October 29 on the Rhine

Today was the quintessential river cruise day, that one in the Viking commercials. We got up early for the 7:15 am sailing through the Rhine Valley to see the castles. For the first few hours, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of lounging on a ship outside in a deck chair under a blanket. A crew member did not bring me a bouillon however he did bring me the blanket and he did call me “madam.” I had a constant supply of lattes and a heat lamp (and all my layers) to keep me warm on this chilly morning.

In the UNESCO World Heritage area, there are so many castles that I stopped counting and taking pictures. I liked this one with the Rapunzel tower.

As we passed the Lorelei statue, we toasted her with apricot and hazelnut schnapps. I recalled my mom telling me the story about this mermaid who mesmerized the sailors at this dangerous bend in the river. Of course, they couldn’t keep their eyes off of her, didn’t see the swift current, and drowned. Now there is a sort of river stoplight across from her, and our Serbian crew led us by in safety. Later, I walked around the track on the upper deck. This gave me some needed exercise plus views of the castles from multiple angles. Lunch included cabbage soup and rhubarb pudding.

For our afternoon field trip, the ship let us off in Rüdesheim, a little town between the river and the vineyards. As we walked up a narrow cobbled lane we saw a couple thousand cranes in circles and vees far overhead. They are migrating along the Rhine from Scandinavia to Spain. We decided to skip the museum and walk around. The sun came out. I followed Mike up the hill on a nicely paved path. Soon we were far above the town in the middle of yellowing rows of grape vines.

Across the river we could see the church dedicated to Hildegard of Bingen, a medieval nun who is given credit as Germany’s first modern scientist. We had read about her in book club last year so I was thrilled.

We reluctantly walked back to join the tour of Rüdesheim. This town has all the German adorableness you could ever imagine. Our guide Manfred took us to a hotel with sleeping rooms in large wine barrels and pointed out the carillons that ring every half hour. The excursion ended with a wine tasting. A hearty German man gave us little glasses of white wine and seated us at candlelit picnic tables in an old wine cellar. Our host got our attention with loud operatic singing. He sang his way through three types of local Riesling wine, led the toast “Prost!” in song, then sent us on our way,

Our river cruise unfolds from one wonderful thing to the next. We are busy! I keep thinking it’s like summer camp for seniors. I was so grateful today for a nap at rest period after lunch, and, once again sign off tired but happy after a exceptional day.