Day 357 – Burgen and the Rhine and Mosel Valleys (by Abby)
June 23, 2011
The Events of Friday, June 17, 2011
The dazzling morning sun crept over a nearby hill and glittered on the morning dew of the colorful flowers in the window box. A ray of the sun splashed its joy into the entrance hall of number 6 Vorstadtstrasse, where I just happened to be standing and witnessing this early morning miracle. Squinting in the bright sun, I smiled at the tall cross standing on the crest of a nearby hill. On every hill here, there is a cross like this, watching over all the quaint towns and villages of the romantic Rhine and picturesque Mosel Valleys. A beautiful beginning like this was the perfect way to start the day.
Following this stunning performance, I joined the rest of my family at the breakfast table. There was only one thing wrong – we didn’t have any milk! Mom and I never eat milk with our cereal, but the rest of my family does, so they started out on an interesting adventure. They began with granola bars and then struggled through dry muesli. After devotions we packed up and headed out to the car. Once everybody was out in the car except Mom, I realized I had forgotten my camera so I went back in and fetched that. Once I was back out in the car, Mom kept on coming out to the doorway of our house and holding up other stuff we had forgotten – our GPS, Lindsey’s camera battery and a couple of jackets. As we drove away, Mom made sure we had our lunch, which we did, and we were on our way.
We drove down to the Mosel River and drove along it, pausing occasionally to take pictures of quaint little villages, steep vineyards, swans on the river, and castles on hills. Soon we came to Koblenz and became lost in the maze of autobahns. We ended up on a steep road that was going the wrong direction. Stopping at a small pullout, we discovered it was a scenic viewpoint and had a beautiful view of Koblenz and the confluence of the Rhine and the Mosel Rivers. At the Deutsche Eck (German Corner) the Mosel joins the Rhine. The Rhine begins in Switzerland, fueled by Swiss snow-melt, and continues north to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Famous for being quaint, beautiful and romantic, it was this romantic Rhine we set out to experience this morning. At the lookout was a beautiful stone platform that rose above the trees and gave us an even better view.
Soon we were on our way again, in the right direction, following the Rick Steves’ tour of the Rhine from his book. Since it is sort of hard to figure out where to read about points of interests, Rick said he erected signs recording every kilometer on the river. For example, at kilometer number 489 we read about a castle and at number 506 we read about a quaint town. In this fashion we made our way down the Romantic Rhine.
The Rhine was always one of the world’s busiest shipping rivers. Barges bustled up and down the river from Roman times to the present. In medieval times, castles were built along the Rhine as “robber-baron” castles to collect tolls on passing river traffic. A castle on, or even in, the river would have a chain connecting it to a tower on the other side and would stop each ship to collect the toll. In one sixty-mile stretch there were once ten toll stops. Most castles on the Rhine date from the 11th-13th centuries. Many of these castles saw action in the Thirty Years’ War, the Reformation war that devastated Germany. The castles were either renovated into neo-Gothic style in the Romantic age (usually becoming hotels or restaurants) or they were left as they were, discovered by preservation societies (centuries later) and opened to the public.
Throughout our drive we saw a total of fifteen castles and took a walk through two charming little villages. First was Burg Lahneck (burg means castle), built in 1240 and now a luxury hotel. Then we saw (from the outside) Marksburg, the castle that we would be visiting later. Driving on, we came to Boppard, a small Roman Town with original Roman towers and a chunk of Roman wall that we saw through our car window. Next were Burg Sterrenberg and Burg Liebenstein, two castles on hills next to each other. The owners of these castles were constantly warring. This fact reminded us of a Veggietale movie that we haven’t seen for a year about to warring groups in castles on hills that threw pots and boots back and forth (until they learned to love each other and then they threw flowers and candy).
Burg Maus and Burg Katz (literally Mouse Castle and Cat Castle) were our next destinations. Burg Katz is called that because of the family name of the people who lived there. However, its pointy turrets and arched windows make it look somewhat like a cat. The next castle over from Burg Katz, Burg Maus, is called that for no purpose whatsoever, probably just a play on names. Our next stop, St. Goar, is a large tourist attraction. Not only is it a cute Rhine town, but it also has a huge cuckoo clock shop, with the world’s largest free hanging cuckoo clock and a shop that boasts the world’s largest beer stein. We went first to the cuckoo clock shop. The Germans actually invented the cuckoo clocks – the Swiss invented the watch. If you confuse them, you might offend a patriotic German. We watched the huge cuckoo clock outside ding at 12:00 and then went on to the beer stein shop. Overwhelmed by all the beer steins filling the walls, we grabbed our lunch and ate a nice picnic lunch on the Rhine. While eating, I made up a funny little rhyme and then modified it to fit our circumstances: We dined on the Rhine in a line under a pine and near a sign without nine steins of fine wine fresh from the vine. Try to say that five times fast.
After taking a walk around the town, we continued on our drive towards the treacherous Loreley. The Loreley was a nymph who lived on a steep slate rock on a steep bend in the river just before St. Goar. The legend of the Loreley tells the story of a count that sent a group of soldiers to kill the Loreley after his son was overcome by her seductive singing and died upon crashing on the rock. The soldiers cornered her in her cave and she called out to her Father Rhine, who came in the guise of huge waves and carried her to safety. After taking a couple of pictures, we moved on to the Seven Maidens – and yet another legend. There once was a prince who had seven spoiled daughters who never married because they only noticed men’s shortcomings. Tired of this behavior he brought seven of his knights to the castle and demanded that each of his daughters marry one of them. But they started complaining about all the knights’ shortcomings and escaped into a boat. Downstream, God turned them into the seven rocks that formed the Seven Maiden’s reef.
Our next attraction was the Raftbusters, a group of rocks in the middle of the river famous for bustin’ up rafts. Bacharach was next (pronounced BAHKH-ah-rahkh, with a guttural kh sound), another quaint town on the Rhine, famous for its wine. We took a self-guided walk from the shore around the town, seeing the market square, wine cellars, an original post office, and a ruined gothic chapel, ending in a vineyard. The vineyard had a five-story tall tower just sitting there so we climbed it and surveyed a great view of the Rhine and Bacharach. We continued driving and soon came to the Ehrenfels Castle and Mauseturm (mouse tower). Since this castle didn’t have a view to the north, the Mauseturm was built in the middle of the river. At our next town, Bingen, we took a ferry across the river and finished our guided drive.
We drove south to Marksburg, the castle we had seen earlier and raced up the hill to catch the four o’clock tour in English. Our tour took us around the castle and wasn’t too interesting, but our guide managed to get all the facts across in English and then in Japanese. Glad that we had caught the tour, we walked down and drove back to Koblenz for groceries. After buying groceries at two different stores, we drove home and cooked up a real German dinner - wiener schnitzel (breaded veal [YUM!]), fried potatoes, herbs and veggies, and then layered cake with cherries, cream and chocolate on top. Extremely pleased with how the day went, we bid each other “Gute Nacht!” and headed to bed.
The dazzling morning sun crept over a nearby hill and glittered on the morning dew of the colorful flowers in the window box. A ray of the sun splashed its joy into the entrance hall of number 6 Vorstadtstrasse, where I just happened to be standing and witnessing this early morning miracle. Squinting in the bright sun, I smiled at the tall cross standing on the crest of a nearby hill. On every hill here, there is a cross like this, watching over all the quaint towns and villages of the romantic Rhine and picturesque Mosel Valleys. A beautiful beginning like this was the perfect way to start the day.
Following this stunning performance, I joined the rest of my family at the breakfast table. There was only one thing wrong – we didn’t have any milk! Mom and I never eat milk with our cereal, but the rest of my family does, so they started out on an interesting adventure. They began with granola bars and then struggled through dry muesli. After devotions we packed up and headed out to the car. Once everybody was out in the car except Mom, I realized I had forgotten my camera so I went back in and fetched that. Once I was back out in the car, Mom kept on coming out to the doorway of our house and holding up other stuff we had forgotten – our GPS, Lindsey’s camera battery and a couple of jackets. As we drove away, Mom made sure we had our lunch, which we did, and we were on our way.
We drove down to the Mosel River and drove along it, pausing occasionally to take pictures of quaint little villages, steep vineyards, swans on the river, and castles on hills. Soon we came to Koblenz and became lost in the maze of autobahns. We ended up on a steep road that was going the wrong direction. Stopping at a small pullout, we discovered it was a scenic viewpoint and had a beautiful view of Koblenz and the confluence of the Rhine and the Mosel Rivers. At the Deutsche Eck (German Corner) the Mosel joins the Rhine. The Rhine begins in Switzerland, fueled by Swiss snow-melt, and continues north to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Famous for being quaint, beautiful and romantic, it was this romantic Rhine we set out to experience this morning. At the lookout was a beautiful stone platform that rose above the trees and gave us an even better view.
Soon we were on our way again, in the right direction, following the Rick Steves’ tour of the Rhine from his book. Since it is sort of hard to figure out where to read about points of interests, Rick said he erected signs recording every kilometer on the river. For example, at kilometer number 489 we read about a castle and at number 506 we read about a quaint town. In this fashion we made our way down the Romantic Rhine.
The Rhine was always one of the world’s busiest shipping rivers. Barges bustled up and down the river from Roman times to the present. In medieval times, castles were built along the Rhine as “robber-baron” castles to collect tolls on passing river traffic. A castle on, or even in, the river would have a chain connecting it to a tower on the other side and would stop each ship to collect the toll. In one sixty-mile stretch there were once ten toll stops. Most castles on the Rhine date from the 11th-13th centuries. Many of these castles saw action in the Thirty Years’ War, the Reformation war that devastated Germany. The castles were either renovated into neo-Gothic style in the Romantic age (usually becoming hotels or restaurants) or they were left as they were, discovered by preservation societies (centuries later) and opened to the public.
Throughout our drive we saw a total of fifteen castles and took a walk through two charming little villages. First was Burg Lahneck (burg means castle), built in 1240 and now a luxury hotel. Then we saw (from the outside) Marksburg, the castle that we would be visiting later. Driving on, we came to Boppard, a small Roman Town with original Roman towers and a chunk of Roman wall that we saw through our car window. Next were Burg Sterrenberg and Burg Liebenstein, two castles on hills next to each other. The owners of these castles were constantly warring. This fact reminded us of a Veggietale movie that we haven’t seen for a year about to warring groups in castles on hills that threw pots and boots back and forth (until they learned to love each other and then they threw flowers and candy).
Burg Maus and Burg Katz (literally Mouse Castle and Cat Castle) were our next destinations. Burg Katz is called that because of the family name of the people who lived there. However, its pointy turrets and arched windows make it look somewhat like a cat. The next castle over from Burg Katz, Burg Maus, is called that for no purpose whatsoever, probably just a play on names. Our next stop, St. Goar, is a large tourist attraction. Not only is it a cute Rhine town, but it also has a huge cuckoo clock shop, with the world’s largest free hanging cuckoo clock and a shop that boasts the world’s largest beer stein. We went first to the cuckoo clock shop. The Germans actually invented the cuckoo clocks – the Swiss invented the watch. If you confuse them, you might offend a patriotic German. We watched the huge cuckoo clock outside ding at 12:00 and then went on to the beer stein shop. Overwhelmed by all the beer steins filling the walls, we grabbed our lunch and ate a nice picnic lunch on the Rhine. While eating, I made up a funny little rhyme and then modified it to fit our circumstances: We dined on the Rhine in a line under a pine and near a sign without nine steins of fine wine fresh from the vine. Try to say that five times fast.
After taking a walk around the town, we continued on our drive towards the treacherous Loreley. The Loreley was a nymph who lived on a steep slate rock on a steep bend in the river just before St. Goar. The legend of the Loreley tells the story of a count that sent a group of soldiers to kill the Loreley after his son was overcome by her seductive singing and died upon crashing on the rock. The soldiers cornered her in her cave and she called out to her Father Rhine, who came in the guise of huge waves and carried her to safety. After taking a couple of pictures, we moved on to the Seven Maidens – and yet another legend. There once was a prince who had seven spoiled daughters who never married because they only noticed men’s shortcomings. Tired of this behavior he brought seven of his knights to the castle and demanded that each of his daughters marry one of them. But they started complaining about all the knights’ shortcomings and escaped into a boat. Downstream, God turned them into the seven rocks that formed the Seven Maiden’s reef.
Our next attraction was the Raftbusters, a group of rocks in the middle of the river famous for bustin’ up rafts. Bacharach was next (pronounced BAHKH-ah-rahkh, with a guttural kh sound), another quaint town on the Rhine, famous for its wine. We took a self-guided walk from the shore around the town, seeing the market square, wine cellars, an original post office, and a ruined gothic chapel, ending in a vineyard. The vineyard had a five-story tall tower just sitting there so we climbed it and surveyed a great view of the Rhine and Bacharach. We continued driving and soon came to the Ehrenfels Castle and Mauseturm (mouse tower). Since this castle didn’t have a view to the north, the Mauseturm was built in the middle of the river. At our next town, Bingen, we took a ferry across the river and finished our guided drive.
We drove south to Marksburg, the castle we had seen earlier and raced up the hill to catch the four o’clock tour in English. Our tour took us around the castle and wasn’t too interesting, but our guide managed to get all the facts across in English and then in Japanese. Glad that we had caught the tour, we walked down and drove back to Koblenz for groceries. After buying groceries at two different stores, we drove home and cooked up a real German dinner - wiener schnitzel (breaded veal [YUM!]), fried potatoes, herbs and veggies, and then layered cake with cherries, cream and chocolate on top. Extremely pleased with how the day went, we bid each other “Gute Nacht!” and headed to bed.
Posted by Abby Taylor.