I’ve visited a number of countries on business over the years and, since retiring, my wife and I have visited a number more.
Our visits to Europe in recent years have been on Viking river cruises, an activity we enjoy immensely. It’s like staying in a hotel that changes locations overnight. There are visits to major cities in a country, but there are also stops in a wide variety of smaller, very interesting towns. With guided … Continue reading
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A statue of King Johann stands in the middle of Theaterplatz outside Semperoper Dresden (the opera house) in Dresden, Germany.
The Brandenburg Gate, built between 1788 and 1791, stands in Pariser Platz (Paris Square) in Berlin, Germany.
Colorful flowers hang above Backerstrasse in Torgau, Germany.
Brandenburg Gate stands at the end of Brandenburger Strasse in Potsdam, Germany. This Brandenburg Gate, not to be confused with the gate of the same name on Berlin's Pariser Platz, was built in 1770–71.
The twin bell towers of St. Mary's Church rise above shops and the Martin Luther monument, Wittenberg, Germany.
The yellow interior contrasts with the exterior doors to the office of the bishop near Meissen Cathedral, Meissen, Germany.
Visitors walk between shops on Burgstrasse beneath the spires of Meissen Cathedral, Meissen, Germany.
Visitors walk past shops on Burgstrasse in Meissen, Germany. In the background is the Church of Our Lady bell tower.
Cyclists follow the Elbe Cycle Route along the Elbe River near Strehla, Germany.
Visitors to the Bastei stand on an observation platform surrounded by fog. The Bastei is a rock formation rising about 650 feet above the Elbe River near Rathen, Germany.
The steeple of the distant Kreinitz Church in Zeithain, Germany, can be seen between trees along the Elbe River.
Windows and doors line the wall in Marble Hall, one of the rooms in Neues Palace (New Palace) in Potsdam, Germany. The palace was built in the 1760s.
A passageway from the Lutherhaus courtyard leads to shops in Wittenberg, Germany.
A lady walks through an arched passageway on the east side of Semperoper Dresden (the opera house) toward Theaterplatz in Dresden, Germany.
An altar stands beneath vaulted ceilings in St. Mary's Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
The sun shining through columned archways forms shadows in a passageway along the Stallhof (or stableyard) in Dresden, Germany.
Children look at a reflective globe in Wittenberger Marktplatz (Wittenberg market square) in Wittenberg, Germany.
Stolpersteine, or stumbling stones, shine between cobblestones in a sidewalk along Rosenthaler Strasse in Berlin, Germany. The brass-covered stones commemorate victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.
The Berlin Wall’s route through Berlin, Germany's city center is marked with a double row of cobblestones on public streets and sidewalks.
A gatehouse provides exit from the Schloss Hartenfels (Hartenfels Castle) courtyard to the village of Torgau, Germany.
A horse-drawn carriage carries visitors past shops on Schlossstrasse in Dresden, Germany.
Rathaus Wittenberg (the Wittenberr town hall) stands on the north side of Wittenberger Marktplatz (Wittenberg Market Square) in Wittenberg, Germany.
A monk weathervane in the Bastei overlooks houses on the Elbe River near Rathen, Germany. The Bastei is a rock formation near Rathen.
Schloss Hartenfels (Hartenfels Castle) stands behind the Elbe Bridge in Torgau, Germany, as seen from the Elbe River. The castle dates to the 1500s.
The Crown Gate entrance to Zwinger Palace in Dresden, Germany, rises above a wall on the southwest side of the palace grounds.
The spires of Meissen Cathedral rise above surrounding buildings in Meissen, Germany. The cathedral was built between 1260 and 1410.
The Meissen Cathedral and other buildings are framed by a passageway of a gatehouse on Schlossbrucke Street in Meissen, Germany.
Visitors wall through the passageway exiting the Haus Schwarzenberg Street Art Alley in Berlin, Germany.
tours, organized excursions, and ample opportunity for exploring a community on your own, the cruises provide a relaxing way to learn about an area and, for me, a nice chance to get photographs of different sites and sights.
My wife and I visited Germany in 2022, the second half of a Viking river cruise that started in the Czech Republic and ended in Berlin. We followed the Elbe River, with stops in communities in Germany like Rathen (where we went into the mountains to see the impressive rock formations of the Bastei), Dresden, Meissen (where we toured the famed Meissen porcelain manufacturing plant), Torgau, Wittenberg, and Potsdam, before ending in Berlin.
Each stop was a history lesson, with many facts and sites related to World War I or World War II. But we also learned much about how or why each city or town came into existence, perhaps because of natural resources in the area that supported the development of industry or maybe land that supported farming to provide food for the country.
One thing I’ve learned to expect during visits to any area in Europe is a tour of a church that’s been standing since the 1400s or earlier. They are always fun to photograph, but I admit they all start running together in my memory after a while. The interior architecture — no matter the country — often looks similar, with vaulted ceilings, columns, and stained glass windows. It’s almost as if they were all part of a franchise with set specifications for design.
Something I’ll always remember about this Viking cruise was the safety presentation at the start. As always, we were reminded how to find the life jackets in our cabins, how to put them on, and where to gather if the alarm sounds. But after the safety director completed his presentation, the cruise director stepped up and added: “Remember all of that, but the Elbe is different from most other rivers you’ve been on. If the alarm sounds, go to the top deck, wait for the boat to settle to the bottom, then step off and wade to shore. The water’s only about waist deep outside the narrow channel.”