B: So guys as you might already know I'm a little bit scared of heights.
But honestly this really isn't too bad super-quiet really -
[Gondola Rattles]
[David laughs]
I cannot believe I just said really smooth!
And it went brrrrrrr!
Sh-
[David] Your face!
Oh my god, that was scary!
But that was fine because that was just one of those little transition bits where it goes over the hump.
But yeah, it's fantastic. Honestly for this viewer alone. It is spectacular.
You can see all of the river.
All of the beautiful houses.
The vineyards just look absolutely stunning.
It's really green and lush
and the people are so friendly too so it's a win-win situation.
Yeah, it's a really beautiful ride really recommended it.
8 Euros per adult.
Yeah, so we're gonna go and have dinner tonight in our normal restaurant
and straight after at 9pm we're going to go over to a castle for a reception.
That sounds a very fancy doesn't it!
As I said getting off the ship is just an absolute breeze.
Compared to a cruise line.
No queues, no pushing and shoving just walk off at your own pace.
It's just it's just lovely.
It's idyllic. I would call it idyllic. Ah!
And we haven't done Germany before like properly.
So this is such a treat isn't!
[David] I didn't expected to be this picture - like then why
[Ben] It's picturesque. [David] I knew Germany did wine.
I didn't realise it was such a big industry at all.
So apparently it's 90% Riesling wine and then two other types of wine
which I am not even going to attempt to pronounce
because I do not want to offend any German speaking people.
[Ben] Yay Guys! We can get off now.
[David] Gather, gather your feelings
[Ben] Gather what's left of me?
[Ben] Let's get off guys.
[Ben] Oooh! Moving walkway.
[Ben] Okay
So that's the queue to get back.
The cable car has brought us up to the top of the mountain
and it overlooks the beautiful panoramic vista of the wine valley and the Rhine River.
You can see all the river cruise ships in.
It's a great view.
It's really popular up here as well.
And there's even people getting wedding photos taken.
There is families, there's couples, it's a great place to be.
It's the Niederwalddenkmal statue.
Stands at about thirty eight feet tall and
it's the Iron Lady and it symbolizes the unification of Germany.
It was built in the 1870s/1880s and yeah it's beautiful.
It's got a beautiful view and it's a massive.
It looks so pretty.
This is absolutely gorgeous.
I don't think you can get the scale of how big it is.
But it sure is a lot of steps.
[Ben laughs]
[Ben] Keeping us fit David.
It's time to head back on the cable car from hell.
It wasn't that bad.
Honestly, it's really worth it.
While you're up here though just to let you know,
there is a restaurant, there's a bar and there's toilet facilities as well.
So it's perfect for a day out.
[Ben] But how much was the toilet?
50 cents.
[Ben] Yeah
[Ben] Let's go
You'll find that a lot of places particularly in Mainland Europe
and in the UK train stations you do have to pay for the toilets.
So make sure you have change on you.
It's usually 50 cents - 1 euro.
It's worse going backwards.
[Ben] Hallo
[David] God, this is the horrible bit isn't it. [Ben] Here we go.
[Ben] That wasn't too bad.
[David] I think it was worse going up.
On the way down we were treated to some more spectacular views of Rudesheim.
These streets are typical of what you imagined to be typical German streets.
They are really really cute and picturesque.
Absolutely, beautiful.
Oh my gosh, you can get lost through all these little back streets here.
There's lots of trinket shops wine gardens and restaurants as well.
Really really picturesque place now.
It's time to head back to the ship.
It's almost 6:30 and we need to be "all aboard" at 7:15.
So always make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to get back to the ship.
Just in case we do get lost.
Because we we didn't walk here.
So obviously we are going to have to walk back.
But yeah, let's head back to the ship.
Dinner time it's only been...
a few hours since we ate [Ben] 2 hours.
But we've worked up an appetite definitely on this one.
Loving the all the the active stuff though.
Makes you really really crave dinner and I'm looking forward to it.
So guys this is how easy it is to board and disembark a river cruise ship.
There's no security.
No long lines.
There's no 10-mile walk
from one end of the ship to the other.
[Ben] Super easy, isn't it? David
Super quick, super easy
and you can come and go as you please.
Hop-on, hop-off.
[Ben] So guys were already full for dinner.
We're gonna head there now.
We're gonna have dinner.
It's seven o'clock, which is the same time every night.
And then we are literally going to go to a castle for a reception.
How about that?
Good evening guys. Welcome to dinner again.
That was a very quick turnaround for us again.
15 minutes in and out. [Ben] I know its non stop isn't it.
I was late as well. It took ages to do my hair.
So and tonight's dinner is another treat for us.
Let's have a look what we've got in the menu.
So the soup is a mushroom consommé
and the white asparagus soup.
Main courses we've got linguine pasta with a salmon sauce
and the John Dory is the fish of the day
and then there's an herb crusted roasted New York rack of lamb
or a quinoa stuffed tomato.
All sounds very good.
[Ben]It sounds lovely doesn't it.
It really difficult to pick when you like two or three dishes, you know what I mean?
I know I could order more than one dish, but we have ate so much today.
This is our like third full-on meal and we had a doughnut as well.
For the starter I think I'm going to go for the onion tart because it sounds nice.
I'm going to give the soups in this because I'm not as hungry tonight.
So for the main course...
I think I'm going to get the rack of lamb
just because it sounds a so nice.
I'm gonna have a glass of beer as well tonight
because I'm feeling a lot more awake.
Last night we were so tired.
Amazing sleep last night - eight hours straight so I feel so much better today.
And i'm super excited about going to the castle tonight afterwards.
Eeeek! I love having meals.
I always look forward to the meals here because they've been it's so good so far.
So it's always a really exciting time.
[Ben] Mmm, another delicious dinner.
[Ben] We were worried that the food wasn't going to be as good as ocean cruising.
[Ben] But we were really wrong.
[Ben] We were treated to some amazing river views as we set sail for the castle.
[Ben] Once at the new port it was just a short drive away.
[Ben] And once we arrived, it was a 15 minute or up-hill walk to the top.
[David] Warm welcome!
[Ben] Is that what it says?
[David] Yeah
[Ben] At the top we were given a friendly welcome by the local jester
as well as the delicious glass of champagne.
The views were really incredible.
Especially at sunset.
We were really blown away with how beautiful Germany is.
[Ben] Guys so we are going to do these steep stairs now.
Oh my gosh.
It's worth the terrifying heights
[Ben] Quick!
[Clapping]
After all that excitement it was time to bed
and we woke up after a nice sleep in to some more scenic cruising.
We headed for some late riser breakfast and listen to our cruise director narrate our journey.
This was one of the most spectacular segments of our River cruise.
Cruising the Rhine Gorge.
With castles, beautiful buildings, lovely little villages and green luscious landscapes.
It was really stunning.
So been offered a traditional rum punch is traditional to the region that were just sailing through.
Put hairs on your chest at ten o'clock in the morning, but-
Cheers!
So here at lunch in the restaurant.
There's only one restaurant on board here in Avalon Panorama and there's always plenty of space.
Really good selection again guys.
The food looks awesome.
There's a selection of salads. there's toasties, loads of cheese.
Today the specialty is noodles and the freshly cooked ribs as well.
Lovely and cool in here as well.
And what's nice about river cruising is that you're right by the water
- I nearly said the Ocean - buy we are by the river?
And there's always like a spectacular view as well.
So I got my first course which is a nice little salad.
Yeah, so Bon Appétit!
[Ben] Whilst it might not have the selection of a cruise ship buffet.
The food is amazing quality and super tasty.
It was really, really good.
I had a salad which is nice and crispy.
But I also got a little side of a ribs, you know, just on the side
and the ribs are amazing.
They are so so tasty.
They literally just falling off the bone.
I may have to go and get another portion of ribs because they are a really good.
[Ben] Do it, go on!
Why not on a cruise eh!
So we are here on our second full day river cruise.
We're here in a little port called Boppard.
I like that the name, dont you?
Boppard! There is something quite cool about that.
Twinned with Watford in the UK.
Watford just north of London.
Very very similar obviously
and somewhere where we used to live literally around the corner.
So Boppard is a small town here on the banks of the Rhine
and it's a center for winemaking as well.
It's known for some fantastic German wines and it's seen as a sign of quality in the German wine industry.
So we're just waiting for our excursion to begin.
It's going to begin at 2 o'clock today and whilst we're we're in our excursion
the ship's actually going to move so that's really weird.
So we're going to go off, we're going to a lava field
and some ex-volcanoes to have a look around there.
Then we're going to go see some monks.
So it sounds like a lot of fun.
This is all included in the price of your Avalon cruise, which is awesome!
Which is something you don't tend to get on ocean cruises
unless you're with a luxury company.
Then we're going to be met with their ship in clonk? Clonze?
Yeah, if you didn't want to do the tour, you can say on bored and just enjoy the cruise to the next port.
[Ben] Join us next time.
Feel like im going to serve school dinners.
Here we go, 150 steps.
The Door has closed now, there is no going back.
[Ben] There is no going back!
We head underground into a volcano!
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Thanks for watching.
That's it till next time.
Happy Cruising.