The Rhine Gorge and Rudesheim

We set sail early this morning, around 5:00 am. I was anxious to be up around 7 o'clock as we were to enter the famous Rhine Gorge around that time, with all its wonderful castles and history - I didn't want to miss the first ones (throughout my life, whenever I dreamed of going to Europe, a picture of this part of the Rhine was what would come to mind). At one stage I left my Eggs Benedict and rushed up to the lounge deck to see the first magnificent castle. After breakfast we sat in the lounge, and I slipped out onto the front deck to get photos of each castle or interesting town that came along.

We also saw the famous Loreley Rock. We kept note of their names to correctly identify all the photos later. The countryside was very green and the little towns/villages along the way looked lovely places to stop. It was also interesting to see the number of trains travelling along both sides of the river. The trip through the gorge took most of the morning and the scenery was very beautiful. Towards the end, we were served special Rudesheimer coffees (local brandy, coffee and whipped cream).

Lunch was early, before we arrived in the beautiful town of Rudesheim for a three hour visit. We were all taken into the town by Noddy Train, and were dropped at Siegfried's Musical Cabinet - a museum. We had an amazing hour long tour of this former medieval castle, looking at the amazing, old, automatic musical instruments - pianolas, organs, automatic violins and grand pianos, phonograms, and music boxes.

Then we and the Barrows decided to take the 10 minute gondola ride up across some vineyards alongside the town, up a hill to a monument about the unification of Germany. The views were spectacular. And we were very lucky that the sun came out and it was lovely and warm. We didn't have much time, so enjoyed the view for only a short time before heading back down again.

There was only time for a quick walk through the quaint and narrow main shopping street of the town, with its gorgeous open air cafes and accordionists entertaining the guests. This reminded us of the narrow cobbled streets and shops in the Greek islands, especially Mykonos and Santorini. We wished we'd had time to stop and relax with a drink, and also to look in some of the shops, but there was a deadline for being back at the boat. Never mind, it was a warm, sunny, picturesque walk back along the foreshore to the boat.

The boat set sail again at 4 pm and headed into the Main River, while we were dining on coffee and cakes (yes, GF as well) provided in the lounge. This river is much narrower than the Rhine, and the landscape gradually changed back to flatter or gently undulating. At 6:15 pm we were all invited back to the lounge for a free drink, and a talk about tomorrow's events.

At 7:15 pm we headed with the Barrows to a different restaurant in the aft of the boat - Erlebnis. This required a booking and has seats for just 24 people. You can see much of the food being prepared, and it is served to a particularly high standard. This costs nothing extra, and everyone is encouraged to book twice during the cruise, with a different menu each week. They even managed to cater very nicely for me with the GF! The meal was amazing! We've booked again for next Friday.

After dinner, it was back to the lounge to watch the views as we passed through locks, and approached Frankfurt. The Cruise Director, Marion (from Austria), gave a talk about Germans as a people, and some tips about the language. Then it was out on deck to capture some photos of the city lights of Frankfurt as we sailed past.

I haven't been able to upload any photos to my MobileMe Gallery since getting on the boat. However, I've managed to add a few photos to the previous blog posts, so you might like to look back at those. Internet access is going to be patchy for the next few days, we have been warned...