Cruising the Rhine

This morning, we left Brussels, and drove to the Rhine river valley for a spectacular cruise. The drive down to the town of Boppard where we caught the boat was a very narrow, twisty road with hairpin turns. We were late...not Tim's fault!, and our driver was trying to make up some time. It seemed treacherous. Anyway, we made it! At one point the Rhine river valley would have been dotted with castles used to collect tolls on the river as well as defensive purposes, and to grow grapes to make wine. Today, there are still many remnants of these beautiful castles, in different states of disrepair. They were gorgeous reminders of a bygone era.

Going aboard Our boat for a very HOT journey. It is about 36 degrees here.

Leaving Boppard for an hour and a half boat ride.

Enjoying some traditional German favourites, beer and schnitzel, on the boat.

These were called the "Hostile brothers" castles. The story goes that two greedy, jealous brothers owned them, and had fought over the same woman.

Maus castle.

Rheinfels castle looks big, but apparently is now 1/5 it's original size!

Katz Castle. It is currently abandoned. Anyone want to buy a castle?

The grapes were grown up the side of the hills all up and down the valley. Germany's was at one point word renowned for it's winemaking. Now, many other countries have taken over as leaders within the industry, and as you can imagine, harvesting the grapes is a very time and labour intensive exercise up and down these hills. We could see a lot of evidence of where grapes had been grown, but no longer did.

We were on the bus longer today  than we will likely be on most days. I have discovered that I am much like my mother...I can't seem to stay awake while travelling. It's okay though, as we were just travelling on "motorways" (highways)!