Rhine River Rafting Adventure – Day 5

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This morning was greeted by dry, cool temperatures, 59F-62F, which pretty much makes you rethink your outfit for the day. Cargo shorts and short sleeve is not a wise choice. The reason being, is today we cast off, and go through the Romantic Rhine Gorge. Such great scenery, that I was planning to be on the sky deck, so I could see well, and take pictures without a window, or weather / ship radar mast in all the photos, off the bow of the ship. We had a wind of 15-20 knots, it was chilly, and I got my jacket.

The breakfast was good, and we shoved off, and began the journey through the Rhine Gorge. This is one trip to Germany/Europe where I can say I saw more castles than cathedrals. There were 35 castles between Mainz and Koblenz. Impressive, and there were a lot more grapes growing on the side of the hills. This is the wine region also, and Riesling is the grape of choice, and covers the slopes. Harvest is in Sept./Oct. but they seemed to have enough in the pantry to handle us on the boat.

The water is still running high. There are no bridges between Mainz and Koblenz, so that the beauty of the Rhine river and the castles are not interrupted, you can see that the river extends further into the and up the side of the banks.

We got to Koblenz shortly before lunch time, and after lunch were destined to take a walking tour of the city. We ate, and waited for the tour. We took the slow walking tour, covered two cathedrals, one brew pub, and shelter from the sudden thunderstorm and hail.

We got finished and went back to the ship, for supper, Port Talk, which is a briefing on tomorrows schedule. Tonight was the crew entertainment night, where some of the crew members sing, dance, have a skit, or some form of entertainment.



A late night for sure. We cast off, and cruised down to Cologne, or Koln as it says on the map.

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Photos

Local brew pub in Koblenz
Stopped to check out this brew pub.

Castle in the Stream
Of all the castles, there is one little one that is in the middle of the River. Now, with the water higher, it really is in the middle of the river.

Loreley Rock
The rock of Loreley

Loreley rock
The rock that the legend of Loreley was founded on. This was a dangerous part of the river and the sailors had wrecks because of the mermaid.

Fields along the Rhine
More Riesling grapes growing along the river

Grape vines along the Rhine
Grape vines being worked on along the Rhine. Many many fields of these.

Confluence of the Moselle River and Rhine
It seems that this corner where both rivers meet, has a problem. Both rivers have higher water than norman.

The first bridge across the Moselle
As you can see ships can't go past this bridge. As they say, the bridge is too low.