Wordless Wednesday: a crowded awning

 

Two countries in a day (or even an hour)

Please pardon the reflection in this photo, it was taken from a bus window. And our bus was almost instantly beaming us from Germany to France! The bridge we're on is the Europabrücke on one side and the Pont de l'Europe on the other, connecting the French city of Strasbourg with its less-well-known (but very charming) sister city of Kehl, Germany. (The bridge you see out the window is a separate tramway bridge over the Rhine.)

Yes, the Rhine river is the border between France and Germany for the last part of our journey upstream to Switzerland, and this is the first time we were able to experience bi-national tourism on this trip. We spent the morning in Strasbourg, and could have spent the whole day there. But we decided to skip the more crowded, touristy city for its calmer sister in the afternoon. I'll tell you about Kehl next time.

We had to take the aforementioned bus into Strasbourg because of its peculiar geography, at least its historically peculiar geography. The modern city of Strasbourg is very much right on the Rhine. But its vieille ville, or old city, where most of the tourist attractions are (like, of course, its famous cathedral), is on a little island that's actually called the Grand Île, or large island. It's surrounded by the Ill (not to be confused with Île), a small Rhine tributary that thus provided security for the village that was, yes, again, a Roman outpost in the wilds of Europe long ago. I asked our informative guide and learned that the island isn't completely natural, but was partially engineered by those clever Romans. Today it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The bus ride allowed us to see more of the city, in addition to the border bridges mentioned above. We drove by the impressive European Parliament campus buildings, as we learned (and Wikipedia confirms) that Strasbourg is one of four EU "capitals." It's also home of the Council of Europe and its European Court of Human Rights. The presence of the latter here accounts for the text on this large banner we saw later:

it reads, more or less: The Alsace, land of human rights,
in solidarity with the people of Ukraine

This region—Alsace—is well known as something of a political football, bouncing back and forth from France to Germany often during the dark days when those countries were bitter enemies. Now, though, the people there, not to mention the tourists that visit, get to experience its unique, blended culture and cuisine.

Another thing the area is famous for is...

...storks! Our bus took us down this street where almost every house has a tree hosting a stork nest in front of it. They are supposed to bring good luck (as I remember reading in this delightful children's book, many years ago) so no one's going to chase them off.

The first stop on our walking tour, after the bus deposited us in old Strasbourg, was the Ponts Couverts, or covered bridges, dating from the 1200's. They guard one entrance to the old city, and aren't covered now, but sport these handsome towers...

Here's a  look at a section of the Ill's outlet that I believe we were told has been converted into living spaces:

The portion of the old city just inside the Ponts Couverts is called La Petite France, what's now a very  fashionable quarter but which has a less-savory history, as you can read in the Wikipedia link. Whatever its past, however, it sure is gorgeous now...

the most voluptuous wisteria outside of Houston!

Walking on through the old city, we saw water management features like these, controlling the flow of the Ill and keeping the picturesque architecture safe and dry:

We eventually made our way to the cathedral square, a nice collection of photogenic buildings mostly devoted now to the tourist trade, with good reason...

It does make the area crowded enough that it's impossible to get all of the massive, glorious cathedral in one shot...

But you can snap the doors, which, of course, I did:

I refer you to the very lengthy and detailed Wikipedia entry for more comprehensive pictures, as well as answers to any questions you could possibly have about the building. I was able to get some reasonably good photos of highlights of the interior space, which is as memorable as you would expect...

the stunning window over the stunning doors

the incredible organ in its incredible perch

A highlight's highlight is the astronomical clock tucked away in one corner:

This photo really doesn't do it justice. I suggest you click here to see better images and learn about its multitudinous functions, in the section of the Wikipedia article devoted to it.

As you might be asking, it is possible to climb at least partway up the cathedral's imposing spire, but after our climb in Köln we weren't ready to tackle several hundred more steps again. And, after a lengthy walk back to the bus, we were really pooped and ready for lunch. That's where the decision was made not to return to France (Alruna was docked on the German side of the border running down the middle of the river). I'll show you what we saw instead next time.

Wordless Wednesday: a tight squeeze

 

Spires (and more) in Speyer

This time, just as in 2017, some of the stops along the river that we weren't expecting to be highlights turned out to be just that. On the Danube, Passau is a great example of this phenomenon; I'd never even heard of it before we got our cruise itinerary, and it turned out to be, possibly, my favorite city on the trip. Speyer, Germany, was a similar nice surprise. (Although for folks who know more European history than I do, it's obvious Speyer is a lot more famous than Passau!)

The highlight-within-the-highlight was of course the Kaiserdom (Imperial Cathedral) that you can see behind the cool statue of the pilgrim above. I mean, when a slew of Holy Roman Emperors are buried there, and construction on it was begun in the eleventh century, how could it not be a highlight? You can read about its very colorful and interesting history in the Wikipedia link above, but we were mainly entranced by its beautiful appearance...

the Dom as we approached it from the river 

gorgeous stonework on the eastern side

more amazing stonework on the north side;
our guide told us this is the result of more recent restorations

and of course...the doors!

The interior was also impressive, as these enormous structures always are:

It also offers a variety of unusual items in a little side chapel: some very highly decorated relics. This one might be—supposedly—a bit of the "True Cross." "Kreuz" means "cross"; sorry, but I didn't take a photo of any informational signage. It's attractively displayed, at any rate.

And this is what the Dom looks like from the other end of the pleasant pedestrian avenue of  Maximillianstraße...

...where there's another Speyer architectural highlight...

This is the Altpörtel, or Old City Gate (ironically, not as old as the Dom, with construction having begun in just the 13th century). As you can see in this link to the Speyer tourism office website, you can't go up into the tower, but we wouldn't have had time for that anyway. We just enjoyed passing through its cool archway, and, especially, admiring its unusual clock:

Our guide explained (and you can read about this in the tourism link) that the large face only gives you the hour, while the smaller one tells you which quarter of the hour you're in. It seems like it would take people twice as long to figure out what time it is in this arrangement, but I guess they weren't as concerned with exact-atomic-clock-time in the 18th century, which is when the clock was installed.

Henry, as is his wont, did some extra exploring on his own, and toured this church, that the rest of us only looked at from the Gate:

St. Joseph's Parish Church, of much more
recent vintage, but still impressive

Another handsome church that we glimpsed but didn't have time to explore, was this one, the Dreifaltigskeitskirche/Trinity Church:

In addition to these monumental structures, we got to see some of the more intimate side of Speyer, as our guide (one of the best of many good ones) walked us down a cute little alley. Along the way we saw signs that some buildings had been the homes of guild members in the past...

we were assured this wasn't the birthplace of the former Chancellor,
but rather the site of a craftsman who might have been a barber/dentist
(note the pliers!)

We learned of another custom that was unfamiliar to us (and we saw it often elsewhere after learning about it):

The chalk-written symbols here signify that this house was "blessed" by the three Wise Men on Epiphany this year: the letters stand for Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, and of course there's a star. What happens is that groups of people go around singing carols at this time, and if you give them a donation of some kind, they "bless" your house for the coming year. (I suspect this place might need a blessing: the horseshoe is hung upside down! At least that's what I'd always been told, but this website says the "wrong" way makes sense and also works. You learn something new—and sometimes many things—every day, especially when travelling.)

Just strolling down the Maximillianstraße to get back to the river* was enjoyable and interesting. For example, we saw these tiles laid into the cobblestones of the street. The Jewish family that owned the building so marked was forced to flee ("flucht") in the late 1930's. Seeing these markers reminded me again how well Germany has dealt with the terrible parts of its history, in ways that I would hope we could eventually match.

And their younger generation is providing inspiration in Europe's current crisis as well. These young ladies were performing on the street to raise funds for Ukraine:

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*Since I usually sing Viking's praises throughout this blog, for parity's sake I need to mention that this day's touring did begin with a hiccup—although it was remedied in almost perfect Viking fashion.

We were supposed to make a brief stop in Mannheim, a large city a bit downstream from Speyer, and then continue on the river, while having  lunch and some onboard entertainment as we sailed, until we reached there. Well, the brief stop got elongated rather alarmingly, due to "technical issues" that were never explained (we suspected some sort of covid problem, although it could have been a docking slip snafu). 

Which wouldn't have been so bad, had they just told us, "Go stroll around Mannheim for a few hours while we sort this out." But instead, possibly because they didn't know how long we'd be held up, we just had to twiddle our thumbs on Alruna for quite a while (which, to be sure, is not the worst place to have to do this, and of course we had a wonderful lunch). Eventually, they did tell us we could go explore the city, and gave us a nice map, but told us we needed to be back in an hour to catch busses to Speyer.

fruit tree in glorious bloom near our dock in Mannheim

So that's what we did, although we couldn't see too much in the time allotted, and there was some stress when we had a little trouble finding our way back to the river (you'd think it would be easy!). Mannheim is an interesting place, with some very scenic architecture, etc., and it would have been nice to have had more time there.

Jesuit Church that we didn't have time to visit

a pretty impressive academic quadrangle at the University of Mannheim,
with tourists for scale

I didn't notice, until I was going over things for the blog, that there is a Schillerdenkmal (Schiller memorial) not far from the river. Since the dude was one of my favorites back in the day when I was a German major (which I abandoned before graduation) that would have been nice to see. 

Oh well, a minor glitch in an otherwise fabulous day on the Rhine. We made it to Speyer on time via the busses, and the shipboard entertainment (the interesting and informative "nautical talk" that goes into all kinds of interesting river- and ship-related topics) was re-scheduled for that evening. When we finished touring Speyer, there was Alruna waiting for us, technical issues resolved and ready to take us further upstream, and into a whole different country! Stay tuned.

Wordless Wednesday: does this really need to be said?!

 

Along the Rhine: fairy tale settings

This super-photogenic hunk of rock is one of the most Romantic locations in Germany—at least that's what I remember from the German Romanticism course I took in college. Yes, it's the Lorelei rock, famous in song and story. And it's only one of the many wonderful sights we took in from Alruna's sundeck the afternoon after leaving Koblenz.

Most of said sights were more on the order of this:

Marksburg Castle

As some of you may know, we had seen many of the stupendously scenic castles along this stretch of the Rhine before—in 1996 on our day cruise from Bingen-Rüdesheim down to St. Goar and back. Here are some photos and reminiscences from that trip. Marksburg, however, was a new castle for us, and a pretty spectacular one at that, I think you'll agree.

We got to see several more castles downstream from St. Goar on this trip, but I was happy to see that the website that allowed me to identify each one before is still operational. And it includes the new ones. So thanks to LoreleyInfo again! The links I've made to more information about each castle in this post are from that very handy site.

Unfortunately, they don't do the same thing for the charming little villages along the route, so I can't tell you where the impressive church on the right was. But I can say that the villages are almost as photogenic as the castles. What a lovely stretch of river!

Another pair of new castles for us have a picturesque backstory, although one that LoreleyInfo disputes. The first one you come to (when going upstream, as we were) is Sterrenberg, and the second is Liebenstein. I got them both in one shot, so you can see how close they are to one another. And notice the wall in between; that's what gave rise to the legend that they were the homes of "hostile brothers."

That was the story our program director fed us, but according to the website, the truth is much less dramatic. Too bad!

Just a bit beyond our 1996 cruise end point is part of another pair, that we got to see this time...

"Maus" Castle

... whose mate, of course, is ...

"Katz" Castle

I guess, with a little imagination, they look like a cat and a mouse? Here are each from a different viewpoint, showing also a bit of their adjoining little village, Sankt Goarhausen. So you can make the cat-mouse comparison for yourself, if you like.

The town opposite these castles is Sankt Goar, and I thought I'd show you their waterfront, too. Notice the Ukrainian flag flying beside the German—a common sight throughout Germany.

Yes, the villages are helpfully labelled as you go along the river, but I didn't always take pictures of the labels in a way that made the more panoramic views identifiable. And I didn't take good notes. 😞

A couple more favorites of mine from 1996, viewed this time, are Stahleck Castle ...

... and this cool little structure out in the river itself; it's the Pfalzgrafenstein Toll Station at Kaub ...

These sights are the first of a bang-bang-bang lineup of beauties heading into Rüdesheim, which was Alruna's stop for the night, and where our 1996 cruise started and ended.

We did observe that cruising in comfort isn't the only way to see this wonderful countryside. Here's one of several RV parks (which is what they'd be called in the U.S.) along the way and most seemed to be doing a good business...

Just two more castles to show you:

Rheinstein Castle

Ehrenfels Castle

Ehrenfels is the ruined castle that we got to clamber around back in 1996. Take a look at the bottom of the webpage for some pictures of a castle that looks just the same, and tourists who definitely don't!

I do have one more 1996 connection to show you. When we visited Europe then, we met up with a friend of Henry's from his grade school days in Germany. Amazingly, we've been able to keep in touch with him and his lovely wife and met up with them on this trip, too! In 1996, they were living in Mainz, and showed us lots of cool sights in that area. They live further away from the Rhine now, but still made the journey to Rüdesheim anyway, just to join us for dinner. (The bag Uli is holding contains a bottle of wine they brought us, along with, of course, four glasses!)

Henry and Uli catching up in Rüdesheim

Getting to see them again made what was already a pretty spectacular vacation even more meaningful. Maybe someday they'll make it to the U.S. for a vacation and we can repay their hospitality.