Rudesheim Germany (Oct 9)

This morning was to be cruising down the Rhine River observing castles, vineyards, and towers.  It started out cold and foggy, but we were able to see a few silhouettes

until the sun broke thru about mid-morning.  Some of these castles date back to the 11th century, and they were usually built to extract tolls from ships passing by on the river.  The tour guides gave a little story about most of them...seems that the darn French burned and/or destroyed many of them in the 17th century.  Some are privately owned and some are government owned.  The trees and the leaves in the vineyards are starting to change color, very pretty.

We docked around lunch time at Rudesheim (arriving late due to a ship ahead having grounded due to the low water), hiked to a cafe, had a nice port cutlet lunch with a live band playing (the second picture is a drinking game)

then we took a short walk to a museum with self-playing music machines (like a player piano).  The first one below actually contains multiple violins which pressed themselves against a circular rotating bow, the second one (about 10 feet long) was like a calliope with the figures doing a little dance

We then took a tram to the top of the hills overlooking Rudesheim, passing over vineyards.   My camera battery went dead at the top of the hill, sorry. 

Finally we walked back to the ship.

Tomorrow is our first all-sailing day, transitioning from the Rhine to the Main River...I am going to indulge and get a massage (each of us got a $100 ship credit), and there is talk of glass-blowing exhibitions, line dancing, and lectures on birds...oh boy!  Our tour director confirmed that the river is too low and we will indeed have to swap ships (from the MS Esprit to the MS Treasures) during our stay at Nurnberg on Saturday, but this will not affect the remainder of our itinerary.

We had to make some additional tour choices for Vienna (I chose the winter (Hofburg) palace over the summer (Schonbrunn) palace, which Diane and I visited briefly (during a driving rain) many years ago.  Also could have chosen the Lipizzaner  horses, but not a big horse fan.)  At Nurnburg, I chose to focus on WWII stuff...the site of the Nuremberg trials and the massive stadium that Hitler had built (not sure if it was for the 1938 Olympics), instead of medieval Nurnberg.  At Passau, I chose the walking and not the biking tour.

The weather continues to be perfect, we had a high in the 70s.  I understand it was in the 30s with some snow in Denver today!