CRUISING THE RHINE, Part 1: Castles, Churches, Cuckoo Clocks and More, Guest Post by Monique McLay Shore

Windmills of Kinderduik

My friend and fellow Grinnellian, Monique McLay Shore, went on a one-week cruise of the Rhine River last May with her mother and sister Deidre. I thank her for sharing her report and excellent photos with The Intrepid Tourist. This post is adapted from Monique’s day by day reports she wrote on Facebook during the trip. It is in two parts—Days 1-4 this week, followed by Days 5-7 next week.

Viking River Cruise on the Rhine

Day 1: May 15

We arrived in Amsterdam around 8am so had the full day to explore the ship and a bit of the city. Then after an amazing dinner on board, Deidre and I did a sunset canal tour that offered beautiful views as we nibbled on wine and cheese. 

Amsterdam

This morning we awoke to a new view - the windmills if Kinderdijk. Looking forward to exploring them up close today before we cruise further up river.

Day 2: May 16

Day 2 of our mother daughters Viking cruise started with the classic visit to the windmills in Kinderdijk. The boat tour offered stunning views of the UNESCO World Heritage site. We got a tour of the oldest of the mills, including the miller climbing up the blade to demonstrate how they open the sails (wooden shoes and all). 

Climbing the sails of the windmill.

The rest of the day was spent on the ship as we cruised up river to Germany, where we officially entered the Rhine River. We enjoyed some time on the sundeck, then some nice Danish treats and coffee. We have been especially tickled by the variety of animals you see along the sandy shores of the river - cows, sheep, horses and even camels(there's a camel farm!) lying on the beach and wading in the water.

Day 3: May 17

We arrived in Cologne midmorning today. It's a big city with a big cathedral and big crowds. Saturday is peak tourist day and the area around the cathedral was so crowded it made it hard to enjoy the sightseeing. We did, however, enjoy the "only available in Cologne" kolsch beer and some very good schnitzel and sausage. After lunch Deidre headed back to the cathedral and did a tour climbing all the stairs to the top! 

Mom and I opted for a rickshaw ride and lucked out with the most delightful young woman as our driver/guide. When we told her we were absolutely done with the crowds and wanted to see some quiet corners of Cologne, she took us through some side streets to a lovely church with a courtyard garden filled with beautiful roses. She'd stop along the way to share tidbits and stories. She succeeded in transforming our memories of Cologne from bad to delightful.

After dinner there were a couple of incredibly talented local musicians playing classical guitar and violin in the ship lounge.

Day 4: May 18

Today we awoke in the shadow of a castle, wandered the quiet streets of Braubach (extra quiet as all the shops are closed on Sundays), then spent the afternoon sailing through the narrow stretch of the middle Rhine where there is nearly always a castle in sight. It was overcast and cool for much of the time, which made the afternoon sharing of Rudesheim Coffee (with brandy and chocolate) all the more welcome.

The sun finally came out for the last few castles and it was glorious! I loved seeing the quaint and picturesque towns that line the shores and reveled in the thought of camping beneath the walls of a castle (there are tons of campgrounds all along the river with adorable small campers, often with giant "tent" porches).

The other notable thing in this area are the vineyards that cover the steep inclines. This is where the majority of the grapes used for Riesling wine come from, harvested by hand by workers who often have a rope around their waist to keep them from falling! We ended the day with a walk into the small town of Rudesheim, with a giant Ferris Wheel and a river walk lined with some very unique trees.

Tomorrow we'll cruise through the most scenic section of the river with something like 30 castles or castle ruins. The weather looks good for another great day. 

Look for Part 2, Days 5-7, next week.

FOUR DAYS IN MILAN, ITALY: The Duomo, Museums, Cimitero Monumentale, Canals, and More

Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II, Milan, Italy. 

Milan is the bustling center of modern Italian design and fashion. Even babies in their strollers are well-dressed. The city also has a long history, with countless churches, palaces, museums, and historic sites to entice visitors. In early June, Art and I spent four days in Milan at the beginning of a ten-day trip to northern Italy.

Display welcoming the 2026 Winter Paralympics to Milan/Cortina.

Like all of our trips to Europe, a nine-hour time difference from our home in California, we allowed several days to adjust to the time change. We arrived in Milan on a Sunday, and after checking in at our hotel in the city center, walked to a nearby pizzeria for a light supper, ending with our favorite Italian dessert, caramel panna cotta. Every meal we ate in Italy was delicious!

The Milan Duomo (Cathedral).

The next day our focus was the Duomo, the cathedral that sits in the middle of Milan like a giant stone wedding cake. As we stood in the piazza gazing up at the roof spires, we could see tiny people walking up to the top. We then made our way to the back of the cathedral to wait for our turn to ride the elevator to the roof. (We had bought tickets online ahead of time. Alternatively, you can climb up the 165 steps to the top—a cheaper ticket and different line.) Security is strict to get into the Duomo. Women are required to have covered shoulders and knees and flip-flop sandals are not allowed. If you show up in shorts or a sleeveless top you can purchase a thin white cover-up garment.

View of Milan from the roof of the Duomo.

As we emerged from the elevator we found ourselves on the first roof level, amongst the flying buttresses and 135 statue topped spires, and with a spectacular view of all of Milan. In the distance was the modern business center of the city, with its skyscrapers and the needle-like tower, the Torre Pirelli . Until it was built (1955-60), the Duomo was the tallest building in Milan.

Walkway around the roof of the Duomo.

As we followed the route around the roof we got close-up views of the elaborate stonework and hundreds of figures perched on the spires before our final climb to the roof peak. Once again we admired the view, and then from there descended the narrow circular staircase to the inside of the Duomo.

Marble floor of the Duomo. Woman wearing cover-up over her bare arms.

Some of the 52 pillars inside the Duomo.

Sculptured panels on the central doors of the Duomo.

We had purchased an audio tour for our phone to guide us around the inside of the Duomo and this helped us appreciate the history and significance of its various parts. Everything in the cathedral is over-the-top, from the huge stained-glass windows (said to be the largest in Christendom), to the marble floor, the pillars (52 of them, one for every week of the year), the numerous side chapels, and the huge paneled doors on the front.

Detail from one of the windows of the Duomo, displayed in the Duomo Museum.

Gargoyles from the Duomo, some from the 14th Century, moved to the Museum for conservation.

The construction of the Duomo began in the 14^th century but was not completed until Napoleon’s time. The Duomo Museum, next to the cathedral, displays statues, gargoyles, building models and artifacts that tell the Duomo’s 600-year history. A side doorway in the museum takes you through a courtyard to a small hidden chapel, San Gottordo in Corte, refreshing in its simplicity. A fresco from the Giotto School was recently discovered on one of its walls.

Courtyard leading to the chapel of San Gottordo in Corte.

Before returning to our hotel, we did a short tour of the Vittorio Emmanuel II shopping arcade, located at the side of the Duomo Piazza, and billed as the Rodeo Drive of Italy, with its glamorous designer stores. However, most people in the crowded mall were tourists, not shoppers, taking selfies under the magnificent domed roof.

Center of the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle II. 

The next day began with a visit to the weekly street fair and farmer’s market on Viale Pepiniano. The wealth of available fresh fruits and vegetables on display explains why Italian cooking is so good!  

Stall at the Tuesday farmers' market on Viale Pepiniano.

We purchased super-sweet cherries just in season. On our way back to our hotel we stopped to visit the Basilica and monastery of Sant' Ambrogio one of the most ancient churches in Milan.

Mosaic of Christ the Pantocrator (4th to 8th C.) in the apse of the Basilica of Sant' Ambrogio.

In the afternoon we met my cousin and her husband who live in Milan, who gave us a personal tour of some sites that I had read about in my guidebook but were outside the city center. (They had a car.) The first was the CimiteroMonumental, a burial ground for the rich and famous begun in Victorian times, that is more like an open-air art museum than a graveyard. (Entrance is free.) A map at the entrance marks the mausoleums and graves of particular importance. 

Reclining figure at the Cimitero Monumental.

Ziggurat-like sculpture at the Cimitero Monumental. Tomb of Antonio Berocchi, created by Giannino Castiglioni.

It seems that every Italian artist worth his salt has been invited to create a sculpture here. Themes vary from the intimate to the majestic, with many references to ancient history. The shaded walkways were welcome on the warm day of our visit and there were almost no other people there on a weekday afternoon.

The Bosco Verticale apartment building, designed by Boen Studio in the Porta Nuova area of Milan.

Our next stop was at the Bosco Verticale, or Vertical Forest, a unique pair of apartment buildings covered with so many trees and plants they appear as giant trees themselves.

Summer evening in the Navigli (canal) District, Milan, with its restaurants, shops, live music and giant video screens.

Our day ended with dinner at a restaurant in the Navigli, or canal, District. At the time that the Duomo was under construction in Milan, a system of canals was dug (including a lock designed by Leonardo) in order to transport marble from the quarries in the mountains to the city. In the last century, most of the canals were filled in, but a few remain. Today they are lined with shops and restaurants and have a lively night life. Next to the canal, a communal washing station is preserved, from the time that women gathered here to wash their clothes and chat.

Science Museum. Models of some of Leonardo's flying machines.

Science Museum. Cat drawings by Leonardo da Vinci.

We did not see Leonardo’s Last Supper, perhaps Milan’s most famous artwork. Limited tickets are available and need to be purchased months ahead of time, which we didn’t do. But, on our last day, we visited the Leonardoda Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology where most of the second floor is devoted to Leonardo’s life and many inventions, with models, drawings, artifacts and multi-media displays. One section focused on the many works of art inspired by and modeled on Leonardo's Last Supper.

On the bridge of the canal.

We didn’t visit La Scala, the Sforza Castle, or go shopping while we were in Milan. Not enough time to do everything. But we did see a lot and enjoyed delicious Italian food. And after four days we had made significant progress on our jet lag and were ready for our driving trip to the Alps.

FOUR DAYS IN COPENHAGEN, DENMARK: Old and New Along the Canals

Copenhagen in Danish is Kobenhavn ("Koben Harbor")

Why Copenhagen? 1. We had never been there before. 2. We are big fans of Danish TV—Borgen, The Bridge, Seaside Hotel, The New Nurses—and 3. Copenhagen is an easy train ride to northern Germany where Art was scheduled to attend a conference in Hanover. With a nine-hour time difference between Los Angeles and Denmark, we needed a place to spend a few days to recover from jet lag before the conference started. So in early October, my husband Art and I spent four days in Copenhagen, Denmark--visiting museums, eating delicious food, immersing ourselves in Danish culture.

Drawbridge tower on the Knippel Bridge and
our hotel, the NH Collection, a modern glass structure at the side of the canal.

On our first morning, after a lavish breakfast at our hotel--eggs, meat, cheese, fruit and, of course, Danish pastries--we set out, crossing the Knippel Bridge into the center of the city. I had not previously realized that Copenhagen is a city of canals, much like Amsterdam, crisscrossed by bridges and waterways. 

Glass topped canal tour boat, Copenhagen

Tour boats circle through the canals and this seemed like a good way to get an overview of the city; so we bought tickets and joined the crowd waiting to board the next boat. The tour was narrated in English, which turns out to be the universal language in Denmark, since few people outside of Denmark speak Danish.

Colorful Nyhavn

The boat made two stops during the one-hour tour, one of them in Nyhavn, with its colorful houses, once filled with rowdy sailors, now with tourists and canal-side restaurants. 

National Library, its windows reflecting the water and  a passing ferry.

Among the other sites we saw in the course of our boat tour were: the Queen’s residence; the Opera House (where we were told a diving competition is held once a year from its roof overhanging the canal); the Little Mermaid (less impressive than in pictures); rows of old warehouses, now turned into expensive apartments; the National Library (known as the Black Diamond because of the way light from the water sparkles off the dark glass). Later that day we visited the library, taking an elevator to the top to view the canal from the inside.

Display of the Royal Copenhagen Christmas plates.

In the center of the city, two long streets lined with shops are dedicated to pedestrians. While shopping was not our goal, we were drawn into the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain shop, where we discovered a display of the classic Danish Christmas plates. We have three (from 1967, 1970 and 1972)—they hang in our kitchen at home—given to us by Art’s aunt, Carolyn T. Arnold, who collected them on her trips around the world. (Portions of Aunt Carolyn's travel memoir have appeared on this blog.)

View from the top of the Round Tower, with the bridge connecting Denmark to Sweden in the distance.

Also in the city center is the Round Tower, where from the top one gets a 360 view of the city--a sea of tile-topped roofs punctuated by skinny, church steeples. Tourists walk to the top of the tower, but King Frederick famously rode his horse up the ramp.

Danish Design Museum. Model of collapseable housing for use in emergency centers. Exhibits at the museum include both state-of-the-art products made with new materials as well as historic examples of fabrics, furniture, and so on.

Over the next three days we visited several museums, including the Danish Design Museum; the old Natural History Museum, which was featuring an exhibit of Neanderthal discoveries; the Palm House and Butterfly House at the Botanical Garden; and the National Historical Museum, with exhibits beginning with prehistory and progressing to Vikings and beyond. 

Meteorite in courtyard of Natural History Museum. Inside was a Neanderthal Exhibit

At all of the museums, helpful explanatory labels were in both Danish and English.

At the Butterfly House in the Botanical Garden.

We devoted a whole day to the Louisiana Modern Art museum, a forty-minute train ride north of Copenhagen—worth its own blogpost.  It, like all of the museums, has a nice cafe—the perfect stop for lunch or afternoon coffee.

Walkway along the canal. Copenhagen is a mix of old and new.

Copenhagen is a very walkable city. By law, all the canals must have pedestrian walkways along the side and streets through the neighborhoods generally have little traffic. However, as a pedestrian, one has to watch out for both bicycles and cars. Bicycles are a preferred mode of transport and get a separate lane on main roadways.

As a major port in the North Sea, boats and shipping are at the center of Copenhagen's history.

We dressed in layers for the cool fall weather and always carried an umbrella for the occasional shower. But overall, the weather was perfect for exploring the city. 

King Frederick on his horse.

We didn't see everything on our visit to Copenhagen (for instance, Tivoli, the famous amusement park, was closed for the season) but we got a good taste of Danish culture. At the end of our four days we knew a lot more about Denmark than before and had significantly reduced our jet lag. 

Inside the dome of the Marble Church.