Hansel & Gretel on the Rhine River

"Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home." - Matsuo Basho

This morning we got up and had breakfast in the place where we couldn’t get served the night before.  It was empty and it was also a buffet ;-).  I joked that if we had stayed, we’d just be getting dinner now!  Back on the coach we headed for Heidelberg, Germany with one stop for services on the way.  Heidelberg is a smaller and quieter location than Lucerne, Switzerland and is situated on the Nektar river.

The German countryside 

Above the city is Heidelberg Castle (German: Heidelberger Schloss) which is a landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.  The castle has only been partially rebuilt since its demolition in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is located 80 meters (260 ft.) up the northern part of the Königstuhl hillside, and thereby dominates the view of the old downtown. It is served by an intermediate station on the Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular railway that runs from Heidelberg's Kornmarkt to the summit of the Königstuhl.  The earliest castle structure was built before 1214 and later expanded into two castles circa 1294; however, in 1537, a lightning-bolt destroyed the upper castle. The present structures had been expanded by 1650, before damage by later wars and fires. In 1764, another lightning-bolt caused a fire which destroyed some rebuilt sections.  Would have liked to spend some time exploring this item – but time is limited so the shots from the ground will have to do.

Heidelberg Castle

We also saw a monkey statue that folklore says will increase your fertility if you are to look into the mirror that the monkey is holding.  I looked in the mirror.  That’s going to be a neat trick!

Monkey with the mirror.  If you look in the mirror it is supposed to help with fertility.

We stopped for lunch with Margaret and Steve at a little place in not far from the bridge/monkey statue.  We all ordered hamburgers – and I have to say – these ones were really good and sat across from a place that brews the most alcoholic beer produced on the planet.  It has something like 33% alcohol content.  Not my cup of tea.  Steve tried to compete with me for the longest french fry - Not today Steve!

Lunch in Heidelberg with Steve and Margaret

The longest fry! Steve got creative and used the skewer.

We got back on the coach and drove to a place called: St. Goarshausen where we boarded a river cruise boat to or final destination for the day – Boppard, Germany.  St. Goarshausen is known for having the world’s largest Coo-Coo clock.  Ok – I can check that one of the list.  Actually – this one might better fit on the “most over-rated tourist attractions” list!  I might be more tempted to drive out to Glendon, Alberta and visit the world’s largest Pyrogy.

The largest free hanging coo-coo clock in the world

The cruise on the Rhine river was very nice.  The cool breeze blew as we sat on the open air top deck and watched the sleepy villages roll by.  Kassie had indicated that the area we were in has about 60 castles in a very short distance.  We got to see a few of them as we floated down the river.  I should also mention that we are either in, or are very close to the Black Forest, where Laureen has relatives on her mom’s side.  We also found out that this area is, of course, where Black Forest Cake came from and where the story of Hansel and Gretel was created.  I guess that means that my mother in-law is related to Hansel and Gretel!

The ship that took us on our cruise on the Rhine river

Statue of Laurali - the maiden that was so beautiful she caused sailors to crash on this corner

Laureen, Curt, Margaret, Steve, Diane & Alf

We arrived in Boppard at about 6:30 PM and dinner was scheduled for 8:00 PM.  The hotel we are staying in here is an older hotel, but very nice.  It reminds me a little of the older Fairmont hotels.  We are on the 4th floor, and there is no A/C (OK – there is manual A/C – open the window and turn on the fan).  The village is quaint and I think I could spend more time than just the ½ day we will be here.  It’s quiet with few people and is situated right on the Rhine river (of course – that’s how we arrived here).  Once we got to our room, our bags were already outside the door.  Wow – that was fast.  I opened my suitcase and placed the wet items that I had out on the small balcony that we have.  The view is not towards the river – but It’s still pretty picturesque.

The view from our hotel room (4th floor) in Boppard

We then went for a walk just to see what was here.  All of the places we have visited have some form of square or network of squares where people go for dinner and shops are located.  There is usually a church as well.  We found a few places that were open, and quite by accident, but this was a good accident, we found Nigel and Kay.  They seemed to really have a knack for finding good places.  As it turns out, we were in a Coo-Coo clock place and the gentleman who was in there indicated that he also owned the store that was just back a shot way – a place with Birkenstock shoes.  He gratefully walked us back and opened the door for us to have a look.  While we were there, Joan and Colleen walked in as well.  All the ladies bought themselves a pair of shoes.  A couple others (Kay and Joan) bought Coo-Coo clocks and had them shipped back home.  Laureen also stumbled across a little clothing place and picked something up there as well.  She wished Margaret and Diane were with her.  I walked around outside and captured a few more images of a beautiful German village.

Back to the hotel for supper we found ourselves in their formal dining room with an amazing dinner that included a carrot ginger soup, a beef goulash and black forest cake for dessert.  I could have eaten two of those cakes – but thankfully they ignored my pleas for another one.  I’m already going to have to make sure I get back on my regular exercise routine when I get back home.  As it turns out, the guy with the Birkenstock place offered to pen his store after dinner so some of the ladies who wanted to go check it out – could.  Laureen walked few of them over and I came up to the room to get started on this.  It was a great day.  Tomorrow we head to Amsterdam

Curt & Laureen in Boppard, Germany.