Rhine Gorge and Rudesheim

Sunday June 15

Rhine Gorge and Rudesheim

We sailed through the night  and passed Koblenz and re-entered the Rhine before breakfast and around 9:00 we arrived at the start of the Rhine Gorge with all the castles lining its heights.  Unlike twelve days ago when we sailed through, the sun was shining, so we could leave our umbrellas and waterproof clothing in the cabin and sit on the sundeck to enjoy the views.

We arrived in Rudesheim around an hour early and snuggled up beside our sister ship, the Amacello, who wasn’t due to sail for half an hour and then we took her place at the dock.

This was our second visit to Rudesheim in twelve days and we elected to visit Siegfried’s Musical Cabinet which is a mechanical musical instrument museum housed in an old manor house, the home  in the past of an order of Knights of Rudesheim.  The owner and his son have collected examples of mechanical musical instruments from around the world and restored them to working order, from the tiniest music box to the largest mechanical orchestra.  There is an old Edison wax cylinder machine, wind up gramophone, old machines with metal disk with pins on the surface which play tunes in a similar style to a music box.

 

Several machines play a variety of musical instruments and operate with large paper rolls in a similar manner to a Pianola.  There was a grand piano pianola and one pianola with six violins which played to accompany the piano.  A most interesting hour was spent in the museum but we, like many others in our party would have liked to stroll through to look at all the exhibits after the conducted tour had finished.

Leaving the museum wandered through the narrow lanes and streets amongst thousands of people who were visiting Rudesheim for the annual Children’s Day festival.  Throughout the town there were several stages with entertainment for the children and many stalls with children’s activities and the parents were not forgotten with some stalls of interest to them.

If all this was too much for the parents they could rest at one of the many bars and restaurants dotted throughout the town and enjoy a “Rudesheimer Coffee” which consists of a special mug with a shot of Asbach brandy, this is set on fire and doused with coffee and topped with whipped cream and chocolate flakes.  Several of the passengers enjoyed a coffee which left some of the with a flushed face, or was it sunburn?

We returned to the ship and enjoyed a glass of the smoky bacon flavoured beer we were given in Bamburg which the barman had chilled for us while we were out.

After dinner we were entertained by the same singer who came on board on our last cruise and once again she managed to get nearly all the passengers up on the dance floor.

The ship didn’t sail till 6:00 the next morning so we had a peaceful night’s sleep.