11th December - a wet day in Cologne

Cologne, or Koln in German, has the largest Gothic cathedral in Germany. We began with a short walking tour of the old town, ending with a tour of the cathedral. The cathedral is supposed to house the bones of the 3 magi.

By the time the tour was over Becky and I were extremely wet, so we stopped in a kaffehaus for a lovely slice of cake and a coffee.
After that it was off to the Christmas markets. Cologne has 5, but we only made it around 2 of them. They were certainly the biggest and best markets of the whole trip. So it was a great place to end our cruise.

In the evening we had a special dinner and shared a table with the special friends we've made on this trip.

Cruising the Rhine and Koblenz

This morning we cruised along a stretch of the Rhine that is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  I lost count of all the castles we passed. We also passed the Loreley Rock - which I first saw 43 years ago.  When I get home I'll have to compare the photos to see if it's changed at all.

Around lunchtime we docked in Koblenz, where Becky and I took a walk around by ourselves.  Koblenz is a bit like 3 or 4 Swansea's all joined together - which isn't much of a recommendation. I think it's main claim to fame is that it still has a Woolworths!

Koblenz Chritsmas Market

Eberbach

Eberbach Abbey is a Cistercian Monastery, best known as the filming location for the Sean Connery movie: "The Name of the Rose".

We arrived after dark and were given candles (LED not real) to carry around, so as to add to the ambience.  First we headed to the wine cellars for a tasting of 3 of the local wines.

After the wine cellars we visited the dormitories, chapter house, church and the wine press room.  \The Cistercians didn't believe in heating their monasteries - so it was pretty cold.

Weisbaden and Rudesheim

This morning we were docked in Mainz, but took a bus to Weisbaden to the "twinkling star" Christmas market.  We bought a lot of stuff!

Weisbaden Christmas market

While we were in Weisbaden the ship sailed on to Rudesheim. So the bus took us back to the ship's new docking spot there.  Rudesheim was small but very pretty.  We took the little choo choo train into town and walked around the Christmas market - which took up most of the town.  It was probably our favourite market so far.
We also stopped in a cafe to try the local speciality: the Rudesheimer coffee.  It was quite a production with the waiter heating the brandy and lighting it on fire before pouring the coffee over it. It was very yummy!

Rudesheim Christmas Market

Rudesheimer coffee

Heidelberg

Today we were docked at Mannheim, but there's not a lot to see in this industrial town, so we were put on a bus and taken to Heidelberg.  The main attraction at Heidelberg is the very old castle, which is mostly a ruin these days (having been burned down at least 3 times).
The castle houses the largest wine barrel in the world.

View from Heidelberg Castle

The largest wine barrel in the world

We then had several hours to wander around Heidelberg's various Christmas markets and enjoy a traditional German lunch.

Christmas market in Heidelberg

Strasbourg

We were booked on the early morning tasting tour.  We started off in a restaurant in a very old building to have our breakfast of "stinky pizza" and gluwein.  It wasn't really pizza, but a local specialty called flammerkeuche: which consisted of a very thin crust base with the local smelly cheese, onions, garlic and bacon on it.  Gluwein is the local mulled wine and is served hot.
We then walked on down the various shopping streets and sampled gingerbread and cookies.

Breakfast in a local restaurant

Strasbourg houses the European Parliament.  It's an interesting city with a lot of old buildings and a Gothic cathedral which has the 2nd highest spire in Europe.  It's changed hands between France and Germany 7 times over the last century.  I was left not knowing whether to attempt to speak my very bad French or my almost non-existent German.

Strasbourg is also known as the Christmas Capital of Europe and has a huge number of Christmas markets.  Becky and I only managed to make it around 3 of the markets but bought plenty of things.
In the evening we had a singer and accordion player to entertain us with a repertoire of French songs.

Basel Tour and Christmas Markets

This morning we took a tour of Basel including the Munster and the Rathaus (town hall). Basel is the capital of the local canton, so the Rathaus also serves as the parliament building for the canton.

We even had a semi-famous tour guide for our tour - not Roger Federer, but Andy Locke (a former member of Eddison Lighthouse of "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes" fame). Always wanted to know what happens to pop stars of the 70s - well it seems they become tour guides in Switzerland.

After the tour we had free time to explore the Christmas markets by ourselves

 We stopped for a local lunch in a tea room called Scheisser,  before visiting the chocolate shops and buying some goodies to take home. We then walked back along the bank of the Rhine to where our ship was docked.

Tonight is the Captain's Gala dinner - so we're off to get our glad rags on.

All aboard

A quick flight from Heathrow to Basel today.  Arrived in Basel just after lunch. Sadly, Roger Federer was not there to greet us at the airport so we had to make do with the Uniworld representative.
It was then a 20 minute mini bus ride to the ship - the SS Antionette

The ship is beautiful and all done up for Christmas with lots of Christmas goodies laid out in the lounge. We've met some lovely people so far, and we're looking forward to our first Christmas Market tour (in Basel) tomorrow morning.

4th December - Meeting family at Heathrow

Arrived at Heathrow at 7.20am and then had to sit around for 4 hours waiting for Becky to come in. Made our way to the Renaissance hotel and relaxed for the afternoon

In the evening Alex and Adam joined us at the hotel restaurant for a meal.

This is the first time I've ever met Adam and he's a lovely chap.   Excellent company for the evening and we had a great time.  

Christmas Markets here I come!

Yes - I'm off again.   This time I'm going down the Rhine to visit all the Christmas Markets in Switzerland, France and Germany.  Then a few days in the UK to visit family and do some Christmassy stuff in London. 

Victoria

Denise and I had a leisurely morning with a dip in the hotel pool and hot tub,  before venturing out at about 11am and catching a bus to Butchart Gardens.

Apparently these gardens are "world famous".  They were certainly very pretty, and due to Victoria's mild climate, they are open all year round.

We came back to the hotel in the late afternoon and headed for the Q lounge bar at the Empress for a farewell drink.  Victoria is certainly a lovely city and I'd definitely like to retire here.

Tomorrow we start our long journey back to Ottawa.  It doesn't feel like we've been away that long, and yet we've packed a whole lot in.

12th August - Leaving Vancouver

This morning we traveled by ferry from Vancouver to Victoria.  The ferry actually leaves from Tsawwassen which is about an hour out of Vancouver, and arrives at Swartz Bay (which is also about an hour out of Victoria). BC Ferries operate a connector bus that picks up from downtown Vancouver and rolls onto the ferry, then rolls off the ferry and drives on to the downtown Victoria bus station.  The ferry ride itself is another 90 minutes, so altogether it was about 3.5 hours travel time and we didn't get into Victoria until early afternoon.

We checked into our hotel:  The Empress.  This is an iconic hotel and I've always wanted to stay here.  The rooms are beautifully decorated, but not that large (which I suppose is inevitable with a Victorian building).

Later in the afternoon we took advantage of the glorious weather to go for a horse and carriage ride around some of the older neighbourhoods.  Our horse was called Sam and he was a sweetie.

In the evening we took a walk along the seafront and watched some sea planes taking off from Victoria Harbour Airport.  We ended up at a nice seafood restaurant called Finn's with a lovely view of the harbour, where we had supper.

11th August - A Wet day in Vancouver

This morning we walked over to Canada Place so that Denise could go on the "Fly over Canada" ride. This is a virtual reality ride along the lines of the Soarin' ride at Disney.  I don't do heights - not even virtual ones, so Denise had to go in by herself.
Outside of Canada Place is the Olympic torch from the 2010 Winter Olympics.

It had been a bit damp before we arrived at Canada Place, but by the time we came out it was raining more heavily.   We decided to take a taxi to the Vancouver Aquarium so that we could do something that was indoors. Unfortunately it seemed everyone else had the same idea as the place was packed.  Surprisingly many of the animals weren't even fish.  I enjoyed the Amazon exhibit where there were sloths, monkeys, parrots, snakes, butterflies, tortoises and even bats. 

We have to be up early tomorrow to catch the ferry to Victoria, so this evening we are chilling out in the hotel pool and just taking it easy.

10th August - Touring Vancouver

Today was our first full day in Vancouver. We took a half day sight-seeing tour around the city.
First stop was Stanley Park, named after Lord Stanley of Stanley Cup fame. 

After that it was on to Granville Island for lunch.  Granville Island used to be heavily industrial, but today it's being redeveloped as a location for artists and food.  There's a huge food market, where Denise and I had lunch (or tried to).  The seagulls around the island are demons for stealing people's food.  I had an ice-cream that came in a choux bun.  They cut the top off the bun, fill it with ice-cream, and then put the top back on in a moon shape - sticking up like a decoration.  Before I'd even sat down a gull swooped in and made off with the piece of pastry sticking out of the top of the ice-cream!   The only heavy industry left on Granville Island is the cement factory, but even her the artists are taking over - by decorating the tanks with a mural called "Giants".

The tour bus drove us around Gastown and ended at the Vancouver look out.  Unfortunately the only way up to admire the view is in a glass lift that goes up the outside of the building - so Denise went up and I waited at the bottom.

In the evening we went to Joe Forte's for some very nice seafood and some giant desserts.  The restaurant is named after one of Vancouver's first life guards.

9th August - Kamloops to Vancouver

We were picked up from our hotel and coached to Kamloops station about 7.30am today. The staff were waiting to greet us with flags and the red carpet rolled out again for us to board the train.

I had been expecting another day of snow-capped peaks and glacier-fed rivers, but the climate on the west side of the Rockies is actually semi-arid desert and the landscape was completely different from what we saw yesterday.  It looked more like I'd expect some of the southern states like Nevada, or Arizona, to look. 

In some areas mineral deposits tinted the ground, and it looked almost otherworldly

Lots of other points of interest today, including an Osprey nest - that red thing perched on the bridge, which various pairs of ospreys have been using for over 100 years. 

There were white water rapids, Hell's gate and the joining point of the Fraser and Thompson rivers where one river is full of silt - and the other isn't.

Nearer to Vancouver we emerged into yet another different landscape - the Coastal Rainforest.

Today, there had been no delays, and we pulled into the Rocky Mountaineer train station (not the main Vancouver station) on time, at about 6pm.  All the staff at the station were lined up waving flags for our arrival.   Even though we'd only be on the train for 2 days friendships had been made with the other people in our coach.  It's a small world.  There were 2 guys in our coach from Swansea, and Denise met a guy who lived in the street she used to live in, in Great Sommerford. 

I can't say enough good things about the staff.  Upstairs we had Rebecca (from Cheltenham) and Naomi (from Wicklow) looking after us.  They were constantly up and down the aisles serving us wine and cheese, or scones and jam, or various drinks from the bar or the galley. They gave us hilarious commentary about the points of interest en-route, and were endlessly cheerful on days that seemed long for us - and must have been even longer for them. Downstairs in the dining car we were served with a smile by Julia (from BC) and Kyle (I never did find out where he was from). 
So I'm going to close with a photo of these great people who really made the trip special:

8th August - All Aboard the Rocky Mountaineer

We were up bright and early and caught a taxi to Banff Railway station.  On arrival our cases were taken off us by the porters.  The cases would travel on to Kamloops by road and would be inside our hotel room when we got there.
There was quite a bit of ceremony before we even boarded the train.  One of the guests (Ian, from Newcastle) was chosen at random to don the train conductors hat and blow the whistle twice before the train came into the station.  Then flags were put up and a red carpet rolled out ready for us to board.

The gold leaf cars are double height.  Upstairs is the glass roofed carriage with luxurious seating (lumbar support adjustment, height adjustment, foot support adjustment - even an inbuilt heating system - though we didn't need that as the weather for the whole trip was hot).  Downstairs is the dining car.  There was even an elevator to get between floors!
There is also a silver leaf service in a single height car, without a glass roof.  I don't know how the accommodation in the silver leaf car compared, but I can't help feeling you'd be missing out on the best views if you didn't have the glass roof.  As the photos below illustrate.

We headed out of Banff and ended up passing Lake Louise, where Denise and I had been for a trip yesterday.  After that it was the continental divide, which was a bit of a non-event (basically it's a post with a small sign on it that says "divide"). 
Denise and I were in the first sitting for breakfast, where we were treated to berry smoothies, sweet rolls and an extensive menu.  I had blueberry pancakes and Denise had eggs Benedict. We sat with a nice couple from Michigan, Tom and Linda. 
After breakfast we went through the spiral tunnels. No photos to show you there I'm afraid - it was just dark. Ours was a short train, but I'm told that with some of the 4 mile long freight trains you can see the front of the train coming out of the lower tunnel before the end of the train has entered the top tunnel. 
Highlights of the journey were the Bow, Kicking Horse and Columbia river valleys, and the Stoney Creek bridge (too high for me to look - so I have no photos). 
Lunch was another amazing meal - I couldn't believe what the could do with a kitchen on a train. We sat with Debbie and Walter from Kamloops . Walter worked for the railway company, so they were on a busman's holiday.

During the afternoon there was a problem with some rails having buckled in the sun and the train was delayed for a while.  But at least they picked a picturesque place to stop and I went out on the caboose at the back of the lower level and admired the view:

 

Because of the delay for the engineers to repair the line and also having to wait for a few 4 mile long freight trains to pass, we were later into Kamloops than expected.
I can't say enough about how great the hosts on board were.  It must have been a long day for them having readied the train for us before we boarded and having been running up and down the carriage all day serving  us drinks from the bar, or hot tea and coffee, or snacks.  Due to the delay the catering staff managed to rustle up a light supper of 2 courses which they served upstairs rather than down in the dining car. 
We eventually rolled into Kamloops at 9pm where a coach was waiting to take us to our hotel (and yes - our cases were in our room).

7th August - Dinner at the Banff Springs

The Banff Springs hotel is the poshest hotel in the area.  I wanted to stay there 1 night at least, but back in March when we were trying to book a hotel in Banff I discovered 2 things:  First, rooms at the Banff Springs started at 900 dollars a night - and second, that they were already fully booked up for August!

With staying there not being an option, Denise and I decided to go for the next best thing - which was to have dinner there in one of their many restaurants.  We chose the 1888 Chop House, where I had a wonderful piece of elk loin and Denise had Bison.   Yum!

I'm afraid blog installments may be delayed for the next couple of days, as we are getting on the train tomorrow - and there is no wifi.

7th August - Banff National park

This morning Denise and I were booked on a half day tour of Banff National Park.  Tomorrow we'll be getting on a train with a glass roof, but today we had a bus with a glass roof (at least at the front). Made for some spectacular views of the Rockies as we headed up to Lake Louise

We reached Lake Louise just as the sun came out and started burning off the clouds. Beautiful views and the water is a spectacular blue colour because it contains all the rock "flour" from the glaciers which blocks all but blue/green colours in the spectrum.
We also took a trip up to Moraine Lake - which has equally spectacular views.

We saw plenty of wildlife, including a coyote (eating a squirrel or rabbit for his lunch) and this juvenile black bear chomping away on some berries.  I'm afraid the photo's a bit blurred, but I had to zoom in a lot because I wasn't going to go any closer!

After our tour it was back to the hotel for a quick dip in the Hotel's hot tub/pool - which is in the basement and sourced from a natural hot spring.  It was certainly spectacular, but rather too hot for either of us to stay in for very long.

Tonight we're off to the Banff Springs Hotel for a fancy meal.