Castles on the Rhine

300 year old crane

This was to celebrate the victory over the French and Napoleon in a war during the early 1800s.

Most of these castles were ruins.  Some were being fixed up to be made into something else... a hotel, restaurant, a couple were museums.  All of them were surrounded by trees and vineyards.  None of them were more than a hilltop or two away from each other.

This is the Mouse Tower. It was originally built by the Romans and rebuilt several times after. It's named the Mouse Tower because of a cautionary tale about a ruler that hoarder grain and killed many of the peasants to be besieged by and eaten by mice in this tower.

 

They almost devour me with kisses,

Their arms about me entwine,

Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen

In his Mouse Tower on the Rhine!

-Longfellow

Ehrenfels Castle

This one looked like it's lower areas were all restaurants, but it's far away from any towns so it might have a hotel up in the upper floors.

This one looked very intact and not really restored too much.

A family crest on the mountain.

It was interesting all through Germany in particular to see the very old with the very new.  Here's a Roman styled castle with a mine.

Another view of the mine

Pretty houses

This one shows about how far apart the castles are.  There's one on the right and left of the picture here.

Another example of old and new.... old castle with wind turbines in the background.

Every town had one to five different church spires.  Some old, some new. 

Germany is well known for it's vineyards.

This castle wall was really neat.  I would have liked to know more about this one.

Pfalz Island Toll Castle.  They would pull up chains across the river and refuse passage until a toll was paid.  It reminded me of how Robin Hood met Little John.

Loreley rocks... kind of like the siren's island.  There was an opera, poems, and other musical works written about the siren on the rock.  There's even a story of dwarves in the mountain.  They think it's because before all the modern day construction, you could hear the water murmur around the base of the rock. 

I think this one is Katz Castle.  Napoleon bombarded and destroyed most of these castles in his quest for expansion.  There was almost nothing left of this one.  The first time this one was rebuilt was in the 1300s... then again in the 1890s... it's privately owned.

Katz Castle

Rhine River

Jer was pleased that they served hot cocoa on the ship.

My Dad lived in a riverside apartment like these for a short while.  It was the only area that he was in for a little while over the river from Mainz.

Mainz, Germany #3

On our second day in Mainz, we took a boat down the Rhine River. 

It was cold in the morning.  It was very misty and overcast too.  It cleared up by the afternoon, but it was a big challenge to this amateur photographer to get good pictures.

Mainz, Germany #2

The second thing that we did in Mainz was see some of my Dad's old stomping grounds.  Seth came up with the idea of recording my Dad's mission memories.  It was really cool to hear about them and share a few very spiritual experiences with him.  These apartments were brand new when my Dad was here.  They were in the middle of a bunch of fields, but now there are buildings and home all over.  There were two really neat experiences that I'm not sure I should share this publicly.  For my family members that want to know more, we'll refer to what Seth is putting together.

This was my Dad's apartment.  By the look of the door with all the post boxes, it's still split up into individual apartments.

My Dad worked a lot with the military members in most of his areas.  This is one of the bases and military housing that has been turned over to the German government.  They made good use of this one.  The one in Idar-Oberstein was completely abandoned.

Iceland

One more from Iceland.  I might miss a lot of pictures... I'll try to be more thorough.

 

Giraffes were created when Chuck Norris uppercutted a horse.

Chuck Norris' calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd. No one fools Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris doesn't have good aim. His bullets just know better than to miss.

Chuck Norris counted to infinity. Twice.

Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.

Mainz, Germany

Our first day in Germany we picked up our rental van (that was a story in and of itself), checked into our Airbnb and headed to the Gutenberg Museum.  It's the oldest museum about printing.  It had some of Gutenberg's presses and original printings and the illuminations done are so fun and individual.  It had every type of printing from European to the different Asian kinds. One of my highlights was seeing the books with chains on them.  Apparently books were so valuable that the libraries had to chain them on a rod so that they couldn't be stolen.  Another was the fad of tiny books.  There were miniature presses and binding materials to make books the size of doll books.  I was marveling over the skill it would take to make something that miniscule and a guy said over my shoulder, "Just imagine trying to read it."

 

They had a printing demonstration, and had all the step by step instructions on how to print with wood blocks, metal plates and with acid washes.  I learned two of those in college, and the fundamentals of them sure haven't changed.

 

We got to the museum later in the afternoon and caught the last tiny bit of a food market.  We had bread and cheese for breakfast/lunch.  We weren't sure what kind of cheese it was, but it had flowers in it.  That was different.

My Dad had come here as a young missionary and wanted to share.  It was extremely neat, and the beginning of a lot of language immersion for all of us.  When I came to Germany years ago, most everyone I met spoke English.  But half of the army bases have been closed down and passed on to the German people... and along with that, fewer English speakers.  Dad and Seth both speak Germany and between the two of them we were able to comfortably get places.  Seth met quite a few Turkish speakers while in Germany too. He would greet everyone in the language that he'd hear them speaking and they were delighted to talk to him in their own language.  Once he met a guy while we were out touring and invited in for tea... he declined.  Then when we found this yummy Turkish place to eat, the same guy was in there hanging out with the owners.  They gave him some tea as a complimentary offering for a new friend.  We eventually got around to the Mormon conversation.  They were not too surprised when we said no coffee or tea, but when we said no alcohol... the entire restaurant about had heart attacks.  In Austria, we came across mostly Arabic speakers (which he also speaks)... and Spanish speakers (which both of us speak).  In Switzerland, mostly people from India... who mostly speak English.  It was fun to learn pieces of German and it was fun to hear Seth talk to people everywhere we went.

 

You could tell that a lot of refugees had immigrated North.  It was kind of a neat symmetry.  The country that once drove people out and killed them now opens their arms and welcomes them.  My cousin Eric explained once that the staunchest Nazi followers were driven out of the country and the normal people were left.  There's even a colony of German Nazis in Brazil.  Who knew?

These were benches out in the courtyard to sit on.