Off to the World Cup - 2006!!

We headed out from Heidelburg yesterday morning, and headed toward the Rhine River valley. This isn't the longest river in Europe, but it's the busiest, I think. We stopped in the city of Mainz for cruise info and food, then met our boat in Bingen, perhaps not the most scenic little town on the river, but very friendly, and convenient for both boat and train connections. We boarded the Lorely of the Köln-Dusseldorfer line, and headed downriver. This section of the Rhine, die Mittelrhein, was the heart of German romantic history, with castles dotting the heights on both sides of the river, and pretty little towns along both banks. This was something Brad had specially requested, a cruise on the Rhine, and when we reached the famous rock of the Lorelei, actually asked to have his picture taken (!). I popped through close to 300 pictures, absolutely sure I would forget I was ever there, I guess! I lost track of how many castles and forts we passed, and of the towns we really wanted to come back and explore.

Interesting history for us was the contiuation of military history in the Rhine valley. Every castle on the river, save for the beautiful and well-protected Marksburg, had been destroyed at least once, most by the French in the late 1600´s.




We reached the city of Koblenz around 6:30, and took the train back up to Bingen for dinner at a little Italian restaurant. We had seen the red card in the ITA-AUS game just as we got off the boat, and our waiter explained with hand gestures and German that went mostly over our heads that the game had ended with a penalty kick. Boy, did we feel out of touch!

The castle in Heidelberg was a grand affair apparently, until a young prince went off and married a young English princess, and remodelled the fortifications into beautiful English gardens for his bride. The castle was captured the next time it was attacked, and was eventually razed by the troops of Louis XIV, campaigning in the Rhine River valley. By razed, we mean not just that they muddied the carpets, but that the stone towers were trashed, and the roofs caved in. The Princes attemted a rebuild in the late 1700's, but a lightning strike burned the new roof, and the grounds were abandoned. It wasn't until the early nineteenth century that the German Romantics fell in love with the place, and a French tourist inspired the local government to stabilize the ruins. Parts have since been restored, but it remains as a monument to the old Prince-Electors, and what they tried to build here.

Brad and Marilyn are both a little under the weather, so they're resting up in the hotel while I catch up on the posts. Off to Koblenz and the Rhine Valley tomorrow. We're actually looking forward to familiar beds back home....

The weather was crystal clear the next morning (Sat 6/24), and was perfect for an expedition up the Zugspitze! The view from below was impressive, a stark craggy range of rock, with snow and ice still clinging to the north faces. In the little town of Grainau, we bought our tickets for the Eibsee-Seilbahn (cable car), for an ascent straight to the top. The cable car itself is a 2000m ascent, up to the peak at 2995m (about 10000 feet)! the first pylon is visible in the picture at left (the second one is hidden) then the cable shoots up in to the peak way the heck up at the top there. Ja, quite a ride!

Up at the top, the boys could walk to Austria on the other side of the ridge, and we could admire one heck of an Alpine view! There were skilifts on the glacier bleow, where skiing was pretty good until April, apparently. This has got to be one heck of a place to be in the winter!

We spent the night after the USA-GHA game in the pretty little town of Bielingreis, about an hour south of Nurnberg. (We missed the ancestral home in Furth, just too late to drag the boys around!) It was a long drive down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, on the border with Austria in the German Alpine region, and the weather was rather overcast for the planned trip up the Zugspitze. So, we were off to Neuschwanstein instead! This is the most famous (in America) of mad King Ludwigs castles, nestled up into the Bavarian Alps. We had a beatiful ride down across the Austrian border, then back up to the little town of Schwangau. From there, it was a nice hike up to the castle itself, and then another hike to the Marienbridge above, but the view was truly amazing. We toured through the castle, and held of on pictures of the interior at their request, instead supporting the local economy in the book store.

It was a long ride in to Strasbourg from Paris, and we were glad to dump our stuff at a hotel very close to the main train station. From there, we wandered down to the river, which splits around the island where the old city was built. Petit France was a peaceful change from the congestion of Paris, and the boys were very happy to play by the river. We peeked in to the cathedral, which is under a lot of external reconstruction, and stopped by the Gutenberg statue for Brad to say hello to his biography day subject from fifth grade. We were looking for Alsatian specialties for dinner, and found baeckeoffe at a little restaurant by the river. We let the boys wander after desert, while Marilyn and I just sat at the table and relaxed for a while. It's nice to be able to turn them loose like that!

It was interesting to find that the city was just jumping after sunset, lots of couples strolling along the river, college kids out for the evening, a Persian band pumping it out on the street. By far the loudest evening we've had, even in Paris!