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.

Wordless Wednesday: Rotterdam in the morning

 

Koblenz: a corner of Germany

At the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle, the land forms a neat triangle, and the Latin for "confluence" gave its name to the town that sits there. (Yes, it was also a Roman outpost, just like Klön). 

The triangle itself is called das deutsches Eck (the German corner), and it's presided over by the impressive monument to Wilhelm I that you see above. He was called "der Große" ("the Great," not "the Gross") because of his role in unifying Germany into a single country in 1871. The statue was destroyed in WWII, though, and there was some controversy before it was restored as you see it, according to our local Koblenz guide. But folks must have felt somewhat attached to the old look, and so here it stands today, a definitely dated, though majestic, welcome to the charming town.

Koblenz' Altstadt (old town) is eminently walkable, and we had a pleasant stroll through its narrow streets and picturesque squares after a short ride from our boat's docking place in Braubach (about 10 km upstream). On the left above you can get a nice glimpse of one of the Liebfrauenkirche's towers (St. Mary's Church). We later had time to duck inside and here's a look at the church's impressive decor:

Another handsome church in the Altstadt is the Kastorkirche, or Basilica of St. Castor:

We either didn't have time to look inside this big boy, or perhaps it wasn't open. But there is a really cool monument—of sorts—in the plaza in front of it. First, a little background. As history buffs among

my readers know, many of the lands on either side of the Rhine that we've been sailing past have changed hands between France and Germany many times. At one time, during Napoleon's reign, Koblenz (then spelled Coblenz) was French. And the French governor of the area was so confident that Napoleon's campaign in Russia would be successful that he built the monumental fountain you see on the right. It's now known as the Kastorbrunnen, or St. Castor's fountain.

His inscription reads (in bad French, according to the Wikipedia article linked above): "In 1812 / Memorial to the campaign against the Russians / under the prefecture of Jules Doazan." Of course, anyone who's heard the 1812 Overture knows how the campaign actually turned out. Not only was Napoleon driven out of Russia, but two years later the Russian army drove deep into his empire, at least as far as Koblenz. 

The Russian general, however, had more of a sense of humor than his modern counterparts, it seems. Instead of knocking down the insulting fountain, he just added this inscription (in French, no less):"Seen and approved by us, Russian commander of the city Koblenz, on 1 January 1814." You really can't make this stuff up! And thanks to Christiane, our guide, for pointing out this monument to foibles and sarcasm, par excellence. Otherwise we probably wouldn't have noticed it.

Another attraction near the Basilica is this display of pieces of the Berlin wall, symbols of Germany's latest unification:

Moving back from the 20th century to the 18th, you have this lovely window. The building it decorates is a Guildhall, originally built in 1709, but restored after the war in 1951, according to the inscription:

We spent some of our free time in the St. Mary's church, but also had time to relax in with some tea in the nice Jesuitenplatz (Jesuit Square). This handsome building provides one side of the square. Notice the cute gables on the roof? There are just enough of them that they can be used as a large Advent calendar at Christmastime. Clever, eh?

Here we are in another Koblenz square (this time I neglected to make a note of its name, and can't find it on google maps). The large statue (not the tourist) features scenes from the history of the town:

This clock is in that unidentified square, too. We were told the guy at the bottom sticks out his tongue on the hour, but we didn't have time to wait for the show:

This clock, and the Kastorbrunnen, aren't the only rather droll sites close to the hearts of Koblenz. One of their most famous pieces of public art (which, shockingly, has no Wikipedia page!) is the Schängelbrunnen, a statue of a naughty boy that periodically spits out water at passersby (the linked article will explain what the name means):

You know he's famous, and probably much loved, since you see his likeness all over the Altstadt:

And here's some more whimsy you can see underfoot:

I don't want to leave Koblenz without showing you some of the lovely flowers that were on display. We were so smart to make our vacation at this time of year! We saw flowers like this everywhere, and not just tulips, either.

As much as we saw and learned in Koblenz, that was just the morning! We spent the rest of the day taking in the most scenic section of the Rhine, the stretch dotted with amazing castles. Some of them we saw on our day cruise in 1996, but they're worth seeing again. And some of them were new to us, like Marksburg, right at Braubach. Our travel companions got to tour it up close, while we were seeing Koblenz, but it was pretty impressive just from the sundeck of Alruna:

This is just a teaser. Look for more of these fairy-tale housing projects next time.

Köln: best landmark you can imagine

Yep, there it is, right at the other end of the Hohenzollernbrücke. A cathedral so big, it's impossible to get all in one shot if you're any closer...

...the main attraction here for hundreds of years. And, as we learned from our knowledgeable Viking guide, a landmark for more than the faithful. During the war, when almost all the rest of the city was bombed to smithereens, those towers were untouched (even though some other parts of the cathedral were damaged). Not, we learned, because of an Allied desire to preserve such a structure, but because they were an impossible-to-miss landmark guiding the bombers to their other targets.

This is the picture I referenced in my last post, taken by the U.S. Army, and it's easy to see what an amazing landmark, and aiming device, the cathedral was. Fortunately, we're at least one generation removed from the people who inflicted this damage and those who lived through it, and we were able to see this incredible structure restored to its glory.

The steeples are of course, for us as well as the bomber/navigators, a "highlight," but they do have to have maintenance done occasionally. How would you like to have to climb this ladder to do some spire-scrubbing?

the height of the towers is 515 feet!

Back down on terra firma, you can see that, as is often the case with these humongous European churches, the doors (and associated decoration) are a main attraction:

And of course the interior is just as awesome (in the original meaning of the word) as the exterior...

for sure most of these shots have to be verticals!

There's even floor tile art! Longtime readers will know how happy this made me...

And I always love the stained glass in these old churches, but can't always get good pictures of it. Somehow, I was lucky this time:

As wonderful as all these aspects of the cathedral are, we took it upon ourselves to get a different perspective, too. After a much-needed nutritious lunch aboard Alruna, we crossed the bridge again to see if we could meet the challenge of climbing 2/3 of the way up those imposing towers...

Turm=tower; besteigung=ascent; Stufen=steps; Aufstieg=climb;
Auf-und Absteig=roundtrip; kein Aufzug=no elevator

533 steps might not sound like that many (or, it might!) but, believe me, it is! However, the experience was worth the effort. (Although I should warn claustrophobes that the spiral stairs are narrow and the up and down traffic use the same stairway.)

Even before you get to the top, there are neat things to see, like the bell chamber (which also provides a nice respite for a while from climbing)...

But the views from the end of the climb...wow!

view looking upstream from the tower
(that's Groß St. Martin in the center)

That's our lovely Alruna in the red square, right at the other end of the bridge:

Here's another look outside, this time featuring some of the incredible decorative touches on the church itself:

And here's what one of those amazing towers looks like from the inside. (Remember that the climb only takes you part of the way to the very top, so this is as close as you can get.)

Happy tourists enjoying the views and getting ready for the long walk down...

...where we treated ourselves to a much-deserved sampling of the local brew:

Before, of course, heading back to our lovely ship and another amazing dinner. As we headed on up the Rhine. Stay tuned!

Köln: perfect parking place

The first German stop on our cruise up the Rhine was the ancient, lovely, and fascinating city of Köln (known by most English-speakers as Cologne). And Viking landed us in a perfect place to see the high points (pun intended!) of the city: right next to the Hohenzollernbrücke (Hohenzollern Bridge) you can see here. The particular member of that family in this photo is Wilhelm II—yes, the guy that's probably most responsible for WWI. But it's a nice statue, no?

The bridge is an imposing structure, with three sets of train tracks in addition to two handy pedestrian walkways that span the 1300+ feet needed to cross the mighty river, still fairly close to its mouth. It was destroyed toward the end of WWII, but rebuilt quickly thereafter. (The Wikipedia article linked above has an amazing panoramic picture of the bridge and a good bit of the city when it was almost all rubble.)

But if you take a close look at it in the picture on the left (click to zoom in) the pedestrian walk has some rather elaborate decorations along its entire length. That same Wikipedia article tells us that, starting in 2008, the custom of "lovers' locks" really caught on in Köln. Here's a closeup:

Fortunately, the walkway on the other side of the bridge doesn't have locks packed quite so tightly; I'm not sure you could find any empty space here, should you want to pledge your love in 2022!

I know that you know that the main attraction in Köln is the cathedral you can see over Frank's shoulder here (he was one of the best of the top-rate Viking local guides who showed us around). And I'll have plenty to show-and-tell about it next time. But although our time in this wonderful city was criminally minimal, we did get to see a lot of other interesting sites, and I want to give them their due.  

For example, here's another big church, this one Romanesque and of an even older origin than its more famous cousin...

This building—Groß Sankt Martin, or Great St. Martin—has a particularly interesting history, some of which Frank was able to impart to us (and you can get the full story in this Wikipedia article). It was largely destroyed during the war, and because there had been so many different additions and alterations to it over the centuries, they had trouble deciding which "version" of the church to restore!

As is often the case in German cities, the Rathaus (or City Hall; "Rat" means counsel, or advice, in German) is also super-photogenic. It was also destroyed by Allied bombing except for part of the tower, according to Wikipedia, and was restored mostly in a more modern style. So we're glad the Gothic tower was spared...

But there are interesting modern buildings here, too, like this one. It has something to do with the city government; the coat of arms on the corner of the side wall represents the city.

Notice also the Ukrainian flag. We saw expressions of solidarity with Ukraine throughout our trip, even in the small towns (until we got to Switzerland, but, well, they have historically had a different way of looking at conflicts). Here's another big banner in the old city of Köln. If we were told what the names on it signify, I don't remember, sorry.

I mentioned the "ancient" nature of the city back up at the top of the post, and here we had our first—but definitely not our last—reminder of just how extensive the Roman empire was. Here is a portion of the north gate to the city, built in 50 C.E., when Rome founded a colony here. It was actually a favorite of Agrippina, sister of Nero and wife of everyone's favorite emperor, Claudius (otherwise known as Derek Jacobi). Back in Roman times the town was known as Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, and you can see the acronym CCAA all around the old city—thanks to Frank we knew what it meant when we saw it, plus we also learned that the current name of the city doesn't have anything to do with perfume.  
To finish up back at the bridge, here's the handsome, and enormous, train station that's on the downstream side of the left end of the bridge. Next up, the even more amazing structure that's on the upstream side...

Wordless Wednesday: watch your step!