WONDERFUL NEWS!!
Our kids invited the 2 of us to take a vacation with them!!!
We got the call in February: they planned everything ( almost.... Ray helped just a little)
and here we are!!!! AMSTERDAM, The RHINE RIVER, and ITALY, ending in VENICE..
We are with our son, David, his wife, Kait, and our daughter, Julie.....
We all met at the JFK airport Tuesday night, July 29th and flew in Wednesday noontime to the Grand Sofitel Legend Hotel in AMSTERDAM, right in the center of town. Beautiful weather here. The afternoon was lunch and a stroll to the main square, and a nap. Fortunately for this blog, Ray went out shooting while I slept. Dinner last night was at "Bridges ", a Michelin 1 star restaurant here at the hotel . We dined together in the courtyard on a balmy Summer evening. Beautiful food and Wines!! Ray and I shared a lovely fresh fish roasted in sea salt......
 |
| The Grand Sofitel Legend Hotel in Amsterdam |
Today, Thursday, July 31st, we took a canal cruise on a small wooden electric boat for 3 hours. It was very peaceful and we saw a lot of the town from the water. Celebrated with Champagne and sushi! Photos to follow further down.
 |
| Amsterdam's Central Station ( in back and in red brick) ... This is where we met our canal tour boat on Thursday. |
The kids went to explore the local pastry shops and Ray and I went to the Rijks Museum, a famous place that was completely renovated last year. Quite a beautiful building and full of great art. Gelato and a bike buggy ride home amid all the bicycles ( this town is LOADED with bikes. I think it is the main method of transport in the Netherlands.)
Residential mansions near the Rijks Museum.... Quite an amazing sky!
 |
| Rijks Museum.... A fabulous building!! Completely renovated last year. Aren't we lucky! |
 |
| One of many of Van Gogh's self portraits |
 |
| A great hall at the Rijks Museum with Rembrandt's "Night Watch" on the far wall |
 | ||||
Van Gogh......... This photo does not represent well his use of color. Sorry.
|
 |
| Amsterdam bike park. Everybody bikes everywhere. |
Following now ( finally!) are some shots from our Thursday Canal tour.
 |
 |
| On the boat with Tim and Ellie. She has just served the appetizers. |
 |
| Ship Ahoy!! |
 |
| during the sushi course on the canal boat |
 |
| Dave found this vegetarian restaurant for our dinner. Kait had spelt risotto and the rest of us enjoyed Indian Thali. There we are in the front window perched on the floor. |
 |
| lounging at the Golden Temple |
  |
| Thali and fresh juice....... paradise! |
 |
| Beautiful hand painted walls..... Nirvana |
FRIDAY, AUGUST 1st......
After lunch the 5 of us all met at the famous Van Gogh Museum..... We all loved this place
but photos of any kind were not permitted. ......Sorry.... It was FULL of art fans and we learned a ton about this amazingly gifted and famous artist. Like he only sold one paining in his lifetime, and the price was so low. Now his work sells for millions a piece.... if anybody will part with it. He only had ten years of productive work. 1880 to 1890 when he died. In this 10 years, he painted hundreds of paintings. And many of them are in this museum. There were only 3 in the Rijks Museum, and there are several at the Orsay in Paris and scattered around the world. Most of Van Gogh's drawings and paintings are here in Amsterdam. We all loved this museum!!!
Dinner was at the Amstel Intercontinental hotel in a famous restaurant called "La Rive".... and it is on the bank of a great canal... ( Rive in French means riverbank).... WE all had a tasting menu which was completely delicious, and dessert was a table tasting of Dutch Cheeses. Our waiter gave us a great description of all the varieties and we shared a bottle of great French red wine with our cheeses,
and Sauterne after. We were extremely indulgent, and loved it all.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2nd......
Late breakfast, last minute shopping. I needed a hat and Ray was kind enough to follow me around and help me choose. We found a hat designer shop in a tiny alley. Mirjam Nuver... Great hats, and I found a good one for sunny days on the boat deck..... at 3pm, after lunch with David at the hotel
( Grilled shrimp and avocado salad for me and steak tartare for him), we all headed to the VIKING RIVER CRUISE. Our boat is called the "Var", one of as many as 300 cruising boats that travel this river daily.
 |
| Welcome to the River Cruise!! |
Just after we boarded , there was a HUGE rainstorm! Oh, almost forgot to mention that today is the day of the annual AMSTERDAM GAY PRIDE CANAL BOAT PARADE!!!! The town is full of
people in costume, partying and drinking. It is a WILD celebration of our freedom to be gay and Amsterdam does that very well!!! Last night there was a huge party in the courtyard of our hotel.
They had 390 guests with loud music and dancing. We weren't on the list, so happy to depart for the evening. The boat was not set to leave the dock until 11:30 pm, so we went out for one more dinner in town, this one to celebrate Ray's BIRTHDAY!!! We took cabs to the other side of the city to the OKURA hotel. Our restaurant, pre selected by Dave, was "Serre". Ray had steak tartare, and a beautiful duck dish.
WE returned to the boat just in time to depart, and went to the bar to continue celebrating Ray!
The weather cleared, and we lounged on the top deck a while.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3rd......
Rays actual Birthday! We woke docked in the Dutch town of Kinderdijk, home to the famous
windmills! This is one of the lowest areas in the country, well below sea level, thus the importance of the windmills to create the power to pump the water away from the land. This is now done with diesel powered machines, but the windmills are mostly still in use.
 |
| Something about that Sky in the Netherlands |
 |
| Kinderdijk....... People live in the top of these windmills. |
Lunch and dinner were back on the boat as we traveled to Cologne, our next stop. We had a party for Ray at dinner. Dave, Kait, and Julie had brought a special cake on board, and a lovely bottle of french champagne, and we all had gifts for Ray. The waiters brought out the cake and the whole
187 member cruise guests sang him Happy Birthday! It was quite the night!
 |
| Sitting down to dinner on Ray's Birthday |
 |
| Viking came through with a lovely cake for Ray!! |
 |
| It was a great celebration ... |
MONDAY, AUGUST 4th......
We are docked in Cologne all day today. We had a morning tour of the town and learned that it was at one time at the edge of the Roman empire. On the other side of the river, it was nothing but "barbarians"........ they called it "Germania"..... Ray is currently reading a book by the same title by
Simon Winder..... a personal history of Germans, Ancient and Modern.
Fantastic Cathedral here, and a completely intact Roman floor mosaic from the days when this was all part of the roman Empire. The locals dug down in 1942 to build an air shelter and found this mosaic.
They left it in place and built a museum around it. A real highlight!!
 |
| The cathedral in Cologne in perspective. |
 |
| St Martins Church in Cologne, Completely rebuilt after the War. |
 |
| That Great German Beer! |
 |
| Cologne Side street |
 |
| The Town Square with town hall tower..... carvings of famous Germans all over the tower. |
 |
| Cologne Cathedral Facade. This is a huge one. Took 600 years to finish. |
 |
| We had lunch together here |
 |
| The locals were digging to make a bomb shelter in 1942, and they uncovered this completely intact Roman mosaic floor. So instead, they built a museum around the floor. It really couldn't be moved. This was a real highlight! |
 | |
Another highlight! Dave found this... the best pastry shop in cologne. Amazing concoctions. We bought 3 and shared with good coffees! We had to walk all the way through town to find this, but worth the trip!
 Works of art, don't you agree? |
 |
| My new boyfriend. He's rather cold. |
 |
| Houses along the river in Cologne |
Dinner Monday evening is at Hans Stuben, a very wonderful restaurant in Downtown Cologne. Excellent food and service. Another good result of Dave's research.
This was a HUGE day! Hence so many photos.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5th
This is a beautiful day of cruising through the "Middle Rhine" Region. Famous for Castles and vineyards. This is the land of Reislings and other good things. The day started with a hike to an intact castle from the 13th century, Castle MArksburg. This is the only fortress in the Middle Rhine to have escaped destruction or well meaning "restorations"..... Ray and Dave joined the visit. Kait, Julie and I took the morning off to relax and chat.
 |
| David models the armor at Marksburg for the group. He said he couldn't see anything, and he would have passed out if he was obliged to wear it for very long... |
 |
| A chastity belt from the castle. the real deal apparently! |
The afternoon we all cruised and enjoyed the great views. Ray and I scored two reclining chairs on the upper deck, and the young ones were all over the boat. Very enjoyable.
 |
| One of many castle ruins along this section of the Rhine |
Tuesday evening was dinner on the boat for Ray and me, with the kids exploring the town of RUDESHEIM and riding gondolas.
 |
| Rudesheim from the water. This is Riesling country. A busy train track unfortunately runs right along the water. |
Another gorgeous day on the river. The "VIKING VAR" is a comfortable boat with great service, good food, a bar, music, open top deck for viewing, friendly staff, internet, activities on board, guided tours, a library and gift shop on board, all very well run. And I love our little balcony on the top stateroom level.
Today is a visit to the nearby university town of HEIDELBERG. This will turn out to be a 5 hour
excursion including transport to town. But worth it. It's a romantic setting with rolling hills, fine houses and a castle ruin overlooking the town. This is the largest castle ruin in Germany, dating from the 14th to 17th centuries. This city was virtually razed to the ground by French troops in 1693 but was rebuilt in the Baroque style while maintaining its medieval ground plan. The result is truly
stunning. And no bombs hit this town in the second World War. We toured around with our guide, Renata, and then were given free time to explore. For Ray and me, that meant lunch! We found a
small hotel with outdoor tables and had a super lunch with German beer. Ray had bratwurst and potatoes, and I had salmon steak with mash and veges. Then we went to the cheesecake place for dessert and coffee. We left Heidelberg at 2pm and returned to the boat. I spent the rest of the afternoon on our balcony working while Ray took a walking tour to SPEYER, the German town where we are docked.
 |
| Overlooking Heidelberg from the Castle Grounds |
 |
| Heidelberg Castle |
 |
| My photo of one of hundreds of figures sculpted into the walls of Heidelberg Castle |
 |
| Strolling on the Heidelberg bridge and looking back at town. |
 | ||||||
| This was a particularly delicious German beer. We are lunching in Heidelberg. Afternoon was the visit to the town of SPEYER. Ray took some interesting shots.
|
After dinner the kids and I took part in a music quiz, which included a sing along and dancing.
We were a great team and had a lot of fun. Renee, our tour director, led the event and he is a ton of fun. Peter is our Serbian pianist, and he played all sorts of tunes to try to stump us.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7th
It's well preserved old Alsatian style homes. Very charming. Too charming! The place was teeming with tourists. This town gets millions of visitors annually.
 |
| One of the European Parliament buildings in Strasbourg |
 |
| Another world famous Cathedral in Strasbourg |
 |
| Ray's detail of the Cathedral |
 |
| There we many typical homes like this along the canal |
 |
| Kazzermell House. The most famous in town. It's 65 bottle glass windows have moulded wood around with scenes from the bible and from mythology. The locals are very proud of this one. |
 |
| A butcher's sign full of symbols to let people know that this butcher thinks Alsace should be French and not German. That was a big issue here for hundreds of years. The French finally won ...... |
 |
| "Petite France" ...... a section of the old town of Strasbourg |
Ray and I did the walking tour, then wandered till we found a the "Table of Alsace" Restaurant
and sat down for a break. He had a beautiful sole filleted at the table, and I had a rillette if fish and crab with a small salad. I had eaten a Salade Nicoise earlier with Julie while she had some soup in a cafe near the cathedral.
The kids went off to explore on their own. They tasted wine , bought cheese, and shopped till they dropped! After a brief rest back at the boat, Ray, David, Kait, and Julie returned to Strasbourg for dinner at "Le Crocodile" restaurant. I stayed on the boat for a simple dinner. Ray reported later that they had a smashing time tasting great wine, food and French cheeses!
On the boat after dinner there was a French singer and her accordion player. They did a one hour show of songs by famous French singers and songs about Paris. It was great and I was sorry Ray missed it. These were songs he likes. After she left, a passenger got up and played the spoons to
"Bring back My Bonnie" which inspired me to get up and sing a couple of songs with Peter, the pianist. The group in the bar seemed to like my "Fly me to the Moon", "Just the Way You Are" and "Girl from Ipanema".
FRIDAY, AUGUST 8th
Ray took the bus tour to THE BLACK FOREST..... I stayed on the boat to relax and later take a walking tour of the local town, BREISACH, right on the banks of the Rhine. I did a little shopping
at the local health food store, "Bio"..... and some retail therapy at the ladies store. Found a great pair of Jeans!
 |
| Breisach hilltop cathedral.... great views of the surrounding countryside form the courtyard up there. |
 |
| The Cukoo Clock Museum and shop. A stop on Ray's bus tour. I can't believe Ray didn't buy one....... |
good things we bought during the week.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 9th
Packing up and departure from the boat. Ray picked up our rental car and brought it curbside so we could load up. Then a 5 or 6 hour drive to Lake Como, and the Grand Hotel Tremezza. The drive over the ALPS was Spectacular! Amazing Swiss villages and farming country. Wildly rugged mountains in the clouds. WE stopped a few times for photos. The hotel was wonderful. Overlooking the lake! We all wished we had at least 4 days to be there and enjoy the spectacular scenery. Dave loved it so much he got up at 5:30 on Sunday morning to walk the town and take photos.
 |
| The Grand Hotel Tremezza on Lake Como |
SUNDAY, AUGUST 10th
We departed Lake Como at 8am after a lovely breakfast in the hotel dining room with fabulous panoramic views of the lake and surrounding mountains. Then we loaded up the van and Headed for VENICE!!!! Now, Venice is a tricky city to visit because there are no cars or any other transport except for boats. That's why we love it, but know what you are getting into. There are plenty of websites. I like the private one called Venice for Visitors. Check it out if you are going for the first time.
We arrived in Venice at about noon, returned the car, hired a porter for our 10 suitcases!! and walked down to board a water taxi to take us to our hotel, the famous GRITTI PALACE ..... It is in a perfect location on the grand Canal with a fabulous outdoor terrace overlooking a beautiful Church and all the daily boat traffic on the canal: vaporettos, gondolas, water taxis, and working boats. As I said, All commerce and travel in this city happens on the water. Ray and I had a very overpriced lunch with Julie on that terrace. It was worth every euro for the view of the buildings and the life around us. Then we all 5 walked to the Piazza San Marco to explore and show off Venice for the first time to Dave, Julie and Kait. We walked the side streets off the Grand Canal for well over an hour. It was a hot day in town, and GREAT to be there together. The Campanile, The Cathedral San Marco, the Bell Tower, the Doge's Palace, the Bridge of Sighs..... amazing!
 |
| The view across the Grand Canal from our Hotel Terrace dining room. |
 |
| Barefoot on the hotel room balcony |
 |
| The two most beautiful tourists in Venice!!! |
Dinner was excellent, and light Summer food. First a black squid ink pasta with a lobster sauce,
Then grilled sea bass and scampi and "verdure" all washed down with a lovely Italian Soave wine.
Delish! Then a slow stroll home and drinks on that famous terrace under a full moon. FABULOUS!
Almost forgot! We took a nighttime GONDOLA RIDE on the way home. Very peaceful way to do it.
 |
| From the Gritti Palace Bar at 11 pm.... |
MONDAY, AUGUST 11th
LAST DAY ...... I slept in..... and then a MOST WONDERFUL BREAKFAST on the terrace watching the beautiful Cathedral di Santa Maria from the 1600s across the water and all the boats.
Ray and I started walking over to the Scoula Grande di San Rocco located on the other side of the Accademia bridge. The famous Venetian painter, Tintoretto, was a member of this School, and he painted all the wall and ceiling art in this amazing building. Look online for photos of this and frankly everything else on our blog.
 |
| On our way to Scuola Grande. It was a hot Summer day! |
We stopped for lunch in a perfect little outdoor cafe for calzone and home made pasta with a sauce of cherry tomatoes and scampi. Yumm....
 |
| Here is my dish!! |
It was a great way to spend a hot Summer afternoon and avoid the crowds. This tour was all arranged by our concierge.
 |
| Isacco and his beautiful tour boat |
 |
| Canal Warriors on our last day in Venice: August 11, 2014 |
 |
| Instant Glam!!! |
 |
| Full Moon rises over Venice.... Shot from our dinner spot. |
Our thanks to Dave, Kait and Julie for organizing this adventure and for taking time out of their busy lives to travel with us. Thank you to my dear husband, Ray, for your great photos, companionship, and technical support on this blog.
For the next Venice trip, Tom has recommended some other good restaurants: Da Fiore, Osteria Alle Testiere, Antiche Carampane, Boccadoro, Il Refolo.
CIAO..... for now!
Cyn ( The Wanderer )
