Rhine River Cruise: Cologne & Dusseldorf

Tuesday, November 19, 2024


The next morning of our Rhine River cruise with AmaWaterways, we docked in Düsseldorf. There were a few different excursion options available, and having previously seen pictures of the Christmas markets in Cologne, we really wanted to head there*. We also really love beer and wanted to taste Kölsch in the place where it originated. As you’ve probably already deduced, Cologne is also where eau de cologne was invented (1799).

More important than smelling good, however, Cologne was founded as a Roman military outpost that was later named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium after the Roman Empress Agrippina, who was born there. Suffice it to say, she was quite the woman. Based on what we learned during our tour, I have no doubt she served—at least in part—as George R.R. Martin’s inspiration for Cersei Lannister. I mean, come on:

Agrippina convinced her husband, Emperor Claudius, to elevate the settlement to the status of a colonia, a prestigious Roman city. She named it after herself, marking it as a political and cultural center in the Roman Empire. This status brought urban development, trade, and a strong Roman military presence, transforming the city into a major hub. Agrippina’s life was as dramatic as her political maneuvering. Known for her ruthlessness, she eliminated rivals and used her connections to secure power for herself and her son, Nero, whom she helped position as Claudius’s successor. After Claudius’s suspicious death—widely believed to have been orchestrated by Agrippina—Nero became emperor. However, their relationship soured, and Nero ultimately ordered her execution in 59 CE.

I call out Cologne’s Roman history because part of our walking tour included a stop at the Roman Harbor Road, a reconstruction of part of the Via Agrippa.

Following the fall of the Roman Empire, Cologne became a vital center for Christianity in medieval Europe, with its archbishop wielding significant religious and political influence. The Cologne Cathedral—the symbol of this power—was begun in 1248, designed to house the Shrine of the Three Kings. When it was completed in 1880, it was the world’s tallest building until 1890, and today remains the tallest cathedral in the world.












Next, we stopped in a few squares, which, at this time of morning, were fairly quiet since most of the shops and restaurants weren’t open yet. We wrapped up at the Kaiser Wilhelm II statue near the Hohenzollern Bridge, which features thousands of love locks. For fans of The Amazing Race, you’ll recognize it from season 35, episode 7. (Later in our cruise, we passed the ferry where the contestants had to exchange coins and the castle where they had to solve a puzzle using those coins.)








At the conclusion of our walking tour, we had some time on our own to explore, so Alan and I headed over to Früh am Dom to finally try an authentic Kölsch beer (we chose this particular brewery because it was the only one that was open. If you’d like to know more about Kölsch in Cologne, I recommend checking out this blog. When we arrived at Früh, the outside was hopping, while the inside was dead. It turned out there was a major Euro soccer match taking place in Düsseldorf (!!) later that afternoon and most people were pre-gaming. It took a while to get a seat inside and even longer to get service, but the space was beautiful. I’m glad we made the effort to visit, but I don’t think our experience was a true representation of what you’d normally find visiting a brew house in Cologne given the early afternoon hour and the soccer match.




One important thing to note about Cologne before we head off to our next stop is that the city was decimated in World War II. Bombing destroyed about 80% of the city center, killing over 90% of its population. (You can read more about this on the website for the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.) Reconstruction began immediately after the war, continuing well into the 1990s in an attempt to restore the city to its pre-war appearance. Today, Cologne is a major cultural center with many museums, galleries, and institutes of higher education. Cologne is currently the fourth largest city in Germany, with over one million inhabitants.

We arrived back in Düsseldorf just before lunch. We ate an incredibly delicious meal onboard before heading out into the city, which was awash in soccer fans who’d come over from Switzerland. It was absolute pandemonium! 

Unfortunately, I happened to open Facebook while we were in our room and saw a picture of a cat that looked exactly like Lihue wandering the streets a block from our house. Completely panicked, I reached out to our amazing cat sitter who, thankfully, was just pulling up to our house at that moment. I was freaking out, waiting to hear back from her, but as it turned out, all was well. I’ve seen the gray cat a few times since then, and despite being a couple pounds thinner than our chonky boy, they are remarkably similar in appearance. 

After lunch, we wandered around Düsseldorf in an effort to find a beer hall that served altbier. Altbier is to Düsseldorf what Kölsch is to Cologne. There are many differences between the two styles of beer, but the main one is that while Kölsch is a lager, altbier is an ale. It is a copper-colored beer that is top-fermented, an older method of brewing than the bottom fermentation of lagers.

Given the crowds for the soccer match, it was incredibly difficult to get a feel for the Old Town, and while we did make our way to Zum Schlüssel, I’d be completely unable to pick the exterior out from a photo lineup or even tell you what street we were on. What I can tell you is a preferred altbier to Kolsch, but I tend to gravitate to maltier beers. Since I feel like we didn’t have a representative experience of what it’s like to visit one of these beer halls, I direct you once again to the Auslander blog for more information.





Leaving the brew house, we found ourselves on a quiet side street which was a nice respite from the rowdiness of the soccer crowd. Unfortunately, it wasn't completely quiet as a few gangs of lads would occasionally find themselves there on accident, at which time they would just piss on a building. The views were lovely; the smells not so much.

We did stumble upon a lovely little square that featured a church and then a little further on one of the most beautiful sculptures we've ever seen. A quick Google search reveals it is the Stadterhebungsmonument, which was unveiled for Düsseldorf's 700th anniversary. The bronze sculpture is by the artist Bert Gerresheim and shows scenes from the Battle of Worringen, the sealing of the city elevation charter, and the elevation of the parish church dedicated to Saint Lambertus to a canonry. 








Back on board the boat, we shared tidbits of our day with new friends and learned that in Cologne, representatives from AmaWaterways took Brad to a wine store in a massive cave so that he could purchase wine to replace the wine that never made it onboard, and compared the various excursions that were on offer among the groups. Then, it was time to get dressed for the special “winemaker dinner,” which was absolutely fabulous. It was so good, in fact, that I don’t have a ton of photographic evidence to share since I was too busy shoveling food in my mouth to take pictures.







After dinner, several of us assembled on the top deck of the boat as we sailed past Cologne, catching the cathedral all lit up at night. After several house outside chatting with our fellow guests, it was time for bed. 

*If you’re considering a river cruise, one thing you should be aware of is a significant portion of your day is spent on buses going between your sites and the ship. In this case, it was a 40-minute journey from where we were docked to Cologne. 


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Rhine River Cruise - leaving Amsterdam (and getting underway)

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Woke up to iffy weather again. No big deal though since of course I packed my trusty Leinster Rugby jacket! Even though we were still in Amsterdam, this was considered Day 2 of our the actual 7-day cruise, so AmaWaterways had lined up a canal tour for all of the passengers. To determine what group you're in, you pick up a numbered, color-coded "ticket" at guest services, and when you get off the boat, you're directed to meet your tour guide. Right away, I could sense we'd drawn the short end of the stick with who we ended up with and it didn't get any better once we had our headsets on and she was in our ears. On the walk over to the canal cruise boat, she complained about the cost of real estate and gentrification in a very brusque manner. And once we got to the boat, she and our driver - who was a sweet, seemingly fun woman - clashed immediately. During the narration of the tour, they squabbled, our guide complained about the driver, and when talking about the upcoming Pride celebrations, kept referring to "the gays." It became so unpleasant, I eventually took my earbuds out and just watched the scenery go by.
















Getting off the canal boat tour, we synced up with Brad and Danny and a couple of their friends again who were on a quest to locate a wine shop where they could pick up something drinkable. We joined them at the train station, at which point Google Maps directed us down a sidewalk exiting the station that narrowed until there was nowhere to get to without being flattened by an oncoming train - thank goodness for quick feet and even quicker thinking! Unfortunately, we learned that wine stores don't open until a bit later so we eventually split up. 

Alan and I headed back to the Jordaan neighborhood to see if the shop we'd visited on our food tour the first day was open. Google said it wouldn't be open until 1 p.m., but worst case scenario, we'd get to walk through one of my favorite parts of the city. Thankfully, the shop was open and the owner remembered us from a couple of days before and he walked us through a genever tasting. We'd first tasted genever in Belgium the autumn before (I really need to write that trip report, too!), and really enjoyed it, but this was an entirely different experience. In addition to tasting more genever, we also picked up some absinthe that isn't available for import to America due to tariffs, as well as a couple of bottles of wine to tide us over on the boat.





When we got back on the boat we went up to the top deck to drink some wine and relax from our morning and afternoon of sightseeing. 


As we pulled out of port in Amsterdam, it started to rain so we all rushed inside to hang out and continue getting to know our fellow passengers from the wine club. My understanding is that typically aboard these wine cruises, the featured winemaker will have a handful of people from the wine club or affiliated with the winery on board with him, but in this case, Mercury wine club members made up the majority of passengers so it was definitely more convivial and social for us than it would have been otherwise. We typically keep to ourselves when traveling, but on this trip we had a built in community already there. 

About an hour after we left port, we came upon our first set of locks. If you've never been through a lock system before, it takes a great deal of precision to maneuver the boats, and as you can see from the photos below, there isn't much room for error.

I don't have any pictures of it, but at one point as we sailed down the river, we passed a section where wild horses - and camels! (Yes, camels) were running free along the banks! It was quite an extraordinary sight to behold.





We sat with Brad and Danny at dinner that night who were lovely enough to share the wine with us they purchased earlier that afternoon, and it was a fantastic compliment to what was a very delicious meal. Definitely a good showing on the food so far.





After dinner, our small group went back upstairs to the top of the boat where we cracked open one of the bottles of genever we'd purchased earlier in the day and just share stories about our travels thus far and discuss what we were most looking forward to the rest of the trip. Being late June in Amsterdam, it stayed light out until nearly 10 p.m. so the night seemed to last forever. 




Back inside after dark, there was a DJ going in the lounge, and I may (or may not) have done a whole lot of dancing until jet lag once again caught up with me and it was time for bed. We had an exciting day ahead of us in Germany to look forward to.
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