We left first thing in the morning to go to Rüdesheim. We made it
from Rothenburg to Steinach okay, but then we got on the wrong train in
Steinach. So we had to get off at the next stop and wait for an hour for
the next one going the right direction. Finally we made it to
Würzburg, and then back to Frankfurt before going on to
Rüdesheim. This is a small town along the Rhine River. There are a
bunch of castles and things along the river, so it's a nice touristy
place.
We had no clue where the hotel was, so we
took a taxi. That was a good thing because it is up on a hill outside
of town. It's about a 10 minute drive, or an hour's walk from the train
station. It was a nice area to be in, with lots of trees and a good
view (when it wasn't foggy -- which it was most of the time), but it
meant we couldn't spend much time in the town itself. That wasn't much
of a problem, since most places were closed
part of the day on Christmas Eve and all day on Christmas Day and the
day after that (which I guess they call "second Christmas
Day").
We went for a walk through the woods to the Niederwald monument. We
never figured out what it was monumentalizing [update: apparently it
symbolizes the re-establishment of the German
Empire (in the 1800s?)]. That evening it was a good view of the
river and things, so it was nice.
There were some deer in a fenced area behind the hotel. There were also
two chairlifts going up to the top of the hill we were on, but they were
closed for the winter.
Dinners for the three nights in Rüdesheim were included in the
hotel package. They were 3 and 4 course meals each night. After an
appetizer, the first course tonight was a leaf salad with roasted goose
liver (I didn't know what it was until after I ate it, but it was
actually pretty good). For the main dish I had "leg of lamb with a
Thyme sauce with white cabbage and Pommes Carée", while Sara
had "variation of fish with a white Balsamico sauce and vegetable
noodles". The dessert was "punch pear with a Ginger bread
sauce and chocolate ice cream" -- it was apparently a baked pear
(I think baked with some sort of alcohol).
