Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Cruising The Rhine We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the independence of the United States than to take a Rhine river cruise on the fourth of July.  Actually, there were to be festivities at Ramstein Air Force Base, but you can see July 4th fireworks every year.  It's not every day you have the opportunity to see more fortresses and castles in two hours than you've probably ever seen in your whole life. And that's basically what this trip was. Cruising first down the Rhine for two hours, checking out all the castles and villages along the way, and then turning around and boating upstream for another two hours.  You see castles in ruins, castles that have been turned into hotels, or even private residences.  That and you get to see some ancient looking hotels that seem to have million dollar views of the river.  For instance, I'll have to find out how much it costs to get the best room in this place. We got on the boat at Bingen, a small village on the west side of the Rhine about a 90 minute drive from home, operated by a company called Bingen-Rudesheimer. The roundtrip tickets were only about 15 euro apiece, which is not bad considering the time spent on the boat and the sights you are afforded.  Overall it's a four hour boat ride with scenery you won't find anywhere else in the world. The boat itself was pretty big.  The figures posted onboard said it could hold over 500 people.  There weren't that many on there when we sailed, which was great because that meant we had our pick of seats. We'd meant to stay on the upper deck, since that gave you a 360 degree view of the Rhine, but after an hour or so, rain began to come down along with stiff winds.  I'd stupidly left my jacket in the car, so after trying to stick it out under the upper deck cover for awhile, we decided to spend most of the rest of the voyage on the middle deck where you could be both inside and enjoy a beer and some German sausage. Still, decided the iffy weather, the trip was great and definitely one I'll venture out on again the next time someone comes to visit me here in Germany. Here are the rest of the photos from the trip. Related links: Bingen-Rudesheimer Fahrgastschiffahrt:  the website of the Rhine boat tour we took.  I recommend them wholeheartedly.  Based upon the looks of the boats of other tour companies we saw along the way, Bingen-Rudesheimer seems to have the best Rhine cruises going. The Rhine River:  site providing lots of facts and history on Europe's mightiest river. 5:47:23 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.