Kelly Trips and Tours

Yes,  this is Switzerland - a beautiful sunny day with no clouds - a trip out to the mountains - green everywhere - wildflowers - Swiss farms dotting the landscape - Swiss cows with melodious cow bells around their necks - Swiss chalets all along the way, some of them very high up the mountain - jagged snowy mountains - a gondola ride up to 7,000 feet (as high as Karen was willng to go - the top is at 10, 000 feet and they are skiing up there) - lunch with a view more spectacular than we could describe - nibbling Swiss chocolate on the way back to Lucerne.  Now this is Switzerland - part of Bill's bucket list. Below is our lunch view - spectacular ! Yes, we had all that and more on our excursion to Engelberg.  Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are more pictures.                      Enjoying the view at 7, 000 feet...what else can be said. After returning to Lucerne, we turned in o...

Friday in Lucerne began cloudy and rainy but that didn't stop us.  After a nice breakfast at the hotel we started driving along the north side of the lake and towards the towns of Weggis and Vitznau. The road was easy and Gert helped us navigate the round abouts.  The rain had stopped and we enjoyed some beautiful scenery.  Mountains come up from the lake and they are totally green - very lush and beautiful.  After turning around to head back, we saw some lovely homes on the mountain and we decided to try and find a good spot to get a picture, so we turned up a side street and started climbing up the mountain.  Before we knew it we were climbing higher and higher on a very narrow road with not much guard railing on the down side of the road.  We wanted to turn around but we weren't sure it was a two way road, and it was no wider than a car plus a few feet. We finally found a spot and decided to turn around and head back down.  It was much eas...

We departed the River Queen this morning in Basel, Switzerland enroute to our 3rd leg of our European vacation. After spending 12-days cruising the Rhein and Moselle rivers, it was time for our next adventure. The cruise lines bussed us to the airport where we picked up our rental car. From there, we hit the road again driving to Lucerne where we'll enjoy the surrounding area until Sunday morning. Today it was a bit overcast - I guess grey clouds because the cruise ended! In any case, we are enjoying the trip even with a little glummy weather. And oh yes, now pictures work! Shown above is a famous bridge in Lucerne called the Chapel Bridge (Kappell-Bruke) built in 1333. Our hotel is just a couple blocks from this beautiful bridge and lake - great location. Originally the bridge had these pictures all along the span inside the bridge but a fire in 1993 distroyed a section of the bridge.  It has been rebuilt but a number of the original pictures are gone.  Below is a...

Today saw us taking two tours followed by the Captain's Farewell Cocktail party and dinner. Our first tour was of Colmar, France one of the best preserved towns in the region. The town was not bombed during WW II and it's buildings date back 600 years. The sculptor of the Statue of Liberty was born here in 1834 and a statue of him with a small statue of liberty is at the entrance to the town.  This was also the last French city to be liberated by the Allies in WWII because the strategic location of the rivers helped keep the Germans supplied.  The old town was very beautiful with many half timbered houses.  Canals run through the town and storks are prelevent in this area. The towns people help the storks out by providing bases for them to build their nests in safe places.  We saw a stork sitting on her very large nest on top of the Cathedral. Because we signed up for an optional tour, we were given 15 EUR each for lunch and therefore, had lunch in to...

Today we docked on the other side of the track, well river, in Strasbourg, France.  Actually we are not on the Rhein but on one of the smaller waterways, canals in Strasbourg.  We woke to see lots and lots of swans in the river.  Later we learned that there is a railroad yard across the way where they load grain onto boxcars and some of the grain gets into the river and that feeds the swans. We were told there are more swans per capita here than any other place in Europe. We had signed up for an optional excursion to go hot air ballooning over France, but the weather (wind aloft) did not cooperate.  Winds at 1000 feet were too strong so we were able to sleep in and join the regularly scheduled tour. After a hearty breakfast on board,  the first part of our tour was in a canal boat enjoying the  town of Strasbourg and surrounding community.  First we learned that Strasbourg is the capital of the European Community so we passed by the big modern g...

Day 18 of our European trip and day 10 aboard thr River Queen finds us docking in Speyer this morning. Speyer was in ancient times a Celtic settlement, then re-settled by the Romans, then destroyed in 450 A.D. by the Huns. From the 13-18th century it enjoyed leadership as one of the seven free Imperial Cities in the Holy Roman Empire. We took a walking tour of the city and had a retired history teacher for a tour guide.  He was very informative and personable.  First we went to the cathedral and he told us how each time a man became king he had a need to show his power so he would try to build a bigger cathedral.  The one in Speyer is very large.  BTW, we learned that ABC can stand for one of two things depending on your perspective.  It is either Another Beautiful Cathedral or Another Bloody Cathedral.  Anyway, back to the tour. Our next stop was the ruins of the Jewish Synagogue and the Jewish baths where we heard the history of the Jews in Speye...

Today was a busy day with 3 main activities.  This morning we awoke to another small town, Boppard - now back on the Rhein River - as we cruised all night.  This town was called a 'technical' stop.  Not a city on the itinerary, but we were required to stop because our two captains had too many hours and needed a required 6 hour rest. Our first activity was a walking tour of Boppard led by our cruise director.  Since it was Sunday, it was quiet in the town but it was a nice town to see and within an hour or two, it came alive.  We walked around the village from 8:45 till 10 am. We found the first Christmas store of significance so Bill treated Karen to a nice Mother's Day gift.  He let her do a lot of shopping and buying! The next thing on the agenda was cruising thru the most scenic, photographed area of the Rhein which we have dubbed "Castle Alley".  A UNESCO world heritage site, it is about 69 kilometers of beautiful scenery, small towns with ...

As we departed for our walking tour of Bernkastel this morning, within 5-min it started to rain. Good news Karen had a small umbrella and Bill had time to run back on ship and grab one for himself. Once back Bill saw the German Police talking with our Captain and the neighboring ships Captain. When we docked last night we parked parallel to his ship, which is often done here, and just walked thru our lobby, then his and we were on shore. Well, it seems the owner of the dock double booked the spot and only one ship can park there, so our ship got a double parking ticket/fine. Once we were all ashore for our tour, our ship had to move down river approx 1/8 mile to be legal.  So, yes a ship can get a parking ticket! After our walk started in the light rain, the sun soon appeared. We walked through the small cobble streets as our guide provided info on his town.  Bernkastle has one of the most ideal medieval small town German market squares along the Moselle River. Filled with t...

Blue skies greeted us when we woke this morning.  We stayed docked at Trier last night and the river was calm and the reflection of houses in the river was beautiful. Trier, Germany's oldest town was once the home of an Assyrien prince who arrived around 2000 BC and named the place Treberis, after himself. In 16 BC the legions of Julius Caesar set up a simple camp which eventually became a great city. It became one of the four great capitals of the Roman Empire, second only to Rome in importance. The Apostle Matthias's tomb is here, and his missionary activities increased the city's importance as a center of early Christianity. This morning we toured the old city of Trier with its many squares, shops and historical locations.  There are many Roman ruins all around the city - walls, baths and entrance gates.   It was here in 1818 that Karl Marx was born and raised.  Trier is celebrating his death with 150, 4 ft tall red plastic Marx statues at the Porta Nigr...

This morning we spent our time cruising the Moselle.  We found that it is also spelled Mosel so we don't know which is right, but we are sticking with Moselle.  Anyway, we thought we would tell you about the scenery along the river.  It is lushly green and the daily rain showers probably explain that.  Winter this year was a little long so the trees and grape vines are just beginning to get their leaves.  Both sides of the river have steep, green hills coming up from the river dotted with lovely little towns along the banks.  Each town has a church steeple rising above it. The most interesting feature along the river, besides the small towns, is the vineyards.  There are miles and miles of them and they go very steeply up the hills.  We wonder how the growers can climb up and tend the vines.  Vineyards can be very labor intensive, so it can be challenging to manage them.  Some of the vineyards have little carts that are powered up t...

Another beautiful sunny day. This morning we arrived in Cochen, a small town on the Moselle river, one of several picturesque and charming towns along the way. Our morning tour started with a town tour thru narrow, winding streets admiring medieval buildings teaming with local shops, cafes and architecture. After boarding a van for the climb to the top of the rock (300 ft above town), we arrived at Reichsburg Castle which overlooks the town and river below. It was a truly inspiring, gorgeous castle as you imagine in a fairly tale.  We were given a tour of several rooms.  This gothic castle went through a lot of owners since being built in the 11th century with the various occupations of this valley.  It was restored in 1868 - It now belongs to the town and is very authentic inside and out. The Mosel Valley is best known for its vineyards and Reisling wine. Although we are not "drinkers", we've been enjoying the wine and people in this small community. Anot...