Rhine Gorge and Rudesheim

Nice cruising this morning through the Rhine Gorge round the Loreley and into Rudesheim. Castles all along the cruise. Very nice. It had rained through the night, but the day was clear and dry. Fantastic.

Grape vines are terraced over alot of the steep slopes. Not as many as I remember (from 40 years ago!). Apparently younger generations are preferring to earn their livings with less strenuous jobs than farming these steep slopes.


Then we arrived at Rudesheim. A pretty town built from the river and up the hillside. Ask Arthur about the 'choo choo trains"!!! They were little motorised 'trains". Actually, they are tractors dressed up to look like engines(!) and pulling little carriages. Very kitsch! (The scarey thing - people seemed to love them).

We were taken up the hill to "Seigried's Mechanical musical Instrument Museum", where we had a guided talk. All manner of mechanical devices including a machine that played 12 (I think) violins. I am sure there must have been a reason why someone did not want to actually have violinists doing the same thing, but can't think of it at the moment. Its an intertesting world.

After that, we made our own way, meandering through the little cobbled streets, taking photos, and enjoying the sights and the aromas from many little Christmas Market stalls. Eventually we were back down at the river, and strolled along the river path back to our moored boat.

There we enjoyed a warm drink in the lounge with a few others who had also not waited for the "train" to return them to the boat.

We sailed again at 4pm. It was a lovely bright late afternoon light to enjoy the passing scenery.
In the evening there was live music in the lounge. A group called Pitchwork.. and billed as 'lively" music. We paid a visit to see what was on but it proved much too lively and far too Bavarian - not regular Bavarian but a sort of Leiderhosen meets a rock seession at The Cuckoo.

More than half the passengers had had far too much Gluwein and with the musicians roving about encouraging various unsavoury arm wavings, we headed for the comparative sanity of our cabin.