July 13- The Rhine

There were at least nine beds in the room we had in the castle, with three sets of twin bunks and three more twin beds along the wall. Somehow, Anna and Emma ended up in the same bed (and they giggled late into the night, long after Mommy had fallen asleep.) Dad had to keep tipping his head to one side or stooping over because the sloping walls follow the roofline of the old castle.

We ate breakfast, posted to the blog, and then saddled up for the long trek. We had to hike back down the hillside to where our car was, down by the Rhine River, in order to catch the boat. Of course, the walk down was less hard than last night’s walk up. Last night, we followed the outer walls of the town’s defenses up the hill. Today, we took an interior route, down many “stairs”, past hillside vineyards, down to the level of the church steeple and the town rooftops. At that level there is the ruins of an old church where there are literally just two walls standing, tracing the outlines of where the windows were. They apparently have services here again, because chairs were set up ready to go. Victor Hugo called said ruin was where, “a magnificent skeleton puts its silhouette against the sky,” and he helped to popularize this area of the Rhine as a place for the Romantics to escape to.

We got our tickets for a boat that left shortly after ten o’clock. The boat itself was a bit disappointing in that it was hard to find a good place to watch the scenery go by. It’s not that the boat was actually crowded, but there were limited spots that actually offered a good view, and since we weren’t at the first stop on its route, those spots were already taken. Julie and the girls took a spot on the first level, in the restaurant area, and sat on the starboard side where we knew many of the sites would be. Scott was too frustrated there because the windows and their reflections would certainly interfere with his photography. He found a place on the second level that was relatively unobstructed, but he was standing by a chest-high wall that certainly would have blocked the view if the kids had tried to stand there. He was able to get the video rolling, the camera flashing, and felt the wind blow as the cruise down the Rhine began. It was frustrating to see boats from other tour companies with more room, fewer people, and more viewing areas on them as they passed by us, though.

Then came the Rhine Castles. If we were counting, we probably would have doubled the number of castles that we’ve seen in all of Germany during this short trip along the Rhine today. There were original medieval castles that have survived intact. There are Romantic Era rebuilds on original castle ruins. There are castles that are just ruined shells. There are big castles and small castles. There were castles of all different sizes and colors and flavors. There was a castle in the middle of the river shaped like a boat. The reason for all of these castles is that these are the castles from which the “robber barons” operated. Petty princes and nobles set up their “toll booths” along the Rhine to collect money from the passing ships.

Julie eventually enjoyed some sips of a Rhine wine, which she ordered “suisse,” or sweet. Scott was most interested in passing the Loreley rock and statue. We’ll write more on her in a bit. Anna and Emma both shared some ice cream. Towards the end of trip, as the houses of Koblenz were coming into view, Emma said that it reminded her of Venice. It’s pretty amazing that a five-year old can say that and mean it and have a point of reference like that. It’s also pretty amazing that she’s still able to make some sense of the dizzying array of places we’ve been.

We arrived in Koblenz, the end of our boat ride, and we walked to the “Deutche Eck”- the German Corner. This point is the spot where the Mosel River joins the Rhine River, and it is most notable as the place where there is a gigantic equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, who unified the German Empire in the 1800s. This spot is said to be an extremely patriotic spot for Germans. Could we compare it to Mount Rushmore for Americans perhaps? We are convinced that it is indeed an important symbolic spot, because the German Corner also includes the most important emblem of modern Germany- the ubiquitous construction crane. Either way, we climbed up into the base of the statue and enjoyed the view of the Rhine and Mosel rivers.

We enjoyed a leisurely stroll to the train station. We strolled through the park along the Rhine side of Koblenz. In spite of the construction happening there and the need to dodge bicyclists as they whizzed past tinkling their bells, it was actually a very pleasant stroll. The weather was great- bright and breezy. We stopped for pizza for lunch. As we turned away from the park, Scott actually got to visit a German comic book store. He didn’t buy anything there, though, believe it or not.

The train station was easy to find. We just had to walk past several construction cranes and look beneath the right castle. (Really.) When we got to the train station, Julie spent time in line waiting for information on how to by the tickets back to Bacharach. Anna and Emma seem to notice every dog that goes by. They laughed at a little wire-haired dachshund puppy that first was romping in one direction through the station, and then got pulled in the opposite by his master. He tried to “put on the breaks” but the floor was too slick and he slid along behind her. Then we got into the train and were whisked relatively quickly back to where are car was.

Scott wanted to make one more stop before we left the Rhine area. We had seen the Loreley rock and statue from the boat and the train, but Scott wanted a closer look. The legends say that a beautiful Rhine maiden (related to the mermaids perhaps?) used to sit on the rocks near a high cliff at a dangerous bend in the river. She would sing a siren song that would lure sailors to their deaths on the rocks. The story itself was later turned into a poem, and the poem became one of the most important German folksongs. Mark Twain said although he didn’t like the song at first, it soon became one of his favorites. It is one of Scott’s favorites too. For the boat ride, he had long ago heard about how cruises along the Rhine will always play that song, and the passengers will sing along with it, and he was greatly anticipating that moment. He was pleased when it happened, but he will admit that he started taking video and pictures of the wrong cliff when the music was played slightly earlier then it probably should have been. There was no mistaking the real site when it came into view. He wanted a closer look.


Julie agree to take the car ferry from St. Goar across the Rhine to the opposite shore. She was fretting so as the boat pulled away from the docks that you’d think she was remembering the stories of the shipwrecks. In fact, she was just hoping that our parking brake held.

We drove to the Loreley cliffs and parked the car. We then took a long walk down a breakwater wall that has been erected, and went to see the Loreley herself. The larger then life statue of the maid sits by the waters of the Rhine, looking very sad. As Rick Steves says, her “long blonde hair almost covered her body.” Scott needed pictures by her and with the cliffs. He listened to the song on his MP3 player while he was there.

Meanwhile, everyone else was hungry and tired. We left there and made our way eastwards, towards Frankfort. We saw the Manhattan-like skyline of Frankfort in the distance and watched the planes lining up in the sky to land at the airport. At one point during this drive, Julie used one of the German words for “castle” to ask, “Is that a schloss over there?” Scott said, “I done with schloss-es for now. I’m geschlossen!” making a pun on the German word for “closed.” Well, we thought it was funny at the time, but we were getting tired.

We ate at a McDonald’s and found a hotel in the town of Heusenstamm. As is our pattern when we don’t have a reservation , we paid too much for the room, but decided to stay anyway because the smaller places will be harder to find this late at night. We ended up getting a huge suite. The girls have one room and we have one room, and either one is larger than the room had together in Rothenberg. One room is a regular bedroom, while the other is an office/living room with a two person desk (shaped kind of like home plate in baseball), a double bed that folds down from a closet, and a skylight. The bathroom is also huge, with two sinks (three, if you count the bidet), a toilet, a urinal, and a whirlpool bathtub. We’ll have lots of room to stretch out before we sleep.