Excerpts from Letters to Mom in italics.
14 September 1962
Brig and I went to Rüdesheim and Bingen last Saturday. It was the beginning of the Weinfests and quite a time. Too bad I hadn't enuf money and time. Please ask Joe to describe the Rüdesheim-Bingen Weinfest. The places get so crowded they lock the doors and only admit people when someone goes out. Gerry Gow was at Bingen 3 days and tried to go to Rüdesheim every day (right across the Rhein by ferry) but never made it off the ferry. They have bands right on the boat, too! You just have to see these Fests to believe it! They're even better than a dozen bier tents - and that's "sayin somthin!"
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| Wine Tasting Glass. |
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Rüdesheim Simultaneous wine fests were going on in Bingen and Rüdesheim on opposite shores of the Rhine River. Bingen lies on the south bank (yes, the Rhine flows from south to north, but here it flows west) and the guys took a boat to the Rüdesheim side. Only the promise of more tantalizing sights released the trio from the partying grip of the two Lederhosen cladden bands playing and plying drinking songs on the ferryboat. They discovered the Drosselgasse, an alley about a block long that has partied hearty since the 1800s. The narrow walkway is lined on both sides by wine gardens, hotels, and gasthauses with continuous music all night emanating from cellars, patios and bier gardens. A fun-loving drinkers paradise!
The trio took a cable car lift at Rüdesheim over the tidy vineyards gliding by their feet to a bluff overlooking the Rhein. Here the famous statue called the Niederwald Denkmal dominated the skyline. Recalling the 1930's vintage high school German textbook, the Niederwald Denkmal was also called The Watch on the Rhine. The impressive statue enjoyed a stature and reverence comparable to the Statue of Liberty. And on the way back to the Drosselgasse the boys were attracted by one of the little backyard hand-made signs at the edge of Rüdesheim. Tasting and purchasing bottles of wine directly from the kitchen table of an elderly vintner and his wife, was a successful ploy to stretch their money. |