Today (on 12/4/2019) we docked in the city of Mannheim, and took a 45 minute bus ride to the city of Heidelberg. And it’s still just as beautiful as I remember from my first trip there in October 2015. We started with a tour to the castle and walked around and got to see the massive 58,000 gallon wine cask – though  long since empty. After we got down from the castle we were allotted a small amount of time to walk up and down the main shopping street, and see some more neat Christmas markets. See post here for more info on the castle: https://jonsjourneythroughgermany.com/2015/10/16/alt-heidelberg-du-feine/

After the short stay in town we headed back and began our trip on the Rhine on the boat headed northbound to small beautiful and town of Rüdesheim. Though by the time we arrived, it was already late and most of the town had closed though it was still quite neat to see all the decorations in town. Though we did have a ship tour to go to a local wine brewery and sample some wines. The state of Hesse and neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate are famous for their wines and massive wineries and wine fields. We went down into a large cellar with dozens of other ship passengers and sampled some local Störzel Brand wine. Mmmmm! It was… delicious… At least we received a neat souvenir glass! After that we got back on the ship for the night, and the boat stayed docked so we could spend the next morning and early afternoon in Rüdesheim am Rhine.

Images here!