Wednesday, 24 April

Castles and Koblenz -- We had a peaceful beginning to the day, watching the geese and ducks beside the ship in Rudesheim, then enjoying the

views of the town as the ship turned around. Eventually, as we neared the part of the river with many castles, we bundled up and moved to the sun deck. No sun, of course, but great views. We saw many castles and heard their histories and then saw the statue of Lorelei,

the river nymph, who lured sailors onto the rocks. Almost as amazing were the nearly-

 

 

vertical vineyards and somewhat terraced fields. By lunch we had emerged from that part of the river and sailed peacefully onward. In Koblenz we docked right in the city, so there were no buses, just a guide leading us, first to the statue of Kaiser Wilhelm then into the old city and the

Basilica of St. Castor. Once again we had a great guide who shared the history of the city with humour and a way with a good story or poem. There are strange carved animals guarding the church, which apparently were meant to be lions, but have the body of beavers, coincidentally matching the name of the saint. Much of the city was destroyed in World War II, but not the basilica and some of the area around it, and some has been restored to be like the original, but most of the city is 1950s and 1960s construction. The old city

is very nice and we enjoyed walking through it to the river’s edge and back to the ship. The weather for the morning cruise through the castles was cold and windy, with rain from time to time. It had brightened by the time we left for the walking tour, but clouded over again and rained as we returned to the ship. When we went to the lounge later, there was a beautiful rainbow, but we didn’t have a camera to capture it. The Captain’s reception for returning Viking travellers (featuring shots of aquavit) was followed by the port briefing for tomorrow, dinner and a concert by a local classical string quartet. Of course, there are some in every crowd -- a table of people played cards through the concert, loudly shuffling and dealing -- honestly, there are several other places to play cards if that’s what you prefer to do! Just ignorant and rude! But a good concert anyway and nice evening.

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