Travel Live: In the birthplace of Riesling
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This week, Travel Editor and river cruising novice Winston Aldworth is sailing down the Rhine on the maiden voyage of Avalon Imagery II. The brand new ship is 110m long and can carry up to 128 passengers. On this ‘christening cruise’, the passengers are travel-industry types and travel writers – they’re joined by Judy Bailey, who’s doing the christening duties. Winston will file updates throughout the cruise.
10am (local time) Wiesbaden
“It’s the best riesling in the world,” says our guide on the way to the Neroberg vineyard.
“Of course you don’t have to believe that. But you should just believe it for the next two hours while we visit the vineyard.”
Riesling, as anyone who knows their wines or has access to Wikipedia will tell you, is a white grape variety which originated in the Rhine region of Germany.
So, here in the birthplace of riesling, it seems polite to doff our caps and acknowledge that the Neroberg vineyard’s wine is excellent. Even fans of great New Zealand Rieslings, like those produced by Black Estate, will be wowed by drinking the variety at the source.
A photo posted by Herald Travel (@nzhtravel) on Apr 4, 2016 at 3:07pm PDT
The vineyard is on a high hillside in Wiesbaden. On the hills overlooking the town, we gulp back this crisp and pleasantly apple-ish drop.
Best in the world? I’ll believe that.
Continued below.
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9am, Monday (local time) Wiesbaden
Reader Christoph Thurner emails to point out a couple of spelling mistakes “Wiesbaden, not Weisbaden,” he points out. “Then it’s Gutenberg, (loosely translated ‘Good Mountain’, if you read [Terry] Pratchett you will remember a dwarf in The Truth by the name of Gunilla Goodmountain) not Gutenburg (Good Castle).”
Danke schoen for that, Christoph. Happily, thanks to the wonders of the technology that Gutenberg started, we can make those corrections live in the blog.
7am (local time)
With most passengers exhausted after flying in from New Zealand and Australia, the cabins aboard Avalon Imagery II hummed last night with satisfied snoring. As for the beds: I can happily report that, as my brother would say, these are “good scratchers”.
With a couple of wines in my belly and a 24-hour flight still in my head, I was early to bed, which meant I was up early, heading out for a Rhein-side run at 6am. Today, there are two excursion options: a trip to the Neroberg vineyard or a cultural tour of Wiesbaden. As we’re in the home of riesling, it’ll be the vineyard for me – I’ll send photos and drunken blog updates later.
A video posted by Herald Travel (@nzhtravel) on Apr 3, 2016 at 11:16pm PDT
In the afternoon, my travel buddy and I will explore Wiesbaden town. His name is Drew, and he’s better at tech stuff and photos than I am, so expect a radical improvement in Travel Live blog quality once he’s involved. The ship sails this evening, with a scheduled 6am departure.
I’ve got my first reader query. Francis wants to know if you can feel any swell on board a river cruise ship. So far there’s been very little, though we are still tied up at the side of the river. I definitely haven’t had that ‘can’t-walk-in-a-straight-line’ thing that you get when an ocean-going ship is rolling along. But, hey, maybe after the wine tasting, huh? I’ll find a member of the crew for a more definitive answer. Shout-out to you, Francis. Any other queries? Send them to winston.aldworth@nzherald.co.nz.
11pm (local time)
Here’s a video of my room:
A video posted by Herald Travel (@nzhtravel) on Apr 3, 2016 at 3:17pm PDT
Back at the ship, we’ve just wrapped up evening cocktails ahead of a big day tomorrow.
10.30pm (local time)
I’ve done a couple of journeys on ocean-going cruise ships, and you can spend a couple of days exploring yet never knowing the labyrinthine paths of the giant vessels. But a river ship? You can walk every path on board in less than 10 minutes. Which, I guess, makes it even more imperative to get off the ship and take a walk on shore as discussed previously.
8.30pm (local time)
Guten tag from Wiesbaden! Stepping aboard the Avalon Imagery II this morning, I noted what I can only presume river cruise regulars would recognise as ‘that new ship smell’.
Everything looks mint. There’s a bit of excitement as groups arrive, find their rooms and get settled in. We’ll be sailing on Tuesday morning (NZT) after taking a look at the local surroundings.
Two new things for me here: First river cruise, and first blog for a blog novice. Feel free to email me (polite) tips at winston.aldworth@nzherald.co.nz.
First point of difference between a river cruise and the ocean variety: You get off a lot. Straight after stowing my gear I went back to dry land for a trip to the Gutenburg Museum, which celebrates the work of Johannes Gutenburg inventor of the modern printing press . . . oh dear, you’re reading this online aren’t you . . .
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