Rhine Cruise Day 4: Koblenz to Rüdesheim, Germany - July 6th, 2025

We took the Viking Rhine Getaway cruise from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Basel in Switzerland. This post covers Day 4, as we stopped to explore Koblenz, Germany in the morning, then sailed past lots of castles, vineyards, and cute villages along the banks of the Rhine in the afternoon to reach Rüdesheim, where we spent the evening.

Sunday was a long day. In the morning, our ship docked in Braubach, across the river from Koblenz. Again, we went on the included walking tour. A bus drove us into Koblenz, where a local guide walked us through the old part of town for about an hour before giving us another hour to explore on our own. We enjoyed Koblenz better than Cologne that we visited the day before (Rhine Cruise Day 3: Cologne, Germany - July 5th, 2025), as Koblenz was a smaller city, not as crowded, with more old architecture. Our guide did an excellent job at explaining the local history.

Once we were on our own, we wandered a little bit more, then sat down at a café for a hot drink. By the time we finished people watching, it was time to return to our meeting point and take the bus back to the ship.

For lunch back on the ship, Keith had a salad while Ann opted for the Wiener schnitzel. Schnitzel in Germany can be any kind of meat cutlet, but the Wiener style (or Vienna style) is usually veal, pounded thin, and lightly breaded, served with a lemon wedge. Tasting the Wiener schnitzel, with freshly squeezed lemon juice on top, brought back wonderful memories of our time in Germany and Austria. Joining us for lunch was a couple from New Hampshire and another couple from Louisiana.

From Braubach to Rüdesheim, we went past about 15 castles. Some were just ruins, while others were restored. Some were even hotels or youth hostels. We went by Schönburg, the castle we spent two nights in during our trip to Germany back in 2018 (Germany Day 10: Mosel and Rhein). The most spectacular castle was the Pfalzgrafenstein, which sits on an island in the middle of the river, so we sailed pretty close to it.

We reached Rüdesheim around 5:30 pm. We could have gone to a restaurant in Rüdesheim, but we decided to save some money and have dinner back on the ship. That gave us about an hour and a half to stroll the streets of the town. It was the perfect amount of time to wander around, taking pictures of the very cute streets, shops, hotels, and restaurants.

We went with the local cuisine again for dinner, but it consisted of dishes we had never heard of. They must have been from another area of Germany. The appetizer, we believe from the Sundern (Sauerland, in middle western German) region. It was flavored cream cheese served on top of pumpernickel crumbles accompanied by toasted bread slices. The main course was lamb. We don’t remember what the dessert was, other than tasty.

We had a lovely dinner conversation with Audrey and Lee from New York and Marty and Janice from New Jersey. At 9 pm, we decided to call it a night and turned in early to our rooms.

It was a fun-filled day. The section of the Rhine from Koblenz to Rüdesheim is probably what most people think of when they hear about a Rhine River cruise. The steep banks of the river are covered with vineyards. Cute little villages line the shore. And there is almost always a castle in sight, sometimes several at the same time. We had never been to Rüdesheim before, so we were pleasantly surprised by how picturesque the town was. There were definitely smiles on our faces as we went to bed that night.

Check out our related video: Rhine Cruise Day 4: Koblenz to Rüdesheim, Germany

(Ann)