What would make a Rhine River Cruise even more memorable to me? Visiting some of my ancestral home towns in Germany. So, my plan was that we (my husband and I) would skip the tour of the Marksburg Castle, rent a car and drive 30 minutes or so to the towns of Helferskirchen, Wirges, Staudt and Dernbach. We would try to visit the Catholic church in the town and see if we could also find the cemetery and locate any ancestors buried in the cemeteries. Well, that was my plan ...
The ship was originally supposed to dock in Koblenz (or so we thought) at about 11am. However, we found out that morning it wouldn't dock until at least 12:45pm. Okay, that still works. Then we found out the rental car agency closes at 1pm. What?? I saw my plan and the opportunity to visit these ancestral towns going up in "smoke". This was going to be my best opportunity, probably ever, to see these towns.
We talked to the ship's concierge and he arranged for a taxi to meet us 50 yards from the dock. Now, we needed the ship to dock on time. Even though, they announced that we would be docking at 12:30pm, it takes the ship's crew at least 15 minutes to secure the boat to the dock and make it safe for passengers to disembark. Well, thankfully the crew was a bit speedy that day. The concierge made sure that we were the 1st two off the ship. We ran the distance to the waiting taxi. He drove us the 10 minute ride to the rental car agency, with us arriving at 12:50pm. My husband rented us a car and we were on our way to Helferskirchen, the furthest of the 4 towns. It is really happening ...
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