Cruising the Rhine
Trip Start
May 02, 2009
1
6
15
Trip End
Jun 06, 2009
Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Thursday, May 14, 2009
In Koln (Cologne) I climbed up the 511 steps to the top of the cathedral to have a look out over the city. It was the only building not destroyed during World War II.
However, I much prefered the next city we visited - Klobenz. We visited it in the evening but it had beautiful cobblestoned streets and a laid back but still happening atmosphere (if that makes any sense!) I felt I could live there (except that it gets really cold there, hehe). They are quirky too - they have a statue of a boy that spits water intermittently to honour the boy who spat at the French troops - the only person to voice their displeasure. They have a picture of the statue on the manhole covers too! Most of the town was rebuilt after the war as 90% was destroyed, but rebuilt in the old style - eg half timbered houses.
Rhine Gorge was spectacular! The beautiful scenery, castles and little towns were breathtaking - I took soooo many pictures. The entrances to the tunnels were built to look like castles or churches to prevent the allied troops from bombing them as there was an agreement not to bomb these - sneaky!
Rudersheim was a cute little town with little cobblestoned streets - very picturesque, but I also felt comfortable there as there were some elements similar to the Barossa. We visited the Mechanical Music museum with working mechanical orchestra machines that is similar to the one near Lyndoch somewhere. There are lots of cake shops and icecream stores around - perhaps that's why Dad likes both so much! hehe I have looked for Bienenstich or potato cake (what we call Kuchen in the Barossa, except that Kuchen is just the word for cake) but can only find tortes and apple pies - I think those cakes we have in the Barossa might be the ones people cook at home so you don't find them in the shops.
Today we visited Miltenburg - also gorgeous, but this time it is original - it wasn't bombed during the war. We then went on to Wertheim, which I didn't find as interesting or pretty. However, in Wertheim there is a city square, and all the houses on the streets leading into the square are staggered so that windows from the houses further down the street could still see what was going on in the Square - very nosy! The churches have been restored, I saw one from 1383. There is a church tax of 1% collected by the government that goes to whichever church you have nominated as belonging to. Apparently the majority of people will belong to a church because the schools are mostly church run. This area is about 70% Lutheran - and the Lutheran churches have roosters on the top (to signify that although Peter disowned Jesus, that Jesus forgives) whilst the Catholic churches have the cross.
