Mary Buckley from helloworld Browns Bay travelled to Europe in July and describes a section of her experience while cruising the rivers from Amsterdam to Budapest.

The Middle Rhine Valley, known to many as the Romantic Rhine, is a beautiful section of the Rhine River with quaint German villages and well preserved castles on the hillsides in between stretches of vineyards. UNESCO declared the Upper Middle Rhine a World Heritage Site in 2002. It has two thousand years of history as a main transport route with an outstanding organic cultural history and evolving traditional way of life in the narrow river valley.

Rudesheim

A beautiful town located at the start of the Middle Rhine Valley in the heart of the Rheingau wine-growing region. We rode the gondola to visit the enormous Niederwald monument that towers over this section of the valley. This is a 35-foot-tall symbolic figure of Germania completed in 1883. There are numerous photo opportunities of the wide views from the gondola and from the foot of the monument. Alternatively, you could visit the Museum of Mechanical Musical Instruments where several bizarre instruments are shown in action. There are plenty of traditional German Christmas decorations available to purchase in this town and, of course, many opportunities to taste the local wines.

Castle Mania

Along this stretch of the Rhine we sighted at least 20 castles in the space of three hours. We were fortunate to have clear blues skies this morning, so lounged on the cruise ship deck chairs enjoying the breathtaking sights of traditional villages and historic architecture. We have included a couple of photos here, but check out our helloworld Browns Bay Facebook page to view more. Our knowledgeable Avalon Cruise Director, Monika, provided a detailed explanation of what we were viewing as we rode along this section of the scenic Rhine.

Dale Millar from helloworld Browns Bay also travelled on this same cruise, so drop into our store and chat to either Mary or Dale to learn more about this Dream Holiday River Cruise, or come along to our Experience Europe Event to plan your 2019 Europe Holiday.  Details in the advert below.