On our visit to Frankfurt (Germany) during Easter holidays we went for the Rhine Valley cruise. As the name suggested, the cruise took us through the river Rhine passing through various towns situated on the slopes of the Taunus mountains. Rhine starts from Swiss alps and ends its journey to the South sea via Germany and Netherlands. It is through Germany only where its more calm and passes through fertile land.

We started our journey from Frankfurt by bus with our Tour guide ‘Wikki’ n other co-passengers. Wikki was quite fun through out the journey  and told us many informative things on the way. As soon as we came out of the Frankfurt city, we could see the Taunus mountain range.On the way every where we saw Vine plantation on the downhill alongside river Rhine. Most of Germany’s vineyards owe their existence to the Rhine river.Also were there, a number of cherry trees with freshly blossomed white flowers. The overall view was very scenic.

After an hour, we reached the town of Rudsheim.Though small, it had quite a number of restaurants along roadside full of tourists.We got out of the bus and our cruise ship was waiting for us. To my surprise I got to know from my friend that unlike us Indians who say that India as our Motherland, for the Germans it is their ‘Fatherland’ and all the rivers too are considered masculine and percepted as Father. That is why our cruise’s name was ‘Vater Rhein’ (Father Rhine). Strange hmmm..even I thought so.

As soon as we boarded our boat, it started. It was just amazing. Being close to water makes me feel enchanted. Though we were around 50 ppl on the cruise, and we could see other cruises passing by us, but still every thing was so serene and peaceful. The sun favoured us with its bright shine and warmth. We crossed a number of small villages and vineyards during our journey. On the way there were so many old castles dating back as far as the Romans times built just on the riverbank.

Most of them have now been converted into hotels.Though today we might think of any romantic notion about these castles but they were actually built by feudal lords to protect their land from plunderers in the past. Whatever it may be but definitely they are a remarkable feature of Rhine landscape.

Our cruise journey ended at the small town of ‘Lopeley’ after one hour. There we had our food at a restaurant.Then we were taken for wine tasting. Our mentors for this session were quite impressive. They served us with four different kind of wines in small, around a finger high, transparent glasses.

We also got to know how wine is made, different types of wines , how to store a it nicely and all that stuff which was quite informative to me as I had little knowledge about it before.

We came back to Frankfurt by bus. All in all it was one of the finest experience I had in Europe and is highly recommended.