Saturday 7 December 2019. We are on a weekend trip with Leger to the Rhine Christmas Markets and our first day in Germany is about to kick off with a boat trip along the Rhine.
We take the coach to St Goarhausen, where we are to pick up a river cruise up the Rhine to the town of Boppard. Driver Les is coming with us whilst Driver Ian takes the ferry across the river and will pick us up in Boppard.
St Goar, seen from St Goarhausen. The Rhine has quite a strong current as can be seen by the foaming of the water as it hits the bouys that mark the deep water channel.
St Goarhausen. We don't have time to wander far as we wait for our cruise ship to come. We watch as Ian takes the coach onto the car ferry. Bridges are few and far between at this part of the river. St Goarhausen sits just north of the famous Lorelei Rock.
Barges are still a major way of transporting goods. They carry the crew's cars at the rear so that once the barge is delivered, the crew can go home.
Having loaded, the car ferry makes its way across to St Goar, taking Ian and the coach with it. We watch him safely to the other side and then he sets off north towards the town of Boppard where we shall end up once our boat makes an appearance.
Lorelei appears on a number of signs and motifs around St Goarhausen. She has a carved monument too. The legend is she was on her way to a nunnery, betrayed by a lover and accused of witchcraft. She saw the rock and asked permission to climb it, whereupon she threw herself into the water to her death. The tale is a fiction dating only from 1801, but has taken on a cult-like status with many believing it to be an ancient folklore.
Ah yes... Apologies if this made you reel back in horror, but this is me, complete with tea cosy hat preferring the somewhat bracing fresh air on the open deck at the back of the saloon onboard our ship the Loreley Star. Loreley is the German spelling for the tragic spurned lover of our tale. Somehow most depictions of her seem to have her without clothes. It must not have been the middle of December then, is all I can think! Apparently the Lorelei Rock juts out into the water which causes a humming noise as the river hits it. Before the Lorelei tale started the noise was said to be caused by dwarfs who lived within the rock. They have now been forgotten about as they don't look as good in the nude on signposts and shop fronts...
Even in the flat and somewhat dull light of a December morning, the scenery hints at the splendours that summer light would lend to it. Castles are common as muck around here. They perch high above the river on bends and craggy bits of rock. I kept an eye on the turret windows so that I might spot any imprisoned princesses with very long hair. I could do with some of that...
The Onderneming IV, a general cargo ship, was built in 2005 and is 135 meters long, sailing under the Netherlands flag.
Unless there was a sign large enough to read from the centre of the river, I had no way of identifying the villages and towns we passed. Every church had a ball directly under the cross on top of the spire. These hold the plans of the church, enabling it to be rebuilt to the original plan should it be destroyed by fire or war.
Even where there was a sign I wasn't exactly sure whether that was the name of the town or village or was marking the private mooring of a hotel.
We reach Boppard and have to leave our ship, Loreley Star. She was built in 1999 and has two decks with a further open top deck. She takes up to 600 passengers and has a length of 50.2 meters with a width or beam of 11.2 meters.
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