River Cruise Overview

River Cruise line: AmaWaterways

Our ship: AmaStella

Embarkation point: Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Monday, March 26th

Disembarkation: Basel, Switzerland - Monday, April 2nd

Schedule

March 27th 2 pm depart Amsterdam

March 28th 1 pm arrive Cologne, Germany

depart midnight

March 29th Cruise Rhine Valley

2 pm arrive Rudesheim, Germany

March 30th 2 am depart Rudesheim

12 noon arrive Ludwigshafen, Germany

depart 6:30 pm

March 31st 8:30 am arrive Strasbourg, France

depart 10 pm

April 1st 8 am arrive Breisach, Germany

depart 1:30 pm

10 pm arrive Basel, Switzerland

April 2nd disembark

We were not limited to the towns where the boat docked in ever case.  Some of the photos above are from trips to neighboring towns.  More on that in future posts.

Still adjusting to the jet lag and time change of 6 hours.

River Cruise Return

We are back from our river cruise on the Rhine and 3 night stay over in Basel, Switzerland.

I haven't downloaded any of the photos I took on the two cameras I carried with me but I have a few photos from the iPad as a tease.  They are not the best photos because of window reflections.  Sorry.

Amsterdam - early the first morning from our window.

Entering the Rhine Valley

First castle sighting in the Rhine Valley.

Lucerne, Switzerland where we went for a day trip from Basel.

So much more to share!  

Trains at Franklin Institute

We visited the Franklin Institute in February.  I shared about the wonderful Terracotta Warrior exhibit last month.

Here is another exhibit we visited there.

Someone's great idea for an engine that went totally awry.  Read below.

The engine was enormous ...

especially when compared to this one.

This engine below was also donated to the museum purported to be a particular model.  Closer inspection by museum staff determined that it had none of the original parts of the engine it was supposed to be!

Here's another form of locomotion!

High above the museum's atrium.

Dan paid 2 bucks to ride it.

No waiver of liability required.

He said it was strange to be going backward at first since he had no sense of where it would stop abruptly.

I took the photos and did not need a ride.  No thanks!

Are You This Kind of Collector?

Do you have a room in your home that looks like this?

I imagine not.  But as you'll read at the end it was not unusual in the home of a nobleman in the 17th century.

What kind of collecting do you do?

When we downsized to move here I took one or two items from each of the many collections I had.

Photos from the Walters Art Museum