Day 12 - Disembarkation, Luxembourg and Reims

This morning was another early start. We woke up at 6am and took a look outside for our last early morning view from our balcony. 

We finished packing our bags and set them outside the room at 6:30am for pickup onto the bus and went downstairs for our last breakfast onboard at 7am. We spoke with a nice lady, Laura, from Fort Wayne, Indiana during breakfast. She had not heard of the Exotic Feline Rescue that Rob and Michele visited years ago, and they encouraged her to check it out. 

We loaded on the buses for our long ride to Paris at 8:15. Luxembourg was only about an hour from Trier and we’d get a stop at the American Cemetery and Memorial. As we neared the cemetery, the bus took a quick detour through Kirchberg. The town looked very modern with interesting building architecture and a slick looking light railway.

We arrived at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial just 5 minutes later. We had 35 minutes to walk around the grounds. 

This cemetery is primarily the resting place of soldiers who died during the Battle of the Bulge. This effort was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II, taking place from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg. The offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerpand to split the Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy each of the four Allied armies and force the western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers’ favor. While the Nazis achieved complete and total surprise and managed to push as far as the village of Foy-Notre-Dame, south east of Dinant by December 24, 1944 just 8 days after the start of the offensive, they were beaten back to the December 16th position by January 25, 1945. The Germans would surrender on May 8, 1945, ending WWII in Europe.

As you would expect, the grounds are meticulously maintained. Golf course green grass, and perfectly trimmed grass around the head stones and pathways. They do not use string trimmers for this. It’s all done with hand actuated trimmers. Electric hedge trimmers are used for the bushes.

General Patton is buried here, per his wishes of being buried with his soldiers. His headstone sits up front facing the 5,000+ grave sites of this cemetery.

Back on the bus, we were soon in France after about five minutes on the highway. Luxembourg is a very small country. Our second stop of the day was Reims, about two hours from Luxembourg. 

Along the way, there was a 30km stretch of the highway that had these curious objects on the right-hand side of the road. 

They were developed by an artist in 1977 as a way of keeping people’s attention while driving to help them stay awake.

Although we were traveling to Reims to tour the cathedral, Reims also has a unique spot in history during WWII. Reims was the site of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in Europe commanded by Eisenhower. On the morning of May 7, 1945, at 02:41, General Eisenhower and the Allies received the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht in Reims in what was the “map room.” General Alfred Jodl, German Chief-of-Staff, signed the surrender at the SHAEF as the representative for German President Karl Dönitz.

We arrived at Reims at about 12:45pm and were led to a small square with restaurants. We opted for a bakery for ease and time. They had sandwiches on fresh baguettes, quiches, wraps, and even pizza. Of course they also had pastries. Michele and Rob shared a ham and cheese baguette while Roy and Gwyn got a wrap. 

After lunch, Rob and Michele took a quick walk around for 30 minutes before our tour meeting time at 2pm. 

Roy and Gwyn found ice cream. Look how artistically they “scooped” the ice cream for her, in the shape of a rose.

Michele and Rob snapped a quick selfie at the futuristic spherical fountain before the group tour. 

Meeting up with our cathedral tour guide, he explained the history of the cathedral and how it was mostly destroyed during WWI. The war front was very close to Reims and for four years shells rained down on the city. Nearly 300 shells were believed to have directly hit the cathedral. Most of the statues above about 12 feet off the ground are reproductions. The originals (what was left of them) are stored in a museum next to the cathedral.

The cathedral church is thought to have been founded by the bishop Nicasius in the early 5th century. Clovis was baptized a Christian here by Saint Remigius, the bishop of Reims, about a century later. He was the first Frankish king to receive this sacrament. A hundred-year construction of the present Reims Cathedral began in the 13th century and concluded in the 14th century. Reims Cathedral is considered to be one of the most important works of Gothic Architecture.

Notice how the very small statues to the far right are all missing their heads? Maybe the reason has something to do with the French Revolution and the in-vogue pastime of cutting off heads. The five large statues here are all original, saved during WWI due to concerned citizens stacking sand bags to protect them.

John D. Rockefeller donated a significant amount of money to Reims to help the restoration efforts. In his honor, the city named the street in front of the cathedral after him.

These windows are from Chagall. 

These windows are from a German artist and were created/installed in 2013. They are considered a statement of reconciliation between the French and Germans. The colors in the windows are those found in both the German and French flags. Note how they are mixed together as a message of peace.

Our tour complete, we loaded back on the bus for the two hour ride to Paris and our hotel for the next four days. One of our fellow passengers boarded the bus with a bloody shin. He scraped it on a cement ledge when trying to avoid a group of teenagers. Michele quickly gave him two bandaids and a bit of Neosporin. At 5:45pm we arrived at our hotel, the Pullman, a skyscraper of a hotel. It was a long day and we were worn out. We popped over to Lidl across the street to pick up snacks, which was a madhouse of activity on a Friday afternoon working hours, then had dinner in the hotel’s italian restaurant. Roy, Gwyn and Rob each had the parma ham pizza and Michele had osso bucco. Tomorrow we have a Paris highlights tour along with a visit to Versailles. 

Day 11 - Bernkastel and Trier

We woke up around 7am this morning and opened the balcony door to see that we were in Bernkastel. 

Breakfast was at 8am this morning. Michele decided to skip all tours today to rest in bed due to a cold. Roy, Gwyn and Rob joined the 9am walking tour of the very small, but scenic town.

This house is made into a life-sized advent calendar in December.

It is hard to tell from this picture, but the house on the right is leaning quite a bit towards the house on the left.

The below inscription on the side of the building describes the origin of the Bernkastel Doctor.

As the story goes, in 1354, the Trier Elector Boemund II was a staying at his summer residence, the Landshut Castle, and became seriously ill. No doctor or medicine helped him improve. So he sent out a message that whoever could help him would be paid a reward. A knight at the Hunolstein Castle heard about the Trier Elector. The knight had a vineyard in Bernkastel and brought the Elector a barrel of wine. The Elector drank the wine and was cured. This was the birth of the Bernkastel Doctor. Since then, the winery and the wine, which is grown above the town here, have been called a Riesling with rare value. The Dr. Bernkastel vineyard is only three quarters of a hectare. Rob says it’s a nice tale to tell to encourage sales of their wine. 

In addition to miraculous illness-curing wine, the town has had its fair share of flooding. The marks on this building show the various levels throughout the years. December 1993 was a particularly bad year. We saw this year marked on buildings in other towns up river.

The remains of a watch tower from the wall that would have surrounded this city.

We crossed a bridge and saw this small church attached to a senior care home. 

We went into a wine shop for our tasting. We were handed a glass and led into the wine cellar where we were able to taste any of the wines we could see. There were hundreds of different wines. Rob texted Michele that there were more than he could count.

Bottles were stacked in these cages with a sign describing the wine. There was also an identification number on the cage. For example, the one below has ID number 63.

There were small refrigerators with bottles in them. The bottles were already opened (they were all twist top caps versus corked tops) and they had the corresponding numbers on them. You simply looked at the signs, identified the wine you wanted to try and then grabbed the bottle out of the fridge with the corresponding number.

Rob was only able to try nine of them before time was up and he had to go back to the ship for the 11am departure time.

Rob liked this 2023 Gutsabfullung Sauvignon Blanc the best (#21)

Little factoid: Germany produces more than 260 million gallons of wine per year. Approximately one third of it is exported.

Rob returned to the ship and attended the 11:15am briefing on disembarkation instructions for Friday. After, the four of us met at Noon for lunch. 

At 1:30pm, the ship docked in Wintrich just long enough to allow those taking the Trier walking tour to get off. The ship would continue down the Moselle towards Trier. Rob was the only one to take the Trier walking tour. Michele, Roy, and Gwyn all stayed on the ship to rest. Michele caught a few snaps of the steep winery terraces along the river. Although she missed the tour, she didn’t mind being in her cabin and enjoying the view of the river’s sights from her bed and balcony.

Meanwhile, Rob’s bus ride to Trier took about 45 minutes and was very scenic as have been all the drives in Germany. 

When the bus entered Trier, our driver drove around to show us some of the sites including the ruins of the former imperial baths and the Roman Bridge (the oldest bridge in Germany).

The walking tour first stopped at the Electoral Palace which dates to the 16th century.

Decorated in the Baroque style, the arch bishops that stayed here really took their vow of poverty seriously. The building is now an office building and not open for tours.

Next we saw the Aula Palatina also known as the Basilica of Constantine. The Electoral Palace was built onto this structure. The Basilica is a Roman palace basilica and an early Christian structure built between AD 300 and 310 during the reigns of Constantius Chlorus and Constantine the Great.

It is used as the Church of the Redeemer and owned by a congregation within the Evangelical Church in the Rhinelan (ironically enough a protestant body). The hall has a length of 220ft,  a width of 85ft and a height of 108ft. The Aula Palatina was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 as part of the Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St. Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier.

We walked to the location of two churches right next to each other. Here is a model that shows their proximity to each other.

At one time there were four churches, but two of them destroyed over the years after the Romans left Trier. The High Cathedral of Saint Peter is the oldest cathedral in Germany and the largest religious structure in Trier, notable for its long life span and grand design. The original building was built around 270 by the Emperor Constantine. 

The fourth-century church was left in ruins by the Franks, with only the outer walls remaining, but it was rebuilt. It was destroyed again by the Vikings in 882. Under Archbishop Egbert rebuilding started, completed by Poppo of Babenberg (1016–1041). The famous west façade dates from this period, although the apse was not finished until 1196. 

The organ pipes are elaborately decorated. 

The Church of our Lady is a gothic style building dating back to the 13th century. 

This square is where the other churches were located. The surrounding buildings were homes of the high ranking clergy.

We walked to the colorful town square.

This is the house Karl Marx grew up in.

We walked to the Simeon Strasse to the Porta Nigra (latin for “black gate”). The Porta Nigra was built in grey sandstone after 170 AD, identified by three-ring dating a piece of oak found in the structure. The original gate consisted of two four-storeyed towers, projecting as near semicircles on the outer side. A narrow courtyard separated the two gate openings on either side. For unknown reasons, however, the construction of the gate remained unfinished. For example, the stones at the northern (outer) side of the gate were never abraded, and the protruding stones would have made it impossible to install movable gates. Nonetheless, the gate was used as a town entrance for centuries until the end of the Roman era in Trier.

We got an hour to explore on our own. Rob enjoyed a chocolate ice cream cone, and walked back to the Porta Nigra, over to the Karl Marx statue, and then back over to the two churches.

The return bus ride was just 15 minutes since the boat had sailed during the day to Trier while the tour was happening. At 6:45 the captain had a farewell toast to celebrate our Viking journey, new friends and happy memories. At 7pm we enjoyed our last dinner in the restaurant. We were surprised with key lime pie for dessert. We’ve been spoiled every day by such good food and friendly service and enjoyed meeting other passengers who asked to sit at our table.