Rhine Cruise Photo Review - A-Rosa Viva

[marysb]

Beethoven House

 

The Beethoven museum was very interesting, but so was the house itself.

-the house is almost 300 years old and has original sloping floors and wavy glass windows, beautiful doors and trim, little rooms, squeeky staircase etc. Very cool! No photos allowed inside - they lock up your bags and cameras.

 

 

Munsterplatz

 

 

Bonner Munster Catholic Church

The red horse chestnut blooms in this square were beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walked back to the ship by way of the university grounds

[marysb]

The summer weather was beautiful once again for us even though it was only the 12th of May. Families, tourists, and students were all enjoying the beautiful university grounds.

 

 

 

The shade of the blooming horse chestnut trees was nice and welcomed. We have some of these trees in Canada, but nothing like they have in Germany .... they were everywhere! Forests of them and all beautifully in bloom!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below: I found this statue very interesting ... at first I thought it was covered in graffiti paint :-O

'Homage to Beethoven', a 2014 monument by sculptor Markus Lüperz, is making waves in the composer's birthplace. The monument - one of 12 statues of the composer in Bonn, Germany - features an armless torso with a swollen head looking longingly into the distance, sitting in front of a blue glowing bust of the great composer. The new sculpture towers at 2.7 metres high - almost double the height of Beethoven himself - and weighs a whopping 1100 kilograms.

Despite not being a huge fan of Beethoven's music, Lüperz insists the sculpture embodies the personality of the great composer. The artwork is said to symbolise Beethoven's genius triumphing over adversity. "I tried to do justice to Beethoven with an intense work of art," he said.

 

 

 

As we head back to the ship, we see lots of people enjoying the sundeck before dinner.

[marysb]

 

 

After another delicious dinner, we had farewells and were introduced to the crew. Walter, reminded us of our tips to express our appreciation. He did say that on aRosa, the tip money was split equally among the entire crew. The officers got the same amount as the people doing laundry and making the cruise enjoyable for us was a total team effort. :)

(He also mentioned that he was a former cruise director on Viking and that the tips there were divi-ed up according to rank - the higher your rank, the more tips you got. )

 

Our Captain on the ship was great- allways around, very high profile and would chat with everyone. He looked very young and a lot of people were surprised when they found out they were just talking to the Captain. Some finally got up the nerve to ask him how old he was .... 32, but has been on the river since he was a teenager.

 

 

I don't know if anyone is still reading this, but way back on day one, I said that we were awakened by the ship jerking and banging around on the first night -

everyone just thought we were going through a lock.

 

Well our captain gave us the real story - the first officer was steering us by Loreley rock when around the bend came a freighter on the wrong side of the river ... our side. With some quick maneuvering we avoided a collision with only a bit of banging on the rocks. Apparently it was quite a feat and lucky for us the first officer has over 40 years of experience.

 

 

Sadly- time to pack and all luggage outside your door by 11pm.

 

We went back to Cologne overnight, and had an easy debarkation onto our bus after breakfast. Off to Weimar, Erfurt, Dresden, Potsdam and Berlin.

 

[marysb]

If anyone is interested in our post cruise land tour to Wiemar, Dresden and Berlin, you can check out our blog at this link.

http://maryandnormtravel.blogspot.ca/2016/06/rhine-cruise-part-5-post-cruise-land.html

 

 

 

 

Hope you have enjoyed the tour. Please feel free to ask any questions.

 

Mary

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thank you Mary. Yes, people are still reading! It's been great cruising along with you.

[mimmy52]

Thank you. That was a great trip report.

[ural guy]

Thank you Mary. Yes, people are still reading! It's been great cruising along with you.

 

Ditto. The blog as well.

 

Thanks!

[jpalbny]

If anyone is interested in our post cruise land tour to Wiemar, Dresden and Berlin, you can check out our blog at this link.

http://maryandnormtravel.blogspot.ca/2016/06/rhine-cruise-part-5-post-cruise-land.html

 

 

 

 

Hope you have enjoyed the tour. Please feel free to ask any questions.

 

Mary

 

Glad I came back to finish this blog. Enjoyed it very much, and now I really want to read the post-cruise part. We're trying to set up an independent land-based trip through this region next year. Dresden and Berlin are two places we want to visit.

[jpalbny]

Great blog and pictures!

 

Dresden just moved back up on the list. I don't think we will have enough time to see all the places that we want to see...this always happens when we're planning a Germany trip.

 

I really liked the composite shot that was at the end of your blog - the different manhole covers from each city. How cool! I might have to try that one.