DC MOM in the Rhein Valley

I have been invited to do the entry for the portion of my tour of the Rhein Valley in which Kate and I visited Rüdesheim and Assmannshausen on Monday, Aug. 21 – no photos for these since we both forgot our cameras – Heidelberg on Tuesday and Limburg and Koblenz on Wednesday. You will find that I am much more detail oriented than clever; bear with me.

Rüdesheim and Assmannshausen are both on the eastern bank of the Rhein and both are incredibly quinsy with half-timbered houses, cobbled streets, and castle ruins and Gothic churches everywhere. The great part about this day was that we took a cable car ride – I love cable cars – to above Rüdesheim, over vineyards, which surround every town in the Rhein Valley, to a monument on the hillside and then after a walk through woods we took a chair lift down over vineyards to the town of Assmannshausen. After touring this town we took a boat ride back up the Rhein, passing a castle that sits in the middle, and stopping at a town on the opposite bank, Bingen. We then returned to Rüdesheim. All of this for only 10 euros. I thought it was a great bargain. But unfortunately no photo record exists for us, or for the readers of this blog.

For the Pecos aficionados, he did not accompany us on the above trip since he was exhausted from his mountain climbing in Switzerland and had engaged in some bad behavior involving my bed on Sunday evening. He remained at home in Wiesbaden to rest and reflect.

Next on to Heidelberg.

I was very interested to see this city since it was the first city in Europe that I visited 36 years ago. There are many more people in the world now, MANY MORE. Below is Elizabeth’s Gate and if we had waited all day we would never have gotten an image without others in it.

I remember being completely wowed that there was a castle on the hillside above the city, easily reached by foot.

My college friend and I walked up to the castle and toured it solo. We were the only visitors to the castle at that date and time and there were no such things as tours. There was art restoration ongoing in the interior. The art work having only just been discovered, thanks to a fire. But that was the only activity in the castle. Well much has changed….bus loads of people everywhere, handheld tour recordings in five languages, tour guides, a bar, a gift shop, a fee to get onto the grounds and another fee to get inside the castle.

We did not have time or inclination to pay to go inside so I have no idea of the status of the recently discovered, 36 years ago, art work. And 36 years ago I missed this two-story wine barrel. That’s a lot of wine.

The next day Pecos accompanied us to Limburg and Koblenz. Limburg is a very charming city filled with half-timber houses. And what a great surprise to Kate and I when we passed Ben Stein – of Blair High School, Takoma Park, and “Win Ben Stein’s Money” fame – in a square of Limburg. Montgomery County, Md., everywhere. Pecos did get to swim in the Lahn River. Limburg is home to the oldest inhabited half-timber house in Germany, built in 1289 (shown below).

Afterward, we went on to Koblenz, which Kate found much more tolerable now that it is later in the summer and the hoards of tourists were somewhat diminished. Pecos and I are at the base of Kaiser Wilhelm’s statue with the Rhein (right) and the Mosel (left) in the background. After a pastry and coffee we posed with Pecos at a fountain with a sculpture depicting the history of Koblenz from Roman time to present.

Now off to Ireland.