Rhine

Referring to the interesting article on cruising the Danube ("Up and Down the Danube," May 2), I would like to say that my husband and I have cruised both the Danube and the Rhine and found the Rhine far more interesting. We used a Europass, which included Rhine cruising, and boarded at Cologne, Germany, not on a cruise boat but a ferry. You throw your luggage onto a pile in the main entranceway of the boat and hope for the best. The boat stops several times on the way to Mainz, and we sort of watched disembarking passengers to be sure they didn't take our bags.

DUESSELDORF, Germany — Voters in Germany's most populous state dealt a decisive blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union on Sunday, preliminary results show, a potentially ominous preview of things to come for the chancellor in next year's federal elections. Merkel's party mustered about 26% of the vote in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a drop from 35% in 2010 and 45% in 2005, the year she took office, the results show. The opposition Social Democrats and Greens, at about 39% and more than 11%, respectively, secured the majority of seats they needed to form a governing coalition.

Police in the German town of Eltville used a helicopter and a boat to scour the Rhine after new sightings of a crocodile removed any doubt of the critter's existence. The crocodile was first spotted last week 60 miles upstream by a cyclist who said he disturbed it when he entered some bushes to urinate. It was seen again this week. It was not clear how the crocodile got into the river. Police said they would call in a specialist to catch it if they found it.

Spend 14 days visiting historic cities in Germany and the Netherlands on a tour that combines a Rhine River cruise with a motor-coach tour, starting at $2,099 a person. Whether on water or land, there are lots of stops on this trip -- and lots of history too.  The excursion begins with a tour of Berlin then heads to Potsdam, Netherlands, to see the 18th century Sanssouci Castle and other sites. Travelers then are to continue on to Dresden, Weimar and Frankfurt in Germany before boarding the MS Allegra . Guests are scheduled to spend eight days on the small ship during an out-and-back cruise on the Rhine, stopping at Bonn, Cologne and Dusseldorf in Germany and Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Nijmegen in the Netherlands before heading back to Frankfurt.

THE NETHERLANDS AND GERMANY Flowers along the Rhine Uniworld's eight-day "Springtime Along the Rhine" stops to see Keukenhof Gardens' 7 million blooming flowers — a site that's open only a few weeks a year. As an incentive for single travelers, Uniworld is waiving its single supplement on this itinerary while occupancy permits. Itinerary: Amsterdam to Volendam and Arnhem, Netherlands; Cologne, Mainz and Frankfurt, Germany. The reverse itinerary is also available.

Over the Rhine: An article in Saturday's Calendar on Ohio music duo Over the Rhine said the band "takes its name from the Ohio River town." Over-the-Rhine is a Cincinnati neighborhood.

L.A. Opera's James Conlon seems to be turning irony into gold. Just as Los Angeles Opera music director Conlon is winding up his conducting duties on the company's new production of Wagner's "Das Rheingold" (The Rhine Gold), he is finally bringing home a little gold from the Rhine for himself. In Wagner's mythological epic, everyone's always squabbling over who gets the gold. And, for more than a decade, Conlon, who served as the city of Cologne, Germany's, general music director from 1989 to 2002, has been locked in a battle over income tax overages.

There are the great capitals of Western Europe--London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, Vienna, Brussels, Stockholm. And then there is Bonn. Bonn, the federal village, the accidental capital, the butt of bad jokes, ranks 19th in population among West German cities even after annexing neighboring communities. It is the unlikely seat of government for the powerhouse of Europe, a nation which, after all, boasts such world-class cities as Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Cologne.

An open letter to the nation of France: Next time the German army crosses the Rhine and marches in triumph down the Champs Elysees, don't call us--we'll call you. The lack of permission for an overflight of our F-111s may have cost us the loss of one plane and crew. Thanks a lot for the thousands of dead and millions of casualties in two World Wars that the United States suffered for your country--a country that could have prevented World War II by merely firing on Hitler's troops when they marched into the Rhineland in March of 1936.

It's hard to ignore trouble once it has made itself comfortable in your living room, playing leisurely games of cribbage and helping itself to sweets from your candy dish. When Lillian Hellman's "Watch on the Rhine" opened on Broadway on April 1, 1941, it gave human form to the fascist menace in Europe and, quite literally, brought the problem home. The action took place in a house just outside Washington, D.C.

Work crews have finished scooping tons of chemical-laden sediment from the historic Rhine Channel in Newport Harbor, completing a $4-million project ahead of time. The channel, once a bustling home to fishing fleets and cannery operations, has long been contaminated by mercury, pesticides and other toxic chemicals. The city's contractor, Dutra Dredging, beat the year-end deadline to dredge the channel and haul the contaminated sediment to Long Beach, where it will be used as fill dirt for a construction project.

On or about Sept. 3, 1592, Robert Greene died from eating too many pickled herrings and drinking too much Rhine wine, or Rhenish, as the English called it in those days. I learned this from a poetry anthology — a gift from my mother — containing some of Greene's poems along with a brief biography that relates how he spent his final days in agony, finishing his best-known work on his deathbed. The poet's final offering, "Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, Bought With a Million of Repentance," is less known for any repentance than it is for Greene's envious attack on a nobody, a non-university-trained actor who was getting some notice on the London theater scene.

THE NETHERLANDS AND GERMANY Flowers along the Rhine Uniworld's eight-day "Springtime Along the Rhine" stops to see Keukenhof Gardens' 7 million blooming flowers — a site that's open only a few weeks a year. As an incentive for single travelers, Uniworld is waiving its single supplement on this itinerary while occupancy permits. Itinerary: Amsterdam to Volendam and Arnhem, Netherlands; Cologne, Mainz and Frankfurt, Germany. The reverse itinerary is also available.

Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a significant political defeat Sunday when voters in Germany's most populous state turned their backs on her ruling center-right coalition, ending the alliance's control of the country's upper house of Parliament. The loss of a majority in the Bundesrat will make it difficult for Merkel to push through important legislation on matters such as tax cuts, healthcare changes and a decision to prolong the life of the country's nuclear power stations.

EUROPE Rhine River cruise Float down one of Europe's great waterways from near its source to the sea on Sceptre Tours' "Romantic Rhine" cruise, sightseeing at towns and taking in the Rhine Gorge's scenery. Info: Sceptre Tours, Lynbrook, N.Y.; (800) 221-0924, www.sceptre tours.com/vacations/ river-cruises-romantic-rhine Rates: Several seven-night departures between May 30 and Nov. 7.

L.A. Opera's James Conlon seems to be turning irony into gold. Just as Los Angeles Opera music director Conlon is winding up his conducting duties on the company's new production of Wagner's "Das Rheingold" (The Rhine Gold), he is finally bringing home a little gold from the Rhine for himself. In Wagner's mythological epic, everyone's always squabbling over who gets the gold. And, for more than a decade, Conlon, who served as the city of Cologne, Germany's, general music director from 1989 to 2002, has been locked in a battle over income tax overages.

I am sorry that Susan Spano thought "Die Lorelei" tacky and cliched ["From 'The Moldau' to the Mississippi, a Flood of Images," July 27]. That folk song begins with the words, "I don't know why I'm so sad, but I just can't forget that old legend." It is one of the most popular folk songs in Germany. The composer is Friedrich Silcher, and the poet is the world-renowned German Jewish writer Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). I remember singing this song on one of the Rhine vessels -- loudly and not too well -- when passing the famous Drachenfels -- dragon rock -- tears flowing down my not-so-young face.

The voice on the other end of the phone gasped. "Oh no! You must not destroy it!" Relief flooded me. She had an answer--an answer I could accept--to the quandary my father left me: what to do with a symbol of hate, while meeting the obligation Dad's legacy carried. It was an obligation rooted in a story that began before I was born. * Fifty-three years ago, a skinny sergeant in the U.S.

Over the Rhine: An article in Saturday's Calendar on Ohio music duo Over the Rhine said the band "takes its name from the Ohio River town." Over-the-Rhine is a Cincinnati neighborhood.

There's an axiom describing the fundamental mode of expression that art offers the artist, something to the effect that if you could say it, you wouldn't have to sing it -- or play, paint, write or sculpt it. Linford Detweiler, songwriter, instrumentalist and part-time singer for the Ohio duo Over the Rhine, makes a case for the opposite idea: using music to inspire dialogue. It's a notion he's been consciously pursuing lately.