Days 06 & 07, 31st March- 1 April Rudesheim-Miltenberg

Day 6 -

We are loving cruising along and being able to take our time, especially while we get right side up with the time differences - with the 'hotel' always being here, rather than travelling to one. You see a lot from the river, over the canal banks to the countryside beyond. Its still about 7-10C each day with a cold wind, thank god for puffer jackets and hats! Felt weird packing them in our hot climate - but glad we did!!

We have travelled 585kms of the rivers - from the river Amstel in Amsterdam, to the Rhine in Germany, then we will go onto the Main ("Mine") after that. Today we passed through the Rhine Gorge with its many, many beautiful castles on the banks.

After ample (and I do mean ample) food and beer, wine & spirits all provided, everyone was ready to get off and go into the town of Rudesheim. They brought miniature trains to pick us up and took us up into the town on the ancient cobblestones. It had been raining horizontally off and on all day and literally as it was time to leave the ship- it stopped!!

We were taken through the 'Siegfrieds music cabinet tour'. It was actually fascinating even if you didnt think you would be interested. The massive mechanical music instruments play on their own and most of them date back to the turn of the last century.

One room we went into had a floor that is still original, which is 1000 years old- can you imagine the stories it could have told about people and fashions alone, over those centuries? The ceiling frescos were done in 1559 and paintings on the walls depict the story of Jonah and the Whale.

There is an old photo on the wall here of one of the cabinet makers who was involved with the instruments and he had a handlebar moustache like Graemes- they were very fashionable in the late 1800's-1900's as we've seen from a lot of WW I photos.

This town is famous for its Rudesheimer coffee, where a sip of brandy is poured into a special mug and set alight - then doused with coffee and topped by whipped cream and chocolate flakes!

We decided to walk back to the ship rather than get the train, as you walk along the towns famous Drosselgass street.
Nice to get in a good fast walk after a lot of lounging around doing nothing but eating, drinking and talking -which makes you tired lol! We are meeting a lot of people and try to sit with different folks each day.

Day 7 -
We have moved onto the Main river now, a smaller subsidary of the Rhine. We are going through a lot of weirs and locks - they are really interesting to watch, especially with ships this large. There is often another one on the other side of the loch and we take turns, one goes up as the other comes down. Today these have been really close to the shore- as in you could step over the rail and walk on the weir- yet we are floating on a river higher than the terra firma!

A really funny German master glassblower come onboard this morning and told us about his town- 10,000 inhabitants only and a 1000 of them are glass blowers. He branched out into artistic pieces some years ago while everyone else makes the glass for test tubes and other medical equipment. He showed us how fibre optics are made and talked about the link between glass blowing and the drink Jaggermeister - hard to explain but hilarious! He lives with 4 generations of his family and is teaching his grandson as the 7th generation glass blower. He had stuff to sell of course and some of the (older!) ladies were like hyenas around a carcass, pushing and trying to get up to buy! Left them to it.

Then we had a tasting of traditional German foods - Fruhschoppen, which were different types of sausages, meatloaf, white sauhkraut and of course- Beer at 11.30am!

This afternoon we were taken in the coaches to individual families houses in the town of Miltenberg, which has 10,000 inhabitants. We and 6 others passengers went to the house of Sylvie and her 16 year old son Johannus. They were typically reserved and a little shy but so lovely. We had a guy from our ship who hammered them a bit with constant questions and asked a couple of personal questions that werent appropriate, however everyone really enjoyed the interaction and tea and cake. I really appreciate that all germans (younger generations) speak english, when we rely on them to be able to converse.

More snow flakes swirling around off and on, they melt before they hit the ground but it is lovely!
Back to the ship for a lovely dinner and relax.