Heading to Trier to board our river ship, via Rei

 3/12/2025

An early start this morning as we are transferring to our a ship the Viking Odin which is waiting for us in Trier, in Germany. Along the way we have a tour stop in Reims and Luxembourg. It is cold again this morning with some possibility of light rain as we leave the hotel at 7.30 am. We expect to arrive at Reims at around 10.45 am and are planning to visit the Cathedral there, deemed the most important cathedral in France ( by our guide anyway).


The rear of the cathedral 


Side View


Front of  the cathedral 

The Cathedral of Notre Dame Reims is the most famous cathedral in France as it was where all but two of France’s Kings were coronated, a tradition that lasted over 1000 years.

this.





It is the most elaborately decorated churches in France because of the this relationship. The last King to be coronated  here was Charlemagne in 1825.


List of Kings coronated here






The Chuch we see today is the fourth cathedral built on this site, the First being in the 5 th Century and the current one in the 13 th Century. You can see from the diagram above how it grew in proportions at each build. It was badly damaged in WW 11, but fully restored.

It has many statues depicting scenes from the Bible and coronations of Kings as well as very elaborate stained glass windows also telling stories of the Bible and local life. As we are in the champagne district of France , Dom Perignon, the monk who invented champagne is also depicted on one of the windows.










This clock was acquired from a nearby abbey in disrepair by the Bishop of the the day, he bought it back to Reims for repair and installed it in the Cathedral. It is still in working order.

After the cathedral visit we walk into the town to have lunch and a look around. Like everywhere we have been, the Christmas spirit is evident.


Off to lunch in bleak weather






There is a Ferris wheel in the main mall


An interesting bar


The restaurant we ate at, a nice bowl of a French onion soup



Reims is an attractive city which was substantially rebuilt after WW 11.

Back on the bus at 1 pm we are headed for Luxembourg to visit the American War cemetery, be for our final leg of the bus trip to Trier to board our ship. The ride to Luxembourg is 2 hours and 45 mins, so a chance to catch up on a bit of a sleep deficit today.

Light rain is with us all of the way and the temperature is around 9 C.

On arrival at the American Cemetery in Luxembourg the weather had not improved, so it was a bout a 20 minute stop to have a look around and then back on the bus. The cemetery commemorates American lives lost during the Battle of the Bulge in WW 11, which was substantially a battle between American and German forces with the Americans eventually victorious after a very bloody battle and heavy losses on both sides. It was the bloodiest battle that USA forces fought in WW 11.



The land was gifted to the USA to establish this cemetery which is maintained by America.





Graves of the fallen




Our final bus ride to the ship begins, fortunately it is only about 50 minutes duration, still quite bleak and almost dark when we arrive at 5 pm.

We unpack and head to the lounge to go through the usual welcome drinks with the Captain and senior crew, hear the safety presentation and enjoy a well earned drink before dinner. There is only one meal seating time, 7.30 pm, so there is quite a mass move to the restaurant, where it is free seating. We ended us sitting at a table with 2 American couples and an Aussie couple from the Gold Coast.

Tomorrow morning we do a tour of Trier, before the ship moves on.

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