Koblenz to Rhine Gorge to Rudesheim

We spent yesterday sailing the Rhine valley and ended up in Koblenz. A new experience for us with the small boat is basically double parking. So if there’s not enough dock space, we tether next to another ship, and walk across theirs to get to shore. Koblenz was the first time we did it.

Koblenz is a good sized city and had a really nice downtown area to explore. Jon and I went hunting for an internet alternative since the shipboard one doesn’t work so great as it is satellite based. We were able to get a cheap T-Mobile connection that uses the cell phone system and is MUCH better. Trying to do that in English in a German store was a bit challenging, but it worked!

Ray and I went out for dinner on our own – walked around quite a while before finally finding someplace. Had a GREAT Wurstsalat. When we went back to get on the boat, we got across the one boat and the crew on our boat said the walkway was closed because the other ship was getting ready to leave. The captain basically said to go have another drink and come back in half an hour. Kinda disconcerting as the crew of the boat we were standing on was starting to untie it from the dock. Ack! So we got off, found a dockside bar that was fun and got back on our ship a little later.

Today we were in Rudesheim – kind of a typical Rhine Valley wine town. It was pretty touristy – but we got to see Siegfried’s Mechanical Musical Instrument museum – which was actually pretty interesting. Everything from very calliopes to gramophones to little music boxes to crank organs. Ray got to be the organ grinder, complete with hat! One of the most interesting was one that had violins that were mechanized. In order to do the bowing, rather than having something mechanical that went back and forth, they created a continuous circular bow, which was pretty clever I thought. The mechanics pushed the violin up to the bow when it was supposed to play a note. The guy who started the museum and still does most of the restoration work  was actually a social worker with no background in this stuff and just started tinkering to restore some of them. 

Jon being goofy

 Ray as Organ Grinder

 Violins with continuous bows. The circular things in the middle were the "bows" which spun around continuously.

One of the musical instruments that was used at fairs (meaning before electricity - had to be all mechanical) – note the computer in the background which mysteriously the guide had to work before she pressed the ‘On’ switch and when she turned it off. “Ignore the man behind the curtain!” came to mind. Although Ray commented that the computer itself was an antique so maybe it wasn't a fake after all.