It was a very early morning for us. We needed to be at the Frankfurt airport by 7AM to meet the rest of our group flying in from Portland. However, they were delayed in Chicago (big surprise, there!) and were therefore two hours late. Seven of us were there waiting, as was Otto, our driver. If that’s our worst hitch, we’ll be fine.
From Frankfurt we drove to Rüdesheim, a town on the Rhine River. There we boarded a tour boat for a cruse down the river to St Goarhausen. This section of the Rhine is lined with villages, castles, and vineyards. Most of the castles date from the Middle Ages and were built to tax the river traffic and offer “protection.” Apparently, it was a lucrative business. The vineyards are spectacular because of their setting on the very steep hillsides along the river. This makes for some creative farming methods, including remote control tractors to go through the rows of grapes down and up the steep hillsides. Just south of St Goar is the Loreley Rock, an outcropping about 130 meters high where the legend of the Loreley seducing sailors with their beautiful singing to their deaths on the rocks in the river, took place. We did not hear them singing.
The bus met us at St Goarhausen and brought us back to Rüdesheim, our home for the night.
There were a couple of hours of free time before dinner, so we wandered the town. It is a fairly typical medieval town, either preserved or rebuilt. Its main industry appears to be tourism, with many shops, restaurants, and hotels. After a tour of mostly window-shopping, we stopped to have a caffé. Then it was back to the hotel and a delicious braised pork dinner. We also introduced ourselves to the group and did some procedural things. The tour is off to a good start.
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