Cafes

Germany 2011: Rüdesheim am Rhein

9/27/2011 11:09:00 PM


Towards the end of our holiday in Germany, we took a little daytrip to Rüdesheim am Rhein.  Rüdesheim am Rhein is a winemaking town and part of the Rhein Gorge UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It's super pretty and romantic, in a ye-olde-fairytale kinda way.  And it's also home to the famous Rüdesheimer Kaffee!  (More on that later).

Before visiting the town itself, we drove up to the Niederwald Landscape park to see the Niederwalddenkmal, the beautiful monument that was built in 1883 to commemorate the foundation of the German Empire after the end of the Franco-Prussian war.

But... it was undergoing maintenance work and was covered in scaffolding. D'oh!

Oh well, now I've got (another) reason to come back to Germany!  At least we got to see some beautiful views of Rüdesheim and all the lovely vineyards!


We then drove down to the town, and went for a walk down the Drosselgasse, which is the commercial centre of Rüdesheim and its most famous street.



It's full of cute, kitschy little shops, restaurants and cafes.  This is the place you can buy old-fashioned Christmas decorations, Nutcracker dolls, beer steins, neuer Wein or Asbach brandy - you know, all the kind of things that tourists like me want to bring back home as souvenirs.  I got a cute Christmas ornament for my mum, and a bottle of Asbach too.  (Unfortunately I had to leave the Asbach in Germany due to my crazily overweight luggage, so Sandra's dad is holding it for me until our next visit).  And speaking of tourists, Rüdesheim seems to be super-popular with older American tourists - it must be the gorgeous, old-fashioned buildings and atmosphere!


After walking around, we stopped off in a cafe for a (not-so-little) bite to eat.
Blackforest Cake

Frankfurter Kranz

Apfel Strudel

Normaler Kaffee
I ordered a Rüdesheimer Kaffee!  But what is a Rüdesheimer Kaffee?  I didn't actually know what it was when I ordered it, but I'd seen it on menus all over the town, and just had to try one!  The waitress brought over all the elements and made it in front of us.  She started with 3 sugar cubes in the below cup, poured in two shots (!) of heated Asbach brandy, and set it alight. (FIRE!)

Once it had burnt off a little, she poured in some strong coffee...

...then scraped in a little rosette of whipped cream, and it was done!

It was delicious, and super-strong!  I'm glad I wasn't driving home that day! Hee-hehe!  I also thought the cups were gorgeous, so I bought myself a set to bring home, and will be trying out my own Rüdesheimer Kaffee just as soon as I can get my hands on a bottle of Asbach or something similar!

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1 comments

  1. Holy smokes! That is coffee and a half! I also can't stop giggling at "Normaler Kaffee". I think I'll have to start ordering "normal coffee" at cafes now!

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