Day 3 Rhine River Cruise

Had a late wake up call at 8:00 since the tour was not until 11:15 and had breakfast at 9:00. Returned to the room afterwards and took pictures from the veranda while the sun was still out. Went out to the the Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) and took some more pictures. Started to get cold and windy with the clouds rolling in.

Walked to the tour office at 11:00 with another couple from the hotel. The bus left on time with another full busload of tourists. We had to detour to the Mainz Hilton to pick up 2 more passengers and then had lunch at a restaurant by the Rhine riverbank. Nice and cozy with a booth made out of a wine barrel at the entrance and the food was really good. Continued along the Rhine bank enjoying the scenery and then continued up to the hills driving through the Taunus mountain range.

Passed some more open fields and villages along the way and then stopped at the Lorelei viewpoint. According to the German legend, Lorelei was a beautiful young maiden who jumped into the river in despair over a faithless lover. She was then transformed into a siren and could from that time on be heard singing on a rock along the Rhine River near St. Goar. Her hypnotic music lured sailors causing their ships to crash on the rocks. Anyway, the view was incredible.

The bus headed back down along the Rhine and stopped at the ferry landing at St. Goar. We boarded the cruise boat and headed downstream making a U-turn at Lorelei point. It must have been our lucky day because she wasn't out singing as the boat was making its turn. The view from the river was magnificent and we passed numerous villages and castles along the way. It could have been better if the sun was out but at least it wasn't raining and there was only a slight breeze.

We got off a short time later and the bus took us to the same restaurant but a different section for some wine tasting. Actually, it should be called wine sipping because we were given 4 kinds of wine in itty-bitty cups, just like the dosage cups that come along with the medicine bottle. The place was quite small and we were packed almost like sardines - no comparison to the bodega wine tasting in Spain.

Returned to Franfurt afterwards, had dinner at the Acapulco Restaurant which is actually an Italian restaurant and our waiter was Portuguese.