Germany Day 5 - Tripping Over Castles

This was another castle-themed day, although it was more about quantity than quality. We'd seen a comedy routine by British comedian Eddie Izzard a few weeks ago. He was joking around about how castles are so common in Europe that people are practically tripping over them. Ha ha. No really.

The view from Tina's kitchen

So, we're staying with my friend Tina in the town of Biebertal, kind of best described as the middle of nowhere in Germany – about 45 minutes outside of Frankfurt, where she and her husband both work. I met Tina in high school, when she stayed with my family as an exchange student. This morning we woke up and looked out her kitchen window at a view of two peaks with castles on top, both about a thousand years old. That's her everyday view – just the old neighborhood castles.

Later we drove to the small town on Rudesheim on the Rhine, boarded a boat, and took a leisurely trip down the river. Well, us and about eight billion school kids on a field trip, all looking as if they were on a forced march. But for us, it was a peak experience – blue skies, soft breeze, perfect temperatures, and castle after castle after castle. Around every bend in the river is another massive, magnificent old castle.

A castle on the Rhine

I don't know history well, so I can only imagine the medieval kings, sitting on their turrets, thumbing their noses at the neighboring king, who can't be more than five miles away. Really – do you need THAT many castles?

In any case, we had been warned that Kyra might be bored by the long boat ride. And, in fact, after the first half dozen castles, there is a sameness to them. It was kind of like medieval tract housing for castles. We didn't care, particularly, about their names, or their exact significance in history. But what picturesque tract housing! We gave Kyra the camera, and she had a blast. She must have taken hundreds of pictures, probably most of the ones on the blog today. And when she did, finally, get bored, there was a slide on the boat where children could play.

Another castle

We took the boat one way, ending at the rocks where the Lorelie lures unwary sailors. (We evaded the danger. Maybe we had a female boat  captain.) We disembarked at a little village, got some ice cream, then found a train to take back to where we'd left our car. (Boy do we love how easy it is to use the German transportation system, where you don't even need to plan ahead - just get off the boat at some small town, and know that you can just take the next train through.)

Kyra and Puffy on the Rhine

We ended the day with dinner in a castle. Turns out they've put a restaurant into one of the castles you can see from Tina's kitchen. I guess they needed to do something with all that vacant real estate. Met a guy in the restaurant from Wisconsin – because why wouldn't a restaurant in a medieval castle at the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere in Germany be filled with people from Wisconsin?

Another great day.