region - a place Valerie and I visited when we were stationed in Naples Italy.

Continuing on our wine journey along the Mosel and Rhine, we spent the afternoon tasting wine in the vineyards of a family owned winery (Adolf Störzel) in the hills above the Rhine.  On their web site, they call it a wine ramble - walking through the vineyards with your host - pictured below, providing informative and humorous commentary on wine, the region, and its history.  He was truly good and is a "must not miss" if you are in the area.  Their wines aren't bad either - we are bringing two bottles home with us

Narrating German humor in English

Telling Valerie where to find the Lady's Room

Val and June posing in fall fashion

The downtown streets of Rudesheim are quaint and inviting.

Beautiful fall grape leaves

I guess one last thing I learned during our narrated tours along the Rhine and Mosel has to do with Germany's history and its peoples.  Specifically, I always thought of Germans as by the book, hard working folks - turns out that people along the rivers Mosel and Rhine - are fun loving people more focused on fun than work - today rather than tomorrow.  You can't believe the wine rations provided back in the day (we're talking liters per day) for priests and generally well to do people.  Supposedly the wine had less alcohol in it back then, but egads, they were drinking wine instead of water - no wonder they liked to party and enjoyed their lives.  We heard the term "Prussians" on several occasions in the towns we visited - guess the Prussians and their habits are what I have always associated with Germans and Germany.  Turns out that the river folks were essentially brought into "line" by the Prussians - our guides used this word in the same tone reserved for Louis 14th and his march along the rivers.  Germany may be a republic today but her soul is much more complicated and interesting than I had imagined.  Like I said, I learned a lot having all inclusive tours that helped me learn local history from local guides.

Tomorrow - Cologne (Koln) and our last day in Germany....

Cruise Planners "On the Road" - River Cruising on AMA Waterways - Paris to Amsterdam on Ama Lyra - November 4-14 2014 - Days 6&7 - Cochem and Koblenz, Germany

Wow - so much activity and so many things to do that I am falling behind on my blog entries.  Better get caught up today - whoops - three different tours today separated by breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Need a vacation to catch up on my vacation...

Anyway... We continue down the Mosel Valley and arrive at Cochem.  Now that we are on the Rhine, it gives me the ability to compare the Mosel and Rhine segments of our trip thus far.

The Mosel Valley and the river on which we traveled to Cochem and Koblenz are windy, steep, and narrow with many grapes planted on the increasingly steep slopes.  Our guides provided considerable insight on wine growing along the Mosel which started back in days when Romans were occupying the land.  Although we are pretty far north to be growing grapes, the dark slate that predominates along the Mosel River valley warms the soil underneath on south facing slopes and keeps the temperature in the range needed to grow superior grapes.  Additionally, the slate provides minerals which impart flavor within the grapes themselves.

The other aspect of the Mosel which differentiates it from the Rhine is the relative narrowness of the river valley itself - there aren't a lot of flat places to put towns along the river, so the towns themselves are smaller and haven't grown that much over the years.

The last thing we learned along the way is that the cities along the Mosel were not flattened during WWII since there weren't important factories or military headquarters on the Allied bombing list.  So for the most part, many of the buildings are still original construction, not replicas built post-WWII.

Our primary reason for stopping in Cochem was to visit the beautiful castle pictured below.  While it would have been even more amazing if the sun had been a tad brighter and the fog had lifted off the river, we were at least dry which means our luck continues to hold.

The Cochem Castle in on the hill in the background

Suit of armor in the castle - dude was over 7 feet tall

They told us this wasn't a frog in armor -  not sure I believe them

The castle is really pretty inside and out

Ama Lyra docked in Cochem

Beautiful downtown below the castle too

So - after a lovely morning stop in Cochem, we continued down the Mosel to Koblenz where the Mosel joins the Rhine.  We stayed overnight in Koblenz - shortly after docking and dinner, our talented Cruise Director Uwe took us on a narrated evening walk through the streets of old town Koblenz.  Everything was quiet - Sunday evening after all - and provided an interesting contrast when we saw the town the next morning during daylight on our guided bicycle tour (about 2.5 hours probably covering 5 to 7 miles max).

Ready to Ride...

Kaiser Wilhelm staute from behind - Teutonic Knights home is just around corner from where I am standing

Kaiser Wilhelm from the front side

Mosel River meets Rhine River at this park - an area full of history

Fall leaves along the Rhine

Our bike tour - included in our cruise - was excellent - 16 passengers and two guides.  We would ride for 5-10 minutes then our guides would pull over and explain what we were seeing the historical significance.  Koblenz is a city with 2000+ years of military significance - the German General Staff was headquartered here in WWI and WWII - no wonder that much of Koblenz was destroyed during WWII.  We pulled away from the dock in Koblenz just after lunch and headed east up the Rhine towards our evening stop of Mainz - but the real treat was seeing the castles along the way.

Saying goodbye to Koblenz from our ship

The Castle Map of our route

We are all comfy in the lounge with Uwe narrating the sights along our route

Castle on the north side of the Rhine River

Lots of vessel traffic on the Rhine

Cruise Planners "On the Road" - River Cruising on AMA Waterways - Paris to Amsterdam on Ama Lyra - November 4-14 2014 - Naples to Paris - Days 6 - Bernkastel, Germany

Day 6 abroad and our first port visit after a great night's sleep -- well, almost... After dancing the night and some of the morning away, breakfast was a push...

Bernkastel (literally Bear Castle) in the heart of Germany's Mosel wine region is our first stop.  The hills on both sides of the river are covered in grape (primarily Reisling) vines many of which still have their leaves, now yellow in the late autumn.  Weather is sunny and clear although for South Floridians, transplanted or otherwise, when you're standing in shadows, you are freezing this time of the year in the Mosel Valley.  

Mosel River Map - we're traveling from right to left...

Truly scenic vista

Seeing grapes makes us thirsty - Wine Tasting Anyone?

Off the bow of Ama Lyra

There is a lot of local tourism in this part of Germany

The vineyards are really steep - lots of work to tend them

 If truth be told, Valerie and I are not generally sweet white wine drinkers.  But as part of our included shore excursion in Bernkastel, we visited the Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler winery -- a family winery producing approximately 200,000 bottles a year.  Our host wine maker, Stefan Pauly, was the perfect host -- informative and humorous -- reminding us why we like the self deprecating Germanic humor.  

As an example Stefan explained why he has to export his wine outside of Germany...  In Germany, cars are king - every two years, the German man needs to buy a new Audi, Mercedes, or Porsche to keep up with his neighbor.  As a result of high car payments, there is little budget left for wine or food.  In fact, Germany is home to the most successful cut rate grocery stores because of this phenomena - Walmart prices were too high and they left Germany in less than a year.   But in France, French people love their food and wine -- they will pay for good food and wine, conversely the French drive older cars and as we were told (and could see for ourselves in Paris) don't keep or treat their cars nicely - the French park by "touch" -- once they hit the car in front or back, they are done.  In Germany, touching your car to another is verbotten!  It was a great story and provides insight into cultural differences here in Europe an American wouldn't typically learn...

So after all the prose, how was the wine tasting?  First you must know that Bernkastel is the home of "Doktor" wine - this appelation earned by curing a local bishop of fever long before our own revolutionary war.  So now that we know that wine has documented healing powers, we were ready to roll....

We were not excited about tasting Reisling going in  - when we walked out, there is one we will buy and keep in our cellar at all times - very reasonably priced, as Stefan noted -- can be bought at Total Wines back in SW Florida - with a unique and very pleasing taste - on both the front and back end.  So old sea dogs can be taught "new wine".

Bernkastel - as we learned during our guided tour - is an exceptionally well preserved city - only one building was destroyed during WWII so most of the buildings are originals from the 1400s.

Speaking of new wine, we also managed to time our visit to the two weeks of the year that Mosel wine makers produce a special wine from this year's grapes.  Barely fermented and around 10% alcohol content - it is a very fresh taste, apparently good for your digestion.  At least that's what Rudi told us as he poured us each a glass this afternoon - in Cochem -  but we'll talk about that in our next installment.

After our afternoon excursion, we retired to our room as we watched the Mosel Valley scenery pass by from our French balcony.  Tonight's dinner?  The Chef's Table - a smaller, more intimate venue on the second deck aft - 24 diners total with a fixed menu each night.  Chef's Table was a dining experience - presented and prepared by the #2 Chef, each course built on the previous until we couldn't eat another bite.  We were lucky enough to be joined for dinner by our Ama Waterways host who regaled us with stories of his youthful adventures -- Rudi Schreiner is an interesting person with vision and drive -- and fortunately for his passengers -- excellent taste in wine and food.  The house wines aboard surpass what we'd expect at home; the President's list wines are top notch.

After dinner, we walked into an incredible guitar solo - tip-toeing to a table, we watched the guitar solo crescendo -- only to be joined by his two musical partners on violins.  Thirty minutes, and one encore later, our musicians had to leave as we were casting off for our next port call, Cochem.  One thing you can say about river cruising, the night rides down the river are quiet and smooth...

Downtown Bernkastel - homes built in the late 1400s

Cruise Planners "On the Road" - River Cruising on AMA Waterways - Paris to Amsterdam on Ama Lyra - November 4-14 2014 - Naples to Paris - Days 5 &6 - Luxembourg, Embarkation, and Bernkastel, Germany

TGV High Speed Train

Day 5 started perfectly with luggage pick up promptly at 0800 - we wouldn't see our bags again until getting into our cabin aboard Ama Lyra eight hours later.  In the intervening time, we did a multi-mode trip to meet the ship at Remich in Luxembourg.  Leaving the hotel by motor coach at 0915, we had a narrated trip to the Gare de'l Este (East train station) where we caught a high speed train (verified as high as 192mph on my GPS) from Paris to Metz, France.  

Paris East Train Station

From Metz, we caught another guide-narrated motor coach ride to Luxembourg.  We ate lunch here in Luxembourg City - pretty city - food looked wonderful but was pretty blase' after eating in Paris for 4 days.

Downtown Luxembourg City - Cold and Wet

Grave of General George Patton

After getting back onto our coach after lunch and souvenir shopping in Luxembourg City, we re-boarded our bus; next stop - the U.S. World War II Military Cemetery between Luxembourg City and Remich.  The cemetery was somber but beautifully maintained -- according to our guide, most of those interred here perished during the Battle of the Bulge. It is also the final resting place of General George Patton - the reason his grave is separate is because the amount of foot traffic around it when it was with the rest of graves killed all the grass.  So now he rests in a separate plot.

US WWII Cemetery between Luxembourg City and Remich

A retreat allows private time to contemplate the triumph and tragedy of war

We re-boarded the bus one more time for our short trip to Ama Lyra.  Overall, we were extremely impressed with the coordination and logistics of our pre-cruise activities.  Our cruise director Uwe had everything in hand at all times and every leg of our trip, thanks to excellent local guides, was a learning experience.

Once we were off the bus, we walked directly aboard and had two wonderful surprises.  First, check-in took about one minute - a new all time record for cruise ship check-in.  Then we found out we had been upgraded - thank you Ama Waterways.

Re-united with our bags - we unpacked and got ready for the Captain's Dinner.  Dinner was fanstastic - starting with a crabcake and crawfish appetizer, followed by a medium rare sirloin steak and excellent dessert.  White and Red wine is included and accompanies each meal - really quite good.  

This specific cruise is known as the President's cruise because Ama's President & CEO Rudi Schreiner is on board.  We've spent time with him each evening and are learning a bunch about the cruise business from him.  After dinner, the party really got started...  With live dance music, we danced until 1am when we walked upstairs to watch Ama Lyra approach her first lock on the Mosel (or Moselle if you prefer the French spelling).  Then off to bed to recharge our batteries for our first day on the Mosel.

Cruise Planners "On the Road" - River Cruising on AMA Waterways - Paris to Amsterdam on Ama Lyra - November 4-14 2014 - Naples to Paris - Day 4 - Paris - Paradis Latin Cabaret and Musee' d'Orsay

Well, last night at Paradis Latin Cabaret was an experience that all should consider - especially if AMA Waterways in making your excursion reservations...  As noted yesterday, we couldn't have got the tickets and round trip transportation for the price we paid for the excursion.  Then our party of 6 was shown to the first table on stage left - outstanding!  Arriving at 8pm, we ate an included three course meal with accompanying Rose and Red wines - with champagne for the show.  Food was actually pretty reasonable for event fare - and our server managed to find us little bowls of vanilla ice cream to accompany our apple tarts.

How was the show?  Really good - yes there was a fair amount of feminine pulchritude in various states of costuming (or not) and masculine beefcake as well - all tastefully presented - interspersed with high boy unicycle and trapeze acts; and a very talented singer filling in a fast paced 2 hour set.  The dance numbers were modern, with excellent music and some innovative sets to boot.  And yes, the chorus line also did the traditional "Can Can" as well...

Our Program cover

We snuck this picture

This is the official picture - 10 Euros - not bad

Sorry - no pictures of the show - we'll leave that to your imagination...

So after a late night last night - after midnight - we got up leisurely this morning and fueled up at our included breakfast at the Pullman Montparnasse - the breakfast is ok - would we eat there if it wasn't  included?  Honestly, most likely not - but we have had enough energy to walk for 5 hours each day and delay our lunch until 2:30pm each of the last two days.

Directly from breakfast, we headed to Musee' d'Orsay via Rue Invalides -- hate to be boring but the sun was out, puffy clouds dotting the blue sky, and slightly warmer than yesterday.  The sun shining off of the gold enhanced roofs and monuments was truly magic...

Cafe Zazous in background

Les Invalides

Front of Les Invalides

Most beautiful bridge in Paris

Musee' d'Orsay

Beautiful Sky

Selfie at Musee' dOrsay

Lunch at the Bistro on the corner of Rue St Germain and Rue Raspail

We spent 4 hours walking through the three floors (0,2, and 5) of exhibits at Musee' d'Orsay.  Just as we had at the Louvre, we had bought tickets on-line at home.  We walked right in and had our tickets validated.  Wow - the Impressionist exhibits on the 5th floor were exceptional and set the stage for being able to see the influence from this period as it matured into the Neo-Expressionist period.  I think we also found our French ancestors in the sculptures of "Bourdelle" on the ground floor...

After the museum, we ate lunch at the bistro above - nice meal and this Bordeaux stuff is starting to grow on us...

But we weren't done...  about two hours after we got back, we saddled up again for a trip up to Mont Marche to see the Sacre Cour (Church of the Sacred Heart) and the night lights of Paris as part of the AMA Waterways tour.  We took a min-bus up to the Bohemian side of town and the heart of the "Red Light" district centered on the famous caberet, "Moullon Rouge".  From there our expert guide continued to narrate our track up the hill on a tram to reach Sacre Cour.  The weather was clear, windy, and cold but the moon was full -- better yet, when we entered the church, there was a service underway with nuns singing in the background -- you would think the timing was planned that way for us.  After a brief walk, we arrived at the main plaza where we were able to choose from about 10 different restaurants for dinner before resuming our tour 90 minutes later.

After dinner, we met everyone at the funicular for the trip down the hill and the brief walk back to our bus.  Our guide's monolog was both informative and entertaining -- including her non-plussed comments about some of the stunts being pulled around our mini-bus by Parisian drivers.  Made Valerie and I feel like we were back home in Napoli, Italy.

Then for the highlight of our evening, we arrived at the foot of the Eiffel tower just before the hour.  We were directly across the river and could see three sides of the tower - and then - the "twinkling" started - the entire tower began twinkling - no other way to describe it.  From what we were told, this event started with the Millennial and has continued since then despite cutbacks in the amount of time this is done each hour.  Open the short video below if you want to see what we captured last night

So, with our arrival back at the Pullman Montparnasse, our pre-cruise activities came to a close,  This morning, we put our bags outside our door at 0800; we headed down to meet Uwe our cruise direction at 0915.  All aboard our bus to Garde d'lEste (Paris' east train station) to catch our high speed train (TGV) to Metz.

Overall, I have to say we have been very impressed with the organization and execution of our AMA Waterways pre-cruise activities - we wouldn't have changed anything except for the hotel -- the location was excellent, but the accommodations were only so-so, and the hub bub in and around the lobby was much too convention like for our taste.