GEMS OF GERMANY – ROMANTIC RHINE & HEIDELBERG REGIONS OF ROMANCE


The KD cruises offers daily service to explore the wonderful Rhine Valley with its good wines, historic villages, beautiful castles and stately homes covering 65 kilometres of the most stunning scenery on both banks of the Rhine. After a short and wonderful stay in Ruedesheim, we boarded the KD cruise at 1115 hours which arrived into St.Goar in around 1 hour 40 minutes and en route crossing the wonderful towns of Bingen, Assmanhausen, Lorch and Bacharach. The good thing is that if you are travelling on Rail Europe and on the German Rail Pass, it is valid for travel on the KD Rhine river cruises as well. En route to St. Goar we were able to see some stunning castles such as the Stahleck Castle, a 12th Century castle near Bacharach which was built on the orders of the Archbishop of Cologne and overlooks the Rhine and Loreley valley. It was destroyed in the late 17th Century and later built in the early 20th Century and is now a hotel. As we sailed along, we arrived at the most photographed castle on the Rhine – the Pfalz Castle.

This castle, built in the 13th Century on the river bed near the town of Kaub, was an ancient toll booth of sorts and made the town of Kaub one of the wealthiest on the river along with the Gutenfels Castle, which is now a hotel. When boats would approach, the Pfalz Castle would raise the chains and on paying a toll, the boats could pass without a problem or else the boats were seized and the crew was put on a raft in the well of the Pfalz Castle. The good thing about the Rhine cruise experience is that as you pass along you are narrated these interesting stories about each of these amazing castles and towns that you pass along the way. Next, we passed along the Schönburg Castle, now a famous hotel but once was called the most beautiful refuge of Rhine Romanticism. Onwards we cruised along to the region of Loreley – a 433 feet high slate cliff near the town of St.Goar where we were to disembark and spend a couple of hours in this town of the Rheinfels Castle – the largest and most imposing castle on the Rhine. On arrival we boarded the Castle Express which took us up to the Rheinfels Castle from the town centre. It is a train on wheels and goes through the Market Place. The Castle Express operates from 1st April until 31st October and costs 3 Euros for a round trip to and from the Castle for an adult and 2 Euros for a child. It operates every 25 minutes from the St. Goar “Martkplatz” and the Rheinfels Castle car park and is a good way to go up to the castle.

The town of St. Goar was named after the Saint, who built a chapel and lived as a hermit during the 6th Century on the site of the Stiftskirche or the Collegiate Church today. Before 765, the hermitage of St.Goar became one of Germany's earliest monasteries. The Rheinfels Castle was built in 1245 by Count Diether V von Katzenelnbogen to protect the St.Goar tax collectors and soon developed into one of the mightiest fortresses in the Middle Rhine region. You can do the castle tour on your own and get a route description from the tourist information office. The sheer size of the ruins as well as the labyrinth of trenches and tunnels, makes a visit to the castle an interesting experience. The town of St. Goar is also worth exploring and there is good news for our Indian guests - you can get Indian food in St. Goar and there is a fantastic property where you can stay which overlooks the Rhine, the Rheinfels Hotel which interestingly is managed by an Indian who was courteous enough to make us have some good masala tea along with gulab jamuns (Indian desserts) during our short visit to the hotel property. The Romantikhotel Schloss Rheinfels is a good option for honeymooners as you can experience a dream stay at the Castle Hotel overlooking the Loreley Valley. Not too far from St.Goar is Oberwesel which is merely 14 kilometres away and is also an exciting holiday destination with various accommodation options from youth hostels and camping to guest houses and hotels.

After a cup of masala tea, we boarded the KD cruise to head towards the last leg of our Rhine cruise and on to Koblenz where we were to arrive in 2 hours 15 minutes and part of the Romantic Rhine route with a wide range of castles along the way. As the cruise boat started off from St. Goar, on the other side of the Rhine, at a distance was the Cat Castle situated on a rocky mountain and now is a privately owned property. Further down there was the imposing Stolzenfels Castle which was built by Karl Friedrich as a 19th Century palace as an epitome of Rhine Romanticism. The castle with the yellow façade can be visited to see the original furnishings as well as the collections of armour and weapons. As we were approaching Koblenz, besides the stunning scenery of wonderful buildings and castles, we came across a building which had Königsbacher written on it and it is a brewery that makes beer and situated close to Koblenz and sells its products to chains of stores and supermarkets across Germany.

We arrived at Koblenz late in the evening where we were to take a short stroll around town and were received by Kerstin Handwerk from Koblenz Touristik. The city of Koblenz is where the Moselle River empties into the Rhine and on our arrival we first walked to the German Corner which has an imposing statue of Emperor Wilhelm. The “Deutsch Eck” or the German Corner is where the Rhine and Moselle rivers meet at one of Germany's very picturesque cities. Koblenz is famous for its fine wines from the vineyards that slope along the Moselle and is a city which has an interesting history of Empress Augusta in whose name a special Festival is celebrated every year. The Romans founded the city 2000 years ago and called it “apud confluentes” or “at the confluence” signifying the confluence of the two rivers. The city comprises of romantic narrow streets, historic squares and intertwined alleys. Delightful corners and open squares, proud patrician houses and courtyards as well as distinguished old churches are some of the other highlights. Koblenz is a city of lovers of music, art and theatre and is home to several museums, art galleries and exhibitions. The most impressive part of the city besides the German Corner is the 34 kilometre long promenade along the banks of the Rhine and the green areas of the city make it worthwhile to at least spend a night to explore the wine, castles and the old town of Koblenz. We had to head back to Frankfurt and we took the train back the same evening as we were heading to the region of Baden Würrttemberg and one of the southernmost cities located at close proximity to the borders of France and Switzerland – Freiburg, on the western edge of the Black Forest.

The following morning we boarded our train for Freiburg and en route we stopped at the University town of Heidelberg. On arrival at Heidelberg, we left our luggage at the luggage locker and took a taxi to the city centre where we were greeted by an enterprising Charlotte Frey, an American now based out of the wonderful town of Heidelberg which is famous for its castle, the old quarter and also for being Germany's oldest University town. We started our tour from Löwenbrunnen – the Lion Fountain close to the University Square. Heidelberg has been an inspiration for artists, poets, writers and composers and is the centre of Romanticism and is a must visit for the honeymooner not only for the stunning beauty, the youthful town and its cosmopolitan flavour but also for the Café Knösel which has an interesting story of Heidelberg Student's Kiss.

We started our tour with the oldest University of Germany – the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg which was founded in 1386 when Heidelberg was a little fishing village. Today the town gets 30000 students and one out of every 5 persons in Heidelberg is a student which brings the exuberance and youth to this wonderful town comprising of two mountains, a castle, a University, the Neckar River which flows into the mighty Rhine and an old town. The University is easily identifiable by the clock tower and although due to our short stop in Heidelberg we weren't able to go inside the Old University, we had the opportunity of visiting the Students' Prison which is located at the back of the Old University and a prison where the students loved to go. The prison, which was operational until 1914, was a place where students were punished for common offences like disturbing the peace or excessive drinking at night, insulting official authorities and so on. In fact during those days no one wanted to leave Heidelberg University until they spent a few days in the Students' Prison as they were extremely happy to be there. It did not surprise us on seeing the prison as there was graffiti all around, the walls were decorated with silhouettes and artwork and the story goes that the students came from very wealthy, affluent and protected families. They were Germany's elite who used to study here with a very disciplined life and they used to create a ruckus here in the University and disturb the peace of the town and once reported they would be imprisoned. The first three days they were served just bread and water to sober up and if they were kept for a longer period, like a week or so, they were allowed to attend lectures, visit their friends and also have food and wine sent in. There was a wire on the ceiling and on pulling it the jailer would come and take the order. So if you had a colleague in the neighbouring cell who was serving his 8th day and you had just arrived, he would share the stuff with you and no one wanted to miss this great party. The only restriction was that the prison was for young men only and not for girls studying at the University. Next we visited the University Lecture Hall which we were fortunate to see as it was open for visiting. It was an extreme contrast to the prison cell and the lecture hall is even used today and is very impressive. Special lectures and graduation ceremonies are conducted here even today. The hall is in Neo-Renaissance style and it did not surprise us that the University is associated with over 29 Nobel Prize Laureates and is consistently ranked amongst Europe's top Universities and for those pursuing their Ph. D.

Next we stopped to see the impressive Catholic Baroque Church which was recently repainted white. The next stop was at Heidelberg's most famous building that Louis XIV didn't destroy and to find out about it and also about Student’s Kisses you will have to wait until our next issue.

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