Rüdesheim, Germany

After eating a marvelous lunch aboard ship, we docked in Rüdesheim.

Rüdesheim is a quaint winemaking town on the Rhine Gorge, loved by tourists.

We toured Siegfried's Mechanical Music Cabinet, which is a museum filled with whimsical, mechanical, musical instruments, from teeny-tiny to huge. It is located in a beautiful old house, which has some of the original art work on the ceilings. It was really entertaining.

After touring the museum and taking advantage of their free restrooms (a rarity in Germany), we hopped into one of the open-air aerial gondolas which took us on a very scenic ride up the hillside, over verdant vineyards, to Niederwald Park and the Niederwald Monument. The monument was erected after the Franco-Prussian War (and unveiled in 1883), and was in memory of the unification of Germany. The statue at the top of the monument is  the allegorical figure, Germania. It was really impressive to stand at its base and look up.

After dinner aboard ship, we, along with most of our fellow passengers, participated in a fun trivia game in the lounge. Our cruise director, Alex, was the host, and made it lots of fun. Our team tied for first place, but was beat out in the tie-breaker.

Around 9:00 p.m. we went to our cabin - very tired from our busy day and ready to retire early - and enjoyed a peaceful, private hour on our balcony, watching reflections of city lights and the almost-full moon shimmer on the river.

CLICK HERE NEXT (NUREMBURG)

The Rhine Gorge

One of my favorite days on the Rhine was going through the Rhine Gorge, which is known for all of its castles and steep vineyards. We saw so many castles that some of the Aussies were just calling out "ABC" each time another one came into view. "ABC" was code for "another bloody castle!" But honestly, they were beautiful, and everyone was snapping photos of the fairytale castles with their turrets and spires. Some of them were ruins; some had been restored and were being used for one purpose or another.  Most of them were constructed between the 12th and 14th centuries. They were, of course, built by princes to protect their land, but later they became the "toll booths" of the Rhine. Chains were strung across the river to keep ships from passing until they paid a toll.

I didn't count, but I've read that there are between 30 and 40 castles to be seen on this fairly short stretch of the Rhine. Most of them perch on a hill or a cliff, above charming, picturesque German villages.

Lovely as the castles were, equally amazing were the vineyards lining the steep hillsides on both sides of the Rhine. We were told that in the Roman days, the hillsides were terraced, but now the vines are planted in vertical rows, straight down the hill, with no terracing. Although machines are used at the end of the season, for cutting back the vines, the grapes are always picked by hand.

One more attraction along the Rhine Gorge is the statue of Lorelei - a woman of legend, so beautiful that sailors, often unable to take their eyes off of her, would wreck their boats at this narrow, deep stretch of the Rhine. The statue sits on a little finger of land, jutting into the river. 

CLICK HERE NEXT (RÜDESHEIM)

Cologne and Bonn, Germany

Wednesday, September 11, was our day to do a walking-tour of Cologne. The center of the city is dominated by the Cologne Cathedral. Wherever you go, you can see its towers piercing the sky. The square in front of it is lively, full of artists and musicians. We walked around the cathedral, but did not go inside.

We walked by the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, where there were guards keeping people from walking on the red brick plaza in front of the building. Our tour guide explained that noise from people walking, or noise from skateboards, can be heard in the hall, so no one is allowed to walk on the square during a performance. The picture below shows the Philharmonic Hall on the left, the red brick plaza in front, and behind it all, the Cologne Cathedral. You'll notice - NO ONE is walking on the red bricks.

A prominent monument, between the Cathedral and the Rhine, is the statue of Kaiser Wilhelm II, mounted on his horse. Wilhelm II was King of Prussia and the last German emperor, who reigned from 1888 until the revolution of 1918.

The Wilhelm II statue stands near a bridge, crossing the Rhine River. Most of Cologne's bridges are painted the shade of green shown in the picture below. It is known as Cologne Green or Adenauer Green. Konrad Adenauer (first Chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963) wanted this patina-like green color custom-mixed and used on all of Cologne's bridges. We were told that the bridges under the control of the city are not allowed to be painted any other color, even to this day.

A fun part of the city is known as the Fish Market. Despite its name, this area is no longer a place to buy fish, but a charming collection of houses, inns and pubs, dating back to the Middle Ages. The area was, indeed, the place where the fishermen of old brought and sold their fish. The Fish Market buildings survived the bombings during World War II, unlike many other buildings throughout the city.

The two figures in the photo below, which stand in the Fish Market, are known as Tünnes and Schäl. Tünnes represents the good natured commoner, with good sense and cleverness, while Schäl  represents the upper-class. It is considered good luck to rub the nose of Tünnes.

The city center boasts a number of fountains and up-scale shops, including the 4711 Eau de Cologne store, in the location where that scent was first formulated. Eau de Cologne was originally created (1789) by Johann Maria Farina, an Italian living in Cologne.

We returned to the ship, which then took us not far up the Rhine, to the city of Bonn. Bonn is a beautiful city. Although it is large, it is a quiet city, with stately homes and government buildings. Our tour guide told us that, although Bonn is a university city, the students prefer to go to Cologne for their night-life, leaving Bonn peaceful. Bonn was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990, and the seat of government (but no longer capital) of the reunited Germany until 1999.

I didn't get any good photos of the city, since we did not do a walking tour. We rode through the city, by bus, in the evening, as we headed to the Marksburg Castle where we had dinner and were entertained by minstrels and a very funny jester. It was 10:30 or 11:00 before we were back on board the Ruby, and we were very tired.

Our destination - the Marksburg Castle - sits atop the hill.

CLICK HERE NEXT (RHINE GORGE)

Zaanse Schans and Edam - Our First Tours

We boarded the Scenic Ruby on Monday, September 9, at lunch time. They served us a light lunch and, shortly after, they announced our cabins were ready. They had already put our luggage in the room, so Dan and I emptied our suitcases and stowed our clothes in the wardrobe and drawers. The suitcases slide easily under the bed. It felt so good to get everything in its place so we didn't have to live out of a suitcase any longer.

That afternoon we began meeting and visiting with our fellow passengers. The Ruby can carry 169 passengers, and it was nearly full. Ninety-five or so of the passengers were from Australia; most of the others were Canadian; eight were from the U.S.; and there were a handful of people from other places, including one very nice couple from Guatemala. We especially enjoyed getting to know one couple from Australia named Lee and Joanne. 

The ship stayed in port at Amsterdam overnight, and in the morning we went on a tour to Zaanse Schans and Edam. Zaanse Schans is out in the Dutch countryside. It is a picturesque little residential village that is famous for its historic windmills, many of them still fully-operational. We were taken inside one of them to see the grinding stones. That particular one was used for grinding limestone (or "chalk" as it was called), which is used in making linoleum. Another windmill nearby grinds flax seeds to produce linseed oil, another ingredient in the linoleum-making process. 

Besides the windmills, Zaanse Schans is known for its wooden shoe workshop, where they demonstrate how the shoes are made. Part of the process uses hand tools, but the final shaping and the carving of the interior are done by two vintage mechanical machines.

Among the 18th and 19th century shops in Zaanse Schans is a bakery. Because of my childhood memories of growing up in one, I'm always on the look-out for bake shops as I travel. Sadly, we didn't have time for me to go inside to see (or taste) its baked goods.

After leaving Zaanse Schans we went to the village of Edam, known for the cheese of that same name. We didn't have much time in Edam, so just wandered the storybook streets and enjoyed the "lost in time" village.

After returning to the ship, our river cruise actually began. We said good-bye to Amsterdam and headed up the Rhine. Not far out of Amsterdam we went through the first of 68 locks that we would navigate before arriving in Budapest two weeks later. It was much more exciting going through this first one than, days later, going through the 68th!

Overnight we crossed into Germany and woke on Wednesday, September 11, in Cologne.

CLICK HERE NEXT (COLOGNE AND BONN)