Raise a glass on the Rhine
Museums and ancient sites might float your boat, but it’s the prospect of glorious new edible discoveries that excites me the most about travelling. The local bites you can only get there, the ingredients you can pick up to reignite that holiday ‘‘aah’’ through newfound recipes back home.
When that trip runs along the river Rhine from Basel to Amsterdam, through four countries, six cities and four towns, rich in fine wine and Weissbier, cheese and charcuterie, schnapps, schnitzel and stroopwafels, the anticipation dials up a notch.
The agenda of a Rhine cruise means you explore a different destination daily, having docked a walkable distance from the heart of the action.
Evenings are spent reliving the highlights and tucking into an a la carte selection of regional specialities reflecting the places you travel through.
On my low-level Viking River Cruises longboat, Viking Eir, I savoured cinnamon and plum zwetschgenwahe as we sailed away from Basel; spinach dumplings in Breisach; meaty bitterballen on the approach to Amsterdam.
While not specifically touted as a cruise for foodies, there was plenty to dip into through onshore and onboard activities. Each morning, maps and bottles of water were laid out by reception for self-guided tours, and excursions with a lollipop-carrying local expert were available for those who preferred more structure.
I mixed it up. A bike ride in Breisach took us deep into the Black Forest, where I gobbled huge slices of the eponymous gateau and made toasts with homemade cherry liqueur.
A stroll through Strasbourg delighted with its unexpectedly beautiful old town of half-timbered medieval houses, winding canals, and casual restaurants serving boards of comte, roquefort and saucisson.
In Heidelberg, local guide Andrea shared interesting nuggets of history about Germany’s oldest university town, tales of the male-dominated fraternities housed in the grand, baroque houses, the construction of the red sandstone castle perched high up the hill (the world’s largest wine barrel residing inside), and the reason that there are traffic lights on the country’s roundabouts: ‘‘The Germans don’t like the give-way rule; it slows them down.’’
In Rudesheim, in the heart of the Rheingau, I spied the start of vineyard country, which would stretch over the next three days in an endless blanket of verdant stripes. There, I was introduced to the paper-thin flammekueche, an Alsatian ode to the pizza, topped with lardons, creme fraiche and onions, and the brandy-spiked Rudesheim coffee.
Through the Upper Middle Rhine, an area of ridiculous natural beauty, a continuous conveyor belt of Romantic-era castles dazzled with fairy-tale turrets, while I sampled homemade pistachio icecream and bellinis handed out by the crew. Steep vineyards melted into pretty villages, each with their own legend to tell, entertainingly regaled by Ivan, the cruise director. These are tales of bloody battles, cannibalism, unrequited love and trickery – the most famous being that of Lore Lay, the golden-haired maiden who mesmerised sailors to their shipwrecked demise, marked by the jutting slate Lorelei Rock, at the point where the Rhine curves at its deepest and narrowest towards Koblenz.
Viking Eir docked at the mouth of the Moselle river at Koblenz and its passengers travelled deeper into the 480km-long valley, bordered by steep vineyards. Our guide touched on the 2000-year-old viticulture traditions, the legend of the wine witch, and the protected Apollo butterfly fluttering around these parts, before taking us to Winningen, where vines grow along and between the houses like telephone wires, their roots helping to keep the cellars dry. After a fact-packed tour of a family-run winery, we swirled our glasses enthusiastically through a tutored tasting of superb riesling and pinot noir wines.
That evening, sailing towards Cologne, the ship laid on a Taste of Germany-themed feast. The staff, dressed in lederhosen and dirndls, delivered and replenished tall glasses of Kolsch with the skill of a brauhaus server, while knotted pretzels, slowcooked pork knuckle, veal schnitzel, bratwurst, and apple strudel were laid out on the buffet. A day later, after sightseeing in Cologne fuelled by sweet spicy trays of currywurst, I was similarly won over by the ship’s prime views of the illuminated cathedral and an eclectic performance by a pair