Relaxing Down the Rhine - There are Lots of Rooms in a Castle

Easter Sunday was one of the highlights of our trip.  We started with an eggscellent Easter Breakfast on board with colorfully dyed & decorated eggs along side a treasure trove of chocolates. A great start to a day with many interesting sights, plenty of relaxing time and an oompah band!

Marksburg Castle

We docked in Koblenz and boarded motor coaches for Marksburg Castle.  It's a magnificent 700-year-old structure that was never conquered due to its position high above a bend in the river and was spared in WW II as it's not really close to a major city.  When you think about typical characteristics of a castle, Marksburg has most of them, except a moat & drawbridge.  Tall castle walls (check), rounded turrets (check), holes in the wall for cannons to shoot from (check), crenelated pattern on top of the walls (check), a torture dungeon (check), cobblestones (check), huge kitchens to feed the masses (check), etc.  Auburn thought the most interesting aspect was the outhouse that was 50' up the castle wall. It was located off the main living quarters and the end results dropped down the wall to what is currently a garden area. Perhaps this is why people sometimes avoid eating vegetables! Everything was quite well preserved and we were fortunate to have docked early so ours wast the only ship was touring while we were there.  The motor coaches then drove us down to Braubach, where the boat had repositioned while we were touring. It was a sunny pleasant day. We saw many locals picnicking for their Easter Dinner along the river.

A lot of mouths to feed in a castle

 After lunch we went up on the sun deck and stretched out on lounge chairs under the canopy.  The scenic Middle Rhine Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its incredibly dense concentration of castles along the narrow and twisty bends on the river. And boy howdy, we saw about 30 castles in various states from well preserved originals, refurbished hotels and roofless, crumbling walled ruins. The vineyards and small towns interspersed between castles the whole way down the river were charming. Our cruise director, Julie McCoy, narrated the sites over the ship's PA system as we made our way.  The high point of  the trip was the passing of the famous Lorelei, a legendary rock at a particularly tricky sharp bend in the river.  It was very nice to have the sites come to us for a change!  We did have to nudge Il Padrino a few times as the lounge chair was just a little too comfortable to stay awake.

The Lorelei

 Later that afternoon we attended a presentation on other cruises offered by Viking.  We decided there has to be a way to get them to pay us to go on most of them.  After all, Palermos are fun trendsetters! We're sure nobody else wore boas with their life jackets!

That evening we docked in Rudesheim for an optional excursion to a restaurant serving a traditional German dinner.  We boarded a clown car like little tram that drove us through the streets of the cute little town to the restaurant. Auburn thought at one point the locals may pelt us with tomatoes, but they just waved and smiled. We enjoyed a great family style meal and several bottles of wine while the oompah band serenaded us.  After dinner there were audience participation activities and some of us were more than happy to join in. There were long paddles with shot glasses affixed and the ladies of our group (among others) lined up to do group shots.  After the second time we learned to arrange ourselves by height to prevent unnecessary spillage of the schnapps. Dagwood revealed a hidden talent for playing the bass drum when he was selected to help lead the parade around the restaurant. We crookedly wandered back through the streets waving and laughing, a very entertaining evening for all.