Frankfurt Layover: Rhine River Cruise

Oh goodness, these photos are from our layover in Frankfurt on our way to South Africa, which we visited over a year ago.  I truly am just the worst travel blogger.  It's a good thing no one pays me to do these.  I also forgot to bring my travel journal on this trip, so no help there for me, either.

As I mentioned, we were on our way to South Africa and decided to try out a different style of traveling whereby we do a long layover so that we can stretch our legs and see another country.  If I remember correctly, at the time we bought our tickets, sometime in late 2017, our long layover choices were only in Brazil, Turkey, or Germany.  Usually we book flights with the least amount of layovers possible, and if there are layovers we usually choose those that are shorter.  However, it seemed like a good opportunity to try something different and to see a country that I had never seen, if just literally for a day.

I can't remember exactly what time we arrived in Frankfurt, but I don't think it was an ungodly hour in the morning.  I do remember that it was frustrating to figure out the train system at the airport stop.  Maybe it was because we were tired, but even my husband, who is usually really good at figuring out public transportation and is amazing at directions in general, had trouble wrapping his head around the schedule.  It didn't help that there was no employee at the transportation booth even though the hours posted on the desk indicated that there should have been someone at the kiosk.  Anyway, we obviously figured it out and went on our merry way to catch our cruise down the Rhine River.  Thank goodness our bags were checked all the way through to South Africa.

We were a little early to our cruise departure location, so we had some time to look around, stretch our legs, and just enjoy that we weren't on a plane anymore.  Since we were there in April, a lot of flowers were in bloom and it was just so pretty to see springtime colors.  The Rhine River valley is also known for having a lot of vineyards on its banks and in the region in general.  Even before the cruise started we could view wineries across the river.  As we were aware of already and were told on the cruise, Riesling is the dominant grape varietal of choice.

Once the cruise started there was the initial flurry of activity to see all of the riverside sights, but after some time it was so relaxing to just sit on a boat and pass by all of these beautifully manicured vineyards and old, sometimes crumbling castles.  It was a perfect day--sunny, blue skies, not too hot thanks to the breeze generated by cruising on the river.  We also floated by a number of quaint towns along the river bank.  I don't know for certain, but these buildings look reminiscent of medieval style architecture; most of the buildings here look like the half-timbered style.  This was the perfect activity to do while jetlagged.

After our cruise we spent the rest of our day exploring a couple of the towns along the river.  But if you don't have a 14-hour layover like we did and have either already explored Frankfurt or just want to get out of the city and be outside, this is a relaxing option.  In the end I decided I wasn't a fan of super long layovers because you're forced to stay awake way past what feels natural; I was exhausted and promptly fell asleep on the plane.  But, at the same time, it was awesome to see part of another country.