Last week, I attended a Mosel Wine Festival and fireworks at Bernkastel-Kues. This week, it was a Rhine wine market and the latest Rhine in Flames show in Oberwesel. Overall, I think Bernkastel-Kues is a better time. But Oberwesel has the better fireworks. I mean, seriously...they were the most INSANE fireworks Lance and I have ever seen, and he comes from a small town, I from a large town with huge fireworks every year around Independence Day. This display made that one look small time. I kid thee not.
Anyhoo...on with the report. It won't be that long, I promise.
We left Schinnen around 11 am with 2 busses, such was the popularity of this trip. Lance and I were one row in front of the very back. The women sitting in the back row brought a bottle of wine and proceeded to get wasted. Lance and I were trying to nap, and we ended up dealing with boisterous laughter and a lot of talk about unpleasant bodily functions. Yay.
But finally, we arrived in Oberwesel around 2 pm, and we had the entire day to ourselves. So Lance and I took off and just meandered. We decided against going to the castle...neither of us felt up to the hike, and besides, it probably wasn't anything we haven't seen before (yes, I know...SHUT UP!), so we just decided to stick to wandering around town.
Unfortunately, Oberwesel was dead dead dead. All the shops were closed. The only thing going on in town was the wein markt, which is not a wine festival, per se. The entire point is to get you to sample and buy. I'll get to that in a minute.
We first stopped at Liebfrauenkirche, which is Oberwesel's bright red brick church, attached to a very old little chapel, which I believe was the first church built at that location. I'm just assuming, though. It's 1600 years old, so it's a logical assumption. The church was very pretty inside, a pleasant surprise, since I've visited many underwhelming places of worship.
After that, we just kind of continued our wandering, even paying our admission to the wein markt (we pretty much had to gain admission to get from one side of town to the other) and our tickets allowed us to come and go as we pleased, so we just kept poking around and seeing what we could see, which unfortunately, wasn't much. In the meantime, passing through the wine market, I sampled a glass here or there.
Lance thought it might be nice to take a river cruise, so we went down to the riverbanks, only to discover that the boats there didn't really do pleasure cruises, or if they did, they were several hours long and rather expensive. So we scrapped that idea.
At around 5:30, we decided to have dinner at this little Italian place that we scoped out earlier. So we found a seat on the patio, which was right next to the wine market entrance, so we could people watch (well, I could...Lance sat with his back to it). We were at a table that seated 4 people, so eventually, this old guy came and sat with us, which is customary in Germany but weird for Americans to sit with total strangers. We did our best to ignore him and carry on with dinner and conversation.
After that, we went to the riverbank and waited for the fireworks. And waited. And waited. We ran into people from our group, so at least we could talk to other people. We had more than 2 hours to kill.
Finally, at 9, the procession of lighted boats came down the river.
Then at 9:30, the town of Oberwesel glowed red...everything from the castle on one end to the city gate on the other took on a bright red appearance. Smoke rose up. Flames were shooting out the front of one of the buildings. It was supposed to resemble the night back in the Middle Ages when Oberwesel went up in flames.
And then the fireworks started. They were perfectly choreographed to a variety of classical music. Breathtaking. Amazing. Just completely magical and awe-inspiring.
When those ended, we high-tailed it back to our bus, as the scheduled departure time was 10:15. Everyone made it back, but two women from the second bus, who we had to leave behind. Oh well. No sympathy for them. If they couldn't follow the rules, that is their problem.
On the way home, we had to stop abruptly at a rest stop. The second bus had a bit of a puke fest going on, so the bus had to be cleaned and fumigated before we could hit the road again. I'm just glad it wasn't our bus.
And in conclusion, drunk people on busses are annoying. The guy directly in front of me kept swilling the beer, and he got louder and more obnoxious with each sip. I couldn't sleep on the trip home, but at least Lance was able to a bit.
And now...pictures. None of the fireworks though, sorry.
Showing posts with label Rhine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rhine. Show all posts
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Bonn and Rhein in Flammen
My friend Andrea, her husband Jeff, and I decided to go to the opening weekend for Rhein in Flammen (Rhine in Flames) yesterday. Rhine in Flames is a yearly event that takes place several times over the course of the summer - beginning generally in the towns along the Northern end of the Rhine and then moving down the river, generally ending somewhere around Bingen each year (usually in conjunction with a wine festival).
Since yesterday's event took place around the area of Bonn/Königswinter, we decided to leave early in the afternoon to spend a few hours sightseeing in Bonn, drive across the river to Königswinter, and then watch the fireworks from there.
It was a beautiful day for sightseeing…low 70s, sunny, just a bit of a breeze, but not enough to be uncomfortable. We had a nice drive to Bonn…it takes a little over an hour to get there. But wouldn't you know, we had no sooner arrived in Bonn, waiting at a traffic light at an intersection, when Jeff's car died. He pushed it to the side of the road and attempted to figure out what was wrong with it. He guessed that the fuel pump went out (an accurate assessment, as we later discovered), and then commenced to calling ADAC (the German auto club). He told Andrea and I to go ahead and get out of the car and do our sightseeing. We weren't far from the main train station anyway, which is where we had planned to park and begin our walking tour. So Andrea and I left him to deal with the car and we went ahead to begin our sightseeing.
We stayed in the general area of the Markt. There were lots of interesting things to see, not the least of which was a beach volleyball tournament right in the cathedral square. Rather odd, but interesting. We wanted to visit the cathedral, but it was closed. It was completely covered in scaffolding too, so I couldn't even photograph it. We had no particular destination in mind, other than the Beethoven Haus, so we just meandered along the shopping district, making note of potential places to have dinner. We eventually found ourselves a bit lost, as the signs for Beethoven Haus came to an end and we couldn't find it. So Andrea consulted her map, realized we were about a block from where we should be, and we backtracked and found it.
So we paid the admission and went in for about an hour. It's a good sized house, but with small rooms. No pictures allowed inside. Beethoven's viola, organ, and his various woodwind instruments were on display. His hearing instruments (ear trumpets and whatnot) were also there, as was his life mask and death mask. It was interesting. The room in which he was born is completely empty, except for a bust of him sitting in the center of the room. It was an interesting way to kill some time, and the gardens outside were pretty. The gift shop was nice too. I picked up a couple of Andy Warhol's Beethoven paintings in postcard form to send to some friends, and I got a magnet that has his sheet music printed on it.
Andy Warhol's Beethoven
After the Beethoven Haus, we were starving. Andrea had already talked to Jeff a few times, and he was in the process of having the car towed to the shop and getting a rental car (all of which is covered by ADAC), so he told us to go ahead and eat. I remembered seeing a tapas bar just a couple of blocks from the Beethoven Haus, so I asked Andrea if tapas sounded good, and she agreed. So we sat outside at the tapas bar, happily nibbling away at our mixed tapas platters, when Jeff called. He had the rental car, he was parked at the train station, and he wanted to know where we were. So we told him the street name (we were sitting across from a big church…I think it was, in fact, the one in which Beethoven was baptized). He took his GPS unit and plugged in the coordinates, and several moments later, we saw him coming down the street. So he joined us, shared our tapas, got a bit more for himself, and we had a nice dinner.
After dinner, it was going on 8, so we decided it was time to leave Bonn. We made our way to the train station and picked up the rental car (emblazoned on all sides with the ADAC logo…AWESOME! :P) and we drove to Königswinter. I should mention that this town's claim to fame is Castle Drachenfels, a ruin at the top of this absolutely massive hill that you can see for miles around. Drachenfels is apparently "the world's most popular hill." There's a funicular that goes to the top to the Drachenfels visitor center, stopping halfway up for people who want to visit Schloss Drachenburg, which is a large Rococo palace. We weren't sure we would be able to visit Drachenfels, since we read that the funicular only operates until 7 pm. But we were in luck, because of Rhine of Flames, they were open until 11:30, and they were taking people up to the top to watch the fireworks. From up there, you can see all the fireworks displays, which started at Linz at 9:50 and ended at Bonn past 11. So we paid our 8 euros round trip, and took the funicular to the top just as dusk was settling in. The views were AMAZING. It was incredible to watch the lights come up on all the towns around the Rhine.
The ruins themselves were closed off by that time, but they don't look that big anyway, so I was content to just hang around the visitor center. Large crowds had already staked out spots, particularly on the side that looks out over both sides of the Rhine. We got there too late…we could only see the river from Linz to Königswater. We wouldn't be able to see the fireworks show in Bonn. But we held on to the spot we could get…fortunately, it was along a wall so I could set up my tripod, and we waited for the fireworks to begin.
Once they began in Linz, we could barely see them…but they were there, at a distance. Ten minutes later, fireworks started going off at a location nearer to us…we could actually hear them this time. At the same time, we started to see the fleet of lighted barges snaking its way down the river toward Bonn. Some barges that were lit up all in red were floating close to the banks, giving off a reddish glow that really did look like flames. Ten minutes later, an island just below us started shooting off their fireworks. That’s when I got most of the photos.
The Königswinter fireworks began, but on the other side of the visitor center from where we were. But we found a spot where we could see most of them. At the same time, the Drachenfels ruins were lit up a bright red.
Then, the Bonn fireworks were to begin. There was no spot we could find where we would have a good view, so we decided to just get on the funicular and beat the crowds. We sat on the train for a good long time, waiting for the fireworks to end. We could see the sky lighting up, but that was about it. Finally, the hordes were coming, and we were grateful that we had seats.
So we came down, found the car, and then headed home. I got in at around 1:15, exhausted and with a splitting headache, but very very happy. It was a fun day, despite the car mishap, and we all had a wonderful time.
Pictures
Since yesterday's event took place around the area of Bonn/Königswinter, we decided to leave early in the afternoon to spend a few hours sightseeing in Bonn, drive across the river to Königswinter, and then watch the fireworks from there.
It was a beautiful day for sightseeing…low 70s, sunny, just a bit of a breeze, but not enough to be uncomfortable. We had a nice drive to Bonn…it takes a little over an hour to get there. But wouldn't you know, we had no sooner arrived in Bonn, waiting at a traffic light at an intersection, when Jeff's car died. He pushed it to the side of the road and attempted to figure out what was wrong with it. He guessed that the fuel pump went out (an accurate assessment, as we later discovered), and then commenced to calling ADAC (the German auto club). He told Andrea and I to go ahead and get out of the car and do our sightseeing. We weren't far from the main train station anyway, which is where we had planned to park and begin our walking tour. So Andrea and I left him to deal with the car and we went ahead to begin our sightseeing.
We stayed in the general area of the Markt. There were lots of interesting things to see, not the least of which was a beach volleyball tournament right in the cathedral square. Rather odd, but interesting. We wanted to visit the cathedral, but it was closed. It was completely covered in scaffolding too, so I couldn't even photograph it. We had no particular destination in mind, other than the Beethoven Haus, so we just meandered along the shopping district, making note of potential places to have dinner. We eventually found ourselves a bit lost, as the signs for Beethoven Haus came to an end and we couldn't find it. So Andrea consulted her map, realized we were about a block from where we should be, and we backtracked and found it.
So we paid the admission and went in for about an hour. It's a good sized house, but with small rooms. No pictures allowed inside. Beethoven's viola, organ, and his various woodwind instruments were on display. His hearing instruments (ear trumpets and whatnot) were also there, as was his life mask and death mask. It was interesting. The room in which he was born is completely empty, except for a bust of him sitting in the center of the room. It was an interesting way to kill some time, and the gardens outside were pretty. The gift shop was nice too. I picked up a couple of Andy Warhol's Beethoven paintings in postcard form to send to some friends, and I got a magnet that has his sheet music printed on it.
Andy Warhol's BeethovenAfter the Beethoven Haus, we were starving. Andrea had already talked to Jeff a few times, and he was in the process of having the car towed to the shop and getting a rental car (all of which is covered by ADAC), so he told us to go ahead and eat. I remembered seeing a tapas bar just a couple of blocks from the Beethoven Haus, so I asked Andrea if tapas sounded good, and she agreed. So we sat outside at the tapas bar, happily nibbling away at our mixed tapas platters, when Jeff called. He had the rental car, he was parked at the train station, and he wanted to know where we were. So we told him the street name (we were sitting across from a big church…I think it was, in fact, the one in which Beethoven was baptized). He took his GPS unit and plugged in the coordinates, and several moments later, we saw him coming down the street. So he joined us, shared our tapas, got a bit more for himself, and we had a nice dinner.
After dinner, it was going on 8, so we decided it was time to leave Bonn. We made our way to the train station and picked up the rental car (emblazoned on all sides with the ADAC logo…AWESOME! :P) and we drove to Königswinter. I should mention that this town's claim to fame is Castle Drachenfels, a ruin at the top of this absolutely massive hill that you can see for miles around. Drachenfels is apparently "the world's most popular hill." There's a funicular that goes to the top to the Drachenfels visitor center, stopping halfway up for people who want to visit Schloss Drachenburg, which is a large Rococo palace. We weren't sure we would be able to visit Drachenfels, since we read that the funicular only operates until 7 pm. But we were in luck, because of Rhine of Flames, they were open until 11:30, and they were taking people up to the top to watch the fireworks. From up there, you can see all the fireworks displays, which started at Linz at 9:50 and ended at Bonn past 11. So we paid our 8 euros round trip, and took the funicular to the top just as dusk was settling in. The views were AMAZING. It was incredible to watch the lights come up on all the towns around the Rhine.
The ruins themselves were closed off by that time, but they don't look that big anyway, so I was content to just hang around the visitor center. Large crowds had already staked out spots, particularly on the side that looks out over both sides of the Rhine. We got there too late…we could only see the river from Linz to Königswater. We wouldn't be able to see the fireworks show in Bonn. But we held on to the spot we could get…fortunately, it was along a wall so I could set up my tripod, and we waited for the fireworks to begin.
Once they began in Linz, we could barely see them…but they were there, at a distance. Ten minutes later, fireworks started going off at a location nearer to us…we could actually hear them this time. At the same time, we started to see the fleet of lighted barges snaking its way down the river toward Bonn. Some barges that were lit up all in red were floating close to the banks, giving off a reddish glow that really did look like flames. Ten minutes later, an island just below us started shooting off their fireworks. That’s when I got most of the photos.
The Königswinter fireworks began, but on the other side of the visitor center from where we were. But we found a spot where we could see most of them. At the same time, the Drachenfels ruins were lit up a bright red.
Then, the Bonn fireworks were to begin. There was no spot we could find where we would have a good view, so we decided to just get on the funicular and beat the crowds. We sat on the train for a good long time, waiting for the fireworks to end. We could see the sky lighting up, but that was about it. Finally, the hordes were coming, and we were grateful that we had seats.
So we came down, found the car, and then headed home. I got in at around 1:15, exhausted and with a splitting headache, but very very happy. It was a fun day, despite the car mishap, and we all had a wonderful time.
Pictures
Saturday, July 12, 2003
Castles, castles...and oh, look! More castles!
Today Lance and I left our house around 8 am and drove about an hour and a half to a town along the Rhine called Boppard...a very picturesque place. And that is where our adventures began. On that stretch of the Rhine, there are castles EVERYWHERE. Seriously...you can't look anywhere without seeing one. And it's a very hilly/mountainous region, so the castles are all very high up in the mountains...we had trouble seeing most of them on the side of the Rhine that we were on at any given time, but we could see the ones on the other side very well.
The drive is indescribably beautiful...seriously one of the most amazing places I have ever seen on this earth...not that I've traveled much yet, but I was in total awe. Every village along the Rhine is gorgeous, and just when you think it couldn't get more gorgeous, you come around the bend and there is another village there with something even more beautiful.
Our first stop was Burg Rheinfels in St. Goar (built in the late 13th century). The castle is in ruins, because as with most of the castles in the area, it was destroyed by the French in 1689. However, this one, unlike most of the other castles, was never restored, although a hotel and restaurant have been built onto it. It was really interesting walking through the ruins...I still don't think we got through everything. It's a massive place. There are tunnels and staircases in between the walls (pitch black and creepy) and all kinds of interesting things to see. As a sidenote...there are 2 castles right across the Rhine from Rhinefels...Castle "Katz" (named for Duke Katzenelnbogen) and Castle "Maus"...nicknamed by the tenants of Castle Katz because it was smaller.
Back at Rhinefels though...I noticed a tiny brown lizard on the ground where there was a lot of foot traffic. I was worried about it getting trampled (it was so cute), so I got a stick to try and move it to someplace safer. Well, the lizard hopped up on my shoe and started climbing up my leg (I was wearing jeans, thank God)...I wasn't scared, but I was frantically trying to shake it off, because I didn't know where it planned to go. Several people walked by and witnessed the scene and had a good laugh over it...Lance was laughing too, but trying to get out his video camera to get it on tape. But I shook it off before he could tape it. He was kind of mad about that. But I wonder what he would've done if the lizard was crawling up his leg. Anyway, we got the critter to safety eventually and moved on.
After our visit at Rheinfels, we decided we liked the town of St. Goar. It looked to have some interesting places, and it was lunch time anyway. So we parked the truck and found a nice little Italian sidewalk cafe that was within perfect view of Rheinfels. We ordered pizzas and just sat and watched the world go by...there were a lot of tourists there and we heard a lot of english being spoken (moreso than German, actually)...there were many many Americans there.
After our lunch, we stopped at the Cuckoo Clock Center, which is exactly what it claims to be. There was a giant cuckoo clock outside the building...Lance got a picture of me standing under it. They sold other souvenirs too, so I managed to pick up a few gifts. There was a beer stein shop down the road, so I picked up a couple more gifts there. Then we hopped in the truck and were on our way.
Of course we saw many many other castles on our way to the next castle tour. We stopped at Reichenstein Castle, but I think we came in the wrong way. All we could see from where we were was a restaurant...the castle was further back but we couldn't see it. So we left (which is unfortunate, because once we got to the other side of the Rhine and we passed it again, we saw the castle and it was fantastic)...and we went down the road just a bit to Rhinestein Castle.
Rhinestein Castle was very cool...it's restored and currently owned by an opera singer. It also has a restaurant (most of them do). There was a wedding taking place while we were there, so I don't think we had access to everything that was usually open to the public. But we got to see the chapel, the royal crypt (and the coffins of 2 princes of Prussia and one princess), the fountain garden, the squires' hall, the knights' hall, the dining hall, a couple of salons, and a bedchamber. The decorations in the squires' hall were kind of creepy (lots of animal skulls and weapons...but some suits of armor too). All in all, a very cool castle. It's also the oldest place I've ever been to besides the Roman baths in Bath, England...construction started at Rhinestein in 900.
That was actually the last castle we were able to tour for the day. We drove through many more beautiful towns, most of them with castles, and many of them with the medieval city walls still intact (including some watch towers). We got to a city called Bingen (its claim to fame being Hildegard of Bingen, a very illustrious nun from the medieval period), and it was there that we took a ferry across the Rhine (one that carries vehicles also) to the town of Rudesheim. We spent a few hours there. This is the big wine producing center of Germany, and Rudesheim is surrounded by vineyards (vineyards covered most of the entire area that we saw today). Lance and I took a skylift ride up over the vineyards and it dropped us off at the top of a mountain overlooking the Rhine...we could see for miles and miles...it was spectacular. Anyway, there was a huge statue up there (which reminded us of the statue of liberty) that was erected to commemorate some war that took place in that region in the 19th century. There were some other things to see up there too, but it was quite a hike. So we decided against it and took the skylift back down. On the way back down, there was a falcon perched on the wire that runs between the 2 sides of the skylift...so we got to see it very close up. That was cool. And it was funny, some drunk guy was in a skylift on the other side and he waved frantically at us and gave us a big "Hiiiiiiiiiii" as he went past. We were cracking up. But I don't think they should let drunk people on those things because it would be too easy to fall out.
After the skylift, we went to an "Eis Cafe" (ice cream parlor)...I got spaghetti ice, which sounds disgusting, but really isn't. The vanilla ice cream is made to look like spaghetti. It has strawberry sauce on top for the spaghetti sauce, and white chocolate shavings as the parmesan cheese (and a good dollop of whip cream underneath it all for good measure). Yummy. While we were there, a very loud transvestite in a very hideous bright pink poofy dress came bounding up to get some ice cream. There were some snickers among the crowd sitting in the cafe, but after he went to a nearby bench to eat his ice cream, people were asking to pose for pictures with him. He was eating it up. He was singing goofy songs and really enjoying the attention. Lance and I walked past him and he tried to get us to stop and take our picture with him. We turned around and walked the other way, but I sort of wish we did...it would've been funny. And that dress had to be seen to be believed. It was the most godawful ugliest thing I've ever laid eyes upon.
We left Rudesheim and decided that our next destination would be Marksburg Castle (which in German would be Burg Marksburg....so in English it's Marks Castle Castle...whatever)...anyway, it's one of the most well-preserved castles on the Rhine, and one of the most beautiful (although I think the one directly across the river from it was absolutely gorgeous)...unfortunately, the castle was closed when we got there. I really wanted to see it too...the rooms were supposedly preserved to look as they did in the medieval period and they had torture devices and things like chastity belts on display.
So we decided at that point to head for home...of course we saw more castles as we headed into Koblenz and when we got right into Koblenz, there was a GIGANTIC fortress that spread out in front of us. Just awesome. Words cannot describe. I tried to get a picture of it from the truck, but I'm sure it won't begin to do justice to it (if it even comes out...taking pictures through a windshield probably doesn't guarantee a great photo).
Anyway, so we're back...and we're tired. But this has been the most amazing day. We are anxious to go back and see more. We didn't even see a quarter of the castles that are along Castle Road. And of the ones we did see, we only toured 2...of course, a lot of them are privately owned, but we're already making a list of ones we want to see that we missed today. And we plan to take at least 2 days the next time...and even then, we won't come close to seeing everything. But there are a lot of campgrounds right along the Rhine, so we want to make a camping trip out of it. Although there are countless hotels in the area too, all of them oozing charm from every nook and cranny.
By the way, since I don't have pictures, here are links if you want to catch a glimpse of some of these places:
Rhinefels: http://www.burgen.de/burgen/burgen_detail/deutschland/rheinland_pfalz/rheinfels.html
Rhinestein:http://www.great-castles.com/rheinstein.html
Marksburg:http://www.great-castles.com/marksburg.html
Katz:http://www.mediaspec.com/castles/rhein/katz.html
Maus:http://www.mediaspec.com/castles/rhein/maus.html
The gigantic fortress with equally gigantic name:http://www.festungehrenbreitstein.de/
(and of course, this barely begins to scratch the surface).
The drive is indescribably beautiful...seriously one of the most amazing places I have ever seen on this earth...not that I've traveled much yet, but I was in total awe. Every village along the Rhine is gorgeous, and just when you think it couldn't get more gorgeous, you come around the bend and there is another village there with something even more beautiful.
Our first stop was Burg Rheinfels in St. Goar (built in the late 13th century). The castle is in ruins, because as with most of the castles in the area, it was destroyed by the French in 1689. However, this one, unlike most of the other castles, was never restored, although a hotel and restaurant have been built onto it. It was really interesting walking through the ruins...I still don't think we got through everything. It's a massive place. There are tunnels and staircases in between the walls (pitch black and creepy) and all kinds of interesting things to see. As a sidenote...there are 2 castles right across the Rhine from Rhinefels...Castle "Katz" (named for Duke Katzenelnbogen) and Castle "Maus"...nicknamed by the tenants of Castle Katz because it was smaller.
Back at Rhinefels though...I noticed a tiny brown lizard on the ground where there was a lot of foot traffic. I was worried about it getting trampled (it was so cute), so I got a stick to try and move it to someplace safer. Well, the lizard hopped up on my shoe and started climbing up my leg (I was wearing jeans, thank God)...I wasn't scared, but I was frantically trying to shake it off, because I didn't know where it planned to go. Several people walked by and witnessed the scene and had a good laugh over it...Lance was laughing too, but trying to get out his video camera to get it on tape. But I shook it off before he could tape it. He was kind of mad about that. But I wonder what he would've done if the lizard was crawling up his leg. Anyway, we got the critter to safety eventually and moved on.
After our visit at Rheinfels, we decided we liked the town of St. Goar. It looked to have some interesting places, and it was lunch time anyway. So we parked the truck and found a nice little Italian sidewalk cafe that was within perfect view of Rheinfels. We ordered pizzas and just sat and watched the world go by...there were a lot of tourists there and we heard a lot of english being spoken (moreso than German, actually)...there were many many Americans there.
After our lunch, we stopped at the Cuckoo Clock Center, which is exactly what it claims to be. There was a giant cuckoo clock outside the building...Lance got a picture of me standing under it. They sold other souvenirs too, so I managed to pick up a few gifts. There was a beer stein shop down the road, so I picked up a couple more gifts there. Then we hopped in the truck and were on our way.
Of course we saw many many other castles on our way to the next castle tour. We stopped at Reichenstein Castle, but I think we came in the wrong way. All we could see from where we were was a restaurant...the castle was further back but we couldn't see it. So we left (which is unfortunate, because once we got to the other side of the Rhine and we passed it again, we saw the castle and it was fantastic)...and we went down the road just a bit to Rhinestein Castle.
Rhinestein Castle was very cool...it's restored and currently owned by an opera singer. It also has a restaurant (most of them do). There was a wedding taking place while we were there, so I don't think we had access to everything that was usually open to the public. But we got to see the chapel, the royal crypt (and the coffins of 2 princes of Prussia and one princess), the fountain garden, the squires' hall, the knights' hall, the dining hall, a couple of salons, and a bedchamber. The decorations in the squires' hall were kind of creepy (lots of animal skulls and weapons...but some suits of armor too). All in all, a very cool castle. It's also the oldest place I've ever been to besides the Roman baths in Bath, England...construction started at Rhinestein in 900.
That was actually the last castle we were able to tour for the day. We drove through many more beautiful towns, most of them with castles, and many of them with the medieval city walls still intact (including some watch towers). We got to a city called Bingen (its claim to fame being Hildegard of Bingen, a very illustrious nun from the medieval period), and it was there that we took a ferry across the Rhine (one that carries vehicles also) to the town of Rudesheim. We spent a few hours there. This is the big wine producing center of Germany, and Rudesheim is surrounded by vineyards (vineyards covered most of the entire area that we saw today). Lance and I took a skylift ride up over the vineyards and it dropped us off at the top of a mountain overlooking the Rhine...we could see for miles and miles...it was spectacular. Anyway, there was a huge statue up there (which reminded us of the statue of liberty) that was erected to commemorate some war that took place in that region in the 19th century. There were some other things to see up there too, but it was quite a hike. So we decided against it and took the skylift back down. On the way back down, there was a falcon perched on the wire that runs between the 2 sides of the skylift...so we got to see it very close up. That was cool. And it was funny, some drunk guy was in a skylift on the other side and he waved frantically at us and gave us a big "Hiiiiiiiiiii" as he went past. We were cracking up. But I don't think they should let drunk people on those things because it would be too easy to fall out.
After the skylift, we went to an "Eis Cafe" (ice cream parlor)...I got spaghetti ice, which sounds disgusting, but really isn't. The vanilla ice cream is made to look like spaghetti. It has strawberry sauce on top for the spaghetti sauce, and white chocolate shavings as the parmesan cheese (and a good dollop of whip cream underneath it all for good measure). Yummy. While we were there, a very loud transvestite in a very hideous bright pink poofy dress came bounding up to get some ice cream. There were some snickers among the crowd sitting in the cafe, but after he went to a nearby bench to eat his ice cream, people were asking to pose for pictures with him. He was eating it up. He was singing goofy songs and really enjoying the attention. Lance and I walked past him and he tried to get us to stop and take our picture with him. We turned around and walked the other way, but I sort of wish we did...it would've been funny. And that dress had to be seen to be believed. It was the most godawful ugliest thing I've ever laid eyes upon.
We left Rudesheim and decided that our next destination would be Marksburg Castle (which in German would be Burg Marksburg....so in English it's Marks Castle Castle...whatever)...anyway, it's one of the most well-preserved castles on the Rhine, and one of the most beautiful (although I think the one directly across the river from it was absolutely gorgeous)...unfortunately, the castle was closed when we got there. I really wanted to see it too...the rooms were supposedly preserved to look as they did in the medieval period and they had torture devices and things like chastity belts on display.
So we decided at that point to head for home...of course we saw more castles as we headed into Koblenz and when we got right into Koblenz, there was a GIGANTIC fortress that spread out in front of us. Just awesome. Words cannot describe. I tried to get a picture of it from the truck, but I'm sure it won't begin to do justice to it (if it even comes out...taking pictures through a windshield probably doesn't guarantee a great photo).
Anyway, so we're back...and we're tired. But this has been the most amazing day. We are anxious to go back and see more. We didn't even see a quarter of the castles that are along Castle Road. And of the ones we did see, we only toured 2...of course, a lot of them are privately owned, but we're already making a list of ones we want to see that we missed today. And we plan to take at least 2 days the next time...and even then, we won't come close to seeing everything. But there are a lot of campgrounds right along the Rhine, so we want to make a camping trip out of it. Although there are countless hotels in the area too, all of them oozing charm from every nook and cranny.
By the way, since I don't have pictures, here are links if you want to catch a glimpse of some of these places:
Rhinefels: http://www.burgen.de/burgen/burgen_detail/deutschland/rheinland_pfalz/rheinfels.html
Rhinestein:http://www.great-castles.com/rheinstein.html
Marksburg:http://www.great-castles.com/marksburg.html
Katz:http://www.mediaspec.com/castles/rhein/katz.html
Maus:http://www.mediaspec.com/castles/rhein/maus.html
The gigantic fortress with equally gigantic name:http://www.festungehrenbreitstein.de/
(and of course, this barely begins to scratch the surface).
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