Christmas Castles on the Rhine & River Cruise

This post is a little late as we took this tour on the 22nd. I debated about posting because our pictures turned out awful. At our first stop, the castle, we were there at dawn and if there is no natural light our pictures suck. Neither Doug or I know how to use our cameras out of auto mode. For years we have been saying we really need to take a photography class but we never actually get around to doing it. I finally decided to blog about it so I can say a little about what we saw. 

Our first stop was at one of the famous Rhine River castles, Burg Reichenstein. It is one of the oldest castles on the Rhine as it was built in the 11th century. It was destroyed and rebuilt at least three times. The inside was filled with period furniture and it displayed a collection of arms and armor. 

Burg Reichenstein Castle, picture from the internet. 

After the tour we had some tasty treats of cake and coffee at the castle and then made our way up the river. Along the river are many other castles. Below is a picture of one.

At this point we went to a wine tasting. One of the wines was Eiswein (Ice Wine). We learned that the grapes to produce this wine are harvested in the late fall after they have froze while on the vine. It is a very good dessert wine. We also got to taste a lot of different flavored German Brandy. I believe this is the same stuff my Uncle Joe makes, except Uncle Joe's is much stronger! I may have to send him some.

After the wine tasting we boarded a boat to take a cruise up the Rhine to our next destination. On the boat we had a traditional Rudesheimer coffee made with Asbach Brandy. Doug and I are not brandy drinkers and our first sip we thought we had wasted our money. However, the more sips we took the better it got. I'd order it again!

Rudesheimer Coffee

Once we arrived at our final destination, Rudesheim, we had a typical German lunch of schnitzel and fries along with another wine tasting. Once we were done eating we took a cable car ride up to Niederwald Monument. This monument commemorates the establishment of the German empire in 1871.

The vineyards view from our cable car ride.

Niederwald Monument

We spent the last few hours in Rudesheim exploring their Christmas Market of the Nations. We all picked out some ornaments to bring home with us and had some more tasty treats.

My cup of Gluhwein and Cam's Kinder-Gluhwein.