Rhine A'Flame River Cruise 9-17-2011

We took a bus tour 9-17-2011 through the USO that went to Bingen Germany.  The tour was the Rhine A'Flame River Boat Cruise.  About 70-100 boats will assemble around 9 pm between St. Goar and St. Goarshausen on the Rhine River and the two cities will shoot fireworks off from their castle.  It was cool to see fireworks from both sides at the same time.  This was to celebrate Loreley, a story of a beautiful lady who would sit out on the rock on Rhine River and brush her long blonde hair and her beautiful songs that she sang.  She was considered a roman siren.  The orignal "Clash of the Titans" depicted her in the movie.  As the story goes she would do this to attract attention of the passing soldiers and when they would come close to her and the rocks would damage their boat making it sink causing several men to drown.  The tour guide said she did this several times causing a lot of men to die due to her attractive behavior and singing along with their curiosity; thus the saying "curiosity killed the cat".  So the Germans celebrate her memories and good deads!!  The bus let us off at Bingen and we boarded the boat and cruised about three hours up the Rhine sightseeing, observing several castle's and villiages, sipping on a few beverages, relaxing having fun.  The boat tour dropped us off at Bacharach Germany where we caught our bus back home.  Where the boat stopped for the fireworks is supposedly the deepest part of the Rhine River at 25 meters. 

The castle Burg Klopp on a hill in the middle of Bingen, Germany

Touring down the Rhine is vineyards...a lot of them.  Look close you see the name of the wine maker..

As we left Bingen took a shot from the boat.

Beautiful vineyards in Rudesheim with the ruins of  Ehrenfels Castle.

One last shot of Bingen as we head up the Rhine.

The grapes are picked by hand still today, the back packs are lighter thou!

A little tower called "Mausefurm" built in early 13th century as a lookout tower for Burg Ehrenfels castle

Thought the design of the houses looked neat

This is a close up shot of the remnants of the castle Burg Ehrenfels I showed earlier

just another view of Burg Ehrenfels castle

We viewed a lot of castles along the river, they're awesome..

It is amazing how they built the different styles of castles..

Another watch tower in the middle of the Rhine..

Wonder what it was like coming up on this back in the day with cannons airmed at you..

I wonder how many looked back in the day and wiped their brow..

Just some of the awesome scenery along the Rhine...

Thought the little chapel on the hilltop was neat..

The name of the town I just shot the chapel and mini chapel..

There is so many of these and they're all beautiful..

I will have to go back and find out the names of these little villages...hopefully!

One of many....can't say enough about the beauty..

Same castle as previous pic just the river bended around it...other side okay!

Even Germans have rv's and go camping!!  Good spot to do it!

Castle, Church, Homes and plenty of wine.....on the water front; not bad!

The last king of this castle must of died from his wife killing him...and they only reason I would say that is I think he wrote on the wall as he took his last breathe the reason why......!!!!  Okay not funny!

Beautiful landscape and scenery....see the name on the side of the hill!

Lovely little German City...Trish says it's so cute!!!!!!

The Rhine is so beautiful on both sides

As it started getting darker, they light the castles up!

Again, Castle, church, house, wine and dine..what else is there!!!

The boats started gathering for the fireworks.

The city was putting on a festival,

One of the party boats....I mean cruise boats!!!

Some of the most outstanding fireworks we had ever witnessed..the castle is awesome.

It would go from castle to river to another castle..lasted 1 hour of non-stop fireworks...

One last shot of the finish of a wonderful venture.

Paris, France "City of Love" 20 Aug 2011

We took a bus tour to Paris for two days.  All I can say....absolutely awesome!  Of course we didn't get to see all that could have been seen, so we will have to go back again someday, maybe when we get some visitors....hint hint!!  Even thou I took over 120 pictures, I scaled it down to give a glimpse of a few things we got to see.  The bus tour took 5 hours, if we took the train it would be 2 1/2 hours, if I drive we will be there in 1 hour!!! LOL  Enjoy the pictures as I try to explain each one.

The Notre-Dame Cathedral

The three portals into the cathedral of Notre-Dame

The middle portal,

The left portal,

The right portal, all have beautiful carvings

The rose window, depicts virgin Mary surrounded by figures from the Old Testament

Napolean's Tomb, directly below the golden  dome on the ground floor.

The Arc of Triumph, Napolean's triumphal arch, each carving depicts his victories, the arch was started in 1806, completed in 1836.  Napolean,s funeral procession passed through the arch 

These two characters always seem to jump in front of my camera!!!!

A shot of a many carvings on the arch

Inside the arch, with carved names

Also beneath the arch is the tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Opera National de Paris Garnier, another words opera house, designed for Napoleon III in 1862

close up shot of architecture on the opera house

Surrounding the opera house are ladies holding light fixtures

Glass Pyramid on the square of Museum of Louvre

The Louvre is huge, would take a whole weekend to see it all

Put all three pictures together and you'll have the whole museum!

The La Seine River, showing some of the beautiful buildings along the river

Museum D'Orsay, houses art from 1848-1914, formerly a railway station, sits along the La Seine River

Got a shot of the Louvre while crusin down the river

Conciergerie, an imposing gothic palace, originally home to the caretaker and guards of the Palais de Justice, then turned into a jail at end of the 14th century, Marie-Antoinette was held priosner here, it remained a prison til 1914, now a museum which displays its prison walls, guillotine, and sculptures of famous prisoners 

Some beautiful buidings along the river cruise

More beautiful buildings along the river cruise

Pont Alexandre III bridge,

Crusin the river, and the Eiffel Tower showed up

200,000 watt lighting system, starting at dusk it sparkles like a giant Christmas tree for 5 minutes every hour until 1 am.  Totally Awesome!

The boat that gave us our tour on the La Seine River

From the very top of the Eiffel Tower, 1,023 ft

Just another angle of the city, atop the Eiffel Tower

At ground level, looking up at 2.5 million rivets, 18,000 metal parts that can expand up to 6 inches on hot days (what the book states)!  Erected in 1889 by Gustave Eiffel was the world's tallest building until New York's Empire State Building in 1931.