Stolzenfels Castle 1.8.19
A day of two halves – well many of them are but this morning was one of the anticipated highlights as we have rejoined the Rhine after our diversion along the Moselle and we are tripping our way through the Rhine Gorge and it is simply a procession of castles overlooking the river at each turn as we progress.
Marksburg Castle 1.8.19
On both sides of the river there is a road and a railway line matching the curves and so not only are there castles to spot but also a variety of rail services – in this case freight is on the move.
Rail Service 1.8.19
Back to Castles – but I have a lot more rail photos.
Castle of Rheinfels 1.8.19
The second half of the day comes after we moor at Rudesheim and once in the town we are taken to Siegfried’s Musikkabinett.
Pianola Rudesheim Museum 1.8.19
There are a huge number of musical delights kept and maintained here following restoration – this is just a small selection.
Musical Machine Rudesheim Museum 1.8.19
The Museum now claims to house more than 400 self-playing musical instruments – although on the tour they can only demonstrate a limited selection. Siegfried Wendel was no doubt bored on his honeymoon visiting an open air museum near Los Angeles which contained a number of player pianos and automatic instruments. By October 1969 he had opened the first German Museum – initially in Hochheim am Main but he had long hoped to bring it to Rudesheim as it had strong tourist levels even then. The move came in 1973 and has now been passed onto subsequent generations with around 130,000 visitors per annum.
In the evenings on board there is usually some entertainment. Tonight it is the Kletzmer Band which it is fair to say is probably not my wife’s favourite musical form – so an early exit to bed was taken.