Rhine Aflame

Rhine Aflame

Saturday night was a much anticipated night out for Rhine Aflame. They do this event three times each summer, and the one in July is supposed to be the biggest and best of the three nights. We barely got tickets but lucked up and found a few left. Parts of the Rhine River have castles and ruins every half mile or so along both banks of the river, it's beautiful. On Rhine Aflame night these castles are all lit up in colored lights and they shoot off fireworks above them as you cruise down the river. Sounds awesome!

Getting there was interesting, I followed the GPS which said turn right, so I did, and that made me have to drive on to a boat, at which point the GPS says "board ferry." Crap, thanks for the advance notice on that one! I have no idea where the ferry is going or how much it costs but we are on it now and there are cars behind me so I'm not getting off, lol. When I drove on the boat I didn't realize we were ON the boat. I thought we were on a ramp and the boat was going to come up and we'd drive on. When the barge started moving it scared the heck out of me because I didn't realize we were on the boat. Oops. So we cross the river on the ferry and head up a couple kilometers to park closer to where we will catch our cruise boat later.

We got there about 1pm and we didn't have to be on board until 6pm so we had some time to kill. It was really hot so we found a rare restaurant with airconditioning and ate and hung out there. It was a very odd restaurant but the food was good and the waitress spoke English, a bonus. There was stuff on every inch of wall and wood carvings everywhere. The best part was they were playing Christmas music on the radio, LOL. It was very strange but the more we drank the more entertaining it became. After lunch we walked a little ways and found a fountain to cool off in.

Finally it was time to board the boat and get the party started. We ate dinner on the boat and waited for it to get dark. And waited. And waited. And waited. I doesn't get dark until almost 10:30 so we waited forever it felt like! Finally the show started. It was neat and something to see, but not near the spectacle I had expected. Some of the castles were lit up, but definitely not all of them. The fireworks were just ok until you got to the finale at the end. That was the best part and it was pretty awesome. Next time we can drive to the city where the finale is and sit on the river bank instead of buying cruise tickets for the boat. The show leading up to the finale as we went down the river was kind of disappointing. The Germans are funny people too. The entire time they all stand there packed on the deck and no one is talking or making any comments about the fireworks at all. They are very unemotional at events like this. In the US you know how the people ooh and aaahh over the big boomers? Not so much here. There were a very few moments where a couple people were excited about the fireworks in the finale, but for the most part they just stood there quietly watching and enjoying. Strange to us but whatever floats your boat I guess! All in all it was an experience, I'm glad we went to check it out. I wouldn't pay to do it again, but it was definitely something to try once. It isn't every day you get the opportunity to cruise down the Rhine River with fireworks and castles lighting up the night sky.