Rhine Gorge & castles - Tue. - Sept.21

One word .. SPECTACULAR !

An overwhelming visual experience.

Ever since Dad and us were stationed in Germany for five years, I've always wanted to visit this area.

While in school in Schweinfurt we studied the 11-17th centuries of European crazy history.

These castles and their stories are what movies are made of.  Many wars and conflicts and robber barons and knights returning from the crusades are but a few of the interesting stories told to us today as we cruised 65 kilometers of the Rhine River Gorge and 30 historical castles.  I took a partial picture of the cheat sheets given to us for reference :

Jan and I arose early for breakfast so that we could be ready for 5-hours of sight seeing from the sun deck.

No sooner had we sat for our breakfast that the first castle came into view :

This is the Electoral Fortress.

As you can see, we lucked out and the weather turned spectacular!   Wow!   This is the Castle Stolzenfels.

Most of the castles had their fiefdoms or small villages and towns at the base of the hill along the river.

I hope you don't get tired of seeing these castles.  I was transfixed and mesmerized for 5-hours looking at these.

and, if these fantastic images weren't enough, we were also in the middle of prime Riesling wine vineyards!!

and magnificent churches were in every village!

and, if the image was not enough, we were lucky to hear many of them, in the 5-hours, toll their bells !!

similar to our Columbia River Gorge, the Rhine River Gorge had many interesting rock formations, though I imagine, of different geological origination.

this is an interesting island castle, Pfalzgrafenstein.

the small villages and towns were just as interesting as the castles!   Many had medieval walls still in use.

just a few more..

Some of these were monstrous! .. could house over 2,000 troops!

The ship was moving along at a net of 6-knots gained against a very strong current, all the while dodging the many many barges on this 'interstate highway' of commerce.   At each tight bend of the river, there was a signal system telling each barge captain if they could navigate through the turn.   German efficiency!

In addition to the barges, an extremely high volume of freight trains and passenger trains were rushing along on both sides of the river.   A recent tourist increase in bike tours also 'whished' along on bike paths.

After a fun, special German style lunch, the ship finished cruising for the day in Rudesheim.

Jan and I opted to enjoy the gondola ride up over vineyards to a special monument.

This is the Niederwald monument.   It's HUGE !!

It was built between 1871 and 1883 to commemorate the end of the Franco-Prussian War .. AND .. the unification of the German people.  125 feet tall!

We enjoyed great views of the valley :

We rode the gondola down to the cute town of Rudesheim and walked through town to get back to our ship.   Here's a few more photos :

What a fun fun day!!   A very beautiful day to enjoy so much history and spectacular views!   My senses are exhausted!

What a neat trip so far.  Onward to Ludwigshafen and the 'Secrets of Speyer'.