Visitors!!!

We were lucky enough to have my parents visit last year, but then they were able to come this year too.   It worked out for them to visit us for a short week before they headed off on their bicycle tour in the Netherlands and since we are only a couple hours away from Amsterdam, some of their friends from the bike tour stopped by for a couple days too.  

 I went with Mom and Dad to "Floriade" in the Netherlands.  

It was a flower show that takes place every ten years!  

 We rode our bikes to a a nearby attraction, Tiger and Turtle Magic Mountain...

 Then, we rode our bikes to the ice cream shop, of course!

Jack and Jack Jr. shooting some hoops at home.  

 Jim and Mary Teitsma came in town first.  

We took the train to Cologne to show them the Dom cathedral.

Then, Uncle Bob and Aunt Ruth came the next day.  Kristy and Dean Wall also flew in that same day.  We walked through the quaint town of Kaiserswerth and had some lunch.

 On the last day we went on a tour of Dusseldorf and took a boat ride on the Rhine back to Kaiserwerth

It was already time to see them off on the the train to Amsterdam.  We enjoyed their visit!  

Rhine River Cruise

We are working on our bucket list as we count down our last year here in Germany.  There is so much to see, so we are seeing as much as we can!  One thing on my bucket list was to take a Rhine River Cruise starting in Koblenz, a city almost two hours south of Dusseldorf.  The Rhine River connects to the Mosel River in Koblenz and there are many wineries, castles, and villages set along the banks of these two rivers.  The cruise we took was a UNESCO World Heritage sight that goes from Rudesheim to Koblenz and takes four hours going downstream.  I wish you could have been here with us as it was one of my favorite sightseeing adventures.  I will share pictures to give you a taste of what we saw.  It was a beautiful, sunny day - great for a boat ride.

We took a train down to Rudesheim and then hopped on the boat.

Every town had a nice church or two!

This was one of our favorite castles!  It is amazing how they build them up on the side of the hill.

Naked kayaking!  Wouldn't you get thrown in jail for this in the states?

Charlie checking out the sights and thinking he should be in one of those castles!

But he was quite content with us!

Jack is still not used to the fact that Europeans are good at cutting in line.

He waited patiently for his soda!

This is fun, but how long are we on this boat?  My soda is gone.

The famous Loreley Rock

He was so happy to go for a boat ride.

Another beautiful church!

Beautiful Hotels!

Vineyards all along the Rhine.

Castles on top of hills

There was always a castle or a cute town along the way to look at.  We could hardly put the camera down.  It was nice, relaxing day.  We hope to be able to visit some of those castles while we are here.