Castles on the Rhine

---

The sky cleared and we had a glorious afternoon cruising through the famous Rhine Gorge. Sitting on the sun deck of our river cruiser, we watched the castles pass by and listened to the tales and legends of the region recounted by our cruise manager.



Note: Some people have mentioned having trouble seeing the entire captions on some photos (I do go on a bit at times). All you have to do is double click the picture and it will enlarge with the whole caption showing. Good luck!

---

Photos

Phil and Ron secure their places for castle viewing.
At last a sunny afternoon and a reason to be on the top deck.

The entire top of the river cruiser is a sun deck.
It gives a 360 degree view of the river and banks.

Wine country
As we enter the Rhine Gorge, the low but steep hills are covered with vineyards. We're puzzled that nearly everywhere the rows run up and down the slopes. What about erosion??

Super highway
We're amazed at the amount of freight moving up and down the river. We see a heavily loaded boat passing almost every minute, it seems. We were told these figures: Trucks -- 29 cents per tonne; Rail -- 9 cents per tonne; water transport -- 4 cents per tonne.

Picturesque villages cling to the river's edge.
We almost never see houses on the steep and rocky slopes.

Castles are in high, defendable positions.
Thick stone walls, towers, battlements--How would that look in a real estate ad?

Zoom, zoom, zoom
A closer look. They're reputed to have been cold and dark inside.

Another river cruiser
We've heard that in peak season there are 150 river cruisers on the Rhine itineraries.

This is the biggest castle, but much of it is broken.
Part of it is a youth hostel these days.

The residents of the castles levied taxes on the passing boats.
The greedier ones were eventually called "robber barons".

New cars via rail
No converted pumpkins here

The ABC effect kicks in
"Another Bloody Castle"!

Comments

[Robyn Hansen. [e-mail]]

Champagne
Did they serve you a blue champagne on the Danube, they did for us, champagne was blue but the river brown. Don’t forget coffee at Rudensheim. If you miss it will make you one when home.

[Jack and Jinny]

River cruise
Love the pictures. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy! ????

[michelleandkev]

Castles on the Rhine
Looks fan-bloody-tastic!! Pleased to see you both enjoying yourselves. Lots of love, M xx

[Chris]

Castles
Are any of the castles inhabited these days? They are certainly amazing feats of engineering, hey?!