Today was cruise day. The weather was stunning. Sunny and 65 degrees. We had a great breakfast - the Hilton on the Rhein has the best breakfast buffet every - and went to the dock to buy our tickets for the 8:45 departure. We bought a map of the Rhine with pictures of the catsles and towns on it. It turned out to be easy to follow, even I could do it. Each town had their name painted on a big sign.
We had a seat at the front of the ship and had a nice little table. It was rather windy which made it cool, but there was not a cloud in the sky. We decided to sail from Mainz to Koblenz. Most guide books say to start at Rudeshiem and travel to St. Goar. Well, we were here to see the Rhine and gosh darn it, we were going to see as much of it as possible! The cruise was going to take almost 6 hours. Now typically, nothing holds my attention 6 hours, hardly even 10 minutes, but don't anyone ever hesitate to take the long trip. There is so much to see, it is all so amazing, the 6 hours seemed more like only 1. The river cruise is like a trip back in time to the middle ages. The castles on the cliffs, the small town's were all in a "who is cutest town" competition, and they were all tied for first place.
The ship has plenty to do if you experience cute or amazing overload. There are severalto decks of different restaurants and places to watch the world go by. However, nothing was better than on the front of the ship. It appeared a lot of people took the advice of the travel books. When we approached Rudeshiem we saw a mob of people waiting to board the boat. When the bridge was lowered to allow them to board they rushed on. I'm surprised the ship didn't tilt. Then, I think everyone of them came up to the top deck! They must have had chairs in their pockets because all of a sudden the place was completely full with everyone crowding to get a good view. It was a group of Asian tourists with brand new high tech cameras and camcorders and assorted gadgets. I think we finally found some people that take more pictures than us.
We sailed past several more castles and towns and soon pulled into St. Goar and just as quickly as everyone got on the boat they disappeared! We see castles that inspire books and movies and are what legends are made of. More thumbnails ...
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Koblenz Hotels
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