The Nose Knows

This trip has reminded me of the significance of our sense of smell, and the role it plays in evoking strong memories.

In Hawaii the frangipani were in bloom, and I was given a couple of gorgeous lei made from frangipani. So everywhere we went wafts of frangipani fragrance took us back to our years in PNG.

In Amsterdam we relived the seventies in a smoke saturated atmosphere- on the streets, eating or having coffee outside cafes, walking along the canal paths. You certainly couldn’t use the Bill Clinton excuse here!

Then Cologne, the home of 4711, containing the scent of my grandmother and mother. In the 1960’s (maybe the seventies as well) Air New Zealand used to give out a complimentary phial of 4711 Eau de Cologne to passengers and because my grandparents flew to visit us regularly, I had an ongoing supply of 4711. This was my first ‘big girl’ perfume and of course Mum and Grandma wore it. So the home of 4711 was an important stop to make as we explored the town of Cologne.

On the River: Day 3 Cologne

River Cruise

Day 3 Cologne, Germany

This was our first extended period of sailing during the day and we really enjoyed it.  Being on a river meant no waves and no splashing so although our cabin was almost at water level we could open the sliding doors right up without ever getting wet. It was extremely peaceful in our cabin with the doors folded right open and the countryside gliding by. 

We divided our time with sitting on the top deck where a 360 degree view was to be had.

The slow pace and opportunity to read, relax and sunbathe was welcome. The endless supply of food was a guilty pleasure. I located the fitness centre and realised that a reduced number of passengers combined with the demographic profile of most guests meant there would be a high chance of finding free machines to use to counteract the eating!

At afternoon tea time we made landfall in Germany. Our first experience of arriving in a country without having to pass through border controls and homeland security procedures and we loved it.

This was also the first city we had arrived at by water and we all were captivated by the sight of the Cathedral on the horizon. We were to see many more sights like this, but the towering gothic cathedral in Cologne is impressive and it is easy to see why it is Germany’s most visited monument.

We docked close to the chocolate museum and joined our tour group. While the guide was hugely knowledgeable we discovered the pace was sedentary and the tour did not include entering any of the buildings we passed. 

After a while peeled off and went on a self guided tour of the cathedral, followed by a walk through the main shopping streets. Locating the place where 4711 Eau de Cologne began was a highlight. 

We stopped at the Roman Pretorium, which in modern times is the Town Hall of Cologne.  The sight of a bridal party caught my eye and it was hard to resist being nosey. What a setting for wedding photos! We only got to look at the buildings from the outside, but a search on the internet shows that it would be easy to spend hours exploring inside.

Those who went on the Jewish heritage tour came back saying it was sobering but they were very pleased they went.

After dinner the first of the local entertainers we were to experience came onboard; “Groove Band”. They did their groove thing and then departed at 10.30pm as we were about to set sail for Rudesheim.

Notes were supplied daily by Isabel, the Cruise Director, to keep us informed and on time. Click on the links below to open and read.

City Overview

Daily Programme

Cathedral Notes

More Cathedral Notes

On the River: Day 2 Amsterdam

River Cruise

Day 2 Amsterdam in the Netherlands

We were out bright and early in the morning for the first group activity - a guided tour of the canal system. We were taken by bus to the smaller canal boats and set of on a hour of fascinating viewing of the houses and houseboats from the water. 

We were amused that our tiny canal boat had a dunny onboard, but we were to discover that it was part and parcel of cruise outings!

Our boat was mostly enclosed by a perspex top, which was fine for looking out but not so great for taking photos. 





My companion climbed up on the seat at one stage and got some great shots through the roof opening. 

The boat driver was not happy and the tour guide translated something about tourists, whacked heads and the many low hanging bridges.

These two photos give an idea of photography inside the boat, standing up, AND the height of the bridges!

At the conclusion of the tour we were wising up to the speed at which our group travelled and elected to find our own way back to the boat on foot rather than take the bus. We enjoyed more time wandering through town. We walked past Anne Frank’s house and saw the lines of people waiting to go inside and kept going. It was here we first noticed the pulley systems under the roofs on the outside of houses and saw them in action. To get goods inside these narrow tall buildings people lifted them up and brought them in through the windows. We saw furniture, building supplies and shopping disappearing into houses as we walked around.

We made it back to the boat for lunch and while some went on more guided tours Russell took one of the bikes on board and headed out into the countryside via the bike-on, bike-off ferries which take people over to the north shore for free.  He greatly enjoyed this perspective of Amsterdam.

I chose to go for a 6km joggle along the Rhine canal. It was a treat to be out in the sun and to have a chance to see how the locals go about their lives. One of the things we had remarked upon was the way the buildings were so narrow and I stopped to take a picture of this modern building which I’m not sure I would enjoy living in.

On my return I sent my first parcel post home. The grand central train station was over the road from where our boat was berthed and housed a post office. A kind person there helped me figure out what to do. I bought a box, took it back to the boat, packed it with Winter work clothes which we thought we wouldn’t need any longer, took it back to the post office and sent it on its way. (*update - it was safely home to NZ in a week!)

We were back on board for the 4.45pm sailing out of Amsterdam and one of our fellow passengers took a photo of us as we stood on the sun roof enjoying this much anticipated moment.  We were amazed by how quietly and efficiently the boat slipped out into the canal and headed for Germany overnight.

Notes were supplied daily by Isabel, the Cruise Director, to keep us informed and on time. Click on the links below to open and read.

City Overview

Daily Programme

Bikes n Boats

We were in Amsterdam (a lifetime spent saying it wrong, as they pronounce it Um-ster-dum) for 30 hours and and bikes and boats was the theme of this city for us.

After a very early morning start in Bern, Switzerland)  we caught the 6:00 am train to Zurich, the 9:20 am flight to Amsterdam and arrived close to midday. Our immediate destination was the Avalon cruise boat, Expression, 135 metres long and to be our home for the next two weeks.  Once we got our arrival registered and our baggage stored we set off to explore for four hours.

On our drive into the city from the airport we noticed the prevalence of bikes and how their riders appear to have no regard for the traffic trying to flow around them, but my first step out onto a footpath nearly resulted in me being flattened by a bike that wasn’t stopping for anyone.  No-one wears bike helmets, and the bike paths are co-shared by bicycles (many, many huckery old bikes), motor bikes, people on mobility scooters and the odd skateboard variation. 

I loved seeing the families on a bike with a big tub that 2-4 little kids were perched in. We were told that this city of 700,00 people has 1 million bikes. We were fascinated by the well organised bike parks where bikes were able to be stacked several layers deep - and the way people seemed to be able to locate them again!

The keen bike rider in our travelling team got himself a bike (our canal boat has a few for folk to use) and went for a long ride the next day, catching the ferry across to the North Shore and seeing the sights like a local. That's him waiting for the ferry in the photo at the top of this post.
I went for a 6km jog/walk along the canal front and saw a few sites of my own that I may get around to writing about.

The boats in this city range from tiny wee tubs to vessels heading for the ocean and everything in between. Our boat is very comfortable and we spent the first night on it still docked in Amsterdam, so it was at least 24 hours before we got to experience it moving anywhere! On the second day we were all taken on a city tour on small canal boats and were wowed by the variety of house boats we past as we travelled the streets of Amsterdam by water.

I guess having two weeks ahead of us living on a boat will lend itself to a few more posts about things nautical….

On the River: Day 1 Amsterdam

River Cruise

Day 1 Amsterdam in the Netherlands

Zurich Airport

This was the much anticipated embarkation day of the Avalon River Cruise and we set out from our Hotel in Bern, Switzerland at 4.30 am to walk to the train station. We discovered it was not easy to break out of the hotel at that time of morning as the 24 hour desk service was sleeping in the office out the back. Break out we did and got ourselves onto a train headed to Zurich Airport and from there a plane to Amsterdam.

On arrival in Amsterdam we took a shuttle bus to the boat meeting point at a hotel and were able to check our bags in, but embarkation was not until 4.00 pm so we had plenty of time to walk around the city. First stop was lunch and we found a great spot beside a canal. We had got used to  people smoking all around us as we ate in France and Switzerland, but this time the smoke had a different flavour. Welcome to Amsterdam!

We clocked up a few k’s walking the streets, visiting the markets and taking in the sights. We had noticed on the shuttle coming in that it was not easy for the driver to negotiate the crowded streets as all the rights seemed to be with the cyclists. Once we were on foot sightseeing we learnt real quick that pedestrians who don’t look where they are going are going to get run down by cyclists!

We were right at the front of the queue to embark at 4pm - mostly because we had walked to the ship whereas most of the passengers had waited for the coach at the hotel about 500 metres down the road to transport them there. Little did we know that this was an indication of the physicality of the two weeks ahead!

After nearly four weeks of travelling we were very pleased to discover our bags lined up in our cabin and unpack and stow our suitcases for a while. We were in the lap of luxury, and even more so because the boat was only half full. It was designed to carry around 160 passengers and there were only 80 of us, so lots of room to move and sit and twice the attention from the service crew.

We stayed in port overnight, and people were free to come and go as the boat was tied up in a very handy downtown location. As long as we took a leave pass so they knew we were not on the ship.

Notes were supplied daily by Isabel, the Cruise Director, to keep us informed and on time. Click on the links below to open and read.

City Overview
Daily Programme

Celebrating Mothers

Mother’s Day is a global event and this year was about the most diverse one yet for me.  We were in Annecy in France when Russell phoned his mother in Auckland to wish her a happy day and have a chat. We had moved on to Geneva, Switzerland by the time I started receiving lovely messages from my own children and was in Bern, Switzerland when our granddaughter (and daughter and son-in-law) FaceTimed us.

That was all on Saturday, local time for us.

On Sunday morning I was given a lovely present brought in France and then we went to a Mother’s day service at the Bern Cathedral, home of my paternal ancestors.

We walked down the road after church and headed to the Bear Pit to see the famous Bern bears.  It was lunchtime so we went into the nearby Altes Tramdepot for lunch. We are finding the food service so far in Switzerland less than hospitable, and this cafe announced that if we wanted to eat we would have to share and marched us to a table where an unsuspecting young couple were having a romantic lunch.  Without a word to the couple the waiter plopped down extra place settings and told us to sit.

Awkward- but the young woman, Sandy, broke the ice and started chatting with us about life in Taiwan and her current student exchange to France where she is studying English! Go figure.  Her young man did not have quite such fluent command of English, but as we got to the stage of sharing email, addresses to come and stay etc etc he loaned me a very cool gadget he was carrying which I was able to use to hotspot my phone so we could connect via Facebook.

All around us loving families were enjoying mother’s day lunch.

As we were about to leave a different waitress came up to us and offered our family a gorgeous red rose for their mother on mother’s day!

We all had a good laugh together, took a photo of us and our Taiwanese children, and we went our separate ways.

Mothers and Sons

Mother’s Day Sunday and we were in Bern, Switzerland. The home of my paternal ancestors and dominated by the Cathedral of Bern (Das Berner Münster) where the family worshipped and served. This is a protestant church arising from the Reformation. Attending a service at the Munster was the reason this city was on our itinerary.

For the second consecutive Sunday we attended a service where, if you hadn’t already read the book you would have had no idea what the plot was!  The service was entirely in German, but came with a very thorough service outline (see image) and we were surprised how well we we able to follow along. My only knowledge of German language has been acquired from a childhood watching Hogan’s Heroes on TV, so is not much use in 2016.

It came as quite a surprise that the eloquent and expressive scripture reading of Genesis 27 (Mose 27) by a woman from the congregation made the chapter come to life and it was easy to follow along on my phone in English and know exactly where she was up to. The Gospel reading chosen was John 2 v1-11, and the Psalm was the 22nd.

When the pastor climbed the spectacular rostrum to preach his Mother’s Day sermon it again was surprising that it was possible to make connections based on prior knowledge. He was clearly a gifted orator with a carefully crafted sermon. His message to mothers on this special day was to take a lesson from how these two mothers, Rebecca and Mary, raised their sons and got them to do what they wanted!

Rebecca of course was manipulating Jacob for personal gain and family reasons (to claim the birthright inheritance that should have gone to his older brother), and at the expense of another son.  Mary had noticed the need around her and knew that her son could meet it if he was prepared to show who he was - this was the first miracle he performed by turning water to wine at a wedding. So in asking him to perform the miracle she was also asking him to ‘come out’.

The connection to the Psalm was explained to us at the end of the service by the pastor, who spoke very good English. His point was referring to the security and protection of the child in the mother’s womb which comes to an end at birth. Then a mother protects her child in different ways through life.

The pipe organ in this church provided another splendid example of cathedral music and searching online has made us aware of its reputation, with many youtubes having been posted of people coming to Bern to play it.

The images I have included in this post are of 

• the pastor preaching the sermon 
• a photo taken after the service to show how high up the rostrum was - they have very high tech audio and lighting in the church -, 
• the hymn book and 
• the order of service.