Remembrance on the Rhine
I doubt many places could be further from the trenches at Anzac Cove. Cruising on the Rhine river in Germany on the beautiful AmaVenita on an 8-day APT cruise. An early start for a dawn service up on the sun deck, was not something I expected when we set out from Amsterdam.
A sunny and very cold (for April) morning, was a perfect setting to pay tribute to the Anzacs on this special day. One by one, as we ascended to the top of the ship, rugged up like alpine climbers in winter, we were offered blankets to keep us warm and the traditional “gunfire breakfast” of Rum and coffee.
I thought the rum and coffee was probably the only thing I had in common with the soldiers at Gallipoli in 1915. Having been at Gallipoli myself (and reciting “The Ode” to my own group at Lone Pine while sobbing uncontrollably), getting up early and being a little cold was a small price to pay for the sacrifices that allowed me to be where I was on that day.
A minute’s silence, followed by the ode was a nice gesture of remembrance. And a thoughtful thing for the APT cruise director to have organised.
The day before, we had cruised past Remagen, the site of a famous and deadly battle for the Bridge across the Rhine that ultimately helped shorten the 2nd world war, and cost a lot of lives in the process. The day before that we were in Cologne, almost totally destroyed by bombing in the same war.
It’s almost inconceivable, looking at this spectacular part of the world, with the Rhine gorge showing off its collection of castles in the glorious April light, that so many terrible events could have taken place here.
And that a connection existed between this beautiful river and a small peninsula in Turkey.