Figs From Thistles: Rheinfels Castle

Allowing the kiddos to miss a day's school (shh, don't tell), my mother and I set out with them to take a cruise upriver on the Rhein only the boat never docked at the pier. Not to be discouraged, we decided to drive along the Eastern bank which worked out just as well as it began to rain.

The first stop on our drive was the Loreley of folklore only we discovered that we nearly stood atop her and had to take a ferry across the river to Sankt Goar and drive downriver a bit for a proper view. Loreley, a rock fashioned as the dwelling of a siren, has been celebrated in verse by Heine and is a popular folk tale. Though the tales sometimes vary regarding the minutiae, the story goes that a beautiful maiden (is there ever an unprepossessing one to be had?) forlorn over an unfaithful lover, throws herself into the Rhein and drowns. She is now said to be a siren whose alluring voice causes ships to collide with the sharply jutting rocks making for watery deaths.

The Loreley rock marks the one of the narrowest points on the Rhein which then opens out into to precarious waters with seven rocks (reefs) visible at low times. The rocks, near Oberwesel, are legendary in and of themselves: a king had a seven beautiful daughters who refused to marry and viewed suitors presented to them with derision. Father Rhein, displeased with the stone hearted maidens, swallowed them up as a warning to other supercilious maidens. The reefs often cause shipwreck, so if a sailor was able to resist Loreley's seductive song, he most likely fell to the tenebrous virgins.

Continuing northward, a castle was visible nearly every mile; some remain private residences while others, such as Rheinfels, are open to touring. We ate lunch at a bistro that overlooked the Rhein from a remarkable vantage point, a view of steeply terraced vineyards, before touring the castle. Construction began on the Rhein's oldest and most formidable castle in 1245; it was bombed at the hands of Napoleon in the eighteenth century.

Touring the museum and ruins, Log was intrigued by the idea that knights once lived within the walls. Bop was weary of walking down stairs into dark cellars saying, 'Mama, in case you haven't noticed, this castle is FALLING DOWN.' She could not be persuaded and demonstrated her point by touching a small pile of rocks sending one of them careening to the ground. Littlest enjoyed the museum that boasted a scale model of the castle complete with model soldiers. Matty was delighted to find the stocks!

Exhausted, we drove the Western side of the Rhein back to Mainz. To see all of the photos of our day trip, please click here.

View from within the ruins