The Rhine Valley to Rüdesheim

Fortunately, Saturday morning dawned bright and cloudless, if a little chilly, but what did we expect at this time of year? At least we would be able to see the castles high on the hills. A little mist might have come in handy at times for effect, but so far it was looking a lot nicer than it had the last time we came through the valley two years ago.

We spent much of the morning out on Vista Deck, where there were plenty of blankets out, hot coffee set up on the bar, and the bar staff ready to throw a little extra something into the coffee cup should you want it. We'll have to go back over our map to identify many of these towns and castles, but here are the photos:

The most famous section of the Rhine River is the Loreley, where the river bends around a high cliff. This has always been a very dangerous area for shipping because of the narrow river and the heavy current. Of course, this also means there is a story attached to it. It goes that Loreley was a beautiful mermaid with a sweet voice who sat up on the cliff singing and combing her hair. She was so distracting that sailors would forget their navigation and run into the rocks, capsizing their boats and often losing their lives. Eventually she lost heart because she couldn't charm every single man who saw her, and slipped back into the river, never to be seen or heard again. There is now a small monument to Loreley made by a German sculptress.

We arrived at Rüdesheim around mid-day. We had booked a tour of the town for the afternoon, that included a visit to the market and the Memorial to the Unification of Germany - the first one in the late 1800s that brought all of the independently governed provinces together to create the country.

There is an open cablecar that goes up to the memorial, and a number of people were asking if we would be taking that route or if we would be using the buses. As it turned out, one of the groups in the tour was designated to take the cablecar, and since we were already in that group, we stuck with it. It turned out to be a slightly longer tour as we had to walk from the ship at one end of town to the buses at the other end of town, and then halfway back again to the cablecar station. Then we spent quite a bit of time at the memorial while our guide, Manfred, explained in his rather witty way about the history of the area and the unification.

Does he look a little cold???

Look who else was riding the cablecar!

When we got back into town, we took a quick peek at the market as we headed toward one of the restaurants where we were to taste the official drink of town, Rüdesheimer Kaffee, coffee made with Asbach Uralt brandy, coffee, whipped cream and a sprinkle of chocolate shavings on top. That was delicious, but it didn't leave us with much time for the market afterward, as we also had an evening concert at Eberbach Monastery not long after dinner. The market was already looking very crowded at 4:30, given the six river cruisers in town, so we did a little shopping at the German Christmas store, Käthe Wohlfahrt, and walked back to the ship to prepare for dinner and the evening excursion.

Back in town before going for our coffee, Manfred took us to a hotel where they found a great use for leftover huge wine barrels - they turned a number of them into rooms! They are just big enough for a bathroom in the back and two beds, one on each side of the door. The story goes that people would originally take them when they only needed a place to lay their head after a long night of partying...now they are slightly more expensive than the regular hotel rooms, but they still include breakfast!!

A candy stall selling Lebkuchen Herzen,
decorated gingerbread hearts

It was the busiest market we had seen so far

We knew that Eberbach Monastery must be very, very old (meaning not heated), since the excursion description said 'wear a warm coat'. It was after 8:00 when we finally got there, and they had had a dusting of snow up in the hills. It was too bad we didn't get a couple of minutes to take a few photos outside as the monastery church was very beautifully lit up, but we didn't want to hold anything up since our bus was running late already, so we rushed inside.

They weren't kidding - it was quite chilly inside, enough that the lights for the performance were creating something of a fog inside, as you can see from the pictures. They were passing out plush Crystal cruises blankets for us to sit on, and more for over our laps.

Once we got settled, the string quartet, a group of ladies called La Finesse, came out and started their first piece. The excursion was described as a 'classical concert'; well, they were playing classical music to start, but modernized versions of the classics! Then they added a few more modern pieces that were written for strings, and ended up with a medley of classics that have been updated and used in movies and such. They reminded us a bit of the Trans Siberian Orchestra and their updated take on Beethoven.

We were still all rather chilly by the time we got back to the buses and then the ship, so there were quite a few people in the Palm Court for a drink, hot or cold, and "fortified", if you know what we mean!