Little Devils and Cruising Down the Rhine

It's time to take a little boat ride down the beloved Rhine river. I'll be starting in the town of Boppard and sailing down to Bacharach

The walk down to the boat dock gives me the opportunity to check out Boppard's St. Severus church (13th century). Looks normal enough from here.

Aw, a lion. He's kind of charming. That little thing on the left is a bit creepy, though. What else is on this doorway?

Aack! Sweet Jesus! What is going on with this church?! I don't remember reading, "thou shalt vomit demons who will then peck out thine eyes" anywhere in the Bible, even the Old Testament. Maybe it's in the Apocrypha.

Seriously. That's disturbing. Of course now I have to go inside.

Ah ha. Quiet, shadowy, and kind of colorful (notice the stripes in the archways). Going to stand in the nave and let my eyes eat this up for a while.

It's quite dark in the church right now, but I'm pretty sure that's Jesus. Actually love the way the crucifix works with that stained glass window-especially when it's dark like this. Crucifix is also from the 13th century.

This is the way most Romanesque churches were originally decorated: colorfully painted, not just plain stone.

"Early Christian memorial stone" from about the 5th century, excavated near the church. Neat! Glad I came in.

OK. On to the boat!

Preparing to board the Goethe for a paddle-wheeling good trip down the Rhine. No, the cruise will not be accompanied by a dramatic reading of Faust, but there will be an excited group of French tourists shouting, "Le Chevre!" for ten minutes while we pass some goats grazing on a hill.

A little cloudy, but no rain. So not a bad day to sit on the deck and watch the castles go by.

River view of the town of St. Goar (the pinkish building to the left of the church is my hotel).

Floating past Rheinfels Castle (on the hill above St. Goar).

This is the famous/infamous Loreley rock. The Rhine at this spot is narrow and deep, with a strong current and rocky reefs, making it a prime spot for shipwrecks. Since it is a bonafide ship-wrecking rock, the Loreley is home to a legendary fair maiden (also named Loreley) who sits on the cliff and combs her golden hair with a golden comb. As if the combing wasn't scintillating enough, she also sings. Naturally, sailors are so distracted by this girl that they can't concentrate on navigating and end up wrecking their boats on the reefs. Naughty, naughty Loreley!

The Goethe kindly plays a schmaltzy recording of the Loreley poem as it chugs past the rock. To have real schmaltz, though, I went to a restaurant in Bacharach where they kindly serve it free with the schwarzbrot.

Oberwesel. Established in 400 B.C. by the Celts. Notable citizens: Alfred Gottschalk, leader of Reform Judaism. Also home to: the reddest church on the Rhine.

Burg Pfalzgrafenstein (all of his friends just call him Castle Pfalz) was built in the river in 1326 and served as a toll booth for Rhine traffic. Pfalz and the neighboring riverside town of Kaub were especially good toll collectors because they could string a chain across the river to stop traffic. Those who didn't comply and pay up were thrown in Pfalz's dungeon, which was a wooden raft. At the bottom of a well.

Bacharach from the river.

Dock worker skate-boarding the gang plank onto the boat. Enthralled passengers.

Rhineland Part Eins: Bacharach

Moving on to spend a few days on the Rhine River, and I'm starting in the little town of Bacharach.
Population: 1,000.
Famous for: Reisling wine(oh, it's good!), half-timbered loveliness.
Victim of: plagues, the Thirty Years' War, Louis XIV.


Bacharach from the hillside (rhine in the background).



Walking up a side street toward the town center.



Ah, those half-timbers!


Side street view looking toward one of the six remaining medieval towers.



Walking through the vineyards along the path of the old town wall. Check out the face on that tower.



View from a back street on the edge of town.



And finally, a hike up to the ruins of the Werner Kapelle (Werner Chapel). Constructed in the years 1287-1430 and destroyed in 1689 by falling rubble when the French attacked the castle on the hill above.


Love how taking the top off of the chapel allows you to see how beautiful the angles of the walls are.

Leaving Trier: Two Final Observations. One In Word, One In Deed.

The first photo is of a plaque in the Konstantin Basilica-it is part of an exhibit chronicling the history of the building (click on the picture to enlarge it). The Basilica has been a Protestant church since 1856.

The second photo was taken about 20 minutes later while I was standing outside the cathedral door.

The Other St. Peter's

OK. I am now moving on from the Roman sites and heading toward the cathedral.

But first, an obligatory tourist photo in front of this lovely, pink archbishop's palace. Hi, Mom! (That's the basilica in the background)

During the middle ages, the cathedral (then much larger than its current size) was its own walled city. Here is an arch telling me that I am now entering said city. See the cathedral coming up straight ahead? It seems that the townspeople and the archbishop did not always get along. The citizens wanted Trier to be a "free imperial city," and the archbishop (who also happened to have a large amount of political power) thought that he should run the show.

A look at the cathedral by night.

Behold, Germany's oldest Christian church. The first church here was donated by St. Helena in the year 312 (right after Constantine legalized Christianity). Constantine went on to build a St. Peter's church here in 326, the same time he was building St. Peter's in Rome.

The Gothic church on the right is the Liebfrau church which is under renovation right now so I couldn't go in :(

View from the back door. The glowing space behind the high altar is the reliquary for the cathedral's most prized relic: the robe of Christ. There is a sign posted near the reliquary that basically says, "We can't guarantee The Robe's authenticity, and we don't display it anymore because of condition issues, but please, go forth and meditate."

Side aisle

Cloister between the cathedral and Liebfrau church.

Side view of the cathedral from the cloister. Love the hodgepodge of styles!

Outside the front door: one of the four granite columns from the 4th century Roman church.

Trier in the Olden Days

Here’s a guy who’s seen and done it all: the Konstantin Basilica. It began life as a throne room for Roman emperors, was inhabited by kings during the Middle Ages, was taken over and turned into a palace by archbishops in the 12th century, became a Lutheran church in 1856, and was bombed during WWII. While it still functions as a protestant church, it seems to be more of a scrapbook of all of its past lives.

View from the street

To give you some size perspective: the entire Porta Nigra can fit in here with room to spare. The Roman emperor would have sat in the area behind the arch (on his throne, of course).

I admit, I was only moderately excited about going to see the “fine collection of Roman funerary monuments” in Trier’s Archaeological Museum. But I have to say, they were pretty interesting. Each monument is decorated with scenes and images that illustrate important parts of the deceased’s life. What’s cool is that the decorations are very human. They portray scenes from everyday Roman life, not static symbols.
This guy, for example, was a tax collector:

Roman family funerary monument. Mom, Dad, and Son. The way that the man and woman holding hands indicates their partnership as husband and wife.

This handshake is from another monument, but I liked the detail.

This is actually a copy of a huge funerary monument that is in a village near Trier. If you were a wealthy and important citizen, you got a big monument. All of the monuments would have originally been colorfully painted like this one.

Lots of kegs of wine, sailin’ down the Mosel river. I'm guessing this ship is from the monument of a wine merchant? The background for this piece reflects how archaeologists think the road to Trier might have looked in Roman times.

I got caught up in the mosaic floors again, too. They are so hypnotizing to see up close. All those little, irregular pieces of color! It's like the inverse of a stained glass window.

Wow

Beauty

12th century lion says, "What's so great about the Romans? I'm interesting, too! See how my tail looks like a leaf on a vine? That's neat, right?! Look at my protruding ribs-nobody gives me any love. Roar."

Trier By Day and By Night (But First, a Note To My Dad)

Hey Dad, guess which town I passed on the train ride to Trier? That’s right, it’s your own personal Mineralwasser Mecca: Gerolstein! The Germans on the train thought I was pretty weird for taking a picture of the Gerolstein train station but hey, I do have a name to uphold.



Speaking of towns with carbonated beverages named after them, we passed through Bitburg just a short time later. That’s right, home of Bitburger beer and, I’m guesstimating, approximately 2500 “Bitte, ein Bit!” signs, coasters, napkins, and beer steins. Per capita.

Well, I'm leaving Cologne for a while and moving on to Trier, a city in the Mosel river valley, close to the Germany/Luxembourg border. Trier was founded as a Roman town in 16 BC, making it Germany's oldest city (apparently, it had already been the site of a Celtic settlement for hundreds of years). It is also home to the oldest Christian church in Germany and the largest intact Roman structure outside of Rome. But enough with the superlatives, let's start with the first you see when entering the city center:

The Porta Nigra (Black Gate) is the only surviving gate of the original Roman town wall. I know, it looks and sounds like something from The Lord of The Rings. I have many theories about that, which I will keep to myself for now.

Um, welcome...to Trier. *Thunderclap*

I'm pretty sure the Porta Nigra loves to vamp up its stoney toothiness on rainy days like this.

Ooooh, the Black Gate at night! Spooky!

OK, that actually looks kind of nice.

Trier's Market Square is just down the main drag from the Porta Nigra and definitely has a different atmosphere. Lots of people-watching and architecture-gazing going on here.

By night.

One centerpiece of the square is St. Peter's fountain. It's been holding down the fort since 1595 and is ringed on the bottom by four female statues that represent cardinal virtues.

I think the ladies achieve full volume in the night light:

"Fortitude"

"Prudence"