Rudesheim

Tuesday June 3

Rudesheim

The area was settled first by the Celts, then after the turn of the Christian Era by Ubii and later by Mattiaci. In the first century, the Romans pushed forth to the Taunus. In Bingen they built a castrum, and on the other side, near what is now Rüdesheim, lay a bridgehead on the way to the Limes.

The Romans were followed by the Alamanni, and along with the Migration Period (Völkerwanderung) came the Franks.  Archaeological finds of glass from this time suggest that there was already winegrowing in Rüdesheim even then. The town’s origin as a Frankish Haufendorf (roughly, “clump village”) can still be seen on today’s town maps.

Rüdesheim had its first documentary mention in 1074. Its livelihood came mainly from winegrowing and shipping, particularly timber rafting and on 1 January 1818, Rüdesheim received town rights.

After Prussia annexed the Duchy of Nassau in 1867 and divided the area into districts (Kreise), Rüdesheim became a district seat in the newly founded Rheingaukreis. This status it held for 110 years until 1977, when in the course of municipal reform in Hesse the districts of the Rheingaukreis and the Untertaunuskreis were merged into the new Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, and Rüdesheim had to yield the district seat to Bad Schwalbach.

In 1877, the first foundation stone for the Niederwalddenkmal, (Lady Germania Monument) which was finished in 1883, was laid. This patriotic monument was built to celebrate the German victory in 1871 drew a great many tourists, who at that time reached the site high above the town on a cog railway, although today it is a gondola lift that brings visitors up to the monument.

During the night around 2:30 am we passed Frankfurt and continued along the Main River.  A little after 8:00 am we reached the junction of the Rhine River and continued along the Rhine and reached Rudesheim about an hour late, having been held up by a slow ship in front of us.  Leaving the ship we travelled in a wheeled tourist “train” to the boarding point for the gondola ride up to the Lady Germania Monument from where we had a good view over the town and along the Rhine River.

Returning to the town we walked down a narrow lane, the Drosselgasse which is lined with restaurants, and leads back to the river.  Boarding the ship we sailed at 1:30 pm and shortly after entered the Rhine Gorge which is lined with around 15 castles, high on the hills and around the middle of the gorge is the famous Loreley Rock which from legend had a beautiful siren singing to sailors and luring their boats onto the rocks.

Loreley Rock

At the end of the gorge the town of Koblenz is situated at the junction of the Moselle River with a large statue of King Wilhelm, at the German Corner, above the junction of the river.  On the hill on the opposite side was the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, the largest on the river, this fortress could shelter 5000 troops and all their horses and equipment.

At 6:00 pm we docked at Andernach and boarded buses to be taken to Namedy Castle where we were welcomed by Princess Heide Hohenzollern and served drinks and nibbles in the courtyard before being invited inside and told we were free to wander throughout the castle which has been extensively renovated over the last 15 years.

After about 45 minutes we were invited into the “Mirrored Hall” for dinner, during which we were entertained by a young Romanian pianist, one of many young musicians sponsored by the Princess.  We were seated at table of ten and for each course a team of five waiters placed themselves around the table and at a nod from one of the waiters the meal was placed in front of five of the diners, they then stepped to the side and repeated the process.  When the diners had completed the course a waitress came to the table to check that everyone had finished and with a nod from her the other four waiters marched to the table and removed the plates in the same manner as the meal had been served.

Princess Heide Hohenzollern

At around 10:30 pm we left the castle, after being farewelled individually by our gracious hostess, to return to the ship which wasn’t due to sail until 8:30 next morning, so that all the crew members had a very easy night.