Cologne and the Rhine River

After we spent about four days in the Netherlands, Tom had to head back to Hildesheim.  But my parents and I took a train from the Hague to Cologne, Germany.  We had to wait in line forever getting our tickets because we weren't exactly sure how my parents Eurorail pass worked.  We missed our scheduled ICE train by five minutes so we were forced to take the regional trains.  This required us to change trains three times.  It only took us about 4 hours but we made it to Cologne.  We were only there for a brief stop to see the Cologne Cathedral, another UNESCO World Heritage site.  Germany has a total of 36 UNESCO sites. (2 here in Hildesheim-St. Michael's and St. Mary's church.)  UNESCO World Heritage sites are a place of special cultural or physical significance in history and in the world.

Anyway, we got off the train for about an hour to go see the Cologne Cathedral.  Luckily, it is literally right next door to the train station so we took our bags with us and went to see the cathedral.  Cologne Cathedral was started in 1248 but left unfinished in 1473. They didn't finish building the two towers until 1880.  But built them according to the original plans.  It 515 feet tall.  The cathedral is the largest church in Northern Europe and has the second tallest spires and largest façade of any church in the world. It was huge!  It is the most visited landmark  in Germany with an average of 20,000 visitors a day!

  

 It was built on the location of a Roman church built in the 4th century.  All that remains is the foundation and this archway.

This is what is on the top of the spires to give you an idea of how large they really are.

The Cathedral was so tall I could barely capture it in our photos

 

After we walked around the cathedral, we immediately walked back into the train station to head down to the Rhine River Valley.  The Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe.  It is 766 miles long and was a major trade route in the Middle Ages.  We only saw the section known as the Middle Rhine  which covers the river from Rudesheim to Koblenz.  This section is also listed as another UNESCO World Heritage Site with more than 40 castles and fortresses from the Middle Ages and many wine-villages.  We chose to stay in Sankt Goar, a tiny town on the left bank of the Rhine.  Rhinefels Castle is located above the town and it is also directl across from its twin-city St. Goarhausen.  It was an adorable little town with cute cafes, bakeries, and tourist shops.  Tom and I had stopped in St. Goar on our drive down the Rhine River about a month before.  It was so much greener than it had been just a few weeks earlier when we were there.  Unfortunately, it rained the two days we were on the river, but we had a wonderful time anyway.  We slept in St. Goar and got up early to catch a train down to Bacharach.  We were told that the best way to view the castles in this area is from the river.  So we walked around this touristy town for about an hour before heading to the docks to catch a KD river boat to take a two hour river cruise up the river.

 This was the charming town of St. Goar where we stayed, right along the Rhine River.  Our hotel is the bright red one.

 View of our hotel.  Our balcony was the second floor balcony on the right.  At night we would sit out on it and gaze at the beautiful view of the river and Katz castle across the way.

 Bacharach was a charming little town with tons of brightly colored half timbered houses.  It was raining and we were there early, so many of the tourist shops weren't open yet.  We walked around for a little bit and browsed before heading down to the KD loading dock to board the first river cruise boat up the river.

This is Altes Haus (Old House) a timber-frame house from 1368

I made the mistake of having us get off at Kaub so we could tour Pfalzgrafenstein Castle,  it was a toll castle that was built on a small island in the middle of the Rhine.  In the Middle Ages, they would use chains to block the river so all boats had to stop and pay their toll before they could pass.  But when we got to Kaub, we found out that it would take us too long to take the ferry to the castle, tour the castle and get back to Kaub before the next KD boat came.  So we walked along the town for a bit.  Then we caught the next KD boat all the way to Braubach.  The river cruise was gorgeous.  We sat on the top of the boat and enjoyed our view.  It was overcast and a little cold but we had a great time.  

Pfalzgrafenstein Castle

 This is Loreley Rock, 120 meters high it is the most treacherous bend in the Rhine river.  Hundreds of sailors in the middle ages lost their lives and boats rounding this fast curve in the river.  It is said that the rock was home to mermaids or "Rhine Maidens" who would lure sailors to their death."  because it is the narrowest part of the river between Switzerland and the North Sea. A very strong current and rocks below the waterline have caused many boat accidents there.

 Katz castle.  We had a perfect view of this castle from our hotel balcony

This is the view of Rhinefels castle ruins from the river.  We went and toured the ruins the following morning.

Enjoying the view of the river from our KD boat cruise.  It was cold and overcast, but we still enjoyed it.  We took a ride from Bacharach to Marksburg Castle which took about 2 hours.

  

Ainsley loved that there was a small playground located on the top level of the boat.  She spent most of the river boatride going down the slid and playing on the several bouncy toys.

When we got off in Braubach, we were hungry, so we stopped at a cafe to get a Doner sandwich.  While we were eating, a Dutch couple came and asked us if we wanted to book the mini-train shuttle up to Marksburg Castle.  Since it is not tourist season yet, the shuttle will only run if there are at least 7 people onboard.  We agreed and they drove us up the steep mountain to Marksburg Castle.  Marksburg is the only castle along the Rhine River that has never been destroyed.  It was built in 1117 and was lived in for over 700 years!  We took a tour of the inside.  

Marksburg Castle

A strange phenomenon that keeps happening here in Europe is that strangers love to take pictures of Ainsley.  We have had at least 6-7 people ask us if they can take pictures of her.  Usually it is Asian people, and they usually want to pose with her.  It happened in front of the Berliner Dom, several times in Holland, and even here are Marksburg Castle.  This lady was on our tour with us and as we were walking into the next room, she asked if she could take a picture of Ainsley.  So I snapped one of her taking the picture too.  We're not sure why Ainsley is such a celebrity....we figure it must have something to do with her curly hair.  But we think it is hilarious and always let them do it.  Ainsley is usually really shy about it and won't smile  though, especially in the ones where they pose with her and put their arms around her or something.  She looks like a deer in the headlights in the pictures I'm sure.  Oh well, we think it is funny.

Here I am posing in a helmet worn in the early Middle Ages, believe me you cannot see anything out of this thing.  I'm not sure how the soldiers could even fight in this thing, it was heavy, hot in summer, and impossible to move your head in.  I doubt it caused much protection, probably did more damage than it was worth:)

We had to wait for awhile for the shuttle to come pick us back up, and so by the time we caught the train to Boppard across the river which was our next destination....all the shops were closed.  We walked around Boppard for awhile to see some of their historical sites.   Boppard was one of the most important Roman settlements on the Middle Rhine.  In the middle of the 4th century, they built a fortification that was  308 × 154 metres and formed a rectangle.   The walls were 3 metres thick to the land side and 2,5 metres thick to the Rhine side. With a height of 9 metres and 20 horse-shoe shaped towers to the land side, each 27 metres apart, the wall made a very powerful fortification. But when the Roman Empire left Germany, the ruins became part of the cities foundations.  We also saw several churches and the Electoral Castle in Boppard...but it was undergoing reconstruction work so we couldn't see the facade very well. 

One of my favorite things about the Rhine area is the view of the hills. It is a wine growing region, and so starting in the middle ages, they have built small retaining walls all up the mountainside to help keep crops from sluffing down.  Most of the retaining walls are overgrown now and don't have crops, but it is so picturesque. 

Katz Castle, taken from our hotel balcony

This was our view from our hotel balcony overlooking the Rhine River and Katz Castle across the river.  It was beautiful lit up at night. 

View of Rhinefels castle ruins from the street in St. Goar

On our last morning on the Rhine River, we took a shuttle up to Rhinefels Castle above the town of St. Goar.   This castle was built in 1245 but it was destroyed by French Revolutionary Army troops in 1797. It is the largest castle overlooking the Rhine and they said it was once five times bigger than what remains today.  It must have been huge!  We had a fun time hiking around and exploring the different rooms, caverns, and tunnels that remain.  It had a beautiful view of the river below. 

 

  

Don't you wish you had one of these to keep your kids contained at times?

View from Rhinefels

 

Ains was brave and walked down this long dark tunnel with me.  It is where archers were stationed to protect the castle.  It was really dark because they only had slits to aim their arrows through.