A Rhine Romance
From a pioneer of printing to picture postcard castles, this river cruise is a journey through European history
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg. Quite a name. And quite a man – and one to whom I am deeply indebted.
Had Herr Gutenberg not invented the technique of printing with movable metal type in the mid-15th century, you might not be reading this newspaper today. And I might not have had a career as a journalist (no bad thing, I hear some say).
My wife Debbie and I are in Mainz, the city of his birth in western Germany, and visiting the Gutenberg Museum (gutenberg-museum.de €5).
It’s hard to overstate the importance of his invention: it hugely influenced the evolution of the Renaissance, Reformation, Age of Enlightenment and era of scientific discovery and put words in the hands of ordinary people. Not for nothing is he celebrated as the “man of the millennium”.
The museum contains a multitude of print-related artefacts, but the star attractions are the two original Gutenberg Bibles from 1452-54. They are in a bomb-proof vault, behind bulletproof glass and you can’t take photos. But you do get to see an invention that changed the world.
Should you be wondering, they are worth around €30million apiece.
We were at Mainz as a call on a Rhine river cruise on Titan Travel’s exclusive, fully refurbished charter ship MS Serenade 1.
The full 12-day voyage was from Cologne down to Basel and back to
Amsterdam, but we joined for six days from Strasbourg to Cologne.
So, after enjoying the total ease and comfort of Titan’s VIP home pick-up service, a stress-free rail journey from London St Pancras via Paris and an overnight stay in the lovely Alsace city, we walked up the gangway at 10am to meet our friendly hosts: tour managers Richard, Ron (who has the best ‘I met The Beatles’ story I’ve ever heard) and Lynn.
While the excellent, hard-working crew run the ship, the “Three Titans” run your holiday, and superbly too, with meticulous attention to detail (in truth the age profile on board is quite high and some of the passengers do need a little extra TLC, which was readily provided).
We dropped our bags in our smart, comfortable cabin and headed back into central Strasbourg, a 15 minute journey by tram.
While you may associate the city with Eurocrats, it has a beautiful Old Town dominated by the 466ft high Notre Dame cathedral, once the tallest building in the world.
On a boiling hot day my sanity deserted me and I agreed to climb the 332 spiral steps up the tower to take in the view.
You pay €5 for this thigh-sapping torture but, in fairness, the view was terrific, all the way to the Black Forest (frankly everything looked black to me, as I tried not to pass out after all those steps). After expending some
calories, some refuelling was in order. Cue the “flammkuchen”, a local delicacy which is a kind of thin pizza with bacon, cheese and onions. Simple and delicious.
After exploring the lovely Petite France area we were back on board Serenade for a 4pm departure to Basel, which entailed transiting several vast locks on the canalised section of the Rhine.
Half of the Thompson party thought it was hugely fascinating to watch the procedure carried out skilfully by Captain Robert Tranadi (it’s a tight fit, like the ship is toothpaste being squeezed from the tube!), while half snuggled down with a good book on the comfortable deck sofas.
New day, new country. After a hearty breakfast we joined the included full day excursion by coach to the Swiss Alps (chuckling along with the other passengers about our mooring station by a delightful Basel scrapyard!).
The scenery improved rapidly as we reached Lucerne, a lovely lakeside town famous for its long wooden covered bridge across the River Reuss.
CHUGGED
The Three Titans let us loose for a wander then we all met at the ferry terminal to board a lake steamer for a relaxing pootle across the inky blue water to Vitznau.
Here we joined the cog railway up 5,897ft Mount Rigi. From the top there are outstanding 360o alpine and lake vistas, including the mighty mountain trio Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau 50 miles away in the Bernese Oberland.
We took another little mountain train back down and headed home on the coach. A great day out.
New day, new country; (this happens a lot on the Rhine – at one point as we chugged along I reckon my left leg was in France and my right in Germany).
From Breisach, a little German town with a large wine industry, we were back on a coach for an included trip into the glorious Black Forest and a boat ride on Lake Titisee, en route glimpsing historic Freiburg’s cathedral and city gates and climbing through the scenic switchbacks of Hell Valley.
Titisee is unashamedly a tourist town by the lake – and was much more commercialised than when we were
last here in 25 years ago – but still perfectly pleasant. Coffee and Black Forest Gateau at a cafe by the shoreline was €9 well spent.
We returned via the Hofgut Sternen craft village with the “world’s largest cuckoo clock” (bit underwhelming), a cuckoo clock shop (quite good) and a glass blowing workshop (outstanding pieces – and prices to match).
New day, new country (again). Serenade 1 arrived overnight in Strasbourg and we were off on an included tour coach to Colmar, centre of the Alsace wine region and an exceptionally attractive town, with a very walkable historic centre.
Spared from damage in the Second World War, it has beautiful, colourful, medieval timber-framed buildings, flower lined waterways and a great indoor market.
We stopped for another flammkuchen at a traditional riverside ‘winstub’ (literally wine lounge) before meandering back to the coach along the charming cobbled streets.
New day... you know the rest. Back in Germany, after that stop in Mainz, the ship moved on to Koblenz, where the Rhine meets the Moselle at German Corner. We lucked out by arriving when the Rhine in Flames festival was on and enjoyed a free concert by a lively Mainz pop covers band. We also joined another included walking tour of the city and a ride on the cable car across the Rhine to the huge Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, built by Prussia in the 1820s on the site of forts dating back to the 4th century BC.
The last leg of our trip took us to Cologne through the prettiest part of the river, a gorgeous gorge with picture postcard castles, the mighty Lorelei Rock and delightful riverside towns and villages. We simply sat on the deck and took it all in before an overnight stop in Lintz – it should have been
Spared damage from WW2, it has beautiful, colourful, medieval timber-framed buildings
Bonn, but the mooring pontoon had been damaged – where there was a terrific antiques and flea market and a creepy torture museum.
Disembarkation at Cologne beckoned the next day as we left Linz, passing the remains of the Ludendorff Bridge which was the scene of a major battle in 1945, as featured in the 1969 film The Bridge at Remagen.
We had a great week, the Three Titans were terrific hosts, and I was pleased to have a chance to pay homage to the person who gave us books and newspapers. Truly a “prints” among men.