Cruising Along The Rhine River

 Sunday - March 20, 2022

We wake up bright and early for our first day on tour.  It's our first day on the bus!  Because there are only 18 of us, most people sat in their own row.  We all take turns sitting in the first two rows - and we were first up to sit up front.  After that, we ended up taking the last two rows of the bus.  I was in the last row with 5 seats all to myself!  

The breakfast in the Hilton was in the same restaurant we had dinner in and they had a very nice spread with delicious pastries (there are some pastries in some buffets that are not so delicious) and a great espresso/coffee machine.  We sat at the lower level by the windows so we could see the Rhine and the Viking ship docked there and I got some serious cruise envy.

Once breakfast was over we gathered in the lobby and boarded our bus, meeting our driver Chris.  He was quiet through the whole week, but an amazing driver and super efficient.  He drove us through Mainz with Sue giving commentary on what we saw and ultimately we were dropped off in Rüdesheim am Rhein.  It was on the other side of the river from where we had driven the day before, and as it was Sunday, a lot of their little shops were closed....but it was touristy enough that there were still many stores and restaurants open.  More importantly, they put us on a DB boat during low season!  I had looked into doing this for the three of us when we were traversing the shores of the Rhine, but there are a very limited number of boats that run during the office season, so I was so glad to see we got to do this on our tour.  

It was kind of overcast, and we had to wait a bit for our boat since we were super early.  We boarded the boat and my parents promptly picked seats inside 😂.  It was kind of cold, but I immediately headed upstairs and out first.  I didn't want to have to wear my mask the whole time and I wanted to be able to roam and take photos.  

Cruising down the Rhine is entirely different from driving.  I saw so many things I wasn't able to see when I was driving, and it's such a fun perspective!  

where our boat was docked

being that it was March, everything was still kinda brown - but these hills would look amazing in the full bloom of spring and early summer!

The Niederwalk Monument - completed in 1883 to commemorate the unification of the German state after the Franco-Prussion war in 1871.  This depicts Germania holding a sword and a crown.

Mouse Tower, which used to be a customs post for ships passing by

Ehrenfels Castle

Rheinstein!  We just visited the day before 👋

Burg Reichenstein - the castle we were originally booked in who cancelled on us since they were undergoing renovations the week of our reservation 😞

Stahlek Castle (now a hostel) overlooking the village of Bacharach

Pfalzgrafenstein Castle from the river

hello Schoenberg!  

I got way too excited when we sailed by Schoenberg😂.  I ran downstairs and pointed it out to my parents, "look!  It's our castle!  It's our castle!"  

the village of Oberwesel, that we didn't get around to visiting

the Lorely.  This is after they blasted it too.  It's a big rock that juts into the Rhine and made navigating this area very treacherous.  Of course, because men never wanted to admit they may just be bad sailors, they began circulating stories about how there were sirens there at the Lorely singing to them, enchanting them so much that they'd jump overboard - giving this as the reason why there were so many shipwrecks in this area.  Or...it was a hard area to sail and they just weren't as good as they thought they were?  🤷

you can see how the river narrows at the Lorely

Rheinfels Castle - probably our favorite of the trip!

After we returned to Rüdesheim am Rhein, we were given some free time - we could grab lunch, go shopping...and that was about it.  For a Sunday, it was a pretty happening little place!

We wandered into Schlosshotel Rüdesheim along with a few other groups on our tour since our tour manager said she like their soups.  My mom lurves soup.  We didn't want to have a large meal, but we wanted to have a quick bite so none of us would get hangry.  My parents got soup while I got a salad loaded with bacon - it was amazing!

I can't believe I got a salad on vacation!  But German food is very meat heavy, and feeling my age, I felt a need for fresh vegetables.  But as this was also full of bacon with a light vinaigrette, this was actually really delicious and refreshing.  Bacon makes everything better.

I ran out of the restaurant first because I wanted to check their chocolate shops.  My best friend's mom had lived in Germany in her twenties, and the only thing she asked for was some German chocolates that her mom reminisced over - so I was on a mission to find chocolate!  She wasn't sure of the name but said any German chocolate would be appreciated. 

clocktower whose bells pealed out a song on the hour

After free time, they took us to a winery for a wine tasting.  I don't drink because I can't - I can't metabolize alcohol and it makes me really sick.  I get it from my dad - so my mom was the only one who could drink, and she usually doesn't because she doesn't like the taste.  I'm sure it was a very nice winery, but my mom couldn't tell the difference between the wines she had and I sat there and ended up playing on my phone.  My dad fell asleep.  Clearly this was not an activity for my family 😂.

After the wine tasting we got back on the bus and rode back to Mainz.  It was the late afternoon at this point and we wanted to relax.  Our church does a livestream for our Sunday service - we started at the onset of COVID and we continue to do it today.  It's amazing because even on vacation, we could worship with our brothers and sisters at the same time!  Just...on the other side of the planet 😁.  We opted to walk out for a quick meal so we could be back in time for our Sunday service at 7 pm German time.

the ruins of St. Christoph that we had walked by the day before.  It was destroyed in bombings during WWII.  

We ended up at Di Thu Asian Kitchen.  Remember when I sent my parents to the Asian supermarket while I handled the QR codes the day before?  While they wandered around they saw this Asian restaurant directly across from the pharmacy and my dad remembered it because he was on a mysterious mission (or so it seemed) to find pho in Europe.  

It was small, but decorated with bright murals and it was a cheerful little restaurant.  We eat very early compared to most Europeans, so there was plenty of seating in the restaurant.  

I got the rice with red curry and crispy duck 

my mom got the fried rice with chicken

my dad got the pho viet

I think out of the three of us, I was the happiest with my food.  It's fried duck with curry and steamed rice - it would be super hard to mess that up.  My mom said her fried rice was "fine", and though my dad finished his pho, he said he wasn't really pho, it was just a noodle soup with slices of beef and onions.   My mom tasted it and said it wasn't bad, but it just didn't have the right broth for pho.  However, I do live in Orange County and we have access to awesome legit pho all over the place, so it's made us pretty picky.  

After dinner we stroll the 5 minutes back to our hotel where we hop online using our roku to livestream our church service.  While we worship we also start packing up because we switch hotels the next day and our luggage needs to be outside our door for pick up before we leave for breakfast.

And thus Day 1 of our guided tour ends.  We are full, we are snug in our hotel room, we're packed, and we got to church.  It was a good day.