Trier and Bernkastel

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Trier is Germany’s oldest city and is full of Roman ruins. Before breakfast, we walked out on the deck, and there was frost everywhere. We had a delightful breakfast and then met for our tour at 8:15. We took a bus to a church and started our tour. It was very cold! A lady with another group had slipped and hit her head, so an ambulance was called. We saw a lot of nice architecture, and luckily, our tour guide was a retired architect. We also saw the childhood home of Karl Marx. The highlight of the tour was the Black Gate, known as Porta Nigra. Then we had 45 minutes of free time, so we walked around the town. We visited a department store that had four floors, but it was quite warm. When we met back to get on the bus, we heard the lady was okay and would return to the ship.

When we got back to the ship, we had lunch. I had curried cauliflower soup, penne pasta, and a chocolate chip sundae. It was delicious. While we were at lunch, our ship went through a lock, and it was fun to watch it out of the dining room window. We were only inches from the wall on each side!

After lunch, we went up to the lounge and hung out for the afternoon. We saw the beautiful countryside full of vineyards as we traveled down the Moselle River. I knitted on my socks while I visited with Jane and her mother, Betty (from Charlotte). Then we sat and visited with 2 ladies from Pennsylvania, whom we had lunch with. At 4:45 pm, Elliot gave a talk about Bernkastell and tomorrow’s visit to Cochem.

At 5:30, we got off the ship in Bernkastell and walked around the town. Most of the stores were closed, but we found the pointed house (Wider on top than on the bottom). We also so the castle way up at the top of the mountain, but we didn’t go to it since it was dark. We got back to the ship around 6:30.

We had dinner at 7:15 and sat with Patty and John (Denver, CO), Judy and Mike, and Dell and Randy (Albany, NY)

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Reims Cathedral, Luxembourg Cemetery, and the Viking Herja

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We had to get our suitcases out in the hall before 6 am. I woke up at 5 am and fell back asleep. Thank goodness, I set my phone alarm and requested a wake-up call at 5:30. We put our suitcases out and went to breakfast at 6:00 a.m. At 7:40, we went to the lobby to identify our suitcases. Once we identified our suitcases on the sidewalk, we were allowed to board the bus.

We had a 2-hour bus ride to Reims, where we got a tour of the cathedral. It was a beautiful cathedral. The weather was very windy and very cold! After the tour, we had time for lunch, but when we tried the bakery, we would have had to sit outside. Instead, we decided to hit McDonald's. The food was served in reusable plastic containers. After that, we stopped by the bus to get our gloves and for Don to get his knit cap. We had 30 minutes to explore, but it started to rain and sleet. At 1 pm, we found Elliot, who told us that we could go to the bus. We had a 2 ½ hour bus ride to the Luxembourg American Cemetery, and we saw where General George Patton was buried. We had a 30-minute stop here and then headed to the ship.

 
We arrived the the Viking Herja in Trier at 5:30. We got on the ship and a crew member escorted us to our room (104). Our suitcases hadn’t arrived yet, so we went up to the Viking Lounge for a drink, and at 6:30, we had the Welcome Aboard speech. There are 54 crew members for the 176 passengers. We met the senior officers and told them what to expect for dinner and the safety talk. Then we had the port talk before we headed for dinner.

At dinner, we sat with Dell (attorney) and Randy (nurse practitioner) from Albany, NY, and Jack (geophysicist) and Wendy (opera singer) from California. I had a rib-eye steak, and Don had mahi mahi. For dessert, we had creme brulee.

When we got back to our room at 9 pm, we found our suitcases and we unpacked. It was a really long day!

Original photos by Pat Hensley