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Published: August 27th 2022
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Rudesheim
Today is going to be a long day as we have to move boats again. This part of the Rhine is not navigable at present.
We left at 8:30 by bus for Rudesheim. A separate coach is taking our suitcases to Düsseldorf to be put in rooms on the Scenic Pearl.
We have been given €25 each for lunch as we will be off the bus for the day. We arrived and immediately hopped on the Winzerexpress mini train to take us into town to Siegfried’s Mechanical Musical Instrumental Machines. It is a privately owned and maintained museum of working music machines some dating back 400 years. They have some examples of bird singing boxes that can be purchased for as
little as $2000!! We passed but they are clever. They have over 300 moving parts in them and are completely hand made. After we left here we walked through the cobblestone streets and boarded the cable car which took us for spectacular views of the vineyards and up to the Neiderwalddenkmal monument. It was built to celebrate the Unification of Germany between 1871 and 1883.
Back down on the cable car and we had a
lovely lunch of Weiner Schnitzel and a local Reisling in a cafe before heading for our little train ride back to the bus.
What should have been the highlight of our trip, the cruise along the Rhine River viewing the castles on each side became the lowlight, a drive on the autobahn. We could still see the castles but they wizzed by. After 3 hours in the bus we reached our new home and unpacked again.
Cologne
We travelled by coach to Cologne this morning and were given a guided tour before stopping at the Cathedral.
We decided that we needed to sample the local tradition of beer drinking - in Cologne they drink beer in small (.2 litre) cylindrical glasses. The waiters bring the drinks, mark how many your order on a coaster, and replenish them until you place a coaster on top of your glass. You then take the coaster and pay for them. The theory is that if your glass is too big the beer gets warm. We also stopped at a Bakery that seemed very popular when we walked past and bought a pastry. It tasted like a cinnamon bun, with icing and
coated in toasted, flaked almonds and shaped like a pretzel. Nougatbrezeln. One of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. As with anything sweet here the wasps liked them as well and there were a lot in the window.
After getting back to the boat we sailed for Amsterdam the final stop in our itinerary.
Amsterdam
We chose to do a canal cruise for an excursion this morning. It was excellent. The weather was perfect and it was very quiet as we left at 9. We were told about the history of Amsterdam and the creation of the inland sea. We also saw the many cyclists on the roads and were advised to get out of their way and watch for them.
The rest of the day was a lazy one before our final get together as a group as Wednesday was departure day
After wandering around Amsterdam this morning we found ourselves near a part of the red light district. Very interesting shops many selling cannabis, hemp seeds, condoms in all shapes and colours, coffee and burgers. We are now waiting on the boat for our transfer to the airport and the long flight
home.
A great trip, very tiring probably due to the changes to the itinerary because of the low river levels and the realisation that age is creeping up.
We are now home and as usual I am behind in my blogs but job done
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Beautiful Architecture
Enjoy your travel.