A Full-time Life

Category: Europe

Last of our European Trip

This is the last post about our June trip to the Czech Republic and cities in what used to be East Germany. We are grateful for the time spent with our grandchildren in Prague and for learning so much about living in both Czech and Germany now and in earlier times, especially during the time when they were part of the USSR. In Germany, we enjoyed the comforts of our Viking River Boats (even though we didn't spend much time actually boating).

On our last full day in Wittenberg, we spent a morning at the Garden Kingdom of Worlitz .

Garden Kingdom of Worlitz, Wittenberg

After a trip to England during the "Age of Enlightenment" (18th Century) Prince Leopold began construction of his Garden Kingdom. He brought the concept of the formal English Garden to Continental Europe. Today the Gardens include Gondola rides on the River that winds through the park and 18th-century castle-like buildings to visit. This World Heritage Site is a beautiful park and a lovely place for a quiet walk and it does have historical significance, but in some ways it felt like "just another tourist attraction" because it didn't seem to really teach us much about the country we were actually visiting.

Every time our tour bus left the ship while we were docked in Wittenberg, we passed this apartment building on a nearby corner. And every single time this sweet lady would be leaning out of her window and waving to us. Sometimes her husband (I assume) would be at the other window. Our bus driver/tour guide said that she always came to her window when the tour buses passed. He said she had lived in the same apartment for almost half a century. I finally remembered to have my camera ready for her on our last day.

So she's really saying goodbye to us in this picture, because it was on the day we left Wittenberg and the Viking ship for good.

Our tour included two nights in Berlin. (This hotel stay was a planned part of the Viking tour and was not due to low water levels.) So the above picture was the view from our Viking Bus as we reached the City Center near the very modern and well-run hotel where we would stay.

Brandenburg Gate

We like to visit really big metropolitan cities occasionally. We lived in London for three months once … we loved Prague earlier on this same trip …but oh my gosh Berlin was so huge and so crowded.

Historical Museum

Of course, a day and a half isn't long enough to get to know anyplace, especially a huge city. But we did get an overview and saw things we had never thought we'd see in person.

Because of the crowds, it was actually impossible to get pictures of some of what we did see or even to get close to some things. (There were massive crushes of people around Checkpoint Charlie for example).

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial and Church

We had a bit of an overview from our Viking tour guide as we arrived and then we walked around the Hotel neighborhood after settling in. The next day we took a Hop On-Hop Off tour on our own. Those tours are great as overviews when you are short on time (and on energy by this time on our trip.)

So this Berlin post is pretty much just an Instagram-type photo rollout. I don't like Instagram nearly as well as blogging, because there's usually no story with the travel pictures. And I like the stories!

Victory Column (Prussian War, 1866)

We weren't in Berlin long enough to have much of a story. But we're happy we were able to visit and learn a little — and glad to have the memories and the pictures.

Moabit Neighborhood, Berlin

I don't have pictures of the last day of our European trip, but it was definitely exciting in its own way as we navigated the huge Berlin Railroad station for a long day's trip to Munich. We flew home to Oregon from Munich (with an unplanned overnight layover in Detroit due to an airport delay) and some wait time in Seattle. I'll just say that both in the railway depot and the Munich airport we wished we'd paid more attention and/or remembered more of the German classes we took so long ago in high school but we figured it all out and made all our connections on time.

Oregon sky from above the clouds

It was a great trip, but that first glimpse of home is always wonderful!

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; TUESDAY TREASURES; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY;

October 29, 2023
Wittenberg

Going back in time to June 20, our first night on the Viking Astrid, our (now) floating Hotel.

View from our room on the Astrid, docked near Wittenberg on the Elbe River during a perioid of low water. Normally, the river's level would reach the middle point of the post on the right. (See this post).

Low water blues?

The picture above was taken quite late in the evening (for me anyway). It was the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. On the ship, it was German night and we'd enjoyed a good, but heavy, welcome aboard dinner. After the road trip from Meissen, unpacking and organizing our new room, the big meal, the evening's entertainment and the staff's review of tomorrow's activities some quiet time on our stateroom deck was welcome. We enjoyed the last of the daylight. The river view was lovely, even if we weren't moving along on it.

The next morning tour bus transported us into the city of Wittenberg where we had some time on our own to stroll through the historic city. We then met our guide for a tour of the Museum in the Martin Luther House. The famous theologian lived here in the early 1500s; it is where he founded the Protestant Reformation.

Wittenberg Castle Church Door where Luther may have hung his 95 Theses document. Historians have differing views.

Other than the most basic of facts about the Reformation, we didn't know a lot about Martin Luther. And I had never really thought about wanting to learn more about his life since we didn't grow up in that faith. But I paid attention and took a lot of pictures because of relatives and friends who did. And it was far more interesting than I had thought it would be.

Among his other writings, Luther translated the Holy Bible into German while living in this house in Wittenberg.

Lectern in the part of the home that was used for Church services.

The pictures above are of Luther and his wife Kathe (about whom I had never heard). Their union was important in the Reformation because it set a precedent for marriage and family life in the clergy.

Like all good tour guides, ours had a way of bringing history to life with knowledge, respect and a dash of humor. She told us that Kathe was the practical woman behind the reformation, keeping the family afloat so her husband could carry on his work without thinking about the problems of everyday life. She said "I think Luther's quote under their portraits above means that he appreciated her." (It translates as: "I would not want to exchange my Kathe for France nor for Venice to boot." )

This mosaic panel in the rectory depicts the ten commandments

After our tour we enjoyed a pleasant lunch on our own in a local restaurant before returning to the ship. We were always happy with the quality of the meals on Viking, but it is also fun to eat where the locals eat. We enjoyed both the food and the people watching.

We learned something new, we ate good food, we got just enough of a walk in nice weather –all good parts of travel (and of life, really). It was a good day.

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; TUESDAY TREASURES; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY ; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY.

October 15, 2023
Elbe River Cruise

In blogland (as opposed to real life here in Oregon) we are time-traveling back to June.

After our days spent on our own in the Czech Republic, the Viking River Cruise we had scheduled began with a night's stay in the Prague Hilton Hotel and an evening tour in Prague (this post). The next morning, we embarked by Viking bus to Bad Schandau in the Saxon area of Germany. Our ship was docked there on the River Elbe.

We crossed the border into Germany less than an hour and a half after our bus departed from the hotel.

Bastei National Park — above the Elbe in Germany's Sandstone Mountains.

Before we reached our ship, we had about three hours to spend on an excursion stop at Bastei National Park. We found good walking paths and some lovely viewpoints of the river valley from the top of the trail and admired the craggy rock formations formed by water erosion over a million years ago.

Bad Schandeau — across from where our room was on the Beyla

In the afternoon, we boarded the River Ship Beyla. The picture above was the view across the Elbe from our stateroom — I never did find out exactly what this building was, but it certainly made us feel as if we lived temporarily in a very interesting neighborhood. While we slept that night, our ship traveled along the Elbe to dock near Dresden where we awoke the next morning.

Not my photo — from Viking Website

We spent all of that day walking around Dresden and I am sad to say I have no pictures to show because my camera ran out of battery while we were there (I'm pretty sure the pictures I took before I realized I was out of juice were the best ones I've ever taken). I can't even find a picture in the public domain which looks anything like what we saw.

It was here in Dresden where the tragic events of WWII were most evident. This beautiful city was nearly totally destroyed during WWII — over 25,000 people were killed in one day of allied bombing raids. Almost beyond comprehension. The museum complex and Halls at the Center of the City (where we spent most of our time) are still being restored. This is partly because following the war, when East Germany was absorbed into the USSR, those in charge definitely did not think architecture and history were worth remembering or restoring. In other parts of Dresden and all of the other cities we saw in the former east Germany, there are blocks of Soviet era housing and office complexes still standing. I'll just say they are not photo-worthy.

Zwinger Museum area Dresden (Not my photo, from Wikipedia)

Here in the heart of Dresden, there was construction equipment working as we walked but also much of the re-created Baroque architecture, statues and so forth are completed so it is possible to imagine what it used to be.

(Viking Photo, Elbe River ship)

Sadly, during the ship debriefing the night before, we had learned that the water level on the Elbe was so low that water travel between Dresden and Wittenberg (which was to be our next port of call) had been cancelled by River authorities, so our ship would not be able to proceed. Viking has plans in place for this eventuality however. There is an identical Viking river ship which takes the exact same route only from the other end of the cruise. So at the point where water traffic was stopped, there would be a passenger exchange. Both ships are configured exactly alike. The night before, we packed the little bit we'd already unpacked on our one night aboard and put our suitcases in the hall. Had a lovely meal in the ship's dining room, charged the camera, slept well and embarked after breakfast the next morning on a road trip instead of on the water.

Our tour stop that day was in the town of Meissen.

Meissen Porcelain Factory

On arrival, we were met by tour guides for the Meissen Porcelain Factory and Museum where we had demonstrations of the steps that go into the fine craftsmanship of these beautiful pieces.

In the Museum, we admired some of the more exclusive custom creations. I had to tear myself away from admiring the birds. The picture shows only a portion of this installation.

View from our state room on the Astrild

When we arrived at our port in Wittenberg we found our luggage waiting on board the River Ship Astrild in what was exactly the same stateroom and location we'd had on the other ship — it was a little surreal but all well handled by Viking. For the rest of our time on this "cruise," our stateroom and the entire ship really became a floating hotel as it remained in this dock and we traveled by bus and motor coach to the remaining destinations.



It's possible to see from these last two pictures how low the Elbe was — the water is supposed to be at least up to the green and white pole you can see on this point of land. It was disappointing not to enjoy cruising on this beautiful river, but we understood that a boat could not possibly travel on this low water. Also of course while understanding that it was not under Viking's control, it was fairly obvious to us that the company knew about the problem with the water level well in advance of our arrival for our river cruise. We were still were able to enjoy all of the amenities of the ship. Viking does do an excellent job of that. We were able to visit all of the ports of call and take the daily excursions, but did not get the river trip we were anticipating.

It is important, I think, to be flexible anytime in traveling, whether on our own or with others — it's not always possible to plan for every eventuality.

We know we are fortunate to be able to do what we do and I don't take any of that for granted.

Sharing these first three tour stops with the following link-ups. Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; TUESDAY TREASURES; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

August 27, 2023
Museum, Library, and a couple more towers

In the interest of trying to finish blogging about our June travel before the rest of the summer is over, I am combining three places we visited in Prague. They each deserve more time and space, but there's lots of good sites at everyone's fingertips for further information. I've been doing a lot of that kind of research these days to refresh my memory.

The Czech National Museum was within easy walking distance of our Prague apartment. It's located near the top of Wenceslas Square, the main gathering/shopping area in the City.

Main entrance Hall

We spent most of a day in just one wing of the the main (Historical) building but also visited the New Building next to it. The buildings are connected by a tunnel.

The stunning main building is a major landmark for the city. It was built between 1885 and 1891. The main building underwent a major renovation between 2011 and 2019 and was even completely closed part of that time. (It had been damaged during the war and again when the city metro tunnels were being built.) During those years, exhibits were either stored or moved into the "New Building" next door which had been purchased both for that purpose and to eventually add exhibition space. I'm glad we visited after the big move and reopening had taken place. In the main building the exhibits we visited were on Czech history — ancient treasures. No pictures included — the ones I could take did not turn out well enough to bother.

Cupola from entryway

The exhibits in the newer building were where we learned more about recent history (during our lifetime). There was an excellent photo and light display showing what it was like to be in Prague at the time of the Velvet Revolution in 1989. This is when massive demonstrations (hundred of thousands of people at times) helped to force the end of the Communist regime in Czech and Slovakia. Some major gatherings took place right here on Wenceslas Square in front of the Museum buildings. A fitting place to learn about this incredibly important piece of history. It was after this time that the former Czechoslovakia, which had been part of the USSR, became two republics: The Czech Republic and the Slovakian Republic. This display was impossible to capture with my camera, but the contribution to our understanding will not be forgotten.

There are more stunning views of Prague from the top floor of the Main Building.

On another day during our stay we took the Metro (underground) to Prague Old Town. The famed medieval astronomical clock of Prague is attached to the Old Town Hall.

It was first installed in 1410 and is the oldest astronomical clock still in operation. The figures surrounding the clock are the apostles and other Catholic saints and a skeleton representing death (he shows up pretty clearly to the top right of the clock.) The apostles and the skeleton do a very quick parade around the dial on the hour. I forgive them for being quick about it, because they are probably tired of working that hard after all these years.

The astronomical dial represents the position of the sun and moon. HERE is a link to the Wikipedia page with more about the mechanism, history, and legends surrounding the clock.

I think it was on the same day that we also visited the different kind of tower below:

Idiom by Matej Kren

This art installation in the foyer of the Prague Public Library includes hundreds of books stacked in a cylindrical tower. Mirrors at the top and bottom give the tower the illusion of infinity. There's a tiny window that lets you look in and imagine what it would like to drown in an infinity of books. The question is whether that is a book-lovers dream or nightmare.

Of course, I have family pictures from every single place we went with our grands, but those from the children's section of this library (bel0w) may well be my all-time favorites:

It's never too early to introduce a child to the love of reading. We all love libraries and I was so glad our three "guides" took us to this one.

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; TUESDAY TREASURES; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

July 30, 2023
Visit to Prague Castle

Prague Castle is actually a 1900 foot long series of courtyards, churches, and palaces covering 750,000 square feet. Buildings include the seat of government of the Czech Republic.

Our trolley stop took us to a short walk leading to the Northern entrance. We could see the impressive Cathedral spires as we walked along. The first courtyard we entered is where the offices of the President of the Republic are located. Palace Guards in full uniform are stationed at the entrance. The fountain marks the center of this Courtyard.

A passageway leads to another Courtyard where the impressive St Vitus Cathedral is located.

This Gothic Cathedral is the Czech national church. A church has existed on this spot since AD 920.

Rose Window, St Vitus Cathedral

Restoration work still in progress.

Third Courtyard, Prague Castle — Statue of St George (replica of 13th Century original).

We exited the complex by taking the New Castle Staircase — it's long, with many steps, but there are wide landings with lots of stopping places — viewpoints and even a place where we could stop for a cold drink at a table. There are wonderful views of Prague along the staircase.

Prague from the New Castle Staircase

The Staircase takes you from the Castle complex to downtown Prague. We stopped at a small sculpture park for a quiet rest.

In town we found a good place to eat and just wandered a bit before heading home. Although Prague Castle is a major tourist destination it hadn't feel anywhere near as busy and crowded as downtown.

I'm really a small-town person at heart, so am always a bit in awe of the crowds and hustle and bustle in major cities.

But I'm always happy to to visit because you don't get to visit Castles (among many other treasures) in small towns. Grateful for all we saw and learned.

Linking this week to the following sharing opportunities: Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; TUESDAY TREASURES; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY;

July 23, 2023
River Elbe cruise, Part 1

We spent more days in beautiful Prague than all of the rest of our trip put together and we loved every minute of it. Below is the apartment building where we stayed (top row) and, in the lower row, a view from the side street next to the building.

Our grandchildren were staying in a small hotel on the other side of the river, but Prague's excellent public transportation made it easy for us to meet for our days of touring. I'm still sorting and labeling Prague pictures and I will blog again later about all that we saw and learned during the week we lived in that apartment.

But today I'm skipping forward to the part of our trip scheduled with Viking River Cruise line. We were still in Prague for a couple of days, but as scheduled we moved to the Prague Hilton (below) for two nights.

That evening, the Viking tour was a trip by bus through some beautiful countryside to an old barn/restaurant near the village of Cicovice:

We were served a typical Czech family-style dinner of farm-raised food and Czech wine and beer. We were entertained with a village gala featuring dancers, musicians and a singer performing traditional music. We enjoyed both food and entertainment.

The next morning, on our own, we visited Petrin Hill, one attraction we had not seen already. We skipped the scheduled city walking tour because we'd already experienced most of it with our family. (Our grandchildren had gone home to Germany on the same day we left our Prague apartment.) Our guidebooks said that the views from the Hill are some of the most spectacular in the city. I think they were right.

At the top of the hill, there's a tower replica of the Eiffel Tower at one-fifth of the height. We were not quite up to climbing the 400 steps, so we paid for an elevator ride. Just that ride was adventure of a sort because (ridiculously) I'm a little bit phobic about elevators. The creaky old elevator car to the top of the tower held only three people plus an operator. I told myself if the lady operator wasn't afraid to ride the elevator all day, then I shouldn't be either.

We rode the Funicular to the bottom of the hill. As with all public transportation in the City, the funicular railroad was free to senior citizens. We ended up in a part of the city I think is called Lesser Town Square, where we enjoyed a good dinner before returning to our Hotel for the night.

Grounds around the tower

In real life, this was our last day in Prague. The next day we traveled with Viking by motor coach to Bad Schandau on the River Elbe where the Viking River Ship Beyla was waiting for us to board. However, here in Blogland, we'll be traveling back to more about beautiful Prague as well as to further stops along the River Elbe.

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; TUESDAY TREASURES; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY;

July 16, 2023
Home — with memories

We're back in Oregon and happy to be home. We took pretty much the exact opposite of a short-cut to get here and had a wonderful time doing it.

Coming in for the landing

I'm still sorting pictures and trying to "unjumble" all the information flying around in my head. We learned so much — now I just have to figure out how to put it in writing so that it will still make sense when we look at it in the future. While I work on all that, here are a few sample views from the beautiful city of Prague, Czech Republic where we spent a little over a week:

The best part of Prague was having our own very special guides to the City – Miss Olivia, our youngest great-grandchild and her parents, our grandchildren (grandson and his wife):

We were so grateful that "the kids" had time to spend with us and we marveled at how adaptable and happy the baby was. Jacob and Maya are quite familiar with Prague. (And one of the family of three speaks the language fluently — I'm sure pretty soon it will be two or even all three.) With their help, we navigated the city like locals .. almost!

Prague Castle on the horizon

There's so much more from Prague that I want to remember and after our time there we joined a Viking Cruise during which we visited several cities in Germany (the former East Germany) culminating in a couple of days in Berlin and I want to document that too eventually! Meanwhile, we are happy to be home and looking forward to enjoying summer days here in Oregon.

Glad to be back to blogging again too. LINKING THIS post to the following sharing opportunities with thanks to the hosts:

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; TUESDAY TREASURES; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

July 9, 2023
AMSTERDAM

It's Thanksgiving Week here in the US and we have so much to be thankful for — we had so many good days here in Oregon this summer and fall — and took lots of pictures. But our trip to Europe has consumed almost every one of our blog posts lately. When we got "re-Oregonized" back in July, I thought it was a joke when I said I'd probably be blogging about our 'grand tour' until it was time for us to go back to our Florida winter home. But here we are in real life getting close to that departure and yet in blog-land we're still on our early-summer European trip. (And I'll definitely still be blogging about Oregon after we get back to Florida!)

Amsterdam has over 1200 bridges and 165 canals.

But the end is in sight. This post is about Amsterdam — and Amsterdam was the last stop on our European tour.

The City started around a dam in the Amstel River — all of the land around the river was originally marshy, but it was made liveable by draining the swamp and building the canal system.

We saw this banner or sign everywhere in ordinary shops and stores — at first, we thought Amsterdam was capitalizing on its reputation as somewhat of an "adult" (X-rated) city*. (A little frighteningly for us at the time, the banner even hung on the window of our hotel.)

But fortunately, we learned that this banner is actually Amsterdam's historic coat of arms — the white crosses on the black background represent St. Andrew's Cross (because he was a fisherman and in the 1500s, Amsterdam was a fishing village). Or, in another version, the crosses stood for the three perils that the City once faced — flood, fire, and plague. I like either of those versions better than what we first thought.

*And yes, we did walk through that part of town and no I did not take any pictures. And now we can say we've been there. (We actually felt completely safe everywhere in the City.)

Everyone knows that we are drawn to water and boats and so of course Amsterdam was right up our alley canal. We saw all kinds of tour boats (we took one) and many personal pleasure boats, but the most fascinating to us was the many many live-aboard houseboats docked right along busy downtown streets . Some were beautifully kept, some nearly derelict. These boats are not cheap lodging. The sign in the window of the center boat says "For Sale by Sotheby's." That firm does not deal in low-rent housing! Our canal boat tour guide somewhat satisfied our curiosity about how space rental and maintenance concerns were handled. I think we may have been the first people who asked that kind of question.

Dutch architecture.

The tall narrow houses were built because they used to be taxed by width. Some homes along the River were built on stilts because of the sandy soil. They've settled over the years and now appear to be leaning forward.

Koninkluk Paleis (The Royal Palace)

Views of Zuiderkerk (South Church) from the Staalstraat Bridge

Part of the reason I blog is to clarify the memories. I used to imagine (when I started blogging) that someday, when we got too old to travel and explore, we could sit in our rocking chairs and read about what "adventures" we'd had. I'm grateful that (as of today anyway) neither of us has yet reached that point. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!



LINKING this week to the following, with thanks to the hosts:

MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; TUESDAY TREASURES; SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and FRIDAY BLISS; and WANDERING CAMERA

November 23, 2019
LUXEMBOURG CITY

Musee de la Banque

It was green! That's the first thing I remember about Luxembourg City, the Capital of the country by the same name. (And we needed a taste of nature at that point in the journey.) Our hotel (booked just a few days before our arrival, rather than months in advance as the earlier three stays had been) was not in mid-town, but it was a very nice place to stay and we were able to use the excellent city bus system to get where we wanted to go.

View from inside the tunnel.

From the bus stop in the center of the city we walked across a bridge and down steps and through tunnels to arrive at Parks de Petrusse — a lovely green park under the old ramparts originally built to protect the city.

Bock Casemates

A fortified castle on the Bock promontory built in 963 was the beginning of the city of Luxembourg. Ring walls (called casemates) were added in the 15th Century which eventually turned the city into a well-defended center. The fortified city could shelter thousands of people. Today 17 kilometers of tunnels remain, on different levels with staircases inside the rock face.

View of the City from the walkway.

We walked down the stairs and miles of paths down below — loving the quiet and and green — there was water and bird song. The Park is one of those magical places that seem like you are miles away from civilization but really you are in the middle of the City.

Happily, there was even an elevator on the lowest level of the park, which we rode back up to street level. It had begun to rain a little and the elevator (magically?) opened right next door to a tavern A great place to wait out the rainstorm.

Adolphe Bridge

This beautifully restored iconic bridge has great views from the walkway on top and is great to look at from below.

Underground art gallery at AM Tunnel

The artists: Till Aydin; Anna Ney; Sophie Hoffmann

One of the tunnels houses an Underground Art Gallery. The exhibit we saw was of photo collages. I confess, the display had me immediately thinking of linking to Mosaic Monday. So this is a mosaic of mosaics!!

Palais Grand Ducal

We had only a day and a half to spend in Luxembourg — it was a rather long rail journey from here to Amsterdam (our next and final stop), but a lovely one through more beautiful green countryside. There was no English translation on this train though, so we had a couple of fun adventures on the way — apparently at one point the train was diverted due to construction and the transfer point we had on our ticket was changed. Along with one other passenger we stayed on the train because the sign was different from what our ticket said. Eventually a gentleman from the train came in waving his arms and we finally got it through our thick heads that we had to go somewhere and get on another train.

This would be funnier snapshots if they actually showed either of us racing to the correct platform lugging our suitcases up and down escalators and asking anyone who looked like they might speak English if we were going the right way. (People were helpful — and obviously we did make our connecting train.)

This one is a view of the Luxembourg countryside from the train window as we began our journey to Amsterdam (before the mix-up, but the whole journey was quite lovely and the slight hiccup gave us something we are still laughing about). We are glad we spent some time in this pleasant green country!

LINKING this week to the following, with thanks to the hosts:

MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; TUESDAY TREASURES; SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and FRIDAY BLISS;

November 17, 2019
GHENT BELGIUM

Even if I didn't have pictures to remind me, one thing I would always remember about Ghent is how absolutely stunning this city is by night.

St Nicholas Church

It is a great city in broad daylight as well of course and we enjoyed the old town and visited as many of the historical places as we could.

Ghent, St Michael's Bridge

It's a very walkable City — our lodging was about two blocks from this main Canal Street. There are several colleges and Universities here and that always makes for a vibrant City.

Ghent by Night

I took so many pictures; the city was magical by night. And so we were not surprised to learn after the fact that the Ghent Light Plan has received international acclaim. It was designed to provide environmentally-conscious lighting while at the same time displaying the city at its best.

St Bavo's Cathedral

We visited St Bavo's which is home to a 15th -Century painting called The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (no inside pictures.) The Cathedral altarpiece is by Jan Van Eyck and is considered his masterpiece. There are numerous other paintings and sculptures as well and four organs. As part of the tour, we listened to a talk about the altarpiece. It is hard to imagine parishioners attending regular Sunday services here — because during the tour, it seemed more like a fine Art Museum than a Church.

It was a busy city, but we had the feeling that most of the people enjoying the pleasant days were local — (except for all of us on the Cathedral tour. )

Gravensteen Castle

This 11th Century building in the Center of town has been a Castle, a prison, and a torture chamber. Kids were using the grounds for picnics and playgrounds and sunbathing during the days we were there!

Except for the night before our flight back to the States, our stay in Ghent was the last place where "The Travel Planner" had booked lodging before we left for our River Cruise. Between our last night here and that final night, we had four days left to play! Why not, we thought, see the last of the three countries of Benelux? So, from our room in Bruges, Bill booked a hotel room in Luxembourg City for a couple of nights and then a couple more in downtown Amsterdam, since we had seen really nothing of that City except for the ship dock.

We had loved Belgium and almost hated to leave — but looked forward to the next and last two chapters of our journey!

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY;  THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; TUESDAY TREASURES; SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and FRIDAY BLISS;

November 9, 2019