Rudesheim is a very charming little wine town along the Rhine River. You can take a Rhine River cruise starting here and head all the way down to St Goar and back. Unfortunately this day was not the day for us to do that.
However the weather held up part of the day, just enough for us to enjoy the cable car ride up the vineyards and enjoy some incredible views and a glass of wine at the top.
The cable car has a one way or round trip option for tickets. If you choose the one way you are opting the ride back in order to walk through the vineyards about 35 mins down.
It looks like it would be gorgeous & very enjoyable if you planned and prepared for the journey. But we weren't, so we took the lazy mans route... That's the cable car both ways. 😏
At the top you can exit the cable car and walk around. There's a beautiful large gazebo like structure.
A bit further jaunt up the hill was a very large and impressive monument symbolizing victory over France and unifying Germany from the 1800s. We met a local German guy who told us a bit about it. Which was great because my google translate was only getting us so far. I was a tad surprised at the impressive statue since I didn't know about it prior to coming to this cute town.
All the large phrases on the monument were all in German. But I read a bit about it after our visit to gather a better understanding of the huge beauty. It's called the Neiderwald Denkmal, overlooking the Rhine. It's a true tourist attraction and sight for everyone to enjoy, along with the the views up there. The symbolism of war and peace in the different pictures in the statue is very important to Germans particularly the locals like the man we met.
At the top there was a wine vendor. She was so sweet and generously! She explained her recommendations and offered us tastings. When we chose a wine she gave us four glasses and charged us a deposit along with the bottle. We trekked up to the statue and sat to enjoy the views with our wine and great company! The stunning views at the very top of both Rudesheim, the local villages across the river, and the Rhine River make it worth every step you took . Aside from the benches up top there is some grass where you could have a picnic on a nice day as well. Of course when we returned our glasses on our way out we got our euros back.
When we walked away I smiled and threw her a German phrase since she told us her English was "bad" earlier.. which was completely untrue! So my one wine glass gave me liquid courage and I shouted "Schönnen Tag Noch!" She looked at me & Antonio walking away & said "WOW!" Then it felt like EVERYONE turned and looked that was around her little wine bar! Some smiling Germans were quickly turning their heads & staring at me. I was so embarrassed I turned around quickly, dropped my waiving hand, and told Antonio "keep walking!' Haha, we left Deanna & her friend Dré in our dust. I wasn't going back after I was put on the spot. I was so nervous! 😂
We headed back down on cable car to explore the little town. We stopped off in a shop for post cards. And stopped in another for some wine tasting. The man was so friendly while his partner poured our wines he recommended some. He asked if he could write on our bottle & we happily obliged. He carved some writing on our bottle in less than two minutes! It was so quick and really neat for us to have another souvenir.
We wandered through the Drosselgasse admiring the cute atmosphere. Sadly I didn't snap an awesome photo at the top of this street because I was too distracted by the Wine Man! But back to Drosselgasse, it's the narrow main street of the village lined with shops and restaurants. We chose a place to grab a bite. The cutest old lady served us and our lunch experience was very pleasant! The pic below is a snip of Antonio's salad and wine.
After we ate we snapped some more photos we headed home to get our guests to our place and settled in. We had no idea but we had to take a ferry across the Rhine to get to our home via GPS. We boarded the ferry a little hesitant but it was quick and easy. It is charged per person so that was a bit unexpected to pay someone else to drive myself home, but hey we had to get across the river according to the gps. So we enjoyed some on the river time for a few minutes. It held maybe 20 cars so it was easy on and off since there wasn't a long wait on either end. I think the journey across the River wasn't even 5 minutes.
Rudesheim is about an hour and a half or less from Ramstein. It's the perfect stop off to enjoy the beautiful views of Germany or on your way back towards base when picking up guests from Frankfurt Airport! If you live in Germany you should not have any excuse to not visit Rudesheims charming Wine Town! ☺️
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