Writes of Passage

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Rhine River cruise includes several European countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands.

Rhine is one of the major river in Europe, starting from Swiss Alps, passing through Austria, Germany and empty into North Sea from Netherland, about 760 miles (1230 km). It’s the 2nd longest river in Central and Western Europe (after the Danube).

When mentioning Rhine, most people associate it with Germany. There are six distinct sections, per Mike Wells:

1. Alpenrhein (Alpine Rhine) is the combination of the Vorderrhein and Hinterrhein tributaries that flow rapidly down the north side of the Alps, along deep glacial valleys, into Bodensee.
2. Hochrhein (Higher Rhine) continues descending through broad wooded gorges providing the border between Switzerland and Baden-Württemberg (Germany) from Bodensee to Basel.
3. Oberrhein (Upper Rhine) meanders north from Basel across a broad plain, between the Vosges mountains in French Alsace and the German Black Forest, as far as Mainz.
4. Mittelrhein (Middle Rhine) is a picturesque stretch from Mainz to Bonn, where the river has cut the Rhine Gorge between the Hunsrück/Eifel mountains (west) and the Taunus/Siebengebirge ranges (east).
5. Niederrhein (Lower Rhine) crosses the North German Plain from Bonn to the Dutch border.
6. Delta Rijn (Rhine Delta) is the Dutch part of the river, which divides into five different arms to reach the North Sea.

#4 Mittelrhein Middle Rhine is the most scenic and usually used as river cruise advertisement. I went to part of Middle Rhine valley many times. Most recently, in 2022 and 2023.

• 2023 Middle Rhine
• 2022

A letter from Lufthansa. Are they pleading, asking for understanding? Is it necessary? I’m amused. So, here is the letter in its entirety, signed by CEO Carsten Spohr and down

Dear Ms. Eng,

Two tough years of perceived and actual grounding lie behind us in aviation. All our Lufthansa Group employees have been wishing for nothing more throughout than to finally be able to welcome you back aboard our more than 750 aircraft.

Unfortunately, however, as the Northern Hemisphere summer begins and with global travel restrictions now almost all lifted, everyone involved in aviation worldwide is reaching almost daily the limits of the resources that are currently available. And the ramp-up of the complex air transport system from almost zero to now almost 90 per cent is clearly not proceeding with the reliability, the robustness and the punctuality that we would like to offer you again.

We can only apologize to you for this. And we want to be completely honest: In the coming weeks, as passenger numbers continue to rise, be it for leisure or business travel, the situation is unlikely to improve in the short term. Too many employees and resources are still unavailable, not only at our infrastructure partners but in some of our own areas, too. Almost every company in our industry is currently recruiting new personnel, with several thousand planned in Europe alone. However, this increase in capacity will only have its desired stabilizing effect by the time winter comes.

In addition, the ongoing war in Ukraine is severely restricting available airspace in Europe. This is leading to massive bottlenecks in the skies and thus, unfortunately, to further flight delays.

In the summer of 2023, we not only expect to have a much more reliable air transport system worldwide. We will be welcoming you back on board our Airbus A380s, too. We decided today to put the A380, which continues to enjoy great popularity, back into service at Lufthansa in summer 2023. In addition to this, we are further strengthening and modernizing our fleets with some 50 new Airbus A350, Boeing 787 and Boeing 777-9 long-haul aircraft and more than 60 new Airbus A320/321s in the next three years alone.

We promise you that our more than 100,000 Lufthansa Group employees will be doing everything humanly possible to provide you with the best possible air travel experience in the coming weeks, even under the current difficult circumstances. And they will be doing all this with a commitment that deserves the highest respect, not only from us on our Group Executive Board.

So on behalf of all our employees, I sincerely hope that you feel very welcome on board after your return, which is something we have all been keenly awaiting. We thank you for your loyalty; and we hope we may count on your understanding, too, should your journey not yet go quite as expected or planned.

We are doing our utmost to again offer you the quality, the punctuality and the reliability that you can rightly expect from your Lufthansa Group airlines as soon as we possibly can.

Stay with us.

Signed by 7 chief officers, from CEO Carsten Spohr, to Customer Christina Foerster, Commercial Harry Hohmeister, operations Dr. Detlef Kayser, HR & legal Dr. Michael Niggemann, and financial Remco Steenbergen.

Germany‘s classical music scene is very much alive, I took some of them, from concerts to operas during this trip. Surprisingly, I even ran into Midori whom I haven’t heard from in decades.

According to New Yorker‘s 2022.6.20 issue, A Grand Tour of Germany’s Opera Paradise ⇓ Germany has 80 permanent opera house that putting out 7,000 to 8,000 performance each year, which is third of the world total.

• Midori
• opera
• afternoon
• Berlin
• Leipzig

The Grand Tour of Germany’s Opera Paradise

Germany is, on statistical grounds, the most operatic country on earth. The Bundesrepublik has more than eighty permanent opera houses, which in a typical season present seven or eight thousand performances

^statista

EU agrees on all phones/tablets must use the same charging ports in two years. Wondering how much time has they spent in reaching this consensus. For me, an ordinary consumer, I care more about the other end of the wire: the wall side of it – because this is the end that decides if you can charge or not. For example, Germany or Europe in that regard, is lagging behind US and China, even the 4-star hotel in Berlin doesn’t have usb charging port. It’s simply bewildering.

Apple has to change

Beim Alten Bahnhof 2,
76530 Baden-Baden, Germany

On my way to the train station to Berlin, passing by this gorgeous concert hall, Anne-Sophie Mutter’s ad is being displayed. She’s playing here a week from now, on May 14, unfortunately. A little comfort is that I’m going to Berlin Philharmonic tonight.

The 236,140 (2022) population town is simply known as Friburg (French: Fribourg-en-Brisgau; lit. Freecastle in the Breisgau). It’s the fourth-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe.

I visited it while staying at Baden Baden.

The town was founded in 1120 by Konrad and Duke Berthold III of the House of Zähringen, as a free market town.

• Freiburg Minster

Lichtentaler Allee
Baden Baden, Germany

The German composer/pianist Johannes Brahms (约翰内斯·勃拉姆斯; 1833-97) has a statue in the Lichtentaler Allee park.

Baden-Baden, Germany

This is a lovely narrow walking green trail started, reportedly in 1655, along the creek. We started from town center @ Theater and turned back at the Order of Cisterian (Kloster Lichtental).

One big highlight for me, is seeing Johannes Brahms‘ statue

Brenner Park-Hotel & Spa: Lifestyle. At one with nature. Reportedly, the Obama stayed here. A tennis club: hope the coach is paid handsomely.

Opposite from the tennis courts, is… another victim of dream host data loss

Germany

Or Boppart, is a wine growing centre in the Rhine Gorge (upper Middle Rhine Valley), part of Bingen↔Koblenz 40 miles (65km) stretch that became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002. (Many say till Bonn in the north.) The river Rhine makes its biggest bend here, adding some drama to the sleepy town.

莱茵河畔载酒行

博帕德是莱茵河中上游河谷的葡萄种植中心;是宾根↔科布伦茨 40 英里的一部分.于 2002 年成为联合国教科文组织世界遗产. 莱茵河最大的弯道在这里, 给沉睡的小镇增添了一点戏剧气氛.

From Frankfurt, the train ride is 1.15 hours (72 miles NW.

^{MS Asbach is a modern vessel that operates mostly on the romantic Middle Rhine.} 

KD stands for K