My day on the Rhine River

Well, I finally slept last night...for the most part. I was wide-awake at 5;00 am and so was Valerie so we got up and started moving around. She started on email because she had a meeting all day today and I read a magazine, switched between CNN and the BBC (that's the only English channel we get in this hotel) and then decided to book a 1/2 day riverboat tour of the Rhine River. I was a little apprehensive because it was only 61 degrees and rainy outside. Oh well, I'm in Germany and I need to see what I can see while I'm here...so off I went.

They picked me up at 10:30 am from my hotel and then me and about 15 other tourists from around the world, boarded the tour bus for a 45-minute drive to our first stop. Of course, I made a friend even before getting on the bus..his name was Glad, short for Gladimear. He is originally from Russia but now lives in Canada with his wife of 35 years. He was over here for work, w/o his wife, so we ended up hanging out together for most of the tour. However, he was a little too chatty for me. He grew up in Europe and wasn't trying to hang on every word the tour guide was saying - like I was because this was old news to him - but it was nice to have a friend to talk with anyway.

The first thing we saw was the Niederwald monument near Rurdesheim.

We didn't stay long as we only had a scheduled stop of 15 minutes and then we were on to our next sight. No running behind....must keep on schedule! If you know me at all...you know this was quit a challenge for me! Actually, this is where Glad came in handy. He is an engineer and did things exactly like the book.

Now the real fun begins...we took a ski lift down to the village of RheinuferstraBe. The ride down was incredible - check this out...see us coming down to the river.

Now we're coming into the little village --- which by the way was so 'stinkin' cute as my friend Monica would say! Here we are...my first castle of this trip.

We'll we've came back down to earth and I think we've gone through a time warp. This city looks like it's about 500 years and oh my gosh...is this place cute!!! This is exactly what you think of in the German storybooks.

In this picture below you can see the painting on the wall - yea, those aren't all windows on the bottom half closest to you. Here's another one that's just TOTALLY cute!

Again, I can't post all the very cool buildings I took pictures of. Just know there were many of them.

Next we head to lunch in this cute little town. Here is picture of some of the tour group. Glad is the guy sitting closest to you. By the way...can you see the little Chinese girls on the right, in the back...the one with the glasses? Anyhow, I got to tell you, I just feel in love with her. We left here to catch the riverboat but had to wait for it to get there - in the rain. Well, thank goodness that Valerie remembered the umbrellas because I was one of the few to have one. Anyhow, this is where we all 'bonded'. I quickly met another guy (without umbrella) Rod, from Las Vegas, and the two Chinese girls because we all huddled up, with our arms wrapped around each other, under my little umbrella. Anyhow, she would talk to me, in very broken English and with the accent... and I tried with all my might to understand her but found it very difficult. She was just seemed so sweet. She turned out to by kind of special in my heart for some reason. Anyhow, I did learn that in China the man wears his wedding ring on the right hand and the woman wears it on the left hand. I asked because here in Germany, I've noticed so many people with their wedding rings on their right hand. I got to find out the German tradition.

So now, we're on the boat and probably float by 15 castles or so. They tell you the history of each one over the load speaker, but there are many people on the boat, sitting around tables just watching and talking so you really can't hear what they're saying. You take lots of pictures and buy the book giving the history..which I did! Here's another castle....

And yet another castle in the background. By the way...I was standing in the rain, on the boat, taking this picture.

So, here's another one of my favorite moments...these two German ladies! I ended up sitting at their table, on the boat, along with the tour guide (who speaks both German and English) and he helped me have a little conversation with them and as it turned out...they were on a tour just like me. I thought these ladies were so darn cute!!! Not only were there many castles, there were many churches too!

Here's another church...

And yet another church...actually I think there were two churches in this picture. One of the right and one on the left.

And to round out the day...what else would be more appropriate but a wine tasting? We headed back to the same restaurant that we had lunch in via the bus now, and drank some of the local wine. Some of it was sweet wine, which I normally don't like but I did like this. However, not enough to buy it. I did buy a nice bottle of the white..very dry, and I'm going to break this open when I get home! Anyway...here's me in my 'Queen' chair! Gotta love it...I did!

Anyhow, that's it for now. Off to bed!