Rudesheim - Rhine Gorge

Today was a late start as we weren’t due in to Rudesheim until lunchtime. We were running a little late, but after lunch we all boarded the local street train for transport up to the Siegfried Mechanical Music Instrument Museum.  This was an amazing array of old musical instruments which have been restored to working order by one man and his son. We were able to see and hear a few of these old instruments play their music, and the way all the different instruments moved and worked was really good to see. A very interesting place to visit. After the Museum there was a coffee tasting at one of the Coffee houses. The coffee was laced with brandy and that was the ‘coffee tasting’. A few of the passengers were hoping it was actually a coffee tasting….life’s full of little disappointments!

After leaving Rudesheim we travelled up the River until we came to the Rhine Gorge.  Here a number of us stood out in the cold wind and took photos of some of the 18 Castles in this area for a couple of hours. Some of these Castles were quite imposing, standing high on the hills overlooking the towns and the River. It was a pity that the sun wasn’t shinning, but, we can’t have everything, at least it didn’t rain until the last 5 minutes. There has been a change to our itinerary.  We are not stopping in Cologne tomorrow after all.  There is some repair work going on to a bridge down the River and it has been decided that if we want to get to Amsterdam on time for flight connections etc. we will have to travel through the night and day to beat the scheduled closure of the River. A trip is being offered by bus to Cologne from a port further downstream, but we have decided not to go on this. For a 4½ hour bus trip we would only get a couple of hours in Cologne, so…..we’ll stay on board and relax and pack ready for disembarking in Amsterdam.

Put in your money - go through the turnstile

 Fairground music maker

 Main Square - Rudesheim

 A couple of Rhine Gorge Castles