This week I have been telling you about my time in Rudesheim, Germany when I was on a Viking River Cruise along the Rhine with my friends June, Betsy and Jerry.
On Monday I told you about visiting the old cobblestone streets of the town and the famous Drosselgasse alley.
Then on Wednesday I shared a few of the fantastic signs for the local businesses of Rudesheim. And I left off with us returning to our ship to freshen up for an excursion back into town for a fun dinner at a local restaurant that was called a Weingasthaus.
The excursion started with a little train ride back up to the Drosselgasse to a place called Rudesheimer Schloss. Unfortunately I failed to get a picture of the little train that we took, but the image above is from a local company in Rudesheim that runs these little trains all over the city, including up to the vineyards as shown above, for a nominal fee, which was included in the price of our excursion that night. This is one of those extra fee excursions that Viking offers throughout their trips. Most of the guests on board that night went on this little trip.
The Weingasthaus was one of the many restaurants we had passed when we were on our own walking through Rudesheim. The excursion promised an evening of local food, wine and folkloric entertainment. The food is all from local farms and the menu changes with the seasons. I loved that the food was fresh and that we would be fed a meal with local flavors.
We were in Europe during Easter – we spent Easter Sunday in Cologne. And one thing they really like to do here is decorate for Easter. Everywhere we went we saw decorations for Easter and anything Spring. In the restaurant they had lots of beautiful blue salt glazed crocks full of forsythias and there were fresh flowers and Easter Eggs on every table.
Dinner was delicious and not what we were expecting. We had a fresh salad with currants and a hearty bread with a delicious mustard-garlic cheese spread followed with potato soup. The main meal consisted of roast beef with a type of barbeque sauce that was delicious, pickled cabbage (which did not taste at all like something I expected to be pickled,) potato dumplings and applesauce. The potato dumplings were kind of like hush puppies but had a buttery, bread like texture. We were all pleasantly stuffed and thoroughly enjoyed our meal.
During dinner there was a band playing in the next room. There were lots of couples dancing and many of the tunes were traditional tunes that locals knew well. It was fun to watch them while we ate. June snapped the picture above and you can see that little jar of cheese spread by Jerry. That really was so good. I would love to know what it was so we could make our own. And you can see our sunburned faces from an afternoon spent on the upper deck while we cruised through the Upper Middle Rhine Valley.
After we ate, our Program Director Nick took the microphone and even sang a few tunes for us. And the band played several songs that everyone in the restaurant sang along to, some were German, but a few were tunes we knew, like John Denver’s Country Roads and Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. Both of those songs had us covered in chill bumps.
I came to know June and her cousin Betsy through June’s parents, Bill and Betty. They were our neighbors and adopted us into their family. Bill’s family was from West Virginia and Betsy and her husband Jerry live in the house his father built, on their farm. So naturally Country Roads hit home. We never would have dreamed we would be singing along to that song halfway around the world. And then Ring of Fire had us in tears. When June’s mother passed, it was played at her wake, at her mother’s request. Betsy summed it up best – our trip was blessed by Bill and Betty. We all had a good cry – and it wasn’t just the wine. I have goose bumps now as I write this.
But after several more fun songs, it was time for the shot bar. I am not sure what exactly it was really called, but basically it is a long pole or bar with shot glasses attached. Several people are asked to come up and hold the bar while Schnapps is poured into the shot glasses. Then on three – Eins, Zwei, Drei – everyone tips the bar up and drinks; which is easier said than done. Betsy and Jerry both tried their hand at it. There were multiple groups that did. What made it interesting is if you had a group where everyone was a different height. Try standing next to someone a foot taller than you trying to tip a bar with Schnapps into your mouth and not make a little bit of a mess. It was a fun way to end the evening.
After our bellies were full, we sang some songs and shots were shared, it was time to hop back on our little train and head back to our ship for the night. I am glad the train was there, because we were exhausted and it was dark. And those narrow cobblestone streets would have not been fun for us to navigate in the state we were in. It had been a really great day.
The next day we would visit Heidleberg and Speyer.
This is not a sponsored post. This is my experience from my trip with Viking River Cruises. Email me to find out how you can save $100 when you book your first cruise with Viking through their referral program.
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