At 1 am, my husband K was sick again and had to take a dose of Imodium. At some point, he got up and took another. At 6:30, I got up and took Mucinex. What a pair we are!
We got up at 8:15, and by 8:45, we joined our daughter J for breakfast. She had gotten the table near the window and we got to watch the area around Bonn go by. Sometimes, it just looked like a park. But, then we'd pass something like the Auermühle, an old mill which is now offices, or a church. Then, it would be back to random things like a huge boat ramp or a sandy beach. Not what I expected of the river.
J found pastries with thick chocolate sprinkles back on the serving table and got one for herself and one for me. I ordered the waffle with berries, but she had her omelet. K just had toast and put butter on it, although I was not convinced it was a great idea.
As we ate, the landscape continued to slip by. We saw interesting houses, but also a barge at what seemed to be a chemical dock. A police boat surprised me, but I suppose the river needs to be patrolled, too.
After breakfast, K went to the cabin to rest. J and I put on coats and were up in the 63° air on the deck at 9:25. As we took our turn about the deck, we had a good view of both riverbanks. This house is absolutely the largest single family house I've ever seen in Germany. It was north of Niederkassel and perhaps near Wesseling, where we could see St. Germanus Catholic church.
Our vantage point allowed us to observe the backyards of some folks. I found the staircase of this apartment building interesting. The two back yards on either side of it could not be more different from each other.
Speaking of homes, some of the barges that we saw seemed to be a type of home. They had curtains in the windows and often had a car up on the back deck. This one was unusual for having two cars.
One thing that amazed me was how close these houses in Wesseling were to the petrochemical plant. It seemed really unhealthy to me. And the plant just spread so far along the river and around the bend.
The fence we saw, when we pulled up even with the break between the houses and the plant did not impress me as much more than a window shade pulled down. I then saw a tower with Evonik on it. It turns out that the company is headquartered in Essen, but Wesseling is one of its largest sites. The website notes: "Over 1,200 employees of the service units and the Industrial Chemicals, Inorganic Materials, Health & Nutrition, Performance Polymers, and Coatings & Additives Business Units produce a wide range of chemicals at the site and provide the associated services." They produce "Chemical products for manufacturing care products, tires and rubber products, paper, paints and coatings, as well as for pharmaceutical synthesis and use in animal health".
We've noticed that an awful lot of shipping goes up and down this river and, to a lesser extent, the Mosel. A lot of it is heavy goods that would cost a lot to ship over land. For example, this barge, which was actually at least a barge and a half, as we could see an extra one attached to the side. Those containers and all those cabs! The other neat thing, was that I noticed that the bridge was elevated on a hydraulic system, just like the one on our boat. I'm sure it is lowered for low bridges like our ship does.
Looking at the shoreline, we saw more and more industry. That's the reason many folks only cruise the Rhein gorge; it's the scenic part. The tanker in the second photo is at Godorf, but I couldn't find the name of the company.
We went back downstairs at 9:45 and then to the lounge at 10 to listen to the information on the disembarkation in Amsterdam. Since tomorrow is a tour day of various lengths, this was a good time to do this. We went back up on deck around 10:30.
I got very excited, when I saw these three buildings. I just loved the architecture- and engineering- that made them possible. Wikipedia found them interesting, too:
Kranhaus ("crane house", plural Kranhäuser) refers to each one of the three 17-story buildings in the Rheinauhafen of Cologne, Germany. Their shape, an upside-down "L", is reminiscent of the harbor cranes that were used to load cargo from and onto ships, two of which were left standing as monuments when the harbor was redesigned as a residential and commercial quarter in the early 2000s. Each building is about 62 m (203 ft) high, 70.2 m (230 ft) long, and 33.75 m (110.7 ft) wide. They were designed by Aachen architect Alfons Linster and Hamburg-based Hadi Teherani of BRT Architekten. Construction began on 16 October 2006, and the first building was completed in 2008.
The southern and middle buildings provide approx. 16,000 m2 (170,000 sq ft) of office space each, on 15 levels. The northern one harbors 133 luxury apartments totalling about 15,000 m2 (160,000 sq ft) on 18 levels.
The Dom is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. Its spires make it the second tallest in Europe (Ulm is #1) and the third tallest church in the world. It is Roman Catholic and its official name is Hohe Domkirche Sankt Petrus (Cathedral Church of St. Peter), but I have never heard it called that. Construction began in 1248, but stopped in the 1560s. They didn't really get funding together until 1840 and it was finished in 1880 in accordance with the original plans. As was intended, it holds the relics of the Three Kings and it is a World Heritage Site and Germany's most visited landmark. Although I'd learned that the Allies used it as a navigational tool for bombing runs due to how huge it was and that they did not bomb it, it was in fact hit by at least 14 bombs. It continued to stand and there are photos of it with the flattened city around it. It is constantly being repaired and cleaned on the exterior. You're lucky, if you see it without scaffolding. The train station is right next door, which was convenient when my family changed trains there on a trip from Belgium to München. We stashed the luggage in lockers and visited the cathedral before the next train. I visited it once with students, too.
Being a Catholic town, there are plenty of churches. The one to the left in the first photo is Groß Sankt Martin zu Köln (Great St. Martin in Cologne). In the second photo, it seems they have finished cleaning the back of the Dom.
The boat cruised up to the bridge that was just beyond the cathedral and then turned and came back to a spot that was marked for one of the river lines. Ama does not have its own docks, we've noticed. J and I noticed a festival/carnival up there and we'd passed another. We thought that if the boat did not dock relatively near the chocolate museum, we could go to those instead.
Just before noon, we went to lunch. On the table, we found the appetizer, as usual. Today, there was shrimp cocktail, smoked trout mousse, Reibekuchen (potato pancake), and gouda quiche. Who in the world thought up smoked trout mousse??
J and I ordered two different things, so that we could split them. I ordered Semmelknoedel Dumpling (Bread Dumpling, which you could tell when cut open) with forest mushroom ragout and broccoli. J ordered Klassik German Beef Roulade with red cabbage, potato dumplings, and Spätburgunger Sauce, which I'm positive should have been Spätburgunder, as in the wine. Both dishes were delicious, although, when Nina asked about them, I said that the Roulade normally has a pickle in the middle. She reported this, which caused the chef to come out and insist there had been one. Neither J nor I saw or tasted one.
K felt he was up to real food and ordered the Alpen Wrap, which had lettuce, smoked ham, mountain cheese, gherkin, chopped eggs, sweet mustard dip, potato wedges and salad. J and I felt it best to not taste it.
For dessert, I had Amarena Ice Cream with cherry ragout and whipped cream. Very nice. J ordered cheese cake with blackberry ragout and whipped cream. K got adventurous and had the cheese plate, which was a selection of European cheeses with biscuits and chutney. Biscuits being crackers, of course.
I checked the temperature before we left the dining room at 1:05 and it was 75°, felt like 73°. We would not be needing coats. In the cabin, I looked out the window, but did not go on our veranda, because it was too close to the gangway. It was amazing how many people headed down our gangway thinking it was of the line on the sign. Had they bothered to look at the boat more closely, they would have seen it wasn't. A crewman went out to stop people and soon the captain himself was out there and directing people to a different dock. Meanwhile, folks from our boat were gathering up on the concrete walkway over the riverbank to go on their excursions.
We checked Google maps and found that the walk to the museum was no more than 20 minutes. We felt that was doable and K decided he was up to going along. At 1:37, we disembarked and joined the throngs of people on the Rheingarten here along the Rheinufer (Rhine riverbank). It was Pentecost and warm and that no doubt brought out more people.
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We did not dilly dally, but did pause to take photos of the museum as we approached.
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Outside of the museum, there were a couple of photo ops.
The lobby was mobbed. While K went to leave the backpack at the coat check, J and I got in line at 1:55. We saw some people skirting the ticket buying line and others on their phones. We soon decided that we'd get in a lot quicker, if we bought the tickets online. So, I pulled up the museum site on my phone and at 2:02 had secured tickets for K and me at 14 Euros each and for J for 16 Euros. When K joined us, we went to the line to enter and were in at 2:05.
The hall leading from the ticket check-in to the actual museum had signs about Hans Imhoff, who founded the museum in 1992. He'd started a chocolate factory and had taken over other brands, such as Stollwerck, which is still around and owns other brands but is owned by someone else as of 2002. That company stopped its work with the museum in 2006 and Lindt & Sprüngli came in to partner in producing exhibits.
The exhibits are very educational. So many signs with so much info! For instance, cocoa fruit is a kind of berry while the cocoa beans inside are seeds. They even had a "rainforest" that was behind two sets of doors on either end to maintain the conditions. There was a line, of course. Besides cocoa plants, there were beautiful flowers.
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There were explanations of farming techniques, harvesting, drying, and fermenting. They did not shy away from the unpleasant topics.
I was amazed to see how the beans are transported to Germany from Africa. It looked terribly unsanitary. I just didn't think of foodstuffs as being transported that way.
After all of that education about the beans, it was time to see how they are turned into chocolate.
I've been on tours before that talked about the making of chocolate. I just don't remember seeing anything quite so comprehensive in person. Here we saw how their tiny 5 g chocolate Napolitains or Naps were made. It was seriously cool to see. It was all behind glass or plexiglass and was making the real thing. The pictures of the various vats have no interest. These are from the work in the big glass room.
There was a lady in white chef's clothes and hat in there, working. I never did see how she got in. I did think that it was impressive that she could just ignore everyone on the other side of the glass and do her work.
There was a very long line, and being trained by going to Disney World, we got in it. It turned out it was to get a Nap sample. There was a contraption that you turned and it would drop one. It was milk chocolate and tasted fine, but I believe I've established that I like dark.
This is a museum. So, on the one side of the room were old machines used in chocolate making back in the day.
At the far end of the room, backed by glass with a terrific view of the river, was their famous chocolate fountain. Two more women in white manned it. You stood in line and got a wafer cookie that had been dipped in the fountain. Although it was milk chocolate, it wasn't a bad experience.
The next part of the museum was upstairs. J found an elevator to spare my knees. Up there was chocolate molding. It was interesting to see these and how the non-chocolate aspects were added.
We lost track of K for time and wound up going downstairs in another elevator thinking he'd gone down and exited. So, we were down in the rotunda below, when we saw him up near the elevator. Time was moving and we needed to. We sent him to get the backpack, while we went in the shop.
You may recall that back in Switzerland, I said we were not buying Lindt, because we could get it at home. But, here was Lindt like we never see it at home. At home, we can get bars and chocolate bunnies. Here were all sorts of delights.
I could not find a fancy box that was just dark chocolate with no nuts or anything. We simply didn't have the time to choose from all those balls, because it was now 4:10. However, J found a couple of bags of dark chocolate from a different brand for me. And I found a jar of Lindt dark chocolate. Think Nutella without the hazelnuts or milk chocolate. I knew it would be great on cream cheese on bagels. There were no pins or postcards, unfortunately. There was this marvelous picture on the wall near the registers. We paid for our purchases and were out at 4:15.
As we hurried along to the boat, I got this photo of the former harbor toll house that is now part of the museum and, in fact, houses the tropical part.
We were on the boat at 4:32. This gave a chance for a pit stop and to be able to drop off the chocolate in our cool cabins, because it was now a hot 81° outside.
We were off the boat again at 4:37. As we stepped off the gangplank, we saw some fellow passengers with shopping bags marked 4711 and I remarked on it, since I expected no stores to be open on a Sunday, let alone Pentecost. After we'd crossed the Rheingarten on our way to the Dom, there was a cool contrast between the Bauhaus style of the nearby Museum Ludwig roof line and the very Gothic look of the Dom in the distance.
To reach the Dom involved climbing stairs up from the Rheingarten. My knees were not happy about this. K saw a ramp to the side and insisted we use it. That did cut off some of the stairs.
As we went around the Dom to the right, we passed the Hauptbahnhof.
Passing on this side of the Dom gave us a really good view of details of its architecture such as its flying buttresses.
Coming around to the front of the Dom, we could see the Blau-Gold-Haus on the other side of the square. It was built in the 1950s by the architect Wilhelm Koep for 4711, and it still prominently displays 4711 on the facade. The colors of a 4711 bottle are blue and gold, which no doubt inspired the colors of the building. The building has a steel skeleton and was place under a preservation order in 1991. In 2010-2012, this important example of German post-war modernism was gutted and converted into a hotel. There are still retail spaces on the ground floor.
It was now about 4:50 and after taking a couple of shots of the front of the cathedral and letting K take one of J and me, I had an insane thought that had brewing since seeing those shopping bags. I remembered that there was a 4711 shop down the street and across from the Blau-Gold-Haus. I asked J and K to wait and I took off.
I found an open shop about where I expected it, but it did not look like the one I remembered, which had had a fountain of 4711. This was more of a tourist shop. I hurried in and frantically searched for a bottle of 4711 that wasn't too large or too expensive. I like the stuff, but not to a crazy extent. I found what I wanted and hustled to the checkout. The clerk wasn't overly fast, but I paid and hurried back to K and J triumphant.
There was a steady stream of folks heading into the church. J was ahead of me as we made our way through all the tourists in the narthex. We made a beeline for the center aisle, where there was a man dressed in a manner that made me immediately think of the Anglican church and its sextants or whatever. J grabbed a book from the table. So, I didn't. He asked her something and she gave the correct answer, for he waved her up the aisle. When I reached him with K in tow, he asked me, "Gottesdienst?" to which I replied "Ja," really happy that I knew that was another word for Mass. We were seated at about 5.
The Mass started immediately with a hymn and I noticed electronic numbers on a nearby pillar and looked the hymn up in the book, which J had handed me. I was impressed that this old cathedral found a way to project the numbers and my church can't even announce them.
The great thing about a Catholic Mass is that it is basically the same everywhere. Everything happens in the same order, which is good, because German hymnals are just that-hymnals. No order of Mass, no prayers of the Mass. It's a good exercise for testing your memory of the prayers in English, which you tend to just rattle off every Sunday. When I calmed down from all the rushing, I realized that I basically understood the hymn we were singing. It is such a thrill, when the non-retail, non-food vocabulary comes back to me.
When we reached the First Reading, which was from the Acts of the Apostles, since it was Pentecost, I recognized it without remembering first that it was Pentecost. I whispered to K and J what the general story was. I was able to understand some of the Second Reading, too, in spite of the echo and the noise of the tourists far in the back of church. When we reached the Gospel, I was able to tell them that, too, and it was just so cool! Now, did I get all of the prayers? No. But, when we reached the Our Father (Vater Unser), it came back to me. It's been years since I said it in German and there it was again. This entire chance at being in Mass in this magnificent cathedral just struck me as one awesome blessing.
That said, I did have a coughing attack during Mass. K had brought the backpack with the Coke that we were now carrying around and I was able to get it to stop.
After Mass ended at 5:59, folks were heading out the west side door and others were being taken up to the choir stalls behind the altar. We took some photos, of course. I'm afraid that while this one shows the main altar, it doesn't really show off the stained glass windows very well. Evidently, the clerestory windows in the choir were completed before the choir stalls were installed in 1311. The 10,170 feet of glass surface there contains the largest series of stained glass windows still existing from that time.
I did get a couple of stained glass photos. The first, which, admittedly, is not great, is of the Großes Westfenster and I really can't figure out the story of this Great Western Window. The second, though, is definitely the Three Magi, for whose relics this cathedral was built. It turned out great.
My parting shot was meant to get that incredible stand for the Easter candle along with the main altar, but has the bonus of some of the choir stalls.
We were out at 6:02 and the area was still bustling with people. We could just barely make out the horsemen at the edge of the Hohenzollern Brücke that carries the railroad tracks across the Rhein as they leave the Hauptbahnhof. However, a few minutes later, we had a great view of the Kaiser Wilhelm II statue there.
Behind the Dom and the Museum Ludwig, the area is known as Heinrich Böll Platz, an author I'd studied in college. Coming down the ramp again, I had a nice view up there of the Dom spires.
Folks were cooling off in the fountain pool in the Rheingarten.
Looking up at the bridge with the AmaPrima in the foreground, I saw so many people up there. I had not realized that it was also a pedestrian bridge. Maybe it was just for today. As we approached the gangway, this was the last time we'd be on German soil on this trip. I don't know when we are coming back, either, but we hope to. The last photo of the bridge is taken from the gangplank.
J and I went up to Rolf's little office on the 3rd deck landing, because the luggage tags were posted. We were not on a list, because we were getting ourselves to the hotel in two days. Rolf gave us the tags that were not associated with a specific departure time.
At 7, we went to dinner. I started with the "Tropical Booster", which was garden greens, marinated pineapple carpaccio, carrots julienne, sprouts, pomegranate, and mango dressing. Quite refreshing. K and J both chose Beef Consommé with noodles, celery, and tomatoes.
For once, we all changed the same main course. It was "Free Range Chicken Ballotine, which had ciabatta-truffle-wine grapes, herb stuffed chicken, port wine jus, glazed vegetable, and porcini risotto. It was delicious.
K had no problem with dessert. He chose "Ice Coffee Flying Dutchman", which had coffee ice cream, apricot brandy, and whipped cream. Neither J nor I drink coffee. So, that was out, as was the other real choice Forest Berry Tiramisu. We weren't really interested in the fresh fruits or cheese option. When Nina heard this, she asked what kind of ice cream we liked. We said chocolate and that's what she got us. All part of her wanting us to be happy.
As we finished dinner at 8:10, Nina stopped me to say that all was arranged for tomorrow night. I thanked her and hoped J hadn't heard.
We went to the upper deck to be able to see the part of the Rhein we were sailing. How very different it was from what I imagined! There were far more open spaces than I expected. I know that the area around Düsseldorf, the capital of the state, is very industrialized. I really expected to see that from Köln north.
The first thing we saw was Hitdorf near Leverkusen. That side of the river, the right side, must not have been deep enough for barges and boats, because there were no docks here. In fact, there was a bit of a beach.
Nearby, we saw a road leading down to the river and I realized it had to be a ferry stop.
A little farther on was the Yachthafen Monhein-Hitdorf. You don't think of yachts, when you think of the river. I'm not sure we'd seen any out on the river at all.
And then, in just a minute, it was just green space.
And, in another minute, a factory, although I couldn't identify it.
At 8:20, we saw this gathering on the beach. It looked pretty comfortable.
These two are from Monheim itself. Clever, the way the restaurant advertised. I really love what I assume is an apartment building in the second.
At 8:21, we were surprised to see cows grazing down near the water. This is a major waterway of Europe and there were cows. Then, a moment later, there were horses just hanging out loose in front of a house.
At 8:23, we had this just idyllic view.
I think there has to be some story here- a well-worn path, a single chair, a neat fire pit, and an upside down section of tree.
With these folks, the question was, "where did they come from?".
This sign is a warning to boats about the loading of liquid gas ahead and tells the minimum distance to be from the ships that are loading whether your ship is moving or standing still.
Then, we came upon the plant. It was INEOS on Alte Straße 201 in Köln, but really closer to Dormagen and Worringen, the latter is a Stadtteil (district) of Köln. It's a rather fancy building here near the river.
Opposite the plant, the view was rather different. This was LSG Monheimer Aue (Floodplain). Note that there is a wall along the river.
Then, suddenly, sheep!
And then, it goes from bucolic to a giant crane.
At 8:32, we saw one of INEOS's ships at a loading facility. I thought it was interesting that the slogan was in English.
It turned out that this was not their plant, but the Dormagen site of Covestro, a German company. According to their website:
Dormagen is the headquarters of the Managing Director of Covestro’s
facilities in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). With 60 acres, it is
Covestro's largest production site in North Rhine-Westphalia. Nearly
1,900 committed and experienced employees work at the site. They manufacturing precursor chemicals used in many everyday applications, such as furniture, sporting goods, car parts and personal ID cards.
With climate-friendly and resource-efficient technologies and processes, Covestro continues to set new standards in sustainability here. In 2022, the site received the internationally recognized ISCC Plus mass balance certification. As a result, Covestro can now offer its customers products manufactured with alternative raw materials - for example, components for rigid and flexible polyurethane (PU) foams, coatings, adhesive raw materials and thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU).
I just like the design on the building.
The Rhein floodplain here at the bend at Dormagen was just so pretty, even with plants in the distance.
At Monheim am Rhein, there were folks relaxing on the beach (not a term I normally think of for a river) and an old fishing boat on the water.
I was told by the tour guide on our Luther trip, not to bother cruising the whole Rhein. The part above the Rhein Gorge was uninteresting and ugly he said. I've loved it. I just didn't know that the river had these part that were empty of industry up here. And, it's really pretty, too.
It was now about 8:45 and we decided to call it a night. K and I decided to watch Book Club because I like the cast and the sequel is coming out. We enjoyed it.
One place I kind of wanted to see was Düsseldorf, the capital of Nordrhein-Westfalen. Imagine my surprise and delight, when we heard noise outside around 10:30 and I went out and used Google maps to discover here was Düsseldorf. There seemed to be a festival along the river. The photos aren't great due to the night and movement, but here they are of the Altstadt (old town), including the Tonhalle (concert hall).
I woke up at 12:55 and looked outside, curious as to where we were. For some reason, the phone did not come up with a location, when I took the photo below. But, I recognized that flame from driving past Elizabeth, New Jersey. That's a flare at a refinery. I suspected we were in the industrial heartland, the area of the Ruhr, which meets the Rhein in Duisburg.
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