The Romanric Rhine
31 August 2019
• Rhine Gorge
by Michael and Barbara Turney • Hot
I'm sorry for the delayed post.
I am finding the slower Internet speed very frustrating. I had the days write up all written in and then when I tried to copy it over to the blog it disappeared and was not retrievable.
So, I had to do it all over again and as you may imagine it became shorter.
In the morning after our exercise program Barb and I split up, she went on a tour of a mechanical music instrument Museum, and I went on a hike through the wine country up into the hills ending at a big monument to Kaiser Wilhelm the second. This whole area is comprised of vineyards mountains on the hills some of them at a 45° angle. 80% of the crops make Reisling wine with the occasional lonely little patch for some kind of red.
The shift left the port at around 11 o'clock and we went through what was known as the romantic Rhine. This area is a narrow gorge of river with a high current, lots of traffic, what's the most important features were literally dozens of fairytale castles in various stages of repair perched on the edge of the hills and cliffs overlooking the river. Until about 200 years ago Germany was a patchwork of independent city states with various feudal lords scattered through it. Along this stretch, the Lord's gained their income from levying a tax on passing river traffic. They needed a castle fortress from which to reach out to collect the tax and to protect themselves from jealous neighbors. Some of these castles are in various states of ruined, a very few remain in private hands, and most of them belong to a state trust. If you would like to have one you could get a small castle for the pricei've nearly €30 million. Plus, each year you would have to spend another million euros on it's upkeep. That's a bit beyond our means I'm afraid. I have taken a number of photographs of most of them and you can find them out in the gallery. As time permits I will try to write a little description with each photograph so you'll know the history of that particular castle.
I have taken a number of photographs of most of them and you can find them out in the gallery. As time permits I will try to write a brief description with each picture so you'll know a bit of its history.
I also took a photograph of the famous Lorelei. This was an infamous woman who would sit at the edge of the river, presumably in some state of undress, and sing to the passing ships. The captains and crew were so entranced by her they would often run aground. Obviously a lady with an agenda.
Our final stop and docking place for the day was a town called Koblenz. We had another walking tour which was quite interesting and ended up turned loose in the shopping district. This seems to be a common goal for tour guides, but I guess the whole concept of tourism is to bring money Into the community.
The day ended with another great meal followed by music and dancing to a group Groveband. We were supposed to leave the dock at a 9:45 but the band was playing right up to that and even a little after so the captain wasn't particularly happy. I saw him come down a couple of times and frown at the revellers. Once we did get away he was really booting it to make up for lost time. We steam through the night and arrived at Cologne at 4 o'clock the following morning.
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