Castle-Gazing in the Middle Rhine

One of the highlights of any Rhine River cruise is the Middle Rhine Valley, a stretch of 42 kilometres from Bingen to Boppard. And this being the highlight of the first week, we hoped for a clear sunny day, but got cloudy and grey with intermittent drizzle. And a very cool, biting wind blowing directly over the bow, accenting the wind from the forward motion of the ship. All in all a really cruddy day to spend on the so-called Sun Deck at the top of the ship. But we did it anyway, huddling in our coats and jackets finding what wind protection we could and making the best of it. Larry actually spent most of the morning sitting directly behind the bridge, pretty much out the wind at least, sharing the Captain's Eye-view with the Captain through the glass walls of the bridge. Here are a few highlights of the Middle Rhine:

Castle Ehrenfels at Assmannshausen

The Maeusetor, or Mouse Tower, just past
Bingen where the Nahe River flows into the Rhine
- and look; scaffolding!!!

Burg Rheinstein, seemingly built right into the rock

Burg Reichenstein, location of this evening's diner

The town of Niederheimbach with Heimburg in the background

The village of Bacharach, not only picturesque, but also the
ancestral home of composer Burt Bacharach

Multiple items here - the town of Kaub in the background,
with Burg Gutenfels above it. In front is the Pfalzgrafenstein,
which resembles a ship. It was the customs fort for the
Electorate of Kurpfalz, built in the 14th Century

The town of Oberwesel with Schoenburg up on the hill

The famous Loreley, the narrowest part of the
Rhine River, complete with raindrops on
the camera lens.

Just to the north, the Loreley statue. A sculptor from one of the
Baltic countries was disappointed that there was no actual 'Lorelei',
so she made this sculpture. The poem by Heinrich Heine depicts
Lorelei (or Loreley) as a siren calling sailors to their deaths;
this is because this corner has always been very treacherous due to the
narrow width and strong current.

The town of Boppard where we would stay for the afternoon. The ship
relocated to Koblenz while we had our castle dinner.

Once in Boppard, we had the afternoon to look around. One of the highlights of the town is the Sesselbahn (chair lift) that takes you to the top of the hills for an overview of the Rhine at GedeonsEck, or Gideon's Corner. This is one of those shots that always appear in the Rhine itineraries in the river cruise brochures. The view was spectacular and it was a nice way to pass some time once the weather cleared up.

on the way up

the view over Boppard from the GedeonsEck Restaurant. Our ship
is moored down there on the right side

Not only can you get an overview of GedeonsEck from up there, but if you hike another 300 metres (to the next restaurant/patio) you find a quirk of the landscape that can't be seen from anywhere else. It is called the Vierseenblick, or View of Four Lakes. This is where, because of the hills and cliffs, the river is cut up so it looks like four lakes instead of the mighty Rhine.

You can see the four patches of water looking like lakes.
We would have stayed longer except the restaurant was on
'Ruhetag', or day off. So what else is new?

Trading photos with Larry & Ros from the ship on
their way up 

In the evening our special dinner for the cruise was held at Reichenstein Castle. We had passed the castle early on in the morning. This evening's excursion left the MS Inspire at Boppard, and while we were gone, the ship moved from there to Koblenz, at the confluence of the Rhine and the Mosel Rivers. We met up with her right at the 'Deutsches Eck', or German Corner, exactly where the rivers meet.

But first, to dinner. Our meal would feature Sauerbraten, Bread Dumpling and Red Cabbage (funny, just the kind of thing that lands on our Sunday dinner table at home a couple of times during the winter). For people who want an alternative, Tauck and the meal hosts have worked out a good plan. Anyone who signed up for the alternate meal earlier in the day gets a little tent card (in a bright colour) with their shore pass when leaving the ship. They put this card in front of their plate, and the servers all know who wants the different meal. It saves a lot of time and questions with service and seems to work very well.

We started out with a castle reception with hors d'oeuvres and wine, after which we could wander around both the rooms and the castle ramparts.

The castle dates back to the early 1200s when the landowner was established as local bailiff by the Abbey at Aachen. It has quite the history, having been besieged and held by robber knights and then taken back by King Rudolph I of Hapsburg. The castle was rebuilt in the 1300s and was used until the mid 1500s after which time it was not kept up and fell into disuse and disrepair. Reichenstein was purchased by Franz Willem von Barfuss in 1834 but he couldn't keep up with the costs of restoration. The family Kirsch-Puricelli purchased it in 1899 and continued restoring, living in the castle from 1902 to 1936. With the advent of World War II, they left and the castle was turned over to the government. The next generations of the family bought it back in the 1990s and now run it as a museum and event venue. The original Mrs. Kirsch-Puricelli was quite the collector of all kinds of things; it's no wonder she needed a castle this size to hold it all!

You have to be a real collector to love something like this - a dragon with
elk antlers for wings - and it was a lamp, too!

There is a connection with German folklore as well. There is a song that Monica learned in Germany when she was small about 'The Hunter from Kurpfalz' - as it turns out he did really exist in the person of Friedrich Utsch who was a direct ancestor of the Puricelli family who now own the castle once again. Here are a few photos of the interior:

Dining room

Chapel

Library

Dinner was very good, interrupted a couple of times with the German beer-drinking toast led by our local trio:

who also led many of our group in the well-known 'Chicken Dance'. No, we did NOT participate. We gave up on the Chicken Dance after Norm & Barb's wedding.

It was still light when we left the castle,

and we reached Koblenz just as twilight was ending. Many of us tried to get photos of Kaiser Wilhelm's statue at the Eck, but it was very hard to get a good one from that distance. This statue is absolutely immense!

After a brief stroll around the statue and the surrounding park, we re-boarded the ship, which set sail up the Mosel River. But that is tomorrow's story.