Cities along the Rhine and Mosel Rivers
In
this blog I will cover the German cities/towns that we stopped in on our cruise
down the Rhine and Mosel Rivers. With a
few exceptions, most of the towns are very similar to each other. They all, of course, are located on the Rhine
or Mosel, many are surrounded by vineyards, they have an Old Town with a
beautiful church, all have their origins with the Celts and early Romans, and
many are very old but were heavily damaged in WWII and have been almost
entirely reconstructed.
I
have already talked about Strasbourg (in France) and Baden-Baden (our first
stop in Germany). Speyer was our next stop and one of the prettiest and oldest of the
towns visited. It was founded in about
50 AD as a Roman town and became a significant religious center in 1529, when
the Diet of Seyer united its followers of Luther in a protest against the
Church of Rome. Speyer is built around
the Kaiserdom (Imperial Cathedral). Dedicated in 1061, it is the largest
Romanesque basilica in all of Europe.
Inside its large crypt are the remains of eight German emperors or
kings, four queens, and many bishops.
Although this church has been damaged through the years by fire and
wars, it was finally restored to its original shape during a restoration period
from 1957-1961. During the middle ages,
the town also became an important Jewish community. Jewish people began settling here in 1084,
building synagogues and a mikveh (ritual Bath), the oldest of its kind still
existing in Europe today. Another claim
to fame is that Speyer claims to have invented the brezel (what we call a
pretzel). As the story goes, a priest
was trying to make it easier for young children to worship God. Instead of having them hold their hands in
prayer, he said it would be easier for them to cross their hands over their
chest. An ingenious local baker saw this
and took the shape of the crossed hands and made it into a bretzel. Today, one of the statues that adorn the
front door of the church has a bretzel in his lap. Needless to say, Bill and I had to try one –
they are good, but we like the soft Philly pretzels better. While the bretzel has the same shape and size
of our soft pretzels, it has a much harder consistency.
We
saw the convent where Dr. Edith Stern lived for a while. She was born a Jew, but became an atheist in
her early teens. She became a nursing
assistant and continued her studies to become a Doctor of Philosophy. She became interested in the teachings of the
Catholic Church and converted to Catholicism after her education was complete. She then taught at a Catholic school in Speyer
for several years, but because of the Nazi rule that only “Aryans” could be
civil servants, she was forced to quit. She then entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery
in Cologne where she became a nun in 1934, taking the religious name of Teresa
Benedicta of the Cross.. She remained at
the Cologne monastery until they relocated her to a monastery in the
Netherlands for her own safety. It was
there that she was arrested by the Nazis on 2 August 1942 and sent to Auschwitz
where she died in the gas chamber on 9 August 1942. Stein was beatified as a martyr on 1 May 1987
in Cologne, Germany by Pope John Paul II and then canonized by him 11 years
later on 11 October 1998 in Vatican City. The miracle that was the basis for
her canonization was the cure of Benedicta McCarthy, a little girl who had
swallowed a large amount of acetaminophen, which causes hepatic necrosis. The
young girl's father, Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, a priest of the Melkite
Greek Catholic Church, immediately called together relatives and prayed for St.
Teresa's intercession. Shortly
thereafter the nurses in the intensive care unit saw her sit up completely
healthy. Dr. Ronald Kleinman, a
pediatric specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston who treated
the girl, testified about her recovery to Church tribunals, stating: "I
was willing to say that it was miraculous."
During
our walk through the town, Britta told us about an old woman (94) named
Gertrude who lives here by herself. Britta calls her “my adopted Grandmother,” and
visits her every time she is in Speyer.
She had bought her some flowers so we all went with her to meet
Gertrude. Gertrude’s husband died in
1946 and she has been on her own ever since.
She does have one son, who visits her weekly to take her shopping. She is such a sweet lady and was so excited
to see everyone. She also has great
neighbors who look after her. According to Britta, she is the oldest person in
town.
In
the afternoon we had our home-hosted visit with a family in Speyer. This is part of Grand Circle/Overseas
Adventure Travels Discovery and Learning Program. We were divided in small groups (we had 7 in
ours) and dropped off at designated houses.
Our host was a fairly young woman with two daughters (Sophie aged 15 and
Isabella aged 12). They live in a
beautiful 3-story home that she and her former husband renovated. Her ex-husband works in printing and did the
etching work (done with a printer) for their front door and also did the
printing of special designs for the girls’ bedrooms. Angelica works in Human Resources for a local
company. Both she and her daughters
speak very good English (although Isabella is very shy and did not say more
than about 3 words). Sophia was very
talkative and told us, that because she has diabetes, she would one day like to
become a doctor to help fight this disease.
Our visit started out with mimosas (a very great beginning) and ended
with a delicious apple cake/pie from apples from her apple tree. During our 2-hour visit we talked about the
girls schooling (they ride their bikes to school although they would prefer their
mother drive them) and Angelica’s volunteer work with refugees and
immigrants. She helps them with the
paperwork necessary for their status and also helps them to find jobs. She said that 99% of the middle eastern
immigrants would like to return to their homes.
In
the German education system, a child attends what would be our elementary
schools where they are evaluated and then placed on a course that prepares them
for the university (high school called a Gymnasium) or sent to a trade school
for training and an apprenticeship with a local business to learn their
selected vocation. Once such a
determination has been made, it is very difficult to change schools, especially
going from the vocational school to the gymnasium. It is much easier if the child decides after
a year or two that they do not want to go on to the university to switch back
to a vocational school. All too quickly
our two hours were up and we had to go back to the ship. This was one of the best home-hosted visits
we have been on.
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| Statue of 8 kings buried in Cathedral |
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| Cathedral of Speyer |
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| Britta telling us the story of the Bretzel |
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| Can you find the bretzel? |
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| Half-timbered homes in Speyer |
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| Convent |
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| Plaque to Dr. Edith Stein |
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| One of the pretty little alleyways |
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| Britta with her adoptive grandmother Gretrude |
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| Cathedral |
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| Inside the Cathedral |
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| Beergarten by the boat |
Our
next stop was at Boppard, again
another Roman town where there still remains remnants of the 4th
century wall and the old Roman fort. We
were docked about as far away from the city center as possible, so we all got
our exercise this morning. The
pedestrian walkway along the waterfront is called the Rhine Promenade with its
backdrop of the twin white towers of the Church of St. Severus (Stevens). The church, dating from the 13th
century, is in the Romanesque style. Inside
the church is a hanging cross from 1225 and spider web-like vaulted
ceilings. The main part of town is very
small, but filled with quaint stores for shopping, especially the Christmas
Shop. Of interest are the small bronze
plaques located in front of some of the homes, identifying the former Jewish
citizens that were forcibly removed by the Nazis in WWII. Another interesting place is a grave that
appears to show a woman with her hands crossed as in a Christian burial. The grave, believed to be from the 3th
century, indicates that Christianity had already spread to this part of
Germany. After walking through the town
in morning, we had a tour of the Marksburg Castle, one of the most beautiful
hill-top castles on the Rhine and the only 13th century castle
unchanged by war or reconstruction. I
gave a more detailed description of the castle in the blog “Sailing the Rhine
and Mosel Rivers.”
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| St. Stevens Church |
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| Old red house in Boppard |
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| Villa Belgrano, once a summer home |
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| Plaques identifying Jewish residents forced from their homes |
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| 3rd century grave of Christian woman |
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| Old Roman ruins in Boppard |
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| Inside St. Stevens Church |
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| Marksburg Castle |
After
an overnight and morning sail we arrived in Bernkastel, our first stop on the Mosel River. Prior to our arrival, we had to go under a
very low bridge. They had to lower the
ship’s bridge and then the covered section of our sun deck. It was very interesting to watch. The panels of the covered sun deck bend
inward in the middle and then the top is lowered. We were able to stay on the uncovered portion
of the sun deck but we had to remain seated.
We cleared the bridge with about 3” to spare. Bernkastel is one of the prettiest towns on
the Mosel, with its castle perched on a hill overlooking the Mosel and the
city. It is actually two towns – its sister town, Kues, is located on the
opposite bank of the Mosel. Our first
activity was a wine tasting at one of the local vineyards in the area. The wine tasting was held in a cave built
into the side of a vineyard. There we
were greeted by the Wine Queen. Most of
the towns in this wine region have a Queen.
You must apply for the position and must demonstrate a very good
knowledge of wine to be selected. For
two years then you represent the town and its wine at festivals or by talking
to guests at wine-tastings. Our queen,
whose father owns a small vineyard, did an excellent job of talking us through
the 4 types of wine that we tasted.
Almost all the wine in this region is white, although we did taste one
Pinot Noir which has a limited growth in this area. Even Bill liked one of the Riesling’s so we
bought a bottle to enjoy later. The
vineyard was called Dr. H. Thanisch. It
got the name Doctor many, many years ago when a prince in the area became very
ill and nothing the doctors did was able to help him. The wine grower brought him a bottle of his
wine and said to drink it for the next several days. Whatever had ailed the Prince was cured and
the name “Doctor” stuck with the vintner.
Germany’s
oldest city, Trier, was our next
stop. In 2000 B.C., according to legend, the Assyrians established a
colony here, and archaeological findings indicate a pre-Roman Celtic
civilization. The buildings and monuments still standing today, however, date
from Roman and later periods.
The city known to the
Romans as Augusta Treverorum possesses some of the best-preserved remnants from
the era north of the Alps. Founded under
Augustus in 16 B.C., its former grandeur earned it the title Roma Secunda --
the second Rome. For nearly five centuries, well into the Christian era, Trier
remained one of Europe's power centers.
When Emperor Diocletian (who ruled the Roman Empire from AD 285-305)
divided his overextended Roman Empire into four sectors, he made Trier the
capital of the west (roughly modern-day Germany, France, Spain, and
England). For most of the 4th
century, this city of 80,000, with a four-mile wall, four great gates, and 47
round towers was a favorite of Roman emperors.
Emperor Constantine used the town as the capital of his fading Western
Roman Empire. Many of the Roman
buildings were constructed under Constantine before he left for
Constantinople. In 480, Trier fell to
the Franks. Today all that remains of the Roman fort are
the Porta Nigra, basilica, baths, and amphitheater.
Before we started our
walking tour of Trier we had a guest speaker who spoke to us on the European
Union. He has a doctorate in history and
works as a professor at the both the Trier University and the University of
Luxembourg. The main point of his talk
was that the European Union is very complicated. Headquarters for its various divisions are
scattered over several cities and countries and trying to keep all its unique
and diverse countries happy and content is a very demanding task, made
especially more difficult because the EU cannot collect taxes, but must rely on
each country providing its fair share of the budget. At the end he did comment a little on Brexit,
but about the only thing that I came away with was that regardless of what type
of break the EU and Britain negotiate, it will be bad for England. At times it was difficult to follow our
speaker’s train of thought. I think it
must be very hard to take these complicated issues (that he certainly
understood in German) and translate them to English that we could comprehend.
We then left for our
walking tour and our tour guide was non-other than our speaker. Now he was easy to understand as history is
his strong point. We started our walk at
the Porta Nigra (Black Gate), the only remaining city gate (out of four) which
was built by the Romans in AD 200. The
impressive thing about this gate is that it was built without mortar. Holes were drilled into the sandstone rocks
(one on the right side of the rock and one on the left side of the neighboring
rock and then iron pegs with a metal bar
across their top (like a staple) were place in the hole that was then filled
with molten metal. For several years in
the early 1000’s, Saint Simon (a Greek recluse) lived inside the gate. After his death in 1035, the gate was made
into a church – a lay church on the bottom and the Saint Simeon monastery on
the top. The tower on one side of the
church was turned into the apse. As a
result, the gate (now considered a church) was spared destruction by invading
troops from France.
Trier was heavily
damaged during WWII and most of the buildings that you see now have been
constructed after the war. Although an
attempt was made to rebuild them in their original style, the town has a more
modern look than many of the towns we visited.
Even when he talked about some of the historical buildings, they all
housed modern stores or restaurant. One
in particular, House of the Three Magi, is a colorful Venetian-style building (built as a keep – a fortified tower built
within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility). The entrance to the home was through a door on the second floor. A wooden ladder was used to enter the
home. If the town was in danger, the
ladder could be pulled up, in order to fend off enemies and protect
inhabitants.
We then walked to the
Market Square, filled with people, fruit stands, flowers, painted facades, and
fountains. In the center of the square
is the market cross. It is located only
a block away from the cathedral, which was the seat of the archbishop. In medieval times, the cathedral was its own
walled city, and the archbishop of Trier was one of the seven German electors
who chose the Holy Roman Emperor (giving the archbishop tremendous political,
as well as spiritual, power). The stone
market cross celebrates the trading rights given to the archbishop By King Otto
the Great. This was a slap in the face
to Trier’s townspeople, since trading rights were usually reserved for free
cities – which they wanted to become.
Across the square from
the lane to the cathedral is the 15th-century Town Hall (Steipe). The townspeople wanted a town hall, but the
archbishop would not allow it, so they built an “assembly hall” instead, with a
knight on each second-story corner. The
knight on the left, facing the Market Square has his mask up, watching over his
people. The older knight, facing the
cathedral and the bishop, has his mask down and his hand on his sword, ready
for battle. Tensions mounted over the next 30 years. The Gothic tower of the Church of St. Gangolf,
the medieval townspeople’s church and fire watchman’s post has a tall white
steeple with yellow trim. From medieval
times to now, a bell has rung nightly at 22:00 reminding the local drunks to go
home. In 1507, Trier’s mayor built the
new Gothic tower to make the people’s church higher than the cathedral. A Latin Bible verse adorns the top in gold
letters: “Stay awake and pray.” In retaliation, the bishop raised one tower
of his cathedral (all he could afford), continuing the Town Hall’s verse: “For you never know the hour when the Lord
will come.” As a final sign of
rebellion, the townspeople erected a statue to Mary on the hill on the other
side of the river that stood higher than the Cathedral’s tower. Sounds like a medieval soap opera.
From the Market Square
we walked to the Basilica or Imperial Throne Room which is the largest intact
Roman structure outside of Rome. . Although best known as a Basilica, it started
out as a throne room. Looking up at the
ceiling inside the building and you will see squares measuring 10’ by 10’. During its time as a throne room, it was
decorated with golden mosaics, rich marble, colorful stucco, and busts of
Constantine and his family filling the seven niches. Constantine’s throne sat under a canopy. The windows in the apse around him were
smaller than the ones along the side walls, making his throne seem bigger. The last emperor moved out in AD 395, and
petty kings moved into the building throughout the Middle Ages. By the 12th century, the bishops
had taken it over and converted it to a five-story palace. The building became a Lutheran church in
1856, and remains the only Lutheran church in Trier. When we first went to the Basilica, there was
a church service in progress so we could not enter. We later went back and into the building, but
there is really nothing to see. It is a
large room with very little in the way of decorations. With the exception of one small cross and
several racks of religious pamphlets, you would not know it was a church.
The main feature of this
town (after the Porta Nigra) is the Cathedral, the oldest church in
Germany. St Helena, the mother of
Emperor Constantine (who legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire in AD 312)
allowed part of her palace to be used as the first church in this spot. In AD 326, to commemorate the 20th
anniversary of his reign, Emperor Constantine began the construction of St.
Peter’s in Rome and this huge cathedral in Trier (also called St.
Peter’s). Looking at the church from the
outside, it looks more like a fortress.
The current cathedral is actually now the third church to stand on this
spot. It was begun in 1035 in the
Romanesque style, but later Gothic and baroque additions were added.
Immediately to the right
of the Cathedral is the small Liebfrau (parish church), separated only by a
very narrow passageway. This church was
begun in 1235 and was among the first German examples of Gothic architecture. The ground plan is in the shape of a Greek
cross, creating a circular effect with all points equidistant from the central
high altar. The structure is supported
by 12 circular columns, which represent the 12 apostles (or the 12 tribes of
Israel). On each column is written the name of an apostle and one of the 12 articles
of the Apostles Creed Unlike the
Cathedral, the interior is bathed in sunlight and filled with stained glass
windows. You can see the contrast between the two churches in the pictures below.
Our
walking tour was finished and we headed to a restaurant just across the square
from the Cathedral. There we had another
typical German lunch – soup, salad, pork dish and spaetzli (actually looked
more like egg noodles). What I wouldn’t
give for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
After
lunch Bill and I headed off to see some of the Roman ruins. Roman ruins are numerous in this area – it is said you cannot put
a rec room in your basement without discovering a ruin. In fact, the restaurant Zum Domstein where we had lunch is a good example. The owner discovered a Roman column in her
cellar. Upstairs she sells German food,
while downstairs in the cellar is a mini-museum with the column and Roman
crockery.
We walked to the ruins
of the old Roman Imperial Baths. It was
built by Constantine and is the biggest of Trier’s three Roman baths and the
most intricate bath of the Roman world.
Because of Trier’s cold climate and the Constantine’s huge ego, these
Imperial baths required a two-story subterranean complex of pipes, furnaces,
and slave galleys to keep the water at a perfect 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Unfortunately the baths never worked quite
right and were left unfinished after Constantine left. However it is an impressive archeological
site. And there is about a mile of
tunnels where the pipes ran through the bottom layer and the slaves walked on a
floor just above the pipes. One could
get lost in the maize if you are not careful.
It is still an active site with a lot of reconstruction going on.
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| Statue of Mary across the river from Cathedral |
Overnight we sailed from the Mosel back to the Rhine on our way to Cochem (both c’s are a hard “c” and the
German’s use a very guttural “c” when pronouncing this name). Its claim to fame is the Reichsburg Castle
which sits on a hill overlooking the Rhine and the city. It was believed to have been constructed in
the 1027, but it was burned to the ground by Louis XIV (he definitely was not a
nice king!) during the War of the Palatine Succession in 1689. It remained in ruins until 1868 when a Berlin
entrepreneur, Louis Ravene bought the castle and renovated it (in the original
form and style) as the summer home for his family. He died two years after the renovations were
completed and in 1878, the town of Cochem bought the castle.
After touring the
castle, Britta took us on a short walk in the town. After 10 AM, no cars are allowed in the main
part of town so it was a very nice walk.
Our first stop was to the local cemetery. As yesterday was the All Saints Day holiday
where families remember and honor their dead relatives, all the graves had been
cleaned-up with freshly planted flowers.
She told us in Germany, you rent the grave plot for 20 years. You have the option of re-renting after that
time, but most people cannot afford to do that.
After 20 years, the bones are removed to a common burial site, the
tombstones are removed and the plot is rented again to another family. In the Market Square the homes all look old
and quaint with the half-timbered style, but Britta said that the style is fake
and most of the homes are relatively new, having been reconstructed after
WWII. In the church were some beautiful
stained glass windows. Each window had
one significant color to its design and the design did not depict religious
scenes from the Bible. There is only one
gate and a small section of the original Roman wall that used to circle the
town.
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| Reichsburg Castle |
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| Pruning grape vines on the castle grounds |
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| Reichsburg Castle |
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| Dining Room in Castle |
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| Ceiling in one of castle rooms |
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| Man-Cave in Castle |
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| Looking down on the Rhine |
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| Can you guess what animal this is? |
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| WWI section of town cemetery |
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| Cemetery nice and clean for All Saints Day |
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| Old house in Cochem |
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| Green planter is bucket carried on backs of grape pickers to hold the grapes |
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| Dress made of pages in local book store |
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| Homes in Cochem |
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| Homes in Cockem |
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| Stained glass window in church |
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| Only remaining city gate from Roman times |
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| Witch flying over the castle |
After dinner, on our
last night in Germany, they invited a local mandolin orchestra to come and play
for us. They were so good. They not only played a few German songs, but
they also played American ragtime and When the Saints Come Marching In. They ended by playing Brahm’s Lullaby. What a wonderful treat and a perfect end to
our time in Germany. And as if that were
not enough, about 2 hours after we began our cruise to the Netherlands, we sailed
past the Cologne Cathedral that was all lit up in the night sky. A marvelous sight as we bid farewell to
Germany.
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| Mandolin Orchestra |
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| Cologne Cathedral lit up at night |
