Sunday, September 10, 2006

It's good to be the king!


Well it must have been anyway. We had a list of chores to do this weekend but the sunshine was calling to us and we just couldn't bear the thought of staying inside all weekend so we grabbed our cameras and headed towards the Rhine river to see what we could find. We ended up touring a castle near Koblenz called Burg Stolzenfels. There has been a castle on this site since the 11th century but it has been in it's present configuration since around 1836 when the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick William took possession of it and made it into his summer residence. It was a big walk up to the castle, but well worth it. What a view of the Rhine river from the castle terrace! A lot of people say it is one of the most romantic castles on the Rhine and I can see why. It is this cool yellow color and when you are in the middle of it it feels like you are in Italy and the Mediterranean garden really adds to that feeling. There was a cool knights hall with weapons and the royal bedrooms were furnished nicely too and lots of nice paneling and paintings and stained glass. Absolutely wonderful!

When we were finished at the castle we headed down the Rhine to Boppard. There is a huge oxbow in the river there and you can take a chair lift to the top of the ridge and see the view. Bill doesn't like the heights thing so we drove to the top instead. There were a few restaurants up there and a group of paragliders making use of the great upwinds from the river. We got to watch several of them taking off (or attempting to). It reminded Colin of his efforts to get his stunt kite into the air. When they finally got everything right and the wind pulled them up into the sky they went up REALLY fast! It was like a theme park ride watching them being whisked into the air. Colin and I rode the chair lift down and Bill met us at the bottom. Cool stuff!



2 comments:

~ Jocelyn Wilhelm ~ said...

This is what you did on a weekend?! This is what I'd be doing if I was on vacation!!! Beautiful!!! TFS!

DivaMom96 said...

Now that's what I call a fun weekend!!! Imagine, living so close to such beauty - thanks for sharing with us!