Make Cheese & Drink Wine While Cruising on The A down the River Rhine

We were sailing on The A, one of U by Uniworld’s (currently known as R River Cruises) two cruise ships that sail the River Rhine. We got to a beautiful town of Rüdesheim in Germany just before our final stop in Frankfurt.

Rüdesheim’s town centre has a medieval alley that is known as Drosselgasse. There are shops, little cafes and restaurants for you to stop and enjoy some of the local delights. Pretty quaint.

We picked one of the U Time add ons to visit the cheese academy to make cheese and that turned out to be one of my most memorable excursions. One of the more relaxing U Time activities for the trip. Friends who know me will probably attribute my enjoyment to the wine.

The other activities offered by U River Cruises at Rüdesheim included a 16km cycling ride to an abbey where you get to taste wine or you could go for a hike in the greater area which is part of the Rheingau wine region that has been producing Rieslings. These were just too much for us so drinking wine and making cheese it was.

We took a short walk from the ship through the little town and got to the Vinothek Rheinweinwelt where we learnt the process of making cheese out of curds and whey. The process involved a lot of stirring and scooping out whey from a copper kettle. While waiting in between for the curds to set, we got to try a variety of cheeses and a generous variety of wines. You get your personal Deputy cheese-maker diploma at the end of the session.

Participants were also given tokens which could be exchanged for tasting portions from a treasury of wines from the Rhine region at the wine gallery.

A selection of 76 wine makers from the UNESCO world cultural heritage Middle Rhine and Rheingau, Rheinhessen and Mosel are available in a space of over 1000 sqm here.

Did I mention that a bottle of Riesling here costs only 10 EUROS??

And when we got back to the ship for dinner, we got to also share our cheeses with the other travel companions on the ship that went for other excursions.

Watch the full cruise experience below.

You can also read about our Tulip experience in Amsterdam.