Posted by David Porter on May 9, 2017 · 3 Comments
Visiting the Shrine of the Three Kings in the Cologne Cathedral in Germany with AmaWaterways
Note: click photographs for much larger views. ©2017, David A. Porter
While sailing the River Rhine with AmaWaterways, our first stop after departing Amsterdam was Cologne, Germany. And the highlight of any Cologne city tour is the famous Cologne Cathedral which draws more visitors each year than anywhere in all of Germany.
I’ll swing back around in a future article to talk about the Cologne Cathedral, but it’s interesting to know that the entire cathedral was built to house the Shrine of the Three Kings (pictured right) which is found at the altar at the end of this long nave.
If you spend any time visiting Europe’s Roman Catholic cathedrals, you’re going to find that a great many of them contain relics.
According to the Reliquarian website, “Almost since the dawn of Christianity, the physical remains of holy places, holy persons, and objects with which holy persons came into contact were believed to possess divine power. Known as relics, these objects were trusted to protect, heal, and perform all manner of miracles on behalf of those who believed in them.”
While I’m not persuaded, like some of my Roman Catholic friends and family, that these objects possess special powers, I do find it interesting that every major cathedral in Europe found it important to be in possession of an important relic. Here’s more from the folks at Reliquarian on the Shrine of the Three Kings:
“… Many years later, “a little before the feast of Christmas, there appeared a wonderful Star above the cities where these three kings dwelt, and they knew thereby that their time was come when they should pass from earth.” Together, they agreed to build “a fair and large tomb” at the Hill of Vaws, “and there the three Holy Kings, Melchior, Balthazar, and Jasper died, and were buried in the same tomb by their sorrowing people.” As Mark Rose observed in an article for Archeology, “If we were to assume that this actually happened, that all three died at the same place at the same time, it might have been in the mid-first century (since the kings were adults already in Bethlehem).”
Two centuries later, the Historia explains that Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, journeyed to Ind and recovered the bodies of the three kings from their tomb on the Hill of Vaws. She put them into a single chest ornamented with great riches and brought the relics to Constantinople and the church of Saint Sophia, also known as the Hagia Sophia. In the late sixth century, under the Emperor Mauricius, the relics were translated to Italy, where “they were laid in a fair church in the city of Milan.”
The relics of the three kings remained in Milan until the twelfth century when the city of Milan rebelled against the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I, also known as Frederick Barbarossa. In need of assistance against the Milanese, the emperor appealed to Rainald von Dassel, Archbishop of Cologne, who recaptured Milan and delivered the city to the emperor. In gratitude, and “at the Archbishop’s great entreaty,” the emperor transferred the relics to the Archbishop in 1164. The Archbishop, “with great solemnity and in procession,” carried the bodies of the three kings from Milan to Cologne, where they were placed in the church of Saint Peter. “And all the people of the country roundabout, with all the reverence they might, received these relics, and there in the city of Cologne they are kept and beholden of all manner of nations unto this day.” The Historia concludes, “Thus endeth the legend of these three blessed kings—Melchior, Balthazar, and Jasper.”
To see many more images of the Shrine of Three Kings on Google, click here.
Construction began on the Cologne Cathedral in 1248 and it would take over 7 centuries before the structure was completed in 1880.
As I mentioned above, I’ll circle back around to talk about the Cologne Cathedral in another post, but I thought you might be interested to know why this very famous Gothic cathedral was built in the first place. You may also be interested to know that the Cologne Cathedral is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is an absolute must when visiting Cologne, Germany.
To learn more about visiting Cologne, Germany with AmaWaterways, CLICK HERE.
And of course, to learn more about our personal experience sailing with AmaWaterways, or for booking information, please call Roaming Boomers Travel Services at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request (click here) and we’ll reach out to you.
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Posted by David Porter on May 5, 2017 · Leave a Comment
Sailing past the Lorelei with AmaWaterways as we sail the Rhine Gorge
Note: click all photos for larger views. ©2017, David A. Porter
Loreley, by Emil Krupa-Krupinski,1899
If you’re interested in seeing castles on your European river cruise, then the Rhine River is absolutely the river of choice. In fact, the Middle Rhine from Bingen to Koblenz is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and contains 40 castles within a 40-mile stretch in the narrow Rhine Gorge.
And perhaps the most famous and photographed stretch of the Rhine Gorge is that narrow section of the river that bends around the famous Lorelei.
The Lorelei is a 400 foot high, steep slate rock on the right bank of the River Rhine in the Rhine Gorge at Sankt Goarshausen in Germany which you can see in my photograph above (on the left) as another river cruise ship approaches our location on the river as we sailed the Rhine with AmaWaterways.
According to Wikipedia, “the name comes from the old German words lureln, Rhine dialect for “murmuring”, and the Celtic term ley “rock”. The translation of the name would therefore be: “murmur rock” or “murmuring rock”. The heavy currents, and a small waterfall in the area (still visible in the early 19th century) created a murmuring sound, and this combined with the special echo the rock produces to act as a sort of amplifier, giving the rock its name.[1] The murmuring is hard to hear today owing to the urbanization of the area. Other theories attribute the name to the many accidents, by combining the German verb “lauern” (to lurk, lie in wait) with the same “ley” ending, with the translation “lurking rock”.
Folklore and Modern Myth of Lorelei
Continuing with information from Wikipedia, “the rock and the murmur it creates have inspired various tales. An old legend envisioned dwarfs living in caves in the rock.
In 1801, German author Clemens Brentano composed his ballad Zu Bacharach am Rheine as part of a fragmentary continuation of his novel Godwi oder Das steinerne Bild der Mutter. It first told the story of an enchanting female associated with the rock. In the poem, the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, is accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to death, the bishop consigns her to a nunnery. On the way thereto, accompanied by three knights, she comes to the Lorelei rock. She asks permission to climb it and view the Rhine once again. She does so and thinking that she sees her love in the Rhine, falls to her death; the rock still retained an echo of her name afterwards. Brentano had taken inspiration from Ovid and the Echo myth.
In 1824, Heinrich Heine seized on and adapted Brentano’s theme in one of his most famous poems, “Die Lorelei”. It describes the eponymous female as a sort of siren who, sitting on the cliff above the Rhine and combing her golden hair, unwittingly distracted shipmen with her beauty and song, causing them to crash on the rocks. In 1837 Heine’s lyrics were set to music by Friedrich Silcher in the art song “Lorelei”[2] that became well known in German-speaking lands. A setting by Franz Liszt was also favored and over a score of other musicians have set the poem to music.
The Lorelei character, although originally imagined by Brentano, passed into German popular culture in the form described in the Heine–Silcher song and is commonly but mistakenly believed to have originated in an old folk tale. The French writer Guillaume Apollinaire took up the theme again in his poem “La Loreley”, from the collection Alcools which is later cited in Symphony No. 14 (3rd movement) of Dmitri Shostakovich.
In my photograph below, you can see a couple shooting a photograph in front of the Lorelei statue that we passed just before my photograph at the top of our article.
Here is a photograph of Katz Castle, just before we began the bend around Lorelei…
… and here is another photograph I captured with my zoom lens.
As I mentioned in the top of my article, if you want to see castles, then the River Rhine should be your river of choice. We sailed with AmaWaterways, and to learn more about AmaWaterways, please CLICK HERE.
And for booking information, please call Roaming Boomers Travel Services at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request form (click here) and we’ll reach out to you.
PS – because of our affiliation with the $15 billion/year Virtuoso Travel Network, we generally have complimentary perks to share with you when you book AmaWaterways through our travel agency. Call us today!
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Posted by David Porter on May 4, 2017 · 31 Comments
Review: Sailing with AmaWaterways on the River Rhine
Above photo courtesy of AmaWaterways. Click all of my photos below for much larger views.
Roaming Boomers sailing with AmaWaterways on the River Rhine.
I’ve been staring at my computer screen for well over an hour as I struggle with how to share our experience sailing with AmaWaterways. Don’t get me wrong, we loved the experience. But, it seems that if you use the word “review”, then there exists an expectation in the travel industry that you’re going to say that this river cruise line is better than that.
Further, when we’re talking to the folks about the various lines, they all seem to want to know two things:
- What is the best river cruise line, or
- What is the best deal on a river cruise.
Therefore, we recommend first determining the region/itinerary that best suites your desires, and then sort out which flavor of the available river cruise lines best suites your travel style.
And of course, we’re here to help you sort that out.
This was our fourth river cruise. So far, we sailed with Uniworld, twice with Viking, and now with AmaWaterways. And, we’ve sailed the Rhine, the Danube, and the rivers in both of the wine regions in southern France.
AmaWaterways just might be the perfect blend of luxury, value, comfort, and experience.
You might ask, “which was your favorite?” Frankly, I don’t have an answer. They were all wonderful experiences, and perhaps best differentiated as different flavors. Further, we’ve helped hundreds and hundreds of folks book river cruises over the years (on all of the major river cruise lines) and they’ve all, with rare exceptions, come back happy and wanting to go again.
In my humble opinion, all of the popular river cruise lines start at, let’s say 4-star. And because there are passengers who enjoy different levels of luxury, there are river cruise lines that cater to those who desire a little more pampering aboard ship, and therefore, some have butlers, some have extravagant interior design, some belong to world-renowned culinary societies, some have more suites than others, and some have very high staff-to-passenger ratios.
I suppose, if you forced me to put a star on our AmaWaterways experience, I would call it a 4.5-star experience. While we didn’t have butlers waiting to serve our every need, I also think that AmaWaterways was a step above some of the river cruise lines that I might be inclined to call a 4-star experience. Again, what I call the 4-star river cruise lines are very nice. AmaWaterways, in our opinion, is simply a step above.
So, for some, AmaWaterways just might be the perfect blend of luxury, value, comfort, and experience. I suspect Goldilocks might say, “This is perfect. Not too spartan, yet not too swanky”.
So, rather than play the ratings game, let me share with you some of the distinguishing features sailing the River Rhine with AmaWaterways on the maiden voyage of the AmaKristina that stood out to us:
Highlights of our AmaWaterways River Cruise
- First Impressions: you never get a second chance to create a first impression. Therefore, river cruise lines have spent considerable time and money to make certain that your first impression is a good one. The staff is there with smiles, a glass of bubbly, and all ready to make certain that your cruise begins with a powerful first impression. Our first impressions with AmaWaterways were fabulous and we appreciated how welcome the staff made us in the first few minutes aboard. To read more about our first impressions and see more photos from our first steps aboard, click here.
- Our Stateroom – perhaps our second first impression (is there such a thing?) was when we walked into our stateroom. We were impressed. To learn more about our stateroom and see photos, click here.
Note: click photo for a much larger view.
Carol with AmaWaterways Cruise Manager Dejan Stancic
- Number of Passengers – the river cruise ships sailing the Rhine are predominantly all the same size. However, there is quite a difference in the number of passengers you’ll find on these ships from cruise line to cruise line. The AmaKristina accommodates 158 passengers where some cruise lines will pack north of 190 people on the same size ship. Having fewer passengers onboard gives everyone more elbow room, and you’ll really feel the difference in the dining room and the common areas.
- Pool, Hot Tub, Gym, and Spa – some river cruise companies have removed these resources as they are little used on river cruises. If you desire these amenities, they’re all available on AmaWaterways, and it allowed me to get a haircut when I first got onboard.
- Fine Dining – foodies are certain to enjoy the cuisine on AmaWaterways. While other cruise lines have wonderful cuisine, AmaWaterways has fabulous cuisine. In fact, AmaWaterways is proud to be the only river cruise line to be invited to join the La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs – a prestigious international culinary society.
Castles, Castles Everywhere on the River Rhine
- Wine Cruises – oenophiles will also be tickled to death with AmaWaterways as they host a plethora of wine cruises each year, replete with on-board wine experts hosting wine-tastings most days. Further, AmaWaterways was last year inducted the Connetablie de Guyenne, the third oldest vinous brotherhood in Bordeaux.
- The Chef’s Table – each night, AmaWaterways offers guests an included, by-reservation specialty restaurant called The Chef’s Table offering an absolutely fabulous wine-pairing meal with the chef cooking your meal in plain sight in a glass-enclosed kitchen.
- Shore Excursions – most river cruise lines include a city tour in each city. These are generally half-day morning tours, and most offer them in gentle walkers, active, and standard flavors. With AmaWaterways, however, you’ll many times have a variety of included shore excursion to choose from. For example, when we were docked in Manheim, we had the choice of a Heidelberg tour, a Heidelberg Philosophers’ Hike, or a completely different journey to Speyer. Plus, each ship has a fleet of complimentary bicycles, so you could simply bike off on your own, or join several regularly scheduled bicycle tours.
Very comfy spaces to relax as you sail by the Rhine Castles
- Water Level Issues – high or low water levels can throw a monkey wrench into your dream river cruise. AmaWaterways likes to point out that while other cruise lines are busing you around Europe when water level issues occur, their specially designed ships, with low draft and specially designed bridges, are more likely to keep you sailing right along.
Sailing past the Lorelei in the Rhine Gorge
Bottom Line
Carol and I really enjoyed sailing the River Rhine with AmaWaterways. This journey allowed us to sample another of Europe’s great river regions, as well as sampling another well regarded river cruise line.
AmaWaterways has garnered an impressive list of awards over the years, including “Best River Cruise Line” five years in a row at our annual Virtuoso Travel Week conference each year. Because of the long list of awards they’ve gathered each year, the recommendations of our peers, and the raving fan comments of our clients, and now our own personal experience, our confidence level with AmaWaterways continues to increase.
If you’re looking for a river cruise line that is above the entry level river cruise companies, but don’t feel the need for your own personal butler, then we think AmaWaterways just might be the ticket for you. As I said above, we greatly enjoyed our experience and can recommend it with great confidence to you.
To learn more about AmaWaterways, CLICK HERE.
For more information, or to book your own fun AmaWaterways river cruise, call our travel agency office at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request form (click here) and we’ll reach out to you.
PS – because of our affiliation with the $15 billion/year Virtuoso Travel Network, we generally have complimentary perks to share with you when you book AmaWaterways through our travel agency. Call us today!
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
Posted by David Porter on April 22, 2017 · 9 Comments
Come take a peek inside our AmaWaterways Category BA Stateroom on the Violin Deck of the AmaKristina on her maiden voyage on the Rhine River.
Note: Click photo for a much larger view. ©2017, David A. Porter
In our last article, we shared with you our first impressions as we walked aboard the AmaWaterways AmaKristina. Now, come let us show you around our Category BA Stateroom on the Violin Deck (top deck for staterooms). Be sure to click the photo above for a much larger view. And, in a future article, I’ll share with you all of the various staterooms aboard the AmaKristina.
The Category BA Stateroom is 210 sq. ft. and includes what AmaWaterways calls a Twin-Balcony. As you can see in the back of my iPhone panorama, Carol is sitting in a nook and behind her is a french balcony and to the right of her is a walk-out balcony with two chairs and a small table.
Our first impressions were pleasing as we began to explore our digs for the next eight days. On the desk was an Apple iMac which offered Internet access and also doubled as the stateroom’s flat-screen TV. The bed was comfy, and if you like, the cabin steward has a menu of pillows to choose from if you’re not fond of the soft pillows on the bed.
I sleep on the right-hand side of the bed, and with my broad shoulders, I found that I needed to side-step to get into the bed at night. But, I didn’t find that objectionable as I was more than happy to have that extra space in the bathroom.
If you look to the very far right of my photograph, you’ll see just a tiny piece of a window that is between the stateroom and the bathroom. That is one of those peek-a-boo windows that you can make frosted or clear with a switch in the bathroom.
If I had any advice for AmaWaterways, I would have suggested that they forgo this and put the extra money in the bed. The bed was comfortable, but it wasn’t one of those beds that you lie down and and think that you may never want to leave. Know what I mean?
Plus, while there was a very dim deep-blue LED nightlight in the ceiling of the bathroom, it did shine a bit of light into the stateroom when one of us went to the bathroom during the night. If you were sleeping, it wasn’t bright enough to wake you, but light nonetheless.
As you can see in my photograph above, the bathrooms are nicely appointed.
To me, this bathroom felt a little larger than those on comparably sized competitor’s staterooms, and the shower was definitely larger. I appreciated that.
With some of the showers on competing ships, you must be a bit of a contortionist just to get into the shower. And, you must also be able to pirouette like a ballerina to even take a shower.
We found this bathroom to be comfortable, luxurious, and quite functional. Good job AmaWaterways!
Overall, we were very comfortable in our stateroom, and we think AmaWaterways has done a wonderful job in apportioning the space in the room. Sure, getting into bed at night was a bit of a squish, but as I said above, I appreciated the extra space elsewhere in the stateroom.
Lastly, my video above gives you a taste of our first morning aboard ship. We were just leaving Amsterdam, I had the balcony door open, the fresh, cool breeze was filling the room, and we greatly enjoyed the passing scenery and the anticipation of our coming adventure as we sipped our morning coffee overlooking our still ruffled bed.
Ahhhh…..this is exactly the getaway we were looking for.
Here’s a photograph that I shot from our balcony as we were farther up the Rhine in the Netherlands on our way to Cologne in Germany. As you can see, the leaves were not on the trees yet in the Netherlands.
Note: click photograph for a much larger view. ©2017, David A. Porter
As we got farther along in our journey, into Germany, France, and Switzerland, we found leaves on the trees. And in Germany, they were just beginning to harvest their famous white asparagus, or asparagoose as the Germans called it.
Stay tuned for more of our AmaWaterways adventures in coming articles, and to learn more about booking your own AmaWaterways river cruise, CLICK HERE.
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Posted by David Porter on April 18, 2017 · 3 Comments
Our First Impressions Boarding AmaWaterways AmaKristina in Amsterdam
One of the curious facts we learned when we started our travel agency was that travelers’ peak excitement levels are prior to the actual travel experience.
Think about it, if you’ve always dreamed of visiting the Eiffel Tower, and you finally book a trip to actually visit the Eiffel Tower, you’re going to spend countless hours dreaming and setting expectations in your mind of what it will be like. Right?
And then, when you’re actually standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, reality is going to come smack dab face to face with your expectations. When people see the Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, they always come saying to themselves, “it’s smaller than I thought it would be”. Reality didn’t match their expectations.
Cruise lines and luxury travel brands understand this phenomenon very well, and the smart ones spend a great deal of time making sure that those first impressions match luxury travelers very high expectations.
As you can see in our photographs above, when we hopped out of our cab to board the AmaWaterways AmaKristina we were greeted by the co-captain, our luggage was whisked aboard the ship, and we were escorted up the gangway into the ship.
Once inside, the bubbly was flowing and our eyes were treated to a luxurious and somewhat futuristic feeling lobby with clean lines and a beautiful glass elevator lined by eager staff to make us welcome.
Our reservation was confirmed at the front desk, our photographs were taken for security reasons, and in no time we were up the stairs and escorted to our suite.
Good job AmaWaterways. We felt very welcome, and our expectations were still very high as we were excited to see our suite and our dreams of sailing the Rhine were still keeping our neurotransmitters firing in rapid succession.
In our next article, we’ll show you photographs of our suite and share with you the different types of staterooms available on the AmaWaterways AmaKristina.
Stay tuned…
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The Roaming Boomers
