We had to leave Kettenbach by the third road, the one that was not closed for the special events. It was easy to get over to Koblenz or more particularly the Rhine River. This section of the Rhine is called the middle Rhine and per mile it has the most castles and vineyards. The geography on the Rhine in this region is different also. The Rhine cuts though the hills which rise rather sharply and immediately from the river. The vineyards are vertical, it seems to me. The scenery is popular with tourists, domestic and foreign, and many boats on the Rhine take people for an outing. I had done this more than forty years ago and I had wanted then to visit the land, the roads, the vineyards, and the castles more closely. We decided to spend our "last hours" in doing just that.
We were attracted to Stolzenfels, a castle restored in the 1800s, not as a Burg but as a Schloss. A Burg is a fortified home; a Schloss is a palace, a home without fortifications. Though Stolzenfels was originally a castle, by the 1800s fortifications were ridiculous. Someone undertook to rebuild Stolzenfels, which was then in ruins, as a summer palace. It had a modern look about it but still it lacked many conveniences that we would take for granted today. It did have a great view of the Rhine River and of a couple of other castles. Such restorations were expensive.
The vineyards have always been a mystery to me. The land is steep. The rows run up and down hill, not on a constant elevation as in contour farming. I still do not understand why the soil does not wash down. It would seem to me to be uncomfortable to work the vineyards. At one place we had a demonstration of how it could be done. At the top, one man with a tractor had a cable winch. He let another man and a sprayer down the hill between the rows. The man with the sprayer was walking backwards and guiding the sprayer. At the bottom he turned the sprayer off, lowered the cultivator blades into the soil, and sat on the contraption. Then the entire apparatus and the man were towed up the hill. As another note, the soil is very rocky. By weight it was perhaps 50%. This particular vineyard was devoted to Riesling wine so we had to taste it with our dinner. It was good. (The innkeeper was also the vineyard and winery owner. Guess whose wine he served.)
That night we stayed in Bacharach. There was no shortage of guest houses as many Germans vacation along this section of the Rhine. The larger villages are T shaped. One road runs parallel to the river as does the railroad. Another road runs away from the river, back up a valley into the hills. On the other side of the river, there are another road and another railroad. In between, the river also serves as a commercial route with many barges. In this middle section, the river is sometimes narrow, the currents rapid, the turns sharp. There is an elaborate signaling system to keep the barge captains informed.
(18 Jun 02)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.