Friday 5th April, 2013
I am up reasonably early today for a cuppa and muffin at 6.30am. The blueberry muffin tastes like it is out of a box! Certainly not freshly made on board.
There are not many up at this hour and I take my tea into the lounge to enjoy the solitude and scenery.
I am amazed to pass by nuclear power plants with flames spurting forth from several towers. Of course, I don’t know what these monstrosities are but a pair of fellow travellers are discussing them as we pass by. I thought we were approaching an oil well!
There are chimneys belching white smoke into the atmosphere with alarming regularity.
No wonder New Zealand has such a clean green image.
After breakfast we assemble for a walking tour of Cologne 9.30-11.30am. It is freezing cold - 3 degrees Celsius. It’s even colder inside The Dom - Germany’s largest Gothic Cathedral (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). The Dom largely escaped the WWII damage that ravaged the city and the rest of Germany. Construction began in 1248, continuing in stages over the next seven centuries and completed in 1880. Its two elegant soaring spires are a symbol of the city. Inside we marvel at the beautiful stained glass windows, including a very modern mosaic one. There’s time to pop downstairs to a crypt and admire an ornate gold shrine on the elaborate altar.
The monks on the door are unfriendly and we don’t feel like contributing the entry fee to them. We do however, light a candle which we use to try and warm ourselves up.
Outside we witness tourists being scammed heavily by mime artists. We had been warned by our guide not to take photos but some other tourists were not so lucky and were fleeced of many euros for a photo. If you don’t pay then trouble begins. We saw one guy hand over twenty euros which wasn’t enough then he ended up paying that for each of the three artists.
Our lively tour guide informs us that he is taking our beer tour tonight - wonderful.
I don’t spend any extra time hanging around Cologne and rush back on board to thaw out with hot chocolate & a biscuit. The muffins and biscuits are losing their appeal as same each day. Some variety would be nice. On the positive side we are finally getting a proper cup of tea in the dining room as we have educated our waitress and she is now microwaving the water to make sure it is hot enough.
There is so much traffic up and down the Rhine. The river used to ice over but works done to improve the flow means it doesn’t freeze now. No river work has been done through the middle Rhine (UNESCO Site). All barge captains have a car or two on board and a small motor boat up on the deck.
The landscape has altered dramatically - from now on it’s all flat land either side of the river.
Dinner tonight was a shared soup (didn’t realise it was going to be soup).
Main - salmon, huge piece hardly able to eat it all.
Desert - passionfruit sorbet (Yum).
Then the cheese board which was really nice tonight. Cheese varies greatly in taste and texture. Only one small glass of wine to wash it down as off out on beer tour.
I’m asking myself why I’ve chosen to leave the warm ship again? Am I crazy or what?
At 8.45pm we’re off with the same guide as this morning and a small group of 8 of us.
First stop Paffgen. Nice beer, small glasses. The guide found us our own tasting room with table in the crowded bar. We are educated in the ways of drinking German beer and informed that the beer is much stronger than we are used to hence the small glasses.
2nd stop Gaffel finds us with a rowdy group of Dutch singing drunken songs in English while drinking German beer. Bit like a bad scene from a movie!
3rd stop is at the largest beer hause in Germany (don’t call them pubs, that’s where the drunks are later). This one has room for 1400 people. Our table is an old well with a glass top.
We are served by a very happy waiter! The waiter is the boss! He may help himself to free beer at your expense.
A tab is kept on the back of a coaster, tally up at end of night. Beers around 1,40-1,80 euro each. Beers are continually replaced by waiter from traditional round tray with handle. No queuing to buy next drink here. No pacing drinks either!
There are many rooms and stairs to get lost in
The guide was great, taking us to beer hauses the locals use rather then obvious tourist traps.
Each hause serves only 1 beer, their own brand (which undisputedly is the best in Germany) so you don’t need to worry about what to order - it comes to you.
The tour cost 29 euro and we only got three drinks for that. So a bit pricey! We had to forgo the last drink as ship was due to sail and we had the slowest, oldest walkers with us. Time for a couple of night snaps of the cathedral which looks even more dramatic at night.
The ship set sail immediately our group was back on board. They were casting off as we walked back along the promenade. The view of the cathedral and another church from the ship is breathtaking.
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