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.