River In Flames – Cigars And Fireworks

Another great idea by our friends at Cigar Cult Club – charter a ship and enjoy the traditional “Rhein in Flammen” spectacle in style smoking cigars.

Can’t beat that.

We chartered the sister ship of our last Rhine cruise vessel, the “Libelle”, packed to full capacity with 50 persons.

Rhein in Flammen is a fascinating 60 year old spectacle at the most beautiful part of the Rhine river, the stretch between St. Goar and the Loreley below all the old riverside castles like Rheinfels and the Burg Katz consisting of spectacular fireworks on and over the river.

Impressive mass of brilliantly lighted and decorated ships as well with almost 100 of them cruising the festive river.

A long affair too.

We arrived at 4 pm to board the ship which left at 4:30 pm and returned back to the pier in the early morning hours exhausted but fascinated by the show.

The river is closed to shipping for the fireworks evening, the shoreline is packed tight with spectators and the river itself is lined with cruising ships, some as large as a city block. Fascinating. All the ships are moored basically next to each other ( at 10 feet distance ) but still under power to head the fast river current. A perfectly orchestrated ballet.

After some 3:30 hrs of cruising downriver past some of the most beautiful scenery in central Germany, we arrived at the turning point and lined upriver with all the other ships.

We had had a very good Bavarian buffet aboard ship – yesterday was also the start of this year’s Oktoberfest – and were enjoying the cigars that Gabriel of the CCC was passing around, a Black Market, an Artist Line ( yummy ) and finally a Bolivar Belicoso Fino from the cabinet.

The fireworks started at 21:15 and lasted 45 minutes, they came from a barge moored midstream and from opposite castles on both sides of the river and shrouded the river in fog while resonating from the steep hillsides.

It was absolutely brilliant, certainly one of the best cigar related experiences had this year besides being in Havana.

For German speakers, here is the link to the Cigar Cult Club site, report and more pictures of the event as well as  Michael’s view of the cruise and the fireworks .

Update 25.09 : My video impressions of the Rhine river cigar cruise to watch the Rhine In Flames fireworks ( regrettably without the Cuban music I had selected due to rights issue … ) :

http://youtu.be/pT9zs0Trqps

Cigars smoked :

CR Lancero

CR Cañonazo

Dannemann Artist Line

Bolivar 5-ta Ave. ER Alemania

Bolivar Belicoso Fino

RA SCC

Nino