Castles, castles, everywhere!

It’s time to take a day off the bike and to enjoy the Rhein Gorge in the very best way – from a ferry cruise on the river. All we see is castle, after castle, after castle.

And all washed down with a glass of sekt. (Not a very good one, but you take what you can get.)

And then, though Neil had promised me ice cream at a castle, it ended up being a Flammekueche snack with a glass of (yes I said it!) very nice local Riesling – at a castle, of course. It all amounted to the perfect day off the bikes.

The one disconcerting thing is in the picture below. The haze is actually dust – in this beautiful, jewel of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there is a dirty great mine!

But even the mine has history! It is the Quarzittagebau Sooneck (Trechtingshausen) and operates directly on the Rhein slope – and it was first documented in 1650! The site produces crushed stone for flood protection and bank stabilisation. Maybe it is needed, but my goodness it is a blight on this beautiful place!