The Avid Cruiser

. . . and the crew in high spirits on our October cruise up the Moselle River. Cruising on Peter Deilmann River Cruises’ Heidelberg, we passed quaint villages and acres of vineyards in this region famous for its white wines (and in a country famous for its beer).

On one morning of each cruise, Bavarian Morning Pint is offered. The buffet falls between breakfast and lunch. On the menu, free beer, brats, sauerkraut, German potato salad, pretzels, music and more.

“Attention ladies and gentlemen. We are approaching a very low bridge, and we kindly ask that you vacate the sundeck until we have passed.”

Welcome to river cruising in Europe, where the experience is unlike any other cruise you’ve likely encountered. Floating down the Moselle River toward Germany’s border with Luxembourg and France, we are passing under a bridge that requires not only all tables and deck chairs to be removed from the sundeck but also the side railings and even the captain’s pilot house to be lowered so that they are flush with the upper deck.

Fortunately, the side railings are hinged, so that they can be folded over onto the deck. The captain’s pilot house is designed so that it lowers below deck.

With the bridge only 100 yards away, I squeeze my head through a canopy draped over the stairwell to the sundeck, completely flush except for the captain’s bald crown poking above the deck from the pilot house. We make it under the bridge, by the way, with only two inches to spare.

“The captain has been with us a very long time,” says Wilhelm Bahrs, the ship’s affable hotel manager. When I don’t get the joke, he rubs his head as if to indicate that the low bridges have scraped the captain’s noggin too many times.

Ah! So that’s why he’s bald.

Cruising the Moselle River this afternoon, we spoke with Eiko Yamamoto, an Orange County, California, resident on her fifth cruise with Peter Deilmann River Cruises. Filming against the beautiful backdrop of vineyards and villages, we talk about the benefits of river cruising over coach tours in Europe and how river cruises differ from ocean cruises.

We began our journey along the Moselle this morning at 7 as we left Koblenz. At 9, we were already transiting the first locks.

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Not really a challenge, as there’s lots of it here, with vineyards on every hill it seems. In Cochem, we visited Rolf Haxel’s vineyard and wine shop, where we talked with his sons about regional wines and the vineyard that their family has operated for generations. The hills along the Moselle are famous for producing Riesling. We also learned the two ways to toast in German, one toast for wine and another for beer.