Day Seven - Rudesheim am Rhein (Germany)

Warning -- I probably should have divided Day Seven into two parts - day and night, but I didn't. If any of you are still reading, I am so appreciative. Seriously!! I posted lots of photos, but only two VERY short videos. They are worth watching.

When Ilko, our wonderful cruise director, was telling us about our upcoming visit to Rudesheim, he said we would be riding on the choo choo! Everyone loved hearing him say choo choo!!

Lo and behold, there was a choo choo that picked us up and drove us into town.

The nice person sitting across from us took this photo! We were all snug inside the choo choo!

As we went around the corner, I was able to snap a photo of the front of the train.

The choo choo was headed to a winery. The following is from their website:

As early as 1647, the name of the Störzel family was mentioned in the archives of the small town with the big name: Rüdesheim am Rhein.  Since then the name has been closely related to winemaking and Rhine culture.

Today the winery is family-run by Adolf Störzel.

After completing his studies as winemaker, Adolf Störzel expanded the winery, initially only a few vineyards in size, to a 10 hectare winery.

You can see the grapes on the vines.

We tasted three different wines.

The tasting room is in a cave below ground - such a cool space.

The little glasses were so cute and we got to keep them.

The owner was a great entertainer.

We stacked our glasses for easier transport - I think we carried them in our pockets.

The tall skinny bottle by the candle was the ice wine. I'm still so annoyed that we didn't purchase any because this winery doesn't ship to the U.S.

We left the winery and divided up into smaller groups and walked the city with a tour guide.

We were supposed to take a gondola ride over the vineyards BUT there were gale force winds that day. Instead we had a walking tour with a guide.

The monument below -- information copied from Wikepedia (thank you to Wikepedia): The Niederwald monument (German: Niederwalddenkmal) is a monument located in the Niederwald, near Rüdesheim am Rhein in Hesse, Germany, built between 1871 and 1883 to commemorate the Unification of Germany. The monument is located within the Rhine Gorge, a larger UNESCO World Heritage Site. It overlooks the Rhine Valley and the town of Bingen on the far side.

The monument was constructed to commemorate the founding of the German Empire in 1871 after the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The first stone was laid on 16 September 1877 by Kaiser Wilhelm I. The sculptor was Johannes Schilling, and the architect was Karl Weißbach. The total cost of the work is estimated at one million gold marks. The monument was inaugurated on 28 September 1883. The 38 meters (125 ft) tall monument represents the union of all Germans. 

Once again, I love these cute streets.

You can tell it was chilly - we have hoods up and coats zipped, etc.

Our tour guide (on the left) took us to see this cute hotel.

The rooms were so cute!! They were in giant wine barrels.

These cute rooms were part of Hotel Lindenwirt.

The tour guide took us through this tiny walkway.

Isn't this street amazing?? I do want to ask you something. Do you see the guy on the right hand side leaning against the building? We saw him several times that day and he was outside a pub and he was very inebriated. He was a local and I think there might have been some illness and possibly the local townspeople knew he was there . . .and hopefully, someone was checking on him.

This was a local establishment - exposed wooden beams. Once again, the architecture is amazing.

Gorgeous door!

I know I just commented on the architecture above, but it is amazing in so many of these old cities!

We had a little free time so we wandered around. I went back to the Christmas Store, but it was hot and crowded and I didn't buy a thing. I wish I had bought a couple of things, but all is well without them.

We headed back to the boat for Sip and Sail - except we weren't sailing because we had more plans after dinner.

After dinner, we got back on the choo choo train and headed back into town. We went to the Siegfried's Mechanical Music Museum. Mark and I both loved the museum. Our guide was a tiny French woman.

This is from Siegfried's website:

Musical instruments from three centuries are on display, from the small music box to the ton-heavy orchestrion, some of which are played live.

The museum has more than 400 self-playing musical instruments

Located at Brömserhof, a knight's seat from the 15th century, directly above Drosselgasse in Rüdesheim am Rhein.

The tour was a 45-minute musical journey into the dance halls and living rooms of those who have gone before us and the exciting technological achievements of that time.

There are six violins in that top part - how in the world did they come up with the technology to do all of these amazing things so many years ago??

This was the ceiling in the piano room of the home. It was original work.

When we exited the museum, the streets were even more enchanting by night!

Rudesheim was one of our favorite spots!!