On to Rudesheim through the middle Rhine valley......
We were up early afraid to miss any of the captivating scenery we will see today. After breakfast we head to the top deck as the panorama of the middle Rhine valley unfolds. Iris, one of our Tauck guides, gives commentary from the wheel house describing the little towns, castles, folklore and legends in her soothing voice.
We glide along verdant terraces of grapes, soon to be Riesling. It is hard to imagine the labor that must go into maintaining and harvesting this crop, flourishing on such an incline. A helicopter is crop dusting back and forth between the steep chasms where no airplane could possibly go.
We pass many tidy half timbered houses, impressive churches, town halls and the ever present lines of camper trailers as we snake our way through the traffic toward our first big bend in the river. Here a small island sits off the western coast and cross currents and eddies swirl around it. At the far end of the island is a bronze statue of a beautiful maiden named Lorelei. Immortalized in both poetry and song she is said to have lured sailors to their deaths in the treacherous waters. Later, in Rüdesheim, she will yet again be immortalized as a voluptuous wine bottle filled with Riesling.
Most of the castles we pass are 12th Century. Of course, we romanticize living in a castle but it was often a hard life. Between the sieges, drafts, livestock in the courtyard and the lack of a washer/dryer life was complicated. Imagine having to buy Flemish tapestries to insulate your walls when all you needed was a little caulk! With the advent of the canon ball castle life fell out of favor and the elite moved into the cities into palaces. The castles are now repurposed as restaurants, hotels and youth hostels. However, they still cut a romantic figure towering over the silver swath of the Rhine.
Soon we are docking in Rüdesheim, slightly away from the city center. We have a pleasant hike into town in some very balmy, sunny weather, following our guide Emil.
Rüdesheim, first settled by the Celts in the beginning of the Christian Era, had many landlords from the Romans in the first century to the Franks and the Prussians. It lies at the foot of the Niederwald on the Rhine's eastern bank on the southern approach to the Lorelei. The town belongs to the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region and is one of Germany's biggest tourist attractions.
Only Cologne Cathedral that we visited yesterday draws more foreign tourists. Making the town worth visiting is, not only the wine or even the Old Town itself, but also the picturesque Rheingau landscape together with the romantic Rhine.
Our destination is Siegfrieds Mechanisches Musikkabinett, a museum of data storage musical instruments. A bizarre collection of not only music boxes, but cabinets that hold an entire mechanized orchestra. Our guide is wound just about as tight as some of the piano wires and gives his commentary in an expressionless monotone. He is slightly unnerving. The design and engineering of the devices is certainly interesting for the 19th century.
Next is lunch at Rüdesheimer Schloss restaurant, home of a very energetic glockenspiel that chimes away on the hour, a lengthy cacophony of ear-splitting melody. Lunch really drags on. After the tinny serenade at 1PM, Paul vows to be out of there by two. So we skip dessert, which I understand was a liquor laced coffee, and we trek up the the Seilban, a cable car from the town proper up to the top of the mountain in the Niederwald landscape park, overlooking the valley of the Rhine.
Here lies the Niederwalddenkmal, the monument erected to commemorate the unification of Germany. Inaugurated in September of 1883, the first stone was laid by Kaiser Wilhelm I. The 125 foot monument depicts the statue of Germania holding the recovered crown of the Emperor in her right hand and the imperial sword in her left.
It is a beautiful park and monument dominating the ridge. The ride up was spectacular, floating over the patchwork of vineyard in the silence. The valley viewed from the top is beautiful. All in all it was a wonderful experience.
We hike back, shower and nap. Yesterday's revelers have become today's rather subdued boys and girls. Later we will begin to enter the locks and we make a hard right into the Main River. Even as I write this an occasional bump announces our arrival into another lock.
We were up early afraid to miss any of the captivating scenery we will see today. After breakfast we head to the top deck as the panorama of the middle Rhine valley unfolds. Iris, one of our Tauck guides, gives commentary from the wheel house describing the little towns, castles, folklore and legends in her soothing voice.
We glide along verdant terraces of grapes, soon to be Riesling. It is hard to imagine the labor that must go into maintaining and harvesting this crop, flourishing on such an incline. A helicopter is crop dusting back and forth between the steep chasms where no airplane could possibly go.
We pass many tidy half timbered houses, impressive churches, town halls and the ever present lines of camper trailers as we snake our way through the traffic toward our first big bend in the river. Here a small island sits off the western coast and cross currents and eddies swirl around it. At the far end of the island is a bronze statue of a beautiful maiden named Lorelei. Immortalized in both poetry and song she is said to have lured sailors to their deaths in the treacherous waters. Later, in Rüdesheim, she will yet again be immortalized as a voluptuous wine bottle filled with Riesling.
Most of the castles we pass are 12th Century. Of course, we romanticize living in a castle but it was often a hard life. Between the sieges, drafts, livestock in the courtyard and the lack of a washer/dryer life was complicated. Imagine having to buy Flemish tapestries to insulate your walls when all you needed was a little caulk! With the advent of the canon ball castle life fell out of favor and the elite moved into the cities into palaces. The castles are now repurposed as restaurants, hotels and youth hostels. However, they still cut a romantic figure towering over the silver swath of the Rhine.
Soon we are docking in Rüdesheim, slightly away from the city center. We have a pleasant hike into town in some very balmy, sunny weather, following our guide Emil.
Rüdesheim, first settled by the Celts in the beginning of the Christian Era, had many landlords from the Romans in the first century to the Franks and the Prussians. It lies at the foot of the Niederwald on the Rhine's eastern bank on the southern approach to the Lorelei. The town belongs to the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region and is one of Germany's biggest tourist attractions.
Only Cologne Cathedral that we visited yesterday draws more foreign tourists. Making the town worth visiting is, not only the wine or even the Old Town itself, but also the picturesque Rheingau landscape together with the romantic Rhine.
Our destination is Siegfrieds Mechanisches Musikkabinett, a museum of data storage musical instruments. A bizarre collection of not only music boxes, but cabinets that hold an entire mechanized orchestra. Our guide is wound just about as tight as some of the piano wires and gives his commentary in an expressionless monotone. He is slightly unnerving. The design and engineering of the devices is certainly interesting for the 19th century.
Next is lunch at Rüdesheimer Schloss restaurant, home of a very energetic glockenspiel that chimes away on the hour, a lengthy cacophony of ear-splitting melody. Lunch really drags on. After the tinny serenade at 1PM, Paul vows to be out of there by two. So we skip dessert, which I understand was a liquor laced coffee, and we trek up the the Seilban, a cable car from the town proper up to the top of the mountain in the Niederwald landscape park, overlooking the valley of the Rhine.
Here lies the Niederwalddenkmal, the monument erected to commemorate the unification of Germany. Inaugurated in September of 1883, the first stone was laid by Kaiser Wilhelm I. The 125 foot monument depicts the statue of Germania holding the recovered crown of the Emperor in her right hand and the imperial sword in her left.
It is a beautiful park and monument dominating the ridge. The ride up was spectacular, floating over the patchwork of vineyard in the silence. The valley viewed from the top is beautiful. All in all it was a wonderful experience.
We hike back, shower and nap. Yesterday's revelers have become today's rather subdued boys and girls. Later we will begin to enter the locks and we make a hard right into the Main River. Even as I write this an occasional bump announces our arrival into another lock.
Beautiful, reminds me of El Paso
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