After a quick exploration of Switzerland, I took a cruise up the Rhine all the way to Amsterdam. While it's a great way to see a lot of Germany quickly, only unpacking once, the time at each stop was way too short. The next time I'll definitely rent a car or use the trains and take my time wandering through the towns and countryside. Then maybe I'll have a chance to take some better pictures. Regardless, I still really enjoyed the time. The cruise was a very relaxing way to sample Germany.

The one thing I was expecting to see was a lot of castles along the river. Little did I know that they are almost all concentrated in one small section of the River which we traversed in one day. It seems like they were built almost on top of one another and unfortunately, they were nearly all left in ruins by the French a couple of hundred years ago. Still, they were cool to see and I got a couple of decent shots out of them. The only one our group had a chance to tour though was the castle at Heidelberg. Next time I'll try to tour some of the others.

What I didn't expect to see so much of was the great cathedrals. As spectacular as anything I saw in England, they were truly amazing. The Cathedral at Cologne is the only one I was able to get decent interior shots of, lighting conditions were a bit rough, but a few turned out okay.