Treasures on the Rhine

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July 23rd

Koblenz and up the lazy river to Rudesheim...........

I must say I love waking up on these mornings and wondering where we are. The first thing I like to do is look out the window to get a precursory view of our upcoming adventure for the day.

Today we woke in Koblenz, another tiny village along the Rhine River. The six of us boarded the bus together and headed out to St. Mark's Castle. The village was beautiful with many quaint hotels made of white plaster and dark wood beams. Petunias and geraniums of every color spilled from the windows and balconies. I couldn't help wondering as we bused pass them who would come here for longer than a day. We're here because a two hour guided tour of the castle is on Viking's itinerary. Immediately after touring we were bused back to the boat for lunch to head up river again and view more castles along the Rhine. Once you toured the Castle there really didn't seem to be much else to do. It is an incredibly beautiful little town with a huge castle perched above it. So picturesque that Disney could create a movie around it. You know Mickey and Minnie living there resplendent in their velvet finery giggling, looking at their jewels while Goofy was laughing in the kitchen putting odd food groups together, breaking all the dishes and Donald Duck would be in the iron smith area next to the horse stable sweating and frustrated because he couldn't figure out how the bellow works as it spews soot all over him with the fire down to its last hot ember.

We loved the Castle tour. No marauder or enemy had ever been able to take it over. The mountain upon which it sat angled up steeply, the architect was brilliant in his design where escape routes were built along the possible entrances with openings only big enough for you to walk in them single file. If anyone tried to enter through one of the portals the people inside could fight them off one at a time. This allowed the castle to remain intact and it still contains most of its original furniture and household items especially in the kitchen. We all walked up and down uneven stairs, crouched through small doorways, peered through openings in the wall showcasing the valley and river below and learned a lot about the former inhabitants. We were told that the primary purpose for making wine was because the water was contaminated and tasted horrible. The alcohol in the wine help kill the bacteria and make the water seem more palatable. This castle had a very large area dedicated to making wine. Tom and I have been in bigger castles before but I really liked this one as it seemed to be more like a house a family would live in. Don't get me wrong, it was large with countless stairways and rooms but it wasn't ridiculous like say Versailles.

We returned to the ship and the six of us enjoyed another wonderful lunch. Immediately following we were beckoned to the sundeck because the boat was at the part of the Rhine where it just passes one castle after another.

The weather had become hot so everyone up there was looking for deck chairs in the shade. We carried our wine glasses from lunch, found a spot at which to settle, then sat and waited for the castles to appear.

This part of our trip was so cool because Boyon our tour Director was at the PA system and turned on some music that was piped throughout the ship. When as particular castle came up the music would fade and Boyon would begin to tell a wonderful tale about the inhabitants of whatever castle we were looking at. The Rhine has been an important commercial causeway for centuries and still is. We have seen countless barges sailing along with us and also going in the opposite direction. We've never seen so much commercial use on a river cruise.

To that end, many of these castles were built by what the locals call Robber Barons. People who basically found a spot built a Castle and then made any boat using the river pay a toll for passing their plot of land. There were sooooo many of these instances. There was even one where there were two brothers that built a castle then at some point got into a fight and one brother left, built another castle next door but put a stone wall in between the two castles so they never had to look at each other again.

There we sat in the heat listening to Boyon or classical music, or new age, or some kind of wonderful melodic music that kept you in the mood. It was hot and at the request of our kitchen manager the staff came up to the sundeck carrying ice cream cones for all. A little later tequila sunrises were being doled out by the bar staff. Full from lunch, drunk on the music, narration, and scenery, while they continue to fill our bellies.............that's what we call pampering!

The boat finally docked next to the minuscule town of Rudesheim. Tom decided to rest so I went for a quick walk with Diana and John. Really you could walk this town in 15 minutes. When we entered the village square there was a school choir and band, singing and playing for donations. They were so good it gave me chills. John had been waiting for an opportunity to order a sausage dinner but we had trouble finding a restaurant to accommodate what we thought would be easy. Finally finding one he and Diana ordered their dinner and I went back to the boat to join Tom. Beatriz and Terry took another tour during the dinner hour so Tom and I, for the only time during this trip sat alone at our dinner table.

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