Before we left home, The Floriade was one of the things we were most excited to see... But first, today we started out in Cologne, Germany with a walking, city-tour. It was both more and less than what we'd expected. More quirkiness, for sure! It was also larger than we'd thought it'd be - this is a bustling, working metropolis with some gorgeous medieval buildings tossed in. In the afternoon, we took a 90-minute bus ride into Holland to visit The Floriade exhi...

Today was one of the highlights of our trip - We started out in Rudesheim, Germany and what a delight!! This little gem, along the Rhine, cannot be topped for charm. Each little street felt like stepping back in time. In the morning, along with touring the town, we toured the Seigfried's Magical Music Cabinet Museum (name sorta sums it up, huh?). What a quirky and fun little place. All floors of the museum house mechanical musical cabinets - some small enough t...

Well, the weather has not been our friend on this trip. We've had two days of sunshine - and scorching temperatures! - the rest have been rainy or overcast/drizzly (hell on the hair). Heidelberg is one of the places where it drizzled or rained or even thundershowered the entire day. Still, we made the most of it. The highlight of the town is the old castle - much of it in ruin from good ol' King Louis XIV. But it's still spectacular. It sits atop the town and ...

Ever since I was in junior high - back in Minnesota and taking German in school - visiting the Black Forest has been on my bucket list. And today, the dream to see it myself was checked off my list! Of course, it's very different today than it was when all the fairy tales originated; but still, it was awesome. The cuckoo clock has deep roots here and we saw many, many varieties of them in the various shops we stopped to visit. There are many farmers who live and...

So today showed us our real first hiccup of our trip - It started out innocuous enough with one quick, last stop at a monument in Lucerne; it's of a dying lion. It was scultped to represent the suffering of a dignified warrior and the fruitlessness of war. We've uploaded a few pictures here of the lion - beautiful enough to bring tears to our eyes. From there, the plan was a bus ride to the Swiss town of Basel, a city tour, and then board our ship. Well, we ma...