Have you ever dreamed of visiting an enchanting land of castles and rolling countryside? If so, Rudesheim, Germany is the place for you to visit. It lies along the Rhine River, it’s decorated with an abundance of castles and it is one of the most romantic cities you will visit in Germany. A Rhine River cruise will take you to this amazing land and where you can indulge in its wonders.
Rudesheim is one of the Rhineland’s best known wine villages and offers many sightseeing attractions to its visitors. This fascinating village is on the route of many Rhine river cruises.
History of Rudesheim
The original name of Rudesheim is Rudesheim am Rhein. It is situated in the Rheingau region at the foot of the Taunus Mountains and is a primary center of the Rhine wine industry. It was first mentioned in 864. The Brömserburg, an early castle of the archbishops of Mainz, was rebuilt as a residence around 1200 and later belonged to the knights of Rudesheim. Now, it is home to amazing historical collections and a wine museum. Half-timber houses, narrow streets, and old inns give the town its medieval look.
What to see in Rudesheim
One of the attractions in this riverside town is Siegfried’s MechanicalMusicCabinetMuseum. This is the first museum collection of automated musical instruments in Germany. You will be mesmerized as you look at this impressive collection.
Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet Museum is housed in Brömserhof, a noble court built in 1542. It covers an exhibition space of more than 400 square meters and has one of the largest and most beautiful collections of mechanical music boxes. There are around 350 exhibits of mechanical instruments dating back to the 18th to the 20th century – from delicate musical boxes to a huge piano-orchestrion. The museum also collects tools and machines for manufacturing barrel organs, cardboard music, piano rolls and musical box plates.
Siegfried’s MechanicalMusicCabinet Museum displays music boxes of the past as well as traditional techniques in making the musical boxes and music rolls. It’s interesting to learn how these instruments work and how their place in society has evolved. The museum is located above the river front area of shops and tasting rooms. Near the museum you will find more shops, tasting rooms and restaurants.
“I had no idea such musical instruments existed in the past – this was my highlight in one of my visits to Rudesheim. Jan Baumgartner”
The village of Drosselgasseis another sightseeing attraction in Rudesheim. Here you can stroll along the cobble-stone streets and enjoy the village atmosphere. Drosselgasse has a number of taverns and tempting beer gardens. The Rheingau’s famous Rieslings, Sekt and locally distilled brandiesare readily available if you are interested to taste them all. Wine enthusiasts can learn how wine is produced in the Rheingau, can visit the wine museum at the Bromserburg castle.
The mighty slate rock Lorelei in the Romantic Rhine Valley is yet another pride of Rudesheim. This rock rises up almost vertically to 145 yards/132m above the water-level. Downstream the river is squeezed into its narrowest and deepest point 24 yards/22m. So the Middle Rhine at this point used to be very difficult to navigate and the correct passage, today, is clearly marked with buoys.
Even in the 19th century, reefs and rapids made this area extremely dangerous for ships to pass. According to legend, a siren called “Lorelei” bewitched the hearts of the sailors and when they looked up to the rock, their boat crashed and they sank.
Rudesheim is so captivating you shouldn’t pass by without visiting it. It’s location, architecture, and wines make the town a favorite stop along the Rhine for tourists. So get on-board a Rhine River cruise and be prepared to explore this wonderland!
We offer short Rhine River Cruises of 4- 6 nights as well as 7 night and longer cruises along the Rhine River of Germany. Cruise lines we work with are AmaWaterways,Arosa Cruises, Croisi Europe and Viva Cruises. For information, please contact us at 888-869-7907 or jan@europeanbarging.com
Cologne, Germany is always worth a visit as it offers new things to discover with every trip. Whether you explore the city on a bike or on foot, you can experience the city’s most beautiful and culturally-enriching sites through the museums of Cologne.
From Roman Empire relics to the place where Eau de Cologne was born, as well as a museum solely dedicated to chocolate, and collections of some of the world’s greatest art pieces, exploring the city’s museums is like going on a treasure hunt.
For starters, here are some of the top museums in cultural Cologne:
Situated next to the Cathedral of Cologne, The Roman-Germanic Museum is mainly a collection of archeological artefacts from 1000 centuries of settlement history in Rhineland, as well as Cologne’s Roman heritage. The heart of the collection is literally the famous Dionysus Mosaic.
Built on a Roman villa’s foundations and around the 70 ft2 mosaic unearthed in 1941, the museum has since been open to the public. Other museum highlights include the largest Roman glass vessel collection in the world, the goldsmith art of Merovingians, stone weapons and tools from the Neolithic age, and the 50-ft tall tomb of Roman veteran legionary Lucius Poblicius that dates back to 40 AD.
Josef Haubrich donated his collection of modern art to Cologne at the conclusion of WW II. It included pieces by Emil Nolde, Marc Cha-gall, and Otto Dix. Three decades later, the city received 350 pieces of art as a gift from Peter and Irene Ludwig on condition that a new museum would be built by the city.
The Ludwigs’ donation laid down the foundation for one of Europe’s most significant museums of contemporary and modern art. The museum houses 900 Picassos, the biggest pop art collection outside the United States, and valuable works by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Alexander Rodchenko, among others.
A science center, Cologne’s Odysseum is an experience house of knowledge. It prides itself as a knowledge communication place, and metaphorically uses the epic Odyssey as a journey. It is a museum ideal for inquisitive children.
The museum sees human development as one open ended journey, and science as both progress and problem. Odysseum’s subject is the challenge of how to shape the future. You can experience the adventure of discovering the knowledge about the future through the various experience stations scattered on an area of 5,500 m2.
The Chocolate Museum is dedicated to, you guessed it right, chocolates! Its 4,000 sq2 m area contains everything you may want to know about your favorite confectionery.
Explore chocolates’ 5,000-year cultural history, and follow the journey of the cocoa bean – from the time it is roasted until it becomes a wrapped chocolate bar! Go through each step of the production process that culminates in a tall, 200-kg fountain of melted chocolate – ready for sampling!
Used as headquarters by Nazi Germany’s Secret State Police (more notoriously known as the Gestapo) from 1935 to 1945, the building now houses the NS Documentation Centre of Cologne.
You can pay tribute to the Nazi atrocity victims NS Documentation Centre. Exhibits document Cologne’s own experience under the Nazi regime. Former victims and prisoners wrote over 1,800 inscriptions and epitaphs while trapped inside the prison’s walls.
In the year 1824, art collector and university professor Ferdinand Franz Wallraf donated his collection of art works to the city. Johann Heinrich Richartz, a Cologne merchant, then provided the funds for a museum to contain the precious art pieces 30 years later; thus the museum’s name.
Cologne’s oldest museum features European art that spans many centuries – from the Middle Ages up to the 20th century – spread over the museum’s three floors, with each story dedicated to a particular period.
An ethnographic museum, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum explores the similarities and differences of past and present world cultures. The museum has two areas: 1) Understanding the World, and 2) Shaping the World.
The exhibits take a look at all sides of different human cultures that include, religion, identity, and living concepts. The interactive multimedia shows let museum visitors immerse themselves in various cultures, and experience different perspectives.
Throughout the city of Cologne’s rich history – beginning with the oldest Roman settlements – churches have been built on the same place where the Kolumba Museum now stands.
During the medieval ages, Saint Kolumba parish was the biggest and most dominant in Cologne. To properly showcase the parish’s power, the magnificent Kolumba Church was built. It stood proud until 1943, when it was demolished tragically – together with the rest of Cologne – by an Allied forces’ air strike. The ruins have mainly remained untouched, except for a diminutive octagonal chapel built by Gottfried Böhm in 1949 to commemorate the bombing.
The oldest fragrance factory in the world lies just across the street from Wallraf-Richartz Museum. More popularly known as Eau de Cologne’s birthplace, Farina Fragrance Museum takes visitors to 3 centuries of fragrance history.
On display are art pieces, furniture, and various authentic objects from the original production site of Johann Maria Farina, an Italian perfumer who created the world renowned scent in 1709. Among his most notable customers were Kings Louis XV and Frederik the Great.
The Museum Schnutgen features a valuable medieval art collection in one of the oldest churches in Cologne. A lot of pieces in the collection, by themselves, are worth a trip already. These include the expressive St. George Crucifix, the unique filigree ivory carving Comb of St. Heribert, and the magnificent Parler Bust.
The gamut of the exhibits range from stone and wooden sculptures, valuable goldsmith artworks and stained glass to rare textiles and ivories. One distinctive museum feature is its wide, 1,000-year old exhibition space. The aura and stillness of the Romanesque St. Cecilia Church make experiencing the beauty and spiritual vibrancy of the art pieces possible.
Experience a glorious trip from ancient Greece that will take you all the way to the present, while reminiscing the triumphs and defeats of sports history’s leading athletes.
The permanent exhibits feature medals, clothing, sports equipment that include the Benetton Renault Formula One race car of Michael Schumacher, as well as many other sports memorabilia. Themed areas are dedicated to the Olympiad, new trend sports, and German gymnastics, among others.
The Municipal Museum was built in Dutch Renaissance style back in the 1600s. The armoury was originally used as a weapons arsenal.
Today, it is home to Cologne’s Koelnisches Stadtmuseum that offers an insight into the economic, spiritual, and daily living in Cologne and its people – back from the Middle Ages up to the present day.
Cologne Cathedral’s Treasury is arguably Germany’s biggest and richest. Initially intended to be a collection of relics, which were deemed as the real treasure during the Middle Ages, the artistic and monetary value of the settings were not of primary importance.
Not the conventional type of museum of today, practically everything on display are still used ecclesiastically. Contents of the treasury reflect the changes in the history of the cathedral that through centuries survived robberies, and gained gifts from emperors, popes, and bishops.
Devote one visit to tour the museums of Cologne, both the popular and the secluded ones, and you’ll understand why the city is considered as one of the top tourist destinations not only in Germany, but the whole of Europe as well.
Arosa river cruise line offers Rhine and Holland river cruises from 4 – 8 nights and they start and end in Cologne. A pre or post night stay to visit the museums of Cologne would be a great addition to a scenic Rhine River cruise. Booking a short Advent (Christmas Markets) cruise this fall from Cologne, you get the added benefit of enjoying the 7 Christmas Markets that Cologne is known for.
Cologne Cathedral Christmas Market
Contact Europeanbarging to assist in finding the best special offers in booking a river cruise – and hotel accommodations to visit Cologne museums. 888-869-7907 jan@europeanbarging.com
A Germany River Cruise takes you across the romantic Middle Rhine Valley. As you cruise down this stretch of the dreamy River Rhine, you will see medieval towns and castles dating back to the late 18th and 19th centuries. You will see the verdant vistas that inspired many writers to wax poetic about the region’s natural magnificence.
A Rhine River Cruise offers a vast landscape of natural beauty. You will see the lush vineyards of the valley, the thick woods of the mountain ridges, the magnificent rocks of the riverbanks, and the side-valleys cutting into the banks of the Rhine River.
A stop on a Middle Rhine cruise might include a tour of Oberwesel in its itinerary.
Oberwesel is a Medieval town that has preserved its medieval silhouette. It takes pride in two Gothic churches – the Church of Our Lady on one end of the town and the Minorite Monastery on the other end.
The Church of Our Lady in Oberwesel is regarded as one of the finest examples of the extraordinary architecture that marked the cathedrals of the Middle Ages.
The church is positioned loftily at the southern part of Oberwesel. It looks very impressive even from a distance, living up to its distinction as one of the most significant high Gothic churches in the Rhineland.
The structure is stark and unadorned. It is defined exclusively by clean and sharp geometric shapes. The interior is impressive. The ceiling looks incredibly high, its heights made more pronounced by the soaring central nave.
The church has a high gothic shrine altar. The triptych altarpiece looks remarkably like the impressive façade of a medieval cathedral. It is intricately ornamented with columns, gables, arcades, and roses amidst a gold background.
The presbytery is spanned by vaults standing on willowy pillars. The rood screen stands at the end of the presbytery. You can imagine the medieval priests of that time reading the gospels from behind this screen.
Paintings which date back to the Middles Ages adorn the walls of the church. These paintings bear the beauty and richness that marked the works of art that flourished during the medieval period.
The Minorite Monastery is another Gothic church in Oberwesel. It is well-known for its beautiful ensemble that includes the sacristy, the church ruins, and the monastery garden.
The sacristy is famous for its unique architectural form. It took extensive reconstruction work during 2006 to restore the 15th century sacristy to its original glory.
Oberwesel has a remarkable townscape that echoes what life was like during the Middle Ages. It still has its medieval town wall. Sixteen of the original defensive towers still run along the stretch of this wall, earning the town its name of “Town of Towers.”
The wall and towers were built to protect the townspeople from attacks. They also provided defense against ice drift and floods. On top of all these, the high wall and towers which could be seen from miles away were important to Oberwesel’s reputation. They marked the town as one with wealth and great power.
You can climb up the peak of the wall and enjoy the view of the quixotic Rhine River.
Europeanbarging can assist with finding the best Rhine River Cruise. For more information: jan@europeanbarging.com 888-869-7907 Barge and river cruise specialist since 1998.
http://www.europeanbarging.com – (888) 869-7907 ~ River cruises on Arosa ships are wonderful adventures, and feature a wellness spa staffed by highly skilled personnel in the state of the art SPA-AROSA.
How about a pampering holiday far away from your stressful everyday cares, accompanied by wonderful views of breathtaking landscapes?
On board the A-ROSA ships, we not only offer our guests the unique combination of health and beauty, nature and city breaks, but also a very special kind of luxury: time for themselves! We place a lot of emphasis on relaxation. The best way to do this is to enjoy the spacious on-board SPA area, whether in the sauna or during a soothing massage or beauty treatment. Our trained staff are already looking forward to welcoming your guests.
The Spa Arosa includes: First-class spa products, Generous SPA-area, Professional trainers, Beauty and cosmetic treatments, Panorama sauna as well as bio-sanarium, Whirlpool on the deck. There is also a fitness room, sauna, whirlpool or swimming pool on the ships.
Wellness Cruises on the Danube are also offered. Arosa offers 3 – 14 night cruises on the Danube, Douro (starting in 2019), Rhine, Rhone, and Seine rivers of Europe. Rates include the cruise, all meals, beverage package and included Wi-Fi.
Germany is known for its numerous tourist spots and beautiful medieval towns. Some of the commonly visited places are Nuremberg, Heidelberg, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Since these three are heavily promoted and recommended by travel books and other resources, people miss the opportunity on finding this incredible, hidden gem, called Bamburg Germany.
Bamberg is pure eye candy. It is known for its many Catholic churches, authentic medieval setting preserved by very minimal damages from World War II, home to a wide variety of locally brewed beers, the imperial couple’s tomb, and the only place where a pope is buried north of the alps. This article will feature reasons why Bamberg has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
According to many travel bloggers and enthusiasts, strolling around Bamberg is best done during the day. The peaceful silence and vibe can be most enjoyed during the morning, around 8 to 9am. The picturesque sights and architecture of the town will allow you to enjoy lengthy and relaxing walks throughout the town.
Bamberg Church (locally known as Bamberger Dom) is one of the most artistically crafted churches ever. It is one of the world’s few imperial cathedrals, where the tomb of imperial couple King Henry II and Cunigunde of Luxembourg reside. They are known for their godly acts as they received sainthood. Another grave located in the church is Pope Clemence II. Formerly named bishop Suidger of Bamberg, he was elected as pope in 1046. The cathedral encountered a few mishaps, having been destroyed by fire twice on two occasions. Damaged areas were repaired in 1237 and the building is still standing tall today.
The Old Court, just nearby the Bamberg Church, was originally a fort. Alte Hofhaltung, as it was locally known, was later converted to a home for bishops, then eventually became Bamberg’s largest museum.
The Altes Rathaus or the Old Town Hall, is easily the most attractive building in Bamberg. One side of the wall is painted with gorgeous artwork. Its location where it was built is also interesting, as it rests in the middle of the Regnitz River, connected by bridges on each side – truly an interesting piece of architecture.
The Klein Venedig is a small area where people could eat and socialize. Its name translates to “Little Venice”. The best part of his place is it provides a lovely view of the town as you sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee. Last but definitely not the least, Bamberg is famed for its uniquely brewed smoked beer. This can be found in The Schlenkerla, one of the town’s famous breweries.
Bamberg can be easily visited by taking a German river cruise through the Main-Danube Canal. For the best experience, the AmaWaterways line is recommended. Their Europe’s Rivers and Castles cruises between Nuremberg and Luxembourg on the AmaDante ship. It offers trips for as low as $2,999 and guarantees a luxurious experience while cruising 3 rivers of Germany.
For more information or to book a cabin, please contact: jan@europeanbarging.com or 888-869-7907. Barge and River Cruise Specialist.
