Rainy Rudesheim and Koblenz

We have had a couple of rainy days - so, instead of pushing through in the wet, we had a very relaxed Tuesday - catching up on basic jobs, like food shopping, checking emails and Skyping friends and family. Sophie and Will needed a rest day from travel and even hooked into Nickelodeon on the TV. We managed to fit in a visit to a local mechanical musical museum. The number of old instruments, especially pianolas and fairground instruments was impressive. We heard about the development of mechanical music including the ability to capture voice sounds on wax cylinders. The building was also superb with flooring in the main hall from the 12th century.

On Wednesday we decided to brave the weather, with a train trip downstream to Koblenz, cable car ride to the Fortress above Koblenz and a KD line ferry ride back to Rudesheim. The stretch of river between Rudesheim and Koblenz is UNESCO World Heritage listed not only for natural beauty but also for human settlement - with some seriously amazing castles. Unfortunately, the rainy-day photos don't quite do justice to the views. The train trip to Koblenz only took an hour but the upstream ferry ride took six hours. Sophie and Will coped well with that length of time on the boat but I don't think they would have liked a longer cruise here.

Today (Thursday) we had another lazy day. We started the day with the intention of cycling the 40 km round rrip to Mainz - but the rain set in - so, instead we went to a local park and to the toy museum. We even managed to get our washing done and feel ready to take on the next part of our trip. The weather is supposed to improve for the weekend and having the everyday jobs out of the way should mean that we can cram in our cycling, gondola ride, etc... before we leave next Monday.

View from our apartment

Fairground music machines

Pianola in the music museum

Tidy bird music boxes

Main hall in the music museum

Will is asked to 'drive' a music box

Letting off steam outside the music museum

View from the train to Koblenz

View of Koblenz from the fortress

View of the Rhine from the fortress

In the fortress above Koblenz

An exhibit on the excavation under the fortress

Outside an older part of the fortress

On the cable car back to Koblenz

View from the ferry outside Koblenz

Luxury snacks on the ferry

On the ferry between Koblenz and Rudesheim

Sophie recording 'musicly' clips on the ferry

Koblenz to Rudesheim

Will on the ferry to Rudesheim

Another magic village on the Rhine

Sophie at St Goar

Along the Rhine

Will steals John's beer

Steep terraced vineyards

Terraced hills on the Rhine

Boat-shaped customs house

Sophie on the Rhine

Along the Rhine

This looked like a crazy place to fish

Customs house on the Rhine

Returning to Rundesheim - 8pm!

Doing the 'Dab' in Rudesheim

Outside our apartment - top floor of the middle building

View in a nearby lane

Train layout at the toy museum

It didn't take Will long to find a park

The sunset view from our window