Rhine River Cruise Pt.1 (Kinderdijk and Cologne)

 We recently embarked on a Rhine River cruise from Amsterdam to Basel then to Lucerne by bus then Zurich by train.
Our journey began in Amsterdam where we were picked up at the airport and delivered to our ship the "Viking Sun".
Amsterdam is a beautiful city and so easy to walk around.  We took many photos of this lovely city where everyone rides a bicycle.  Unfortunately while visiting the Windmills, Beverley's camera with all of the Amsterdam photos on fell into the canal.  So to see some of what Amsterdam has to offer please have a look at : http://www.amsterdam.info/sights/
From Amsterdam we travelled to Kinderdijk which has an ingenious  network of windmills.  The windmill below is how they used to pump water.

 Today water is pumped via an electrical pumping station.

The opportunity to live in a windmill is passed down through families and apparently there is a waiting list of those who yearn to experience this way of life.  Most windmill owners today support themselves by working in the city and in their spare time tend their windmill duties.  Our tour took us to a very old still working windmill and here is a photo of the gatehouse to this windmill.

Beverley took the opportunity to go to the very top of the windmill and had taken lots of photos which now rest peacefully in the canal you can see behind the gatehouse.

From Kinderdijk we travelled to Cologne where we strolled through this picturesque old city.  

Throughout the city there are many pretty gardens.

With many cafes displaying a wide variety of breads.

The Lindt factory is also located here so we took the opportunity to sample some this freshly made chocolate. 

The display of chocolate was amazing.

During our strole around Cologne we passed St Martin's Church and  visited Cologne's Dom which is a remarkable Gothic cathedral whose construction was begun in 1248 and completed in 1880.  The stained glass windows are magnificent. It is interesting to note that during WW2 many of the widows of the churches in Europe were removed and hidden thus preserving them for future generations.

From Cologne we travelled through the middle Rhine valley. More on this in the next post.

Cheers Bev and Ross