I stayed in the sundeck to watch us leave Cologne last night, was amused by how long it took to go from dusk to dark. I am used to it happening pretty fast, but there was faint light for over 30 minutes until it was dark at 10:30 PM. Dawn is around 4 am.
Today was a triple header day. We arrived in Braubach and there was an announcement that ODIN had arrived with supplies and the crew needed to do whetever they did. Since we are on Viking I though that he name of the delivery being Odin was cute, turns out it is the name of the company.
Departed by motor coach for The Fortress of Ehrenbreitstein. The guide was dressed in period costume and talked and acted (give or take) like it was 1836. We toured the compound, learned the names of those involved in its completion and some of the interesting building techniques. The fortress was never attacked. We finished by taking a gondola from the top of the fortress to the river's edge over the Rhine where it confluence's with the Rhine and Moselle. From the top of the fortress and on the Gondola you see the different waters by their colors.
When we got back to the ship it was time for lunch and a launch from Braubach to Rudesheim. During the trip down the middle Rhine, there were multiple castles on either side, each with a story that pretty much ended with "destroyed by Louie XIV in 1689".
I went back to my room for a little but and had a nice nap while we continued to .
7 of us from my ship and 10 from a sister ship went to a Wine tasting and Dinner at the Eberbach Monastery. Although the Monastery has not ad monks for 220 years, we learned all about its history, and how much wined the made back in the day. We tasted 3 Riesling's and learned what made them different in terms of acidity, sugar and alcohol. The guide went through the discussion of other "notes", I tasted dry white wine, semi-dry white wine and sweet white wine.
Dinner was best described as farmhouse fancy. Soup was a shrimp in a root vegetable soup. Dinner was a chicken breast, potato pancake and mushrooms in some kind of sauce. They change the menu every month, and had not prepared this months menus.
Back to the ship where we leave near midnight for Mannheim, but I get to sleep until 2PM when we are in Speyer.
The trip is 1/2 over and I am relaxed and not looking forward to the end.
Comments