Carleen's travel blog: Rhein Cruise Tag Sieben

I was able to post some photos in the previous blogs, but I turned off my phone ($10/day so I’m not using it everyday). Will have to post the rest of the photos later.
Anyway, today was very busy. The morning was in Rudesheim, a charming little town on the Rhein with the most amazing museum of mechanical musical instruments. The first was a large wooden contraption that could play like an orchestra. Then we saw one of the early gramophones. Then a player piano which also had player violins! Then a hurdy gurdy and a little music box. All incredible. We also go to taste their Ansfach coffee - 3 cubes of sugar, a generous shot of Ansfach (brandy), coffee, whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Starbucks look out!!! Not a bad mid morning pick me up.
Back on the boat and through the Rhein Gorge where we saw a bunch of castles and picturesque towns, churches and ancient walls. It was cool and a little spitty, but lunch helped warm us up.
Then to Koblenz, a small town with a big reputation for Riesling wine. There is a massive statue of Kaiser Wilhelm the First, several really ugly churches - one was turned into a butchering place in the 1700s. There was a building with a rather weird head with movable eyes and tongue sticking out. This supposedly was of a knight who was caught stealing and was beheaded in the square. One of the churches had a “leper hole” where people with skin conditions could receive communion passed out of the church on a stick so they wouldn’t be able to contaminate the good parishioners inside. We also saw a statue of Mueller - famous for identifying the Muellerian duct system that all good urologists have memorized for our exams.
Tomorrow Cologne.