Our voyages on the AmaSiena – November 2025
There’s something utterly mesmerizing about watching the landscape slide by from a 135-metre river ship as it glides into a massive lock and rises — or drops — like an elevator on water. Our “Tulips to Swiss Alps” cruise on the elegant AmaSiena began with exactly that spectacle just outside Amsterdam: the Prinses Beatrixsluis (Princess Beatrix Lock).
We shared the huge chamber with another vessel while the enormous mitre gates closed behind us with a deep metallic thud. Water rushed in, lifting the 443-foot AmaSiena almost 6 metres in minutes. The whole procedure is pure Dutch hydraulic engineering brilliance — calm, efficient, and oddly thrilling. Within fifteen minutes the upstream gates opened and we continued toward the Rhine, bound for Cologne and eventually the fairy-tale Middle Rhine.
But the real magic started the next morning when we entered the UNESCO-listed Upper Middle Rhine Valley — the 65 km stretch rightly called the most romantic river landscape on Earth.
For four unforgettable hours we sailed through a living storybook of medieval castles, steep Riesling vineyards glowing gold and crimson in the November light, and picturesque wine villages tucked beneath towering slate cliffs.
Our brilliant cruise director, Petreus, narrated the entire gorge from the sun deck. He told spellbinding stories, shared centuries of history, and — at precisely the right moment — served flaming Rüdesheimer Kaffee. It was delicious on board, but it didn’t hold a candle to the genuine article we enjoyed later that afternoon in town. Brandy, sugar, dark chocolate, hot coffee, flames, and a crown of whipped cream — all combined into a treat that even Sarah loved, and she hates coffee. Clearly the brandy makes the difference!
I spent the entire day on the top deck — filming, chatting, sipping Rüdesheimer Kaffee, and drinking in the amazingly quaint countryside while low clouds swirled around the castles, creating a magical, mystical, almost mesmeric fairy-tale atmosphere.
A few of the highlights Petreus pointed out:
– Marksburg Castle — the only hill castle on the Rhine never destroyed (even WWII artillery only chipped one tower). Home to the German Castle Association and the world’s largest library of medieval castle books.
– The hilarious “Cat & Mouse” castles — Burg Katz and Burg Maus — built by feuding counts who nicknamed each other’s fortresses like a medieval cartoon.
– Liebenstein and Sterrenberg, the “The Enemy Brothers” castles, separated by a legendary duel, a Greek bride, and an actual wall of spite built between them.
– Pfalzgrafenstein Castle — the unbelievable stone ship on its own island in mid-river, Victor Hugo’s “ship of stone eternally afloat yet forever anchored.” Pure toll-booth genius.
– Gutenfels Castle — withstood a leisurely one-year siege where the attackers basically camped, drank local wine, and waited… and still lost.
– Rheinfels — once the largest fortress on the Rhine, now majestic ruins above St. Goar.
– Stahleck Castle above Bacharach — 11th-century fortress, former Hitler Youth centre, now one of Europe’s most beautiful youth hostels.
– The chilling legend of the Seven Virgins — seven cold-hearted maidens turned to stone (the jagged rocks are still visible in the river).
– Sonneck Castle and its gruesome blind-archer revenge story.
– Dozens more — Fürstenberg, Heimburg, Nollig ruins, Schönburg — over 30 castles in total, many perched impossibly on rocky crags with walls that are simply continuations of the natural cliff face.
We learned why the gorge exists (the Rhine cut downward while tectonic forces pushed the land upward over millions of years? that’s what the guide said, he wasn’t there), why almost every castle was essentially a medieval toll booth on Europe’s busiest trade highway, and why these steep vineyards produce such extraordinary Riesling (hand-harvested because no machine can climb 60-degree slopes!).
Navigation here is an art. The captain and crew constantly read the bend-sign triangles along the bank that indicate oncoming ship sizes so 135-metre vessels can safely pass in the narrow, deep channel without incident.
After four hours of non-stop castles, legends, autumn colours, and occasional dramatic fog rolling over the river like dry ice in a movie, we arrived in Rüdesheim am Rhein — the heart of the Riesling world.
We visited the town twice that day:
Afternoon — Free time for shopping and sightseeing along the famous Drosselgasse, the narrow lanes lined with wine taverns, chestnut roasters, and Christmas shops already gearing up for the legendary markets.
Evening — An unforgettable included excursion to Siegfried’s Mechanical Musical Cabinet (Siegfrieds Mechanisches Musikkabinett). Housed in a 15th-century knight’s tower, this quirky museum is packed with hundreds of self-playing instruments — from delicate music boxes to an enormous orchestrion that sounds like an entire beer-hall band run by robots. Our guide demonstrated player pianos, fairground organs, and even a machine that reproduces a full violin concerto. Pure joy and the perfect end to a perfect Rhine day.
If you’ve never done a Rhine river cruise, put it on the list. And if you love castles, history, wine, or jaw-dropping scenery, book it for November — the autumn colours and low light make it even more magical than summer.
Want to see it all? Again these are in 360. See what you want to see. Highly interactive videos.
– I have an 8-minute warp-speed version that compresses the entire 4-hour gorge into a whirlwind.
– Prefer the leisurely pace with Petreus’s wonderful onboard commentary? I’ve edited that into four shorter episodes (about a third of real time).
– And yes, I kept the full second-by-second 4-hour archive — if you’re a true glutton for Rhine River beauty, just say the word and I’ll send the link!
P.S. Rüdesheim was probably my single favourite stop of the entire cruise. There are plenty of spectacular places still to come, each wonderful in its own way, but a town that puts brandy in its coffee has to be pretty special.
Prost! 🏰🍷
This playlist with get you to any of the long or short video’s of the Rhine Gorge.
If you’re interested in the first lock, the Princess Irene lock then here is a video for you.
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