Wednesday 3rd July - Rudesheim

We planned to take a taxi into town late morning, as it was about 3 km away, so Henk called for a cab   and off we went, passing the Hindenberg bridge, which was partly destroyed at the end of the war to stop the advancing allied troops and prompting the idea for the film The Bridge at Remagen.  We were very fortunate in that Henk was here, not only two years ago, but also worked on the hotel boats almost fifty years ago.  So he knows Rudesheim pretty well and knew exactly where we should go - Drosselgasse, a narrow lane with lots of wine bars and restaurants (a lot of them with a musical offering), along with some touristy shops......right up our street!
We walked the length of the Drosselgasse and decided it was time for a reviving beer - the waiters were a bit pushy and tried to get us to order lunch but, as it was only 11.30, we declined and moved on.  After all, there were plenty to choose from!
We investigated a restaurant with a good menu but thought a little expensive, so moved on for a glass of wine and a look at the menu of another - we decided on the more expensive one and were not disappointed.  There was a band of four, playing various music......Abba when we arrived but also a lot of ‘oompah’ music.  They were all individually extremely good - the two highlights for Crew were the lovely voice of the singer, electric violin player and the woodwind man, who played the nose flute.  Have heard of such a thing but never seen it in the flesh, so to speak - fascinating!
We believe that the restaurant had the equivalent of coach parties in, on set meals......quite a lot of them, so the waiting staff were pretty busy.  However, the wait was worth it.  The food, when it arrived, was extremely good - Skip and Crew opting for guinea fowl and Henk, the calves liver.  All excellent and very surprisingly, Henk ate almost all of his large lunch!!
After shopping for post cards (to send the grandchildren), we called for a cab to take us back to the port.  We, technically had a 15/20 minute wait, so waited in a bar with a glass of wine, which we had to neck as the driver turned up early.  On the way back, there was some kind of emergency and we

had to join a stagnant queue......the driver found an alternative route though and we got back to the yacht club in one piece.  Needless to say, the fare was much more than the way there!
Rudesheim is an interesting city, with lots to do and see - it made a nice change for us to experience some of it.
A quiet afternoon and a lazy evening - weather still hot