Description

Cologne, a German city with a resilient Roman, is Germany's fourth largest city. Autumn is considered the best time to visit, as carnival season starts in mid-November. The city's Gothic Cathedral is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Transcript

Just when you feel the need to exercise your legs, your ship comes in to a port of call for a visit. First stop, Cologne, a German city with a resilient Roman heritage. Here’s a quick reminder, you’ll do a lot of walking in older towns, some with cobblestone streets so bring the right clothes and the proper walking shoes. Cologne is Germany’s fourth largest city with 1 million residents. It has mild winters, warm humid summers and plenty of shopping in any season. Autumn is considered the best time to visit. Hotel prices are lower and carnival season starts in mid November. But it’s cooler and the weather can be cloudy and wet. Remember, sweaters, slickers, coats and gloves, you might even want to bring a hat. Cologne’s gothic cathedral is 600 years old and it’s massive. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site. It is perhaps the most visited site in town and adjacent to shopping and restaurants. And this is the city where ODA Cologne was created. A man called Villa Mulhens was given a wedding gift by a Carthusian monk, a secret formula for the production of aqua mirabilis. Mulhens founded a company to produce the perfume. The world learned about 4711 or ODA Cologne when French troops there sent the stuff home as gifts to their families. The rest as they say is history. Back on the boat, you’ll make several stops on the average river cruise as the odyssey continues. We will show you some of these German gems next week. The mathematician Blaise Paschal once wrote, rivers are roads which moves and which carry us wither we desire to go. These cruisers take us to some very desirable places. Food and drinks are part of the package. Evening meals are a great time to swap travel stories both new and old. And by the way, ask the cruise company about the dress code. Many trips allow casual clothing but some expensive upscale cruises may request evening attire or even formal wear. You sure don’t want to show up for dinner in a Hawaiian shirt or a halter top only to find everyone else wearing jackets and ties or dresses. On some trips, entertainment comes to you. Other times, we disembark for the entertainment. The Rhine is the biggest shipping artery in Europe. 200,000 ships sail it each year. It is blessed with castle crammed scenery including the famous or infamous Lorelei Rock. It’s said to be haunted, inhabited by a siren whose called lured unwitting sailors to their doom. The rock is 435 feet or 133 meters high. Because the river is so narrow here, there are strong currents and crosscurrents. That’s the real reason ships sank.