Rheinland-Pfalz

Happy Memorial Day, and I'm holding gratitude to all those in service who gave their lives for our country, our democracy, and our freedoms. May we all honor their sacrifice and strive to embrace "... and justice for all."

It's a little disorienting being abroad for Memorial Day and the attendant traditions. We typically gather friends and family for a BBQ, and I carry my mother's tradition of baking a strawberry-rhubarb pie to welcome the informal start of summer.

We did decide to go into the town of Koblenz for dinner. I had a steak and Jim had a pasta dish. We did go to High Noon, a western-style bar decorated with U.S. licence plates, to have a beer and play darts. We guessed that we hadn't played in a few decades. Jim C went 2 for 3 in the win column. So we did manage to salvage a bit of American culture for the holiday.

We began the day in Rudesheim by going to Siegfried's Mechanisches Musikkabinett, a museum housing a massive collection of musical contraptions ranging from music boxes to gramophones to automated mechanical machines playing multiple instruments. The town of Rudesheim offered Siegfried the medieval Brömserhof buikding to house his collection. The building was an additional treasure housing this marvelous collection.

After the tour, we stopped for locally made and decadent crepes and "kaffe" before returning to the boat.

Our destination today was to the town of Koblenz, and this was a trip that was definitely more about the journey than the destination. We journeyed through the Rhine River gorge that highlighted many castles in various conditions as well as towers and beautiful riverside villages. This is also the area boasting sine of the best vineyards in Germany known for their Riesling and other fine white wines

Our cruise director Jane provided narratives about the castles as we watched from the chilly and windy deck. Most of the stories seemed to revolve around key themes- well, at least the tongue-in-cheek ones that I internalized:

1. Karma is a bitch.
2. Love interests can cause more trouble than their worth.
3. The French destroy everything.

One of the highlighted aspects of the gorge was a rocky cliff known as Lorelei (Loreley) a siren-like character who when betrayed by her lover lures sailors to their deaths. In 1824, a German poet, Heinrich Heine, composed a poem to honor the story of Lorelei.

I don't know what it may signify
That I am so sad;
There's a tale from ancient times
That I can't get out of my mind.

The air is cool and the twilight is falling
and the Rhine is flowing quietly by;
the top of the mountain is glittering
in the evening sun.

The loveliest maiden is sitting
Up there, wondrous to tell.
Her golden jewelry sparkles
as she combs her golden hair

She combs it with a golden comb
and sings a song as she does,
A song with a peculiar,
powerful melody.

It seizes upon the boatman in his small boat
With unrestrained woe;
He does not look below to the rocky shoals,
He only looks up at the heights.

If I'm not mistaken, the waters
Finally swallowed up fisher and boat;
And with her singing
The Lorelei did this.

In further researching the author, I learned that during the Nazi regime and World War II, Heine became discredited as author of the lyrics because he was born a Jew, in an effort to dismiss and hide Jewish contribution to German art.

It was good to know that his recognition was restored.

We arrived in the town of Koblenz, a city found on the banks of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, later in the afternoon. We moored on the banks of Altstadt on the Moselle River. Before dinner, we strolled along the two rivers and noted the aerial tram to a fortress on top of a hill and a massive monument dedicated to the unification of Germany.

Just before dinner, we noticed an unusual sculpture centered in a fountain. The artist created a tower representing the 2000 year-old history of Koblenz from the Roman Empire to present day. I was intrigued by the artist's view of history as reported on the placard: "History for him is not a progressive 'improving' development, but is always a new beginning that eminates from a demolished past on which it is based, but it is essentially something different."

I wonder what our history tower would look like. I think it would be interesting to invite artists to create a similar concept in the U.S.

We enjoyed our night in town, and we look forward to our final leg of the cruise to Köln tomorrow. Guten Nacht!Read more