Day 8 Mannheim to Rudesheim
We were up and out to the buses after breakfast today. They took us half an hour to visit Schwetzingen palace. It is pretty magnificent and huge with two wings and a theatre (although we didn’t see this). It was originally built as a fort in 1350 but was destroyed and rebuilt on several occasions over the decades. Then the elector John Williams built it as their summer palace in the 1700’s –Hard to believe the decadence of how some people lived. The grounds were levelled to allow the carriages to easily transverse the paths. There was also a small roman amphitheatre built in the gardens. The gardens were the most impressive, with trees that have been trained into huge arbours.
We were handed over to a local guide, as with all these cruises and like the previous one – this lady was extremely passionate which is good, but she stood and talked and talked, and talked when people really wanted to move on and see things as we only had limited time. You get to the point where you can’t take any more in! It would be good to know in advance if they framed up the tours so you could choose whether you stayed with a group or wandered around on your own. But it was still good and could’ve spent hours walking around the gardens
They took us up into the part of the palace that is open for viewing and still has all the furniture from the 1700. Interestingly, the bed was very small… kind of like a king single today and apparently the reason for that was they slept in different beds for space, because in those days they wore elaborate wigs which they must’ve left on – why didn’t they just take them off at night?! But the servants would come and put flea cages on them as well because they were scared of these wigs getting infested! Sounds like there was a lot of vanity and the olden days instagram- didn’t want to be caught out not looking perfect!
We also saw the room where the toilet which really was a commode was kept and the electors were very confident in themselves, so if they summoned people to come and listen to them or speak with them, you didn’t refuse. But if they needed the toilet, they would get the servant to wheel the commode into the room and they would sit down and go whilst still discussing the affairs of the day!
It was very dark and heavy inside the palace rooms and again the guide was holding us in each room for long periods talking – we had forgotten the water bottles so got quite dry and it felt so stuffy it was almost claustrophobic, so just before it ended we went out of a door marked as the exit. Ended up putting us in some back stairwell and no way to go back ha ha! A woman appeared out of the blue so we told her we were just trying to get out!
We went and sat outside and bought a drink from the souvenir shop. We also bought a pretty, miniature hazelnut liquor bottle for Alison from San Francisco on our tour. They had approached us in the morning and asked if we would like to share her significant birthday with them for dinner on board the ship, so we wanted to get her something where we could. It was either alcohol or a tray of strawberries lol :-). There were those and fresh asparagus for sale on the stalls outside.
It’s a pity we didn’t have time to wander the colourful town with beautiful architecture cos the tour had taken so long, but it was time to get back So onto the buses and out of Mannheim, onto the ship for lunch. We decided to keep it tiny so we got a very small bowl of pasta and went and sat up on the top deck with a beer, as it is finally stopped raining. Was very nice sitting up there enjoying the view as for the first time we are sailing during the day and headed for Rudesheim. We sailed through to about 8 pm so around 6 hours free time on board the ship.
They don’t have a lot going on entertainment wise but after about 8 km of walking, it’s good to relax. We had dinner in the restaurant onboard with Alison and David, they bought out a cake and everybody sang happy birthday – it was lovely to share her special birthday together and David ordered some champagne.
Then the four of us we were able to walk into the town after – Graeme and I have been there before and have to say it was a real disappointment bringing us in so late as the town was closed. So compared to the previous time it was dead and all we could do was walk around and look at the beautiful old buildings. Although to be fair, there was one restaurant that had Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” playing on the dance floor, so we stood out on the street and sang to it! It was funny :-).
But overall everybody felt it was pointless putting us off in the dark to a town that was closed – it would be better if they worked the itinerary into being in port during the daytime.
The last time we visited here, a lot of people tried the famous Rudesheim coffee where they have coffee, chocolate, whipped cream and then they light it on fire so it has this blue flame coming off it!
Still, we had a lovely walk and then headed back to the ship and showers in bed.
Koblenz
