June 6th : Rhine Gorge & Rudesheim

Looking over our itinerary for the coming days, our cruise could definitely be dubbed the "Castles and Cathedrals of Europe". We started off the day zipping from both sides of the river boat's balconies to view, to aahh & aaww & click through much of the morning as the Ama Dolce sailed along the scenic stretch of the Rhine Gorge, between Koblenz and Rudesheim.
Unfortunately, on this day, the weather was less spectacular than the scenery, as drizzle and overcast clouds pervaded the entire morning.

Upon arrival on the docks of Rudesheim, we boarded a choo choo train to the charming town of about 10,000 inhabitants and joined in a tour of the Siegfried's Kabinett, a musical museum factory

             One of the first invention of self playing piano/organ which also can be manually played

                                                                Singing bird pistol

                                                     Artisan's old workshop in museum

Exiting from the museum, the sun miraculously reappeared and we went about to explore the village of Rudesheim, taking first a cable car ride to a higher vantage point whereupon we allowed ourselves only a short hike before descending to the village center again to try some of their famous Rudesheimer specialty coffee ( Asbach brandy lit by match and doused with coffee, then topped by whipped cream & flakes of coco)...it was indeed yummy and just what we needed before boarding the ship again for dinner

Rudesheimer coffee with Asbach - good stuff!

                               a view of the choo choo train from the village taking tourists back to the harbor

                          On board for sumptuous feast - photo compliments of Mark from Halifax