Day 9 - Castles, Castles and More Castles!

Rudesheim, cable cars, vineyards, castles, castles and more castles. Today was a very full day, we got a great hilltop view of the Rhine and Rudisheim, a walking tour of the old town, including a hotel where you can sleep in a wine barrel, a glorious chilly boat ride through the Rhine gorge with its 47 castles, and an exploration of Koblenz. Wow! What a full day!

60% of the castle in Rudisheim was destroyed in the war. It was rebuilt using sandstone from the surrounding vineyards.

The market square outside the church. The statue is lifting the traditional wineglass from the area. It had a hollow stem so that the sediment from the unfiltered wine would settle down into the stem. The sediment was bitter and not something you would want to drink. This is where the expression down to the bitter end came from.

This is the oldest house in Rudisheim

In this area if you see a house with a door like this you know that they have a wine cellar.

This passage under the oldest house to the next road was called the passage to hell because to led to a street that was populated by tanners and so it smelled awful…

We rode the cable cars up above Rudisheim through the vineyards

We visited the Niederwald monument above Rudesheim. The young woman represents Germania. The monument was to commemorate the end of the 30 years war with France.

The Rhine from above Rudisheim. Vineyards all around.

Back down towards Rudisheim through the vineyards

Then we took a walking tour through Rudisheim on the way back to our ship.

At this hotel you can stay in a wine barrel. These barrels were used to store wine at one time.

Leaving Rudesheim, we are now headed up the Rhine gorge with its 47 castles many of which are in ruins.

No, I’m not going to post pictures of all 47 castles but here are a sampling…

A few years ago when here for a bike trip we stayed in this cadtle hotel. Our room was in the red part of the castle up in one of the attic rooms in the roof. It was a marvelous place to stay.

No, this is not a castle, it is the entrance to a train tunnel. We learned that Hitler figured out that the allies were trying not to bomb any castles and so he built castle like facades around many of the entrances to train tunnels. It seemed to work, as none of the train tunnels along the Rhine were bombed.

We docked in Koblenz and started off to explore a little of the city before dinner.

We made our way to the old town where we wandered the streets and visited some shops.

Interesting fountain in one of the pedestrian ways

We made our way back to the Rhine and the Deutsche Eck, where the Rhine and Mosel rivers meet.

After some accordion music this evening it is on to Cologne where we will explore tomorrow.