Wine on the Rhine..

 Hi all. I wanted to start with a bit of information about river boat cruising. On our boat the average age I would estimate is right around 65. It seems most people just retired or are planning to in the near future. There are a few older but most are in the mid 60s. Our boat holds about 156 people at full capacity but we are currently around 75. The small size has made it easy to get to know people. 

This is the Amasiena which is a sister ship to ours. We were told they were essentially identical. It passed us going upstream or south towards Basel today. The food on board has been hard to beat. We have had to work at trying to stop eating given the volume you could eat. And you can always have more…(I cannot imagine that you could possibly want more… but you can) The crew is internationally diverse. Several from Asia, as well as several from Eastern Europe. Our Captain is from the Netherlands. 

So that is the boat background. Our days are typically get up have breakfast and then go out for a shore excursion. Occasionally we spend the whole day in town which we did in Strasbourg. This was good in that it gave you some time to explore on your own. 

Today was a unique day as we were able to go into the town of Rudeshein. We walked form the boat to a gondola and rode the gondola to the top of a hill to get a great view of the Rhein Gorge Valley. 

The gondola ride takes you through many vineyards where the most common grape is a Riesling.

After our Gondola ride it was on to a winery were we did a wine tasting of the Riesling wines. The dry wine was quite good. I do have to admit the Michigan Rieslings are just as good if not better.

Once we were back on the ship we set off down river through the Rhine Gorge. 

There use to be a castle every 1-2 miles along to river. Unfortunately several things happened. Louis the 14th conquered the area and essentially destroyed almost all of the castles in the area, Another factor was with the development of gun powder and more powerful cannons the castles had less value and many were simply abandoned for more luxurious homes in town. On our travels today we could still see over 30 castles on our way down stream. 

Tonight we are docked at. Lahnstein. We toured the Lahnstein castle. It was built in the 1200s and fell in to disrepair after Louis the 14th came through. It was revived in the 1800s by a British man and eventually was bought by a German General after retirement(in early 1900s). It remains in with his family today.

Just two more days on the boat and then we strike out on our own in Amsterdam. Hopefully when there we stay Not Quite Lost. Prost!