After breakfast we walked around Koblenz which is quite a large town that has been an important place for over 2000 years because of its strategic position at the junction of the Rhine and Mosel rivers. I tried unsuccessfully to use the WIFI in McDonalds – no one there knew how it worked or the password!
Anyway we walked around for a while taking lots of photos and looking at all the things we could by but not be able to bring back. Frances even found an op shop with some very nice clothes.
Around lunchtime, the Alemannia entered one of the most fascinating stretches of the Rhine. We cruised up the Rhine, through steep vineyards and idyllic villages, past castles and ruins and the legendary Lorelei Rock, which was apparently the inspiration for many artists and poets. Apart from this section which is quite hilly and rocky, the river, mostly flows through fairly flat land with the banks lined with trees and sandy embankments. I’d definitely expected to see a lot of industry. The other unexpected element is the smell - a consistent cross between raw sewage and rotten egg gas, in varying proportions. Standing outside on the lower deck isn’t a pleasant olfactory experience. And the colour for the most part is fairly brown, but a little less so as we get closer to Basel. Another interesting observation is the number of camp sites and caravan parks right on the river's edge.
In the afternoon, we arrived at the quaint town of Rüdesheim which apparently is a real tourist attraction – it looks sooo quaint and German. Quite a nice town, but you could imagine it would be packed at the height of the tourist season by the number of restaurants, cafes and bars. There were at least 7 other cruise boats docked along the wharves while we were there, and its only May. We did join an optional tour to Siegfried's Mechanical Music Museum with its 350 automated musical instruments. It was really fascinating to see and hear these early versions of digital music – the forerunner of computers. One, called a Violins-Orchestra used a punched paper roll to play a piano AND 3 violins simultaneously. Later, we explored the town and its cobbled 'Drosselgasse', before heading back to the boat and bed