The Rhine River

Our last weekend of the summer we decided to knock of something else on our european bucket list.  Everyone here cruises the Rhine...so we thought we would give it a go as well!

The Rhine River is a main vein of commerce in the western part of Germany.  Naturally it would be a great place to build a castle and run part of the river.  Many ruins are found along this river, with stories of inflated river taxes charged to cross through "their" part of the Rhine.  It was pretty cool to see a castle around every corner as we cruised up the Rhine in our boat!  We did the portion between Bacharach and St. Goar.  It was incredibly scenic!

 Here are two castles, just around the bend of Bacharach.  The one up on the hill is the oldest, but fell to decay and ruin.  Later the white castle was built, in the shape of a ship.  They would string a huge, iron, chain across the river which they would pull up when a ship cruised up to cross.  You either paid the tax, don't pay and risk ruin to your ship and possible attack, or turned back.  Once tax was paid, the chain was lowered back into the water so the ship could pass.  I am guessing that most paid...

 I thought this castle was cool.  It is actually a youth hostel now, one of the cheapest castles you can sleep in, in Europe.

 Romans found their way here, of course.  This town had multitudes of roman fortifications and towers surrounding it.

A Japanese business man bought this castle at the bargain price of 4 million.  He wanted to restore it and use it as a vacation spa/resort for his countryman to come to.  However, the German village likes how their town looks, has strict building laws and codes.  All the business man's plans were denied, and he left defeated.  He still owns the castle, but to this day it sits empty still.

 So hard to get a good picture of all 5 of them (wink, wink)!

 St. Goar

This was the coolest castle ruin we have seen yet.  you could climb all through it towers and see where the old rooms would have been.  Underneath are a series of mining tunnels that you can explore.  We brought a flash light, but still managed to loose a girl or two.  Luckily we all met up in the end!

It was an awesome way to end the summer.  Go out with a bang, or a castle!  Now we are ready for the school year to start, fall to come and the Holidays to arrive.  We have a couple more big trips coming up, but for the most part our travels will start to slow down.  Not too much though, we still have a lot see and do, especially if we move next summer!