Germany

ACCOMMODATIONS

Hotel Best Western Queens Karlsruhe. Wednesday night. Thursday night will be in Switzerland.

We will be getting breakfast and dinner both days.

GLOBUS ITINERARY

Wednesday May 21....A passing glance at the Dutch region best known as the locale of A Bridge Too Far on the way to Germany. Stop in Cologne to visit the awesome twin-spired gothic CATHEDRAL. Then the afternoon’s highlight: a romantic RHINE CRUISE past castle-crested cliffs, terraced vineyards, and trim, half-timbered towns. Next stop is Heidelberg, famous for its red-walled castle. (BB,D)

Thursday, May 22....A scenic day! Morning stop in the lush valleys and pineclad hills of the BLACK FOREST, renowned for its cuckoo clocks. On the Swiss border take your pictures of the thundering RHINE FALLS, then continue to picture-book Lucerne. (BB,D)

ITINERARY

Cologne (wiki article). Locally--Köln. It seems we will be in town only to go inside the Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom). Don't know whether they will be explaining the place; will have a copy of Rick Steve's self-guided tour.

Rhine River Cruise. South of Cologne to North of Heidelberg. The cruise is provided and I am sure narrated.

Heidelberg (wiki article). It doesn't look like we will be spending time here. If we do, we'll take it as it comes. The river there is the Neckar, which joins the Rhine 12 miles Northwest of Heidelberg.

Karlsruhe--Wiki article. This appears to be a lovely town. The hotel is not far from the center of town, which is the Karlsruhe Palace. This is a view of the town from the palace tower, looking south toward our hotel.



The palace at night...

There is a zoo and a large park immediately to the west of our hotel.

The Augartenstraße station is right near our hotel. To get the center of town, we would be heading to the Marktplatz (Kaiserstr) station or the Marktplatz (Pyramide) station. Tram 2 or one of a few trains would get us there. There also seems to be a bus system.

Karlsruhe, Germany, tourist bureau and virtual map.

On Thursday, we will go through the Black Forest on our way to Switzerland.