Rheingau, Germany

It was another very nice weekend with Laura's father, Ken, and his wife, Marlis. It was such a relief not having to spend hours of planning for this trip, and Ken and Marlis again exceeded our expectations with such wonderful activities planned for us in the Rheingau (Rhine River Region in Germany). The weekend began with the 4 hour drive north from Kempten to Kiedrich, Germany on Friday afternoon. It was another pretty drive, getting back into the region of huge rolling hills and beautiful countryside. It took about a half hour longer than it should have to get there, due to a "stau" (German word for stall/traffic) on the A3 highway. About a half hour before reaching our destination, we passed by the Frankfurt airport, an airport both Laura and I have connected through in the past, but never to get out and see the area. I'm not sure whether or not Frankfurt offers much to look at, but we did not actually see the city because, as usual with big cities, the airport is quite a ways out of the city. We pulled into Kiedrich just before 9:00pm. At first look, Kiedrich seemed like such a beautiful town, with a wine barrel welcome sign at its entrance. When we arrived at the apartment, Ken and Marlis were waiting for us, ready to go to dinner. So we quickly unloaded our stuff, changed, and headed out.

Kiedrich is a small wine town of just 3,000 people, about 2 km East of the Rhine River. Marlis grew up in the neighboring town of Eltville (which we also visited). Her father was a builder, and after her first marriage about 30 years ago he built her a house in Kiedrich (pictured here), which she lived in until she moved to Bitburg several years later. After Marlis' father passed away, her mother spent her widow years living in the house, which has been split into an upstairs and downstairs apartment. Since her mother passed away about a year ago, they are now looking to sell the house. The top floor is currently being rented (by a less than stellar tenant), and we stayed in the vacant lower floor. They've decided that the maintenance costs to keep the place, and the headaches of dealing with renters, is just not worth it, so it's now up for sale. We are really happy they still had it this summer, though, as this was such a nice area that is not visited by the average tourist, so we never would have otherwise known to come here.

We walked through the old historic town on the way to dinner, passing by lots of Middle Age architecture and houses that are 500 to 1,000 years old. We also walked behind the castle (which is really just a huge house lived in by a wealthy Kiedrich family), down to a creek where had great views of all the hillside vineyards in town. Then we had dinner at a family winery/restaurant called Speicher-Schuth, sitting outdoors on the upstairs balcony. It was a perfect setting for dinner. Even though we didn't sit down for dinner until after 9:30pm, it was still light enough to have views of the hillside vineyards behind us. Another nice part about visiting Laura's father is being treated to some nice meals. It had been since the last time we were with them that I had a steak dinner, and I wasn't shy about ordering a big steak for dinner again this time. I was actually amazed about how inexpensive dinner was. Although such a beautiful area, it is not a touristy town, so the prices are very reasonable. The wine was fantastic as well, and also inexpensive - all they had to do was go down to their wine cellar to bring fresh bottles of Riesling. This is the type of wine German's are most known for. The white Riesling grape originates in the German Rhine Region, a region that is full of vineyards growing this type of grape. Laura and I usually tend to think Riesling wine is too sweet for us, but this was not the case with the drier Rieslings we tasted while in the area - they were all delicious.














After dinner, Ken and Marlis, walked us through some more of the narrow streets of Kiedrich, pointing out various things on the way. The town is absolutely adorable, full of Middle Age houses and family wineries. One interesting thing was to hear about how these Middle Age houses were built. As you can see from the picture here of a house being re-finished, the siding of these houses were constructed with nothing more than straw and mud. Also interesting, was how so many of the houses in the town are also family wineries. If a family has wine available in their cellar, they simply hang a carafe above the front door of their house to let people know it is for sale. This is an old tradition that has carried on for years with the winemakers in the area. Wine tasting in Europe seems to be very different from what you see in California wine country. For the most part, they are family wineries, and not open to the public. With hundreds of years of experience, the wine is excellent, but the bottling and labeling is very simple and it's not exactly marketed like the wine you see in grocery stores - the only place you can get this stuff is right from the winemaker's cellar. We also walked around the town's main cathedral. This is where Marlis was first married, and she also tells us it is home of the oldest pipe organ in Germany. After a nice evening stroll, we headed back to the apartment and went to bed.

Because it was dark and I wasn't able to take many good pictures Friday night, we walked around some more on Sunday morning before leaving town. Here are several pictures of the town of Kiedrich:
















































Saturday morning, we woke up fairly early so we could drive the 2 km over to Eltville am Rhein to catch a 9:25am boat ride along the Rhine River. Eltville is another very nice town with a population of about 17,000 people, situated right on the river. It is known as a Wine, Sekt, and Rose Town, as you can see in the photo of their welcome sign. Sekt is the German term for sparkling wine. Germans (especially in this area) love their Sekt, and they are the largest per capita consumer of sparkling wine in the world. As I said before, Eltville is the town that Marlis was born and raised in, and her family has quite a history in the area. Most of the beautiful roses you see in our pictures were planted years ago by Marlis' grandfather, and her father was a prominent builder in the area. Eltville also holds it's claim to fame because Johannes Gutenberg (from nearby Mainz) invented the printing press inside the white tower of the castle pictured below, in the early 1400's. We didn't have much time to wander around Eltville, because we had to get on the boat, but we would be back later that night for dinner, and again on Sunday for the Rose Festival and to walk up the tower to see Gutenberg's printing press.

Ken, Laura, and I boarded the Köln-Düsseldorfer ferry boat when it arrived at 9:25am. Marlis stayed behind, as she had to finish up some work around Kiedrich and meet with the real estate agent who is selling the house. We didn't have much of a plan, just ride it as far as we wanted to, hop off at one of the stops, and get back on the next one coming back. The Köln-Düsseldorfer ferry line goes daily on the Rhine between Mainz and Cologne (Köln), stopping in several towns along the way. The name is a little misleading because it does not actually go as far north as Düsseldorf.

The Rhine River is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, stretching a total of 1,320 km (about 820 miles). The river's origin is in the Swiss Alps, and it flows northwest all the way to the Netherlands, where it dumps out into the North Sea, near Rotterdam. In Switzerland, the river forms the borders of Austria and Liechtenstein before emptying into Lake Constance, which serves as a tri-border with Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. At the northern end of Lake Constance, the river continues flowing north near Strasbourg, France and serves as the border between France and Germany for a bit before going through the middle of Germany. It is the longest river in Germany, but we saw just a small portion of the river in our visit to the Rheingau.

We rode the boat north for about 1 hour and 40 minutes, only covering about 30 km. The Köln-Düsseldorfer does not go as far as the Netherlands, but apparently there are other boats you can take all the way to the North Sea if you wish. We saw plenty of barges transporting cargo, decorated with their Netherlands flags, heading south and struggling against the strong northerly current. The further along the river you go, the more beautiful it seems to get. We started by passing some typical German towns and vineyards, but soon every turn opened up to more mountains and riverside castles, in addition to the vineyards that line the hills. The first stop was Rüdesheim on the east side of the river, one of the main tourist towns on the stretch we covered. When we got to Rüdesheim, we firmed up our spot on the railing of the boat, so we didn't get our view cut by the couple hundred Japanese tourists who boarded. In the hills above the town of Rüdesheim, we could see the Niederwald Landscape Park, which holds the Germania statue, built to commemorate the unification of Germany in 1871 under the leadership of Kaiser Wilhelm I and the first German Chancellor, Otto Von Bismarck, both of whom are portrayed on the monument. Ken also pointed out the retention walls on the hills leading up to the Germania, which he told us were all built by Marlis' father.

The next stop after Rüdesheim was Bingen, on the west side of the river. We picked up a few more tourists there and then continued on, passing by one of the many toll stops, which was used in the olden days by the towns to collect money as ships passed through. It really just looked like a small castle in the middle of the river.

After passing Rüdesheim and Bingen, this is where we started to see castle after castle on the hillsides lining the river. Some of the castles are in ruins, and some have been restored, but they were all very old and historic. It became so picturesque, and I'm sure Ken was laughing at the amount of photos I was snapping. The first castle was the Burg Ehrenfels. This is a medieval castle in ruins, as it was destroyed by the French in 1689.

Just across the river from Burg Ehrenfels, on the west side of the river, we saw the Burg Rheinstein, sitting 270 feet above the river. Built in the 900's, itt's original purpose was a customs post to watch over the river traffic. Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph von Hapsburg lived in this castle from 1282 to 1286. In front of this medieval castle is a drawbridge gate over a moat. In the 1400's, the castle was handed over to the Archbishop of Mains, and eventually fell into ruins before being rediscovered and restored in the 1800's, and can now be visited by tourists.

The next stop was the town of Assmannshausen, back on the east side of the river. Assmannshausen is more known for their red wine, Pinot Noir.

After a quick pickup/drop-off at Assmannshausen, the boat continued north and soon Burg Reichenstein, an 11th century castle, was in view on the west side of the river. Knight Philip von Hohenfels lived in the castle during the 13th century, until he was executed by Rudolph von Hapsburg in 1273 at the neighboring Burg Rheinstein, for robbery and mistreatment of people. This well preserved castle had it's interior reconstructed in the 1800's in a Gothic style, with a collection of medieval armor throughout. There is also a small, family-owned hotel and restaurant within the castles walls, situated in the former hunter's lodge.

The next castle we passed was Burg Sooneck, up high on a hill on the west side of the river. This castle is believed to have been built before the 11th century, but has been destroyed several times. In 1834, the castle fell into the possession of the crown prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and his brother. In 1842, it was rebuilt as a hunting lodge, and has been state-owned as a tourist site since 1918.

The next castle we passed, also on the west side of the river, was the Heimburg castle, in the town of Niederheimbach. Though not as impressive as some of the others, the captain of the boat pointed this one out as the oldest castle along this part of the Rhine, although my research shows that could be up for debate. It is believed to have been built during the 10th century, and until approximately 1125, Heimburg was a royal castle. It has also been destroyed several times throughout the years, and it gets its name because it was in possession of the Heimburg family from 1181 until 1267. It was rebuilt in the 19th century by Hugo Stinnes, and the last destruction was in 1988. The castle also had an importance during the communist regime, when a fortified shelter was installed for observation purposes. After the fall of communism, work was begun to restore the castle, though it is not yet open to the public.

We could have continued for hours on the boat, looking at all the amazing castles, mountains, and vineyards, but looking at the time-table, we figured we better get off the boat in Lorch if we wanted to make it back to Kiedrich at a decent hour. So we disembarked in Lorch, on the east side of the river, where we had about 15 minutes before the next boat headed south would pick us up. We didn't have time to walk around or grab a snack/drink, so we just waited for that until we got back on the boat. We did see a small castle at the top of the vineyard-covered hill in Lorch, the Nollig Castle Ruins, and directly across the river on the west side we could see the castle ruins of Fürstenberg. Nollig was built in the 14th century, as more of a watch tower. Today it is private property, and not open for visiting. Fürstenberg was a castle above the town of Rheindiebach, which was built with a high watch tower to protect properties around nearby Bacharach, and later served as a toll house. It was captured by the Spanish during the 30 Years War, and later destroyed by the French in the late 17th century. Unlike many of the castles in the area, Fürstenberg was not rebuilt in the 19th century, and today it is closed to the public. Off in the distance, we could see Burg Stahleck, in the town of Bacharach, which would have been our next stop on the ferry route. This castle was originally built in the 12th century. It was destroyed in the late 17th century, but then rebuilt in the early 20th century and now serves as a hostel.

The way back was a little more relaxing, as we sat in the front of the smaller, less crowded boat, and enjoyed a beer and the nice, sunny day. The boat we got on only went as far Rüdesheim, which was fine by us because it looked like a nice town to walk around and it was about lunch time. We pulled into Rüdesheim at about 1:15pm, and had lunch at an outdoor restaurant just across the street from the river. After lunch, we walked around the town of Rüdesheim for a few minutes, stopping in the cathedral at the main square, until it started to sprinkle. I guess it was good timing to head back on the boat early, because we avoided the bad weather while onboard. While walking in Rüdesheim, Laura and I spotted a horrible pair of red women's shoes. Marlis has been searching for the perfect pair of red shoes since we saw her the last time in Bitburg, a month ago. Too good to pass up, Ken picked up the cheap €5 shoes to bring them home as a joke gift for Marlis.






From Rüdesheim we took a taxi back to Eltville, where our car was. I was impressed by the taxi meter, installed right in the mirror of the Mercedes taxi we rode in. When we got back to the apartment, Marlis still had some things to do with the Real Estate Agent, so she took care of that while we relaxed at the apartment during the rain storm. Laura and Ken took naps, and since I'm not much of a nap person, I loaded the pictures onto the computer and worked on the blog a bit.

The weather started to clear up around 6:00pm, so we headed off for some site-seeing and then dinner in Eltville. Marlis wanted us to see a famous monastery, the Kloster Eberbach, in the hills just above Kiedrich. So we drove there, and took a look at it from the outside since it was closed for construction. After that, some of us were hungry, so we decided to just head over to Eltville for dinner.









This being Marlis' home town, she knew just where to take us. Her childhood friend, Agnes, has a family restaurant and winery called Weinhaus Krone, right on the river in Eltville, in an adorable 16th century Middle Age house. The restaurant is on the bottom floor, and Agnes lives in the house above. Agnes and her husband bought the house about 15 years ago, but she now runs the restaurant by herself (and does the cooking) because her husband passed away from liver failure about 8 years ago. He was the winemaker for the family winery, and apparently sampled a little too much of his own product throughout the years, until it finally caught up with him. We had a really nice meal on the outdoor patio overlooking the Rhine. Traditional German schnitzel for the ladies, steaks for the men. The Riesling they served was also tasty, and they had a deal where you could buy 6 bottles for just €21. An absolute steal, especially given the fact that these were 1 liter bottles, not the standard 750 mL. This being a family winery and the only place to get the wine, there was nothing fancy about the bottling or labeling, but what's inside the bottle is delicious. Laura and I took advantage of the opportunity, and purchased a half dozen bottles to bring back to Kempten. We'll drink some of them while we're here, and attempt to bring a couple back to the US as well. After dinner, Agnes came out from the kitchen to visit with Marlis, and then Laur and I got a tour from Agnes, who spoke a few English words, of the wine cellar, the kitchen, and the inside of the restaurant.

After dinner, we took advantage of the beautiful night and walked along the river for a bit. Being a little further north and west of Kempten, it stayed light out quite a bit later. It wasn't until after 11:00pm that it became pitch black. Marlis told us a few stories about the town of Eltville and growing up there, and then we finished off the night by having one last glass of wine at the wine tent/gazebo by the river.

Sunday morning after breakfast, Laura and I walked around the town of Kiedrich while Ken and Marlis cleaned up the house. We didn't get to see Kiedrich during daylight hours when we got in on Friday, so we took the opportunity to have a nice walk and take some photos of the little town. After that, we all went back to Eltville to check out the Rose Festival that was going on over the weekend. The festival was setup in the ruins of the old castle. We saw it being setup Saturday morning before the boat ride, but didn't have time to really walk around much. Marlis was in search of a rose to bring back and plant in their garden in Bitburg. If this was close to our home in the US, I'm sure Laura would have been interested in the same, because there were tons of beautiful plants to purchase. But since we weren't in search of any roses of our own, Laura, Ken, and I walked up the only part of the castle that seems to have been rebuilt, the tower. It was in this tower that Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the early 1400's. The room where he did his work and the original press is viewable when walking up the tower. At the top of the tower were some nice views of the river and towns around Eltville.










After Marlis found her perfect rose, we walked to the main square of Eltville, where we sat down at a Greek Restaurant for lunch. A little tired of the heavy German food, this was a nice change of pace, except for the fact that it took about two hours to have lunch. The service was incredibly slow, which was frustrating to us because we had to hit the road. We were meeting my friend, Steffen, in Heidelberg on the way back, and I told him we'd be there after lunchtime. After the long lunch, we dropped Ken and Marlis back off at the apartment to finish up a few things before they headed back to Bitburg. We said our goodbye's, and then we were on our way to Heidelberg, just an hour away. It was another wonderful weekend with Ken and Marlis. We really appreciate them having us there, and all they did for us while in the Rheingau. This will be the last time we see them on this trip to Germany, as they're actually headed to the US for the next month.