As Spring kicked in this year, I found myself immersed in the coming election—no, not the 2020 war of the worlds to dump Trump, but the 2019 local polling here in Fairfax County. Already I had interviewed three School Board candidates, two Board of Supervisors Chairman candidates, and a Hunter Mill Supervisor candidate; and still had at least eight more to see.
But, first Fran and I decide to recharge the old batteries. So, we headed to Dulles to catch a United Airlines flight to Zurich, Switzerland to begin twelve days of cruising the Middle Rhine and Moselle Rivers and a two-day stopover in Paris. In fact, the dreaded 8-hour United flight on its 787 Dreamliner didn’t turn out so badly. At least, my knees were not grinding into the spine of the person in front of me, and I was able to read and watch a couple of movies comfortably. Then we were in Zurich!
After a day admiring Zurich’s enviably efficient urban transit system and the views of distant Alps, we were off to Basel, then to Strasbourg. The latter is a truly charming old city with a history as part of Germany, now in France and bordering Switzerland. In Basel and Strasbourg, I particularly noticed the colorful half-timbered homes and buildings lining their streetscapes. Inside we found fine local beers and some of the sweetest chocolates we’ve ever tasted.
A short bus ride and we were in Kehl, Germany boarding our long (440 feet), thin (+/- 44 feet wide) river cruiser, the Viking Kvasir. This was to be the heart of our trip, sailing the Middle Rhine River down the Rhine Gorge from Bingen and Mainz to Koblenz, perhaps the most storied region of castles and fortifications in the world. The weather, forecast to be cloudy, rainy and cool, turned out near perfect — sunny and cool, ideal for sitting on deck watching picturesque towns, castles from the middle ages, vineyards, and bustling commerce on and alongside the Rhine. Castles ranged from modest ruins to majestic fortifications with long, slotted ramparts and spire watch towers that actually looked lived in. Mix in sites such as remnants of the bridge at Remagen and the storied Lorelei and it is like taking a journey through history. Thoroughly relaxing.
At the famed Confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle which flows into it at Koblenz, there is a plaza with a huge statue of German Emperor Wilhelm I. Here the Kvasir took a sharp left to go up the Moselle, where landscapes would become almost exclusively steep vineyards it seemed. Within a kilometer or two of our turn, we noticed the Kvasir had slowed and was perilously close to shore. Fran and I looked up from our veranda and were surprised to see a man — the captain himself — on the top deck swing his leg over the rail and jump to the shore.
It was indeed the captain, carrying a shopping bag and trotting off toward the control house for a lock we were approaching. When I inquired about this unusual sight, the first mate told me that the officials of the lock (which would raise the Kvasir about 50 feet) did not have the proper paperwork for the ship to clear the lock, so the captain was hand-carrying the requisite documents to get us cleared to pass through the lock. Sure enough, the captain returned a little later. He stepped back onto the top deck the front of the control station, now level with us, and we cruised into the lock which promptly filled and lifted us up. Really. After that lock and several more, we arrived at Trier. There, all 192 passengers disembarked and boarded buses which drove us to Luxembourg. We took a walking tour of that tiny city/country which included a lovely American cemetery where several hundred WWII GI liberators of Luxembourg were laid to rest. FYI: Luxembourg has a national army of 600 soldiers—about the right size!
Then it was back on the bus for a long drive to Paris and our hotel near the Eiffel Tower for two nights. Highlights of Paris included a scrumptious dinner on a ship on the Seine docked about 100 yards from the Tower, and a tragically ironic visit to the Cathedral of Notre Dame—less than two weeks before a devastating fire ravaged that French icon. Then it was back across the pond and home.