Sept 30: Where to now?

We will be meeting a childhood friend of Maryvonne's next weekend, but it is Tuesday, and we need to make a plan. So we for in the car and began to drive. It is easy to decide which way to so, you can go left, towards the big city, or right, away from it. Either way you will be driving right beside the Rhein River. This area is highly developed with tourism. Buses and boats abound. There are big cruise boats built on the style of the big river barges that ply the river with cargo from Hamburg.

This is the big wine region is Germany, Rheingau. Along both sides of the river vines are planted on slopes so steep one can't walk up them. In order to cultivate them, there are little tracks like a monorail roller coaster that have little chairs that the vine tenders use to so up and down the hills.

As well, there are castles situated on the heights all along the river. Some of these can be visited, but all of them lend a romantic feel to the river and vinyards.
The castles were built by the nobles, of course, but rather recently. Most date from the 18th and 19th centuries. The noble families were here, collecting tolls on the rivers as a means of income, but they didn't amass the kind of wealth we have seen on France. As the country was formed under Bismark, and stability spread, the nobles began building. Interestingly, the style of architecture is Gothic and Baroque, at the same time France was building its Belle Epoch. Interestingly, these countries clashes in the middle of this period, 1870 in the Franco-Prussian war. My German history knowledge is very weak.

As we drove on, we made the turn at Koblenz onto the road along the Mosel River. This drive took us back toward the southeast. This is a smaller river,but if anything there is more vinticulture along the banks here. This is also the place Germans seem to flock to, the camp grounds were plentiful and full.

We ended the day driving through Heidelburg and Schwetzingen, places I had worked and had fond memories of. What a difference 20 years makes! The turns have grown, sprawled, intensified to the point that they are dirty, ugly, stressful. We didn't even walk around them. Finally, we found a small town with a hotel and a couple of restaurants for the night. A couple of beers, a flammenkuche and we were set for the evening. A flammenkuche is a thin dough topped with soft white cheese, onions, ham and mushrooms. A pizza, but a traditional German dish.