Brothers on the Rhine

It all started while on another cruise with Dan and Steve and other family members. I’ll let my

brother Dan tell that part of the story. “It began when my wife Pat, who works at Holiday

Cruises and Tours, came home from work one day. She said that there was a Rhine River

Cruise to Germany and that ‘the brothers’ had to go. Our ancestors are from Germany and

Switzerland and we had always talked about going to Germany.

My brothers Phil, Steve, and I were on a Fathom cruise with some family. We had such a

great time with our family that when Phil brought up the Rhine River Cruise on AMA Water-

ways we immediately committed to going and gave our brother Dave a call. A couple of days

later he gave us a call to tell us he was in.”

So off we went – the four brothers headed to their ancestral homelands. But since the river

cruise started in the Netherlands and then cruised up stream through Germany and ending in

Switzerland, we decided to spend a couple of days in Amsterdam. Now if you have never

been to Amsterdam, it’s an interesting place with a variety of experiences. And they range

from the many museums and the city’s role in the holocaust in WWII, to the many “coffee

houses” and as Dave put it “Eye-opening experience in Dam Square – the body painting and

pot bars!”

So after spending a couple of days in Amsterdam, we boarded our AmaWaterways River

Cruise and headed up stream. One of the first staff we met was the cruise director and after

chatting for a bit, she invited us to join her each morning on the top sun deck for her daily ex-

ercise – Tai Chi. Well, none of us had ever done any Tai Chi, but it’s never too late to learn,

so some of us decided to try it. As Steve said “Learning a bit of Tai Chi was interesting, a

nice way to start each day on the top deck with some fresh air and gentle exercise”. The first

couple of days went well, but then one by one, different ones of us would decide to sleep just

a little longer and not show up. Actually, I think the only one remaining by the last day was

Steve.

As we headed up river, we would stop at various cities and small towns. Dan – “Each port of

call offered its own unique taste of Germany. One of my favorite activities was when we vis-

ited the small village of Rudesheim, in the Black Forest region. It was an extremely quiet,

quaint little village. The village was ex-

tremely clean and was adorned with flower

gardens at every turn. If you looked at the

hillsides they were lined with vineyards. We

had the opportunity to walk through the

vineyards with occasional stops to try a fea-

tured wine. The weather was in the 70’s and

we took a scenic gondola ride to a monu-

ment at the top of the mountain that over-

looked the village. The scenery was breath

taking. I probably have over 100 pictures

from just this one stop.”

The four brothers spent almost all of our waking hours together. But there were a couple of

times (beside dropping out of Tai Chi) that we went our separate ways. On one occasion, we

had scheduled a bike ride together, but some of the road we were to travel on was recently

ruined by flooding. So they changed the route to go “over the mountain” – a grueling ride

indeed. So after some contemplation, we

looked at each other and said “Ahhhh…. I

don’t think so!”. That is, all but Steve who

said “Heck yes! I’m going for it”.

When we were not exploring a new town or

village, we loved spending time on the ship.

Dan – “During our cruising time on the

Rhine, you would often find “the Four

Brothers” lined up on our lounge chairs on

the top deck reading our choice of books.

We often got out of our chairs to take pic-

tures of castles or other scenic views.”

Dave – “River cruises are so relaxing. Sitting on the deck watching the beautiful old castles

go by was breathtaking.”

Steve – “One thing that always impresses me when in Europe (especially Germany) is the ex-

tent to which people still enjoy hanging out with each other, friends and strangers, in the

town plazas, bier gardens, etc., just to have a good time together. This kind of relating to oth-

ers is a somewhat lost art on many Americans.”

Traveling with siblings is really something special. The four brothers, in this case, all agree

that it was a great experience and we’d recommend it to any family (or at least to those that

get along with each other). You have

heard it all too often, when it’s too late –

“I wish we would have spent more time

together.” As Steve put it – “I thought it

was interesting how many people

thought it was interesting (or maybe

strange) that four brothers were travel-

ing together, as though they had never

imagined doing it. It probably says

something for the wives that they al-

lowed, and in fact encouraged the broth-

ers to take this trip together.”

So at the end of this “Four Brother Cruise”, some final thoughts looking back

:

Steve – “Traveling with brothers you have known all your life can be very relaxing as there is

no need to put on a front. You can relax and be yourself”.

Dave – “Traveling with family is always fun, but the chance to take a trip with just my three

brothers was great. With three of them living in Tallahassee Fl., and me living in Chambers-

burg, Pa. it was great spending all that time together.”

Dan – “My brothers and I had a fantastic time making many memories. I’m fairly sure that af-

ter our wives see the pictures, the four of us brothers may have trouble getting away on our

own again. It was a fantastic journey.”

So, in the end, it was a great journey full of laughter, great sites, good food and experiences

to last a lifetime. And, of course, at the end of the trip we have the memories of the time we

spent together to talk about for years to come and to share with the rest of our friends and

families, together with the thousands of pictures that go with it.