Travel UNESCO World Heritage Sites Trier, founded in 16 BC, was our final stop in the Mosel Valley. Our guides explained that Trier was a Roman town for 500 years. We walked to Trier’s UNESCO-listed Roman monuments – the nearly 2,000-year-old Black Gate, the Imperial Baths and the Gothic Church of Our Lady, which has beautiful stained-glass windows. Especially interesting was the juxtaposition of the Roman Basilica next to the pink Prince Elector’s Palace, built 1,300 years later. The best view was from the beautiful garden. Passengers received a welcome surprise after the tour – euros to spend on lunch, wherever they chose. From the main town square, which surrounds a Roman column, we walked to an outdoor café for lunch below buildings with historic façades. Dessert? Delicious pastries from a local bakery. The following day, after cruising back to Koblenz, staff served finger food on the sundeck as the Da Vinci cruised past 14th-century toll castles in the UNESCO-listed Rhine Gorge. At the famous Lorelei rock, Heleen recounted legends about the beautiful maiden that lured ships aground with her siren song. Turn-of-the-century musical instruments Music highlighted our visit to Rüdesheim. During our private tour of Siegfried’s Mechanical Musical Instrument Museum, we listened to palmsized golden boxes with singing hummingbirds and 18th- to 20th-century instruments that self-played everything from Strauss waltzes to folk tunes. In the evening, oom-pa-pa music enticed us into open-air wine taverns along Drosselgasse, a pedestrian cobblestone lane. We indulged in the town’s specialty – hot coffee flambéed with Asbach brandy and topped with mounds of whipped cream and grated chocolate. Returning to the ship, we found tiny brandy-filled chocolate bottles in our cabins. Heidelberg kisses – nougat-filled chocolates – were our nighttime treat after the following day’s cable car ride and tour of Heidelberg Castle. Its towers, massive walls andmoats rose high above the city’s cobbled squares and medieval gate. French sojourn The Da Vinci continued to Strasbourg, France – a beautiful city on the Ill River, a Rhine tributary. Our walking tour revealed historic flower-bedecked buildings, whimsical wrought iron signs, inviting outdoor cafés, street artists and bronze storks, celebrating the birds that nest on rooftops. Inside the Gothic cathedral, we viewed brilliant stained-glass windows which the population saved from Second World War bombings by hiding them in a castle cellar and a salt mine. 24 | www.snowbirds.org
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzMzNzMx