The 443-foot riverboat MS Inspire cruises exclusively for Tauck on the Rhine and Moselle rivers with a maximum of 130 guests in 67 cabins.
( www.tauck.com )

Bern, the capital city of Switzerland, was founded in 1191 and was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The city is built around the Aare River. Since the 16th century, the city has had a bear pit, the Bärengraben, to house its heraldic animals.

Public fountains in the Old Town of Bern have Renaissance allegorical statues, nearly all of which were created by Hans Gieng in the 16th century. One of the more interesting fountains is the Child Eater (or Ogre) Fountain which is claimed to represent a figure that scares disobedient children.

The Clock Tower (or Zytglogge), dating from 1220, is located above the Old Town's western gate tower. This 75-foot structure displays a large astronomical clock made between 1527-1530.

The Bern Münster is a Swiss Reformed cathedral, in the old city of Bern. Built in the Gothic style, its construction started in 1421. Its tower, with a height of 100.6 m, was completed in 1893. It is the tallest cathedral in Switzerland.

The Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe - has the highest railway station in Europe, located 3,454 m above sea level, and is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps. Visitors enter a high-Alpine wonderland of ice, snow and rock, which can be seen from the viewing platforms or the Ice Palace, peaking at an elevation of 3,455 m (11,371 ft). The railway journey to the Jungfraujoch leads through the Eiger and the Mönch peaks.

Lucerne is located in central Switzerland, straddling the Reuss River. Of its several bridges, the most famous is the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), originally built in 1333 but much of it restored in 1993 after a fire. The Spreuer Bridge (Spreuerbrücke), constructed in 1408, zigzags across the Reuss and features a series of medieval-style 17th century plague paintings by Kaspar Meglinger titled Dance of Death.

The Church of St. Leodegar is the most important church and a landmark in the city of Lucerne. It was built from 1633 to 1639 on the foundation of the Roman basilica which had burnt in 1633. This church is one of the largest and art-history rich churches of the German late renaissance period.

The Musegg wall with its nine towers is part of the ramparts built in the 14th century to protect the town of Lucerne. The accessible towers from west to east are: the Männli tower, adorned with a figure of a soldier, the Wacht tower, the Zyt tower with its clock dating from 1535 and the Schirmer tower.

Return to Top

Colmar, France, is home to the Unterlinden Museum, housed in a 13th-century Dominican religious convent and extended into a 1906 former public baths building. The museum is home to the Isenheim Altarpiece, an altarpiece sculpted and painted in 1512-1516. With the wings of the altarpiece closed, it depicts the Crucifixion framed on the left by the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and on the right by Saint Anthony the Great, With the innermost wings opened, it shows the sculptures of Saint Augustine and Guy Guers, Two Bearers of Offerings, Saint Jerome, Christ and the Twelve Apostles.

Cologne, located on both sides of the Rhine River, is the fourth largest city in Germany. The city was founded in the first century AD and served as the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior for several centuries. During medieval and Renaissance times it was one of the largest cities north of the Alps.

Many of the churches in Cologne were destroyed during World War II bombings, but were rebuilt in a campaign that finished in the 1990s. The city's famous Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is a Gothic church that was started in 1248 and completed in 1880. The cathedral is said to contain relics of the Three Magi.

The Römisch-Germanisches Museum explores the Roman history of Cologne.

Return to Top

Rüdesheim am Rhein is a town in the Rhine Gorge, that lies near the beginning of approximately 60 km of the Rhine River dotted with medieval castles and castle ruins leading to the town of Koblenz.

This secion of the river contains what is said to be the most dangerous spot on the river, Lorelei Rock. Legend holds that it was the siren Lorelei whose song lured sailors to their doom at this point. Today a statue on the river memorializes Lorelei.

Dordrecht, located in the province of South Holland, is the oldest city in the Holland area and has a rich history and culture.

Kinderdijk is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a system of 19 windmills that were built around 1740. This group of mills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands,with a system of 40 concentric and radial canals which are crossed by over 400 bridges. Amsterdam is known for its famous red light district, the infamous "coffee shops", and of course tulips, wooden shoes, cheese, and windmills.