Winding Down the Rhine

Trip Start May 23, 2006
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Trip End Ongoing


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Sunday, July 2, 2006

Sprecken Sie Englisch? Oh I´m sorry you people speak English. Now that we have gotten this down our communication situation has improved to some extent. So since we last left you we have traveled down the Rhine on a boat for free for the last 5 days. It´s a beautiful place but very hot. We took the boat from Köln to Koblenz and the scenery on this trip was good, but not spectacular. There is a lot of industry on the river which is never very attractive. We arrived at Koblenz after about 4-5 hours on the boat because they move at about the rate of Gerald Ford in tight leather pants. Helloooo!! This city is at the confluence of the Mosel and Rhine Rivers (Hence the KOblenz) and has a large castleish building high upon the rocks across the river and a large statue of the Kaiser. To get to our campsite we had to take a "ferry" which in my opinion was the worst ferry system ever. We walked around town, had a lovely dinner and then left on the KD boat the next morning.
Belgian Beer
Belgian Beer

This next section was the Rhine at its best. The hills gave way to cliffs with grape vines and trees everywhere. The best part was the castles. Every mile or two there were castles or ruins of them which I can´t do justice with in words. We arrived around 2 pm at St. Goarshausen which is home to the Loreley Cliffs and the Legend of Loreley. She is like the Sirens of the Odyssey that would lure sailors to their death on the rocky cliffs. It´s a beautiful spot with a castle right across the river, one downstream a little ways and one right above the town. That evening we watched Deutschland (Germany) beat Argentina in a shootout and walked up to the Loreley statue.

The next day we got up early to hike to Burg Maus, the smaller of the two castles on our side (the bigger one is Burg Katz, fricken cute). It was steep hike to the top and then it flattened out among the trees and vineyards. The castle was closed though so we went back and showered some of the stank off. We then went into town to a neat little wine shop in a 14th century tower and had some of the local German wines. Ladies and Gentlemen Marie had two glasses of wine and liked them. We wanted to ship some home but no dice, sorry Mom and Aunt Judy. After the buzz kicked in we took the ferry to St. Goar across the way. Above the town is the largest castle on the Rhine, Burg Rheinfels, which was blown up by the French but its ruins remained. The complex was massive and would take a whole day to explore all the rooms and dark passageways. I was a little pooped out after dinner from the wine and my half liter of beer so we went back to our camp. Surprisingly, at about 11 pm fireworks started going off on Burg Rheinfels which we could see from our tent. It was fitting ending for a great day. That´s good. We´re in Wurzburg in Bavaria now and we plan on going to some fair tomorrow. Miss and love everybody, miss Aunt Joyce´s and Uncle Kerry´s pool. Go summer!!!
Berlin hotels Slideshow

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