Steve Mueller's Digital Scrapbook

Europe 2002

Wednesday May 22
Rüdesheim & Boppard, Germany

This day was our 10^th anniversary and we were headed to the Rhine Valley. We would be able to say (honestly) that we spent this anniversary in both Luxembourg and Germany. We left Luxembourg City about 9am and, after about 3 ½ hours of picking our way along a confusing series of small road segments, we arrived in the small and very popular wine village of Rüdesheim. Tourists have been converging on this town, the most visited of all Rhine wine villages, for centuries. One of the more notable visitors was Thomas Jefferson. Although the Rhine runs more than 1200 km from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea, it is the panoramic, castle laden 60 km long portion of the river between Rüdesheim and Koblenz that stirs the imagination and is unofficially referred to as the "Romantic Rhine." Visitors from around the world flock to see the historic villages, castles and terraced hillside vineyards. Rüdesheim Rüdesheim is on the agenda of every group tour that passes through the Rhine Valley. The main attraction is the narrow and winding Drosselgasse, which, according to the German tourist industry, is the "most famous alley" in Germany. The Drosselgasse is tightly packed with taverns, restaurants, and souvenir shops. We stayed at the Hotel Post, which is located at the entrance to the Drosselgasse. In fact, the often photographed Drosselgasse sign is attached to the side of the Hotel Post. We noticed this hotel on a previous visit to the Rhine Valley, and decided that it would be an ideal location from which to explore this section of the river. While staying here, we became somewhat acquainted with the owner, a very sociable gentleman named Thomas Lauter, who explained that the hotel property has been in his family for four centuries. His family also owns several of the, not nearly as old, souvenir shops that line the Drosselgasse. After the Drosselgasse, the most popular tourist activity in Rüdesheim is a ride on the Seilbahn, a chairlift that carries visitors nearly 600 feet up the hillside behind the town, to a park surrounding the Niederwald Monument, a 120 ft high statue commemorating the 1871 unification of Germany. The chairlift also offers some impressive views of the river and the surrounding vineyards, which are renowned among wine connoisseurs for their white Rieslings. Rüdesheim also has a couple of small, but authentically ancient, castles, one of which, the 1000 year-old Brömserburg, has been converted into a wine museum. Of course, like almost every historically significant German town, Rüdesheim has plenty of winding cobblestone lanes and half-timbered houses. Boppard Rüdesheim was not our only destination this day. In the mid-afternoon, we began driving toward the town of Boppard, which was about 40 km away and located on one of the most spectacular horseshoe bends of the Middle Rhine. Our objective was not the town itself, we thoroughly investigated this place two years earlier, but, rather, the docks where we were to board the evening dance cruise that we booked over the internet prior to leaving the US. An evening dance cruise beneath the castles of the Rhine seemed the perfect way to celebrate our 10^th anniversary. We arrived several hours early, so we had the opportunity re-explore the town of Boppard. The most memorable Boppard sights are the Rhine Promenade and the Church of St Severus (Severuskirche). Boppard is somewhat exceptional among Rhineland towns in that the train tracks do not run directly along the riverfront, but are diverted to run behind the town. This makes the riverfront both more pleasant and attractive. The riverfront view of the town is dominated by the Church of St Severus, which was built in the 13^th century to inter the remains of St Severus himself. I'm not sure who St Severus was, but the people of Boppard will assure you that he was very important. Our evening dance cruise was scheduled to leave at 7:45 pm and return to the Boppard docks at 11:00 pm. As of 7:30 pm, there was still no boat, and we were beginning to worry that something was wrong. Finally, just after 7:40 pm, the "cruise ship" Leibenstein suddenly appeared out of nowhere and docked at almost exactly 7:45 pm. Something still wasn't right, however. We were literally the only people waiting to board. We handed someone our e-mail confirmation and chose a table near the "dance floor," which was a 10 ft x 10 ft section of wood tiles. I could tell from the musical equipment that the "live music" was not a band, but a single person that sang and played a synthesizer. By 8:00 pm, it was obvious that the crew was waiting for something, but we weren't sure what that might be. Were they hoping that at least one more couple would show up? Just as we were beginning to think that it would be a lonely night, and worrying that they might even cancel the trip, a bus pulled up to the dock and about sixty elderly British tourists rushed on board. Now, with the boat about half full, we left the dock, but instead of heading directly up the river, we immediately crossed to the other bank where another busload of tourists, this time German, were waiting to board the ship. The boat was pretty full now, and we headed up the Rhine, slightly behind schedule, but happy to be moving. An added bonus was that half the people on board spoke English, so we chatted quite a bit and made some new acquaintances that evening. I suppose in some bizzare way, our evening dance cruise qualified as a cultural experience. The musical entertainment consisted primarily of older American songs sung with a very pronounced German accent. Also, everything sounded like a Polka, even songs like The Twist and When The Saints Come Marching In. I didn't have the heart to tell the man playing the music that these songs have not been popular in the US for quite some time. I was surprised when he played Achy Breaky Heart. I was even more surprised when several elderly British ladies knew how to do the line dance to the song - cultural globalization, I guess. It was possible to do West Coast Swing to some of the songs. Apparently, this is a dance that is not very familiar to Europeans, because we got quite a few questions and compliments from our fellow passengers. The boat turned around at the famous Loreley rock, and, because we were now traveling downstream, we made it back to Boppard in less than half the time. Driving back to Rüdesheim, we realized that we had a pretty good time. We also realized that our trip was almost over.
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More Images of Rüdesheim, Boppard and the Rhine Valley