Page 4 - GC-Nov-Dec-2024
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4 • The German Citizen • November-December 2024
      Our Trip to the Fatherland - Rheinland-Pfalz


         By Daniel Schwarz           of  Rheinland-Pfalz  (Rhineland-  Buffalo, NY home.
            he title of this article is liter-  Palatinate  in  English),  along  the   Each  day  of  our  cruise  we
         Tally  true,  since  my  father  Rhine  River  and  on  the  Moselle  stopped  at  a  different  community
      Berthold  Schwarz  emigrated  from  River. The itinerary included stops  and had great shore excursions ei-
      this southwestern area of Germany  in  Cochem;  the  historic  city  of  ther  walking  or  busing  into  the
      to  the  US  as  a  young  man  in  the  Trier  and  an  optional  bus  to  Lux-  towns and experiencing the sights.
      1920’s.  Our  trip  was  on  a  scenic  embourg;  with  full-day  stops  at  Having  been  to  Germany  many
      river cruise aboard the S.S. Victo-  Bernkastel;   Boppard/Koblenz;  times,  the  cruise  and  beautiful
      ria, a beautiful UNIWORLD ship.  Rüdesheim;  Speyer;  Karlsruhe/  scenery was perhaps the most im-
      My wife Louise and I were 2 of the  Mannheim  and  bus  to  Baden-  pressive for us. This was especially
      110  passengers  and  40  crew. This  Baden. The cruise ended in Frank-  true  along  the  many  curvy  horse-
      9-day  cruise  was  called  “Magnifi-  furt am Main, where our flight orig-  shoe  bends  of  the  Moselle  River
      cent  Moselle  &  Rhine”  where  the  inally  arrived  from  our  Toronto,  Valley, where the steep hills rose on
      cruise sailed from Mainz am Rhein,  Canada international airport, that is  both sides of the river, some up to
      the capital city of the German state  most  convenient  for  us  from  our  60-degree  angles.  There  were  of
                                                                    course many small villages, beauti-
                                                                    ful  small  churches  with  tall,
                                                                    pointed steeples, quite a few histor-
                                                                    ical castles on mountain tops, and
                                                                    an  almost  continuous  display  of
                                                                    manicured  vineyards,  as  can  be
                                                                    seen in the photo.
                                                                      As  we  cruised  along  the
                                                                    Moselle  River,  we  either  sat  on
                                                                    comfortable  lounge  chairs  on  the
                                                                    expansive open air top deck of the
                                                                    ship  or  looked  out  of  our  huge
                                                                    stateroom  window,  to  enjoy  the
                                                                    breathtaking scenery as a continu-
                                                                    ous  slideshow  of  picture  postcard
                                                                    views.  We  started  to  take  photos,
                                                                    but realized they could not capture
                                                                    the magnitude of the vistas, or the
                                                                    impressive  steepness  of  the  hilly
                                                                    vineyards.  But  we  kept  trying   ture  with  a  pre-cruise  day  in  the  center)  at  the  Hyatt  Regency
                                                                    anyway.                       historic  city  of  Mainz  am  Rhein  Mainz. This was a modern hotel on
                                                                        We began our Germany adven-  and stayed in the Altstadt (old city  the  riverbank  in  eyesight  of  the
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