September 27, 2025–Germany:  Cologne, Rudesheim, and Heidelberg

Well, we are still on a riverboat on the Rhine.  On Tuesday evening we traveled from Amsterdam to Cologne, Germany, where we spent the day on Wednesday.  Cologne is a major cultural and economic center in western Germany.  The city was founded by the Romans in 50 AD, and was called “Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium,” a long, super-confusing name which was shortened to “Colonia” (colony).  The famous perfume, “eau de Cologne,” or “water from Cologne,” was invented in the city in 1709 by Giovanni Maria Farina (A man with both a boy’s name and a girl’s name). The city is now known by the French and English translations Cologne, rather than the German “Koln,” and they still sell the original Eau de Cologne 4711 in the city.  Most of these German cities were bombed by the French in WWII. If at least 70% of the building was still standing, it’s considered original. The first and last picture, the Cologne Cathedral, is original.

Yesterday we stopped in Rudesheim, a picturesque German winemaking town on the Rhine Gorge.  The Gorge is an approximately 40 mile stretch of river with steep, 650 foot walls or cliffs on each side created by a combination of river erosion and regional uplift that occurred as the river cut through the mountains.  By the way, the wines from this area are usually either Riesling or Pinot Noir.    

Today, we visited Heidelberg and saw, you guessed it, yet  another castle, Heidelberg Castle, built circa 1225.  Castles have such a long and storied history that I won’t bore you silly with the details.  Usually it’s something like this in Germany:  built, burned by a stray lightening bolt, rebuilt, conquered in the 30 Years War, rebuilt, destruction by French troops, rebuilt, renewed destruction in the Palatinate succession war, rebuilt, hit by another lightening bolt, rebuilt.  You get the idea.  It’s always a long story.  

Strangely, I haven’t found my “Heather” on this trip.  A lot of people are traveling in large groups and not mixing with other people.  I guess that’s a good thing.  We have met some people from several different states, mostly nice to chat with, but we aren’t looking for friends, really.  We have found that only occasionally do boat friends stick because being on the same boat is the only thing you have in common.  I do notice that some people make hard and fast friends and spend every waking moment together.  

The main chef on this boat is making a point to offer German food at every meal, which is not top on my list.  So far the offerings have been various schnitzels, pretzels, bratwursts, sauerbratens, Käsespätzles, and a variety of dumplings. Uh, okay.

Tomorrow we will still be somewhere else in Germany and then we will head to Switzerland.