The journey to Rüdesheim am Rhein involved four different trains as we travelled to London with East Midlands Trains, then by Eurostar from London St Pancras to Brussels Midi on Friday evening. After enjoying a visit to Fritland and the Little Delirium Café we had pretty much covered the Belgian staples of chips and beer before settling in for the night at the Hotel Alma Grand Place.

Saturday morning saw us travel with Deutsche Bahn (DB) on their ICE operated service from Brussels Midi to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, a journey taking just over three hours. At Frankfurt we joined a VIAS service to the first destination on our German break at Rüdesheim am Rhein.

Rüdesheim has a population of around 10,000 people but an annual tourist influx of over 2.5 million people, many of these are day trippers, some arriving by boat, some by train and, looking at the number of coaches in the parking areas, many arrive on organised coach tours too.

Our time in Rüdesheim tied in with the Weihnachtsmarkt Der Nation (or Christmas Market) which in 2017 runs from 23rd November to 23rd December. This traditional market draws big crowds of people to enjoy plenty of glühwein, shopping and music and it seemed, on the Saturday at least, a good percentage of that 2.5 million tourists were on the streets of Rüdesheim. The place was packed and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Fortunately our hotel (the Hotel Zum Baren) was just far enough away from party central/the market and also well away from the River Rhein within its 24 hour a day train service (plenty of heavy freight too) running along it. I love trains and all things railway related but being away from the town frontage and market area did provide a peaceful couple of nights sleep.

On the Sunday morning the town was very quiet compared to the Saturday. You could actually enjoy the market stalls and see what was for sale. This also gave us the chance to try a Rüdesheimer Kaffee without crowds of people looking for a table. This traditional drink is a bit like an Irish Coffee but it is made with local Asbach brandy and is prepared at the table.

We also travelled on the Seilbahn, a cable car, to the impressive Niederwalddenkmal monument overlooking Rüdesheim. The cable car took you above the vineyards and because of the weather into the clouds so there was no view back to the town or the river. I guess the view on a summer's day would be impressive, although wandering around in the snow was rather good too.

Lunch without a view was a rather tasty omelette and bratkartoffel (fried potatoes) with a real fire keeping the room warm. We were the only people eating at 'das Rebenhaus' although a rather strange looking chap seemed to polished off a bottle of wine for his lunch.

Once back down to the town there was a further opportunity to visit the Christmas Market, which was by now pleasantly busy although nowhere near as busy as the Saturday afternoon/evening.

With less people about on the Sunday our traditional Germanic evening meal (plenty of pork and potatoes!) at the Ratsstube was really nice and despite our pigeon German language skills the waitress didn't swap to English either. The food was very good, very filling and overall good value too.

The next stop on this German trip will be Stuttgart which is a three hour trip by train from Rüdesheim travelling via Frankfurt.

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