Rhine River Castles

Our fifth day on the river took us through the Rhine River Gorge. This section is the most beautiful and is lined with castles, one about every two kilometers. Because it is navigable all the way from Rotterdam to Basel, the Rhine has always been one of the world’s busiest rivers.

Trains travel along the river on both banks

Liebenstein and Sterrenberg Castles in the distance

This section of the Rhine is narrow which made it easier for local barons to set up ‘toll booths’ along the river. The fact that there was no central government in Germany meant that these local ‘robber barons’ had free reign to do as they pleased. So they built a castle with a tower and even used chains across the river to enforce the tolls. 

Pfalz Castle is situated in the river easing the collection of tolls

Many of the castles would be destroyed when France became powerful and decided that the Rhine River should be the eastern border. Louis XIV has many of the castles in the 1680s. More would be destroyed by the French Revolutionary Army in the 1790s and by Napoleon in 1806. 

Schonburg Castle

Rheinfels Castle

Maus Castle

Then in the late 1800s, they began to be rebuilt often in the neo-Gothic style of the Romantic Age. Today, they are hotels, hostels, restaurants, and museums and a delight to travelers in the area. 

Sooneck Castle

Liebenstein and Sterrenberg with the wall built between to separate the brothers who became enemies over a woman. One story has it that they settled things and celebrated with an arrow in the air each morning. One day one arrow found its mark as the other brother opened his door to fire his arrow. Perhaps some of the story is true.

 As has been the norm for this trip we had decent but not beautiful weather for most of the day. The partly sunny forecast turned out to be true. We had blue sky in places, but often the sun was obscured by the remaining clouds. At least is was not raining and we were able to sit on the upper deck and enjoy the views.

Bacharach

Liebfrauenkirche

St. Nikolas Catholic Church

Another of the many churches

The trip through the gorge took about two  hours and we arrived at Koblenz about noon. After lunch, we were treated to a tour of Marksburg Castle. Marksburg avoided the destruction of the French period and is today a museum showing how the castle inhabitants lived and worked. 

Marksburg Castle

The three towers were from the lead smelter at the bottom of the hill. Today the stacks stand idle. The factory recycles car batteries.

When carts were no longer entering the castle the door was narrowed for protection

The cannons were ready, but the castle was never attacked

The bellows pushed the wine into a fresh barrel for drinking

The kitchen

Tapestries also provided insulation from the cold walls

Self-sufficiency was essential

A variety of armor

A rack used for torture

Drainage ditch. They thought of everything

The blacksmith's forge. He made tools, not decorative pieces.

View of town from the castle

Beautiful tilework

Cologne

 

We arrived at Cologne overnight so we could take a nice walking tour of this largest city in the Rhine area. Cologne had another magnificent cathedral and even with a population of 10 million and major destruction by bombing during World War II, it still has an interesting town center.

First settled by the Romans, the city has a great Roman museum. One street corner has a section of the underground water line that was pulled out of the ground for display. One can also take a tour of what remains of the water system.

Gargoyles are always intersting

Saturn Company paid for this window.

The cathedral is another great example of the Gothic style. It also has a lot of stained glass in its windows some of which are quite modern. The modern donors follow the tradition of including a part of the window honoring themselves. 

Cologne’s residents used to have a reputation for being lazy workers. They even have a story about their work being done by elves while they slept at night. Unfortunately, one curious woman decided she needed to actually see the elves so she snuck out one night with a lamp. She did see the elves and they left the city. The city likes the story so much that they built a monument to the woman.

Cologne is also the home of Kolsch beer. More than a score of brewhouses are wonderful brewpubs which sell only their own brew. We did a short pub crawl in the evening to enjoy some of their brews. It was fun to see some of the places where the locals hang out. Our tour guide said he uses the tours to have another excuse to go out and drink beer. I’m not at all sure he needs the excuse, but it makes a good story. 

One of the brewhouses we visited

A combination of curling and bocce ball

This Christmas market has artisans showing how they work. They were selling monogrammed horseshoes.

This hop-on/hop-off trains travels between the different market locations

Civil weddings are required in Germany. They happen every 15-20 minutes at the city hall.

Heidelberg

Situated at the base of a mountain on the Neckar River 22 kilometers from the Rhine River, Heidelberg is a lovely old university town with great views and some of the most expensive property in Germany. Germany’s first public library was founded here and it was a major base for the occupying US military until 1915 when it moved to its new headquarters in Weisbaden.

Our morning tour began with a trip up the hillside to the castle shrouded in fog. It is a beautiful location although the heavy fog completely obscured the views of the town and river below.  The most interesting points in the castle were the world’s largest wine keg a footprint in the brick patio created when a knight jumped from the window above to escape an irate husband or father.

The castle itself was begun in the 14^th century and developed further over the centuries. By the 18^th century it was being used as a quarry for stones to build new homes in town. The quarrying stopped in 1800 and restoration began including the building of a banquet hall built in 1934. 

In town we visited a church with a very modern Nativity scene that included soccer players and Nelson Mandela. 

We wandered the Christmas markets and visited the old bridge to look at the Bridge Monkey. The official legend about the monkey is that he is there to remind Heidelbergers that they are equal no matter which side of the bridge they live on. Looking in the mirror he is holding you see your own face and know that you are no better than anyone either in front of you or behind you as you cross the bridge. An added bonus to the legend says that if you touch his fingers you will return to Heidelberg. Touching the mice nearby will bring children and touching the mirror will bring wealth. 

This is a new monkey created in 1979. However, the earlier monkeys which have been on the bridge since the 15^th century may have a better story involving a dispute between two powerful men on either side of the bridge. I don’t remember the whole story, but what our guide told us had to do with love and sex and a monkey representing those who do bad things. The older monkeys held the mirror in one hand with the other on its butt. The creator was telling his nemesis that if he wanted to blame someone, he only needed to look at himself. Thus the mirror.

By the time we left the fog had lifted for our bus ride back to the ship and  a few hours sailing to Rudesheim. We arrived in Rudesheim at dusk and only had time to wander the Christmas market for a few hours before dinner. It is amazing how busy every Christmas market is. I would have thought that since just about every decent sized town has a market, there would be some saturation point. However, every market we visited was crowded with people. It is a great way to socialize and spend an evening out with friends or family or both. We certainly enjoyed them.