The Years To Remember

My post Covid summer started off with a concert, a pool day, followed by a second concert. I discovered Harbor Jam at the Rivers Casino thanks to Janice and George. We saw a Chicago tribute band on Friday and caught up on their 2nd Rhine cruise after I left them in Amsterdam. The drought dried up the Rhine so much that they had to be bussed to Frankfurt and to one of the excursions. Then part of their group were unlucky enough to have their flights cancelled due to the Lufthansa strike. George sorted it out by sending them to Paris by train to catch a flight home. He said being a travel advisor right now includes so much more trouble shooting than ever before.                                                Saturday lounging in the pool. The second concert on July 30th was a Billy Joel tribute band. I went with Lyne, Ginny, and Ann Marie and the music was nice and the w...

I brought back a souvenir case of Covid from my fantastic trip. I tested the moment I got home and that thing lit up as positive so fast that the sample hadn't even reached the C control line. So I ordered a load of groceries and drove to the store for a contactless pick up, then holed up at home for the duration. I spent the better part of this 8 days isolating at home. The camera roll on my phone indicates that I spent a lot of time in the garden taking photos of flowers and bugs in between my short spurts of weeding. A whole lot of laundry got processed as well. By Thursday I was feeling better so I went for a short kayak on the lake down the road, but the effort cost me later. I slept a lot, I ate a little, and I just talked on the phone as my family was overly concerned because of my very hoarse voice. My introverted self was kind of delighted to have a reason to behave like a hermit for a week, but I did start to miss human interaction and finally was able to resume a normal ...

 7/16  - A final morning of breakfast, then packing up for the Amsterdam add-on to this trip. While the luggage was transported to the hotel, our group walked about a mile through the city to the hotel. Some rooms were ready (mine), but others were not. I was quite happy with my split level room with a bathroom large enough to get lost in, and large bedroom and a foyer. I got settled, then headed downstairs to meet the canal boat in front of the hotel.  On the walk to the hotel. Maureen and  Maureen. I just wanted to sleep. Dave and Pat. Relaxing on the canal boat. We had a 2 hour long ride to get acquainted with the city. The female captain provided a very informative overview of Amsterdam, but I found myself extremely sleepy and just blamed the warm weather. A heat wave was building and I was just glad to be leaving before the really hot weather was to occur. I was glad to get back to the room and promptly took a nap. Janice and George called later and wanted to r...

 Our last port of call before leaving Germany was the city of Cologne, home to more churches/cathedrals. I think this may have been the largest of the cathedrals, but I was not really all that interested due to the sheer number I visited this trip. The morning walking tour focused on just that, though Steve and I became entranced by a destruction site where a block of buildings were being torn down. The most amazing of the machinery was a picker upper thing that was picking up then TOSSING giant slabs of concrete onto another pile. Absolutely fascinating! The city hall which is the site of dozens of weddings every day. There are three wedding parties here. The cathedral exterior was most intricate. A vertical panorama shot of the interior. A moneymaking art installation - the gendarmes were keeping a close eye on the situation, but it was all about peace and support of Ukraine. Drone photos of our group plus any other passengers who were interested. The engineering of the bridges o...

 Today we had to get up early to fit in yoga and breakfast before heading out to the bikes at 8 am. Our mission was to ride 16 miles to the next port of Koblenz, rather than on board with the rest of the guests. It was a flat and easy ride through forest, parks, one industrial site and more park. It was definitely one of the more enjoyable tours of this trip! The ship passing us during the bike ride. We got to Koblenz at about the same time, but we had to wait to board while they secured the ship. Janice We then headed out to see Koblenz. My companions seemed a bit moody after lunch, so I made the decision to ride the gondola up to the park across the river and asked if anyone wanted to join. George, Janice, Maureen, and Steve all agreed so we headed up to the park. It was somewhat underwhelming but the company was good and it filled the afternoon. Later I went for a walk up the river and decided to push the limits of how far in advance I needed to board the boat before it left. Ap...