Europe Trip 2013 - Rhine Valley, Frankfurt

So i guess we woke up like 0700hrs or so to start preparing, ended up, NA and us were both running late a little.

She fetch us from Saida's house, and it feel like a road trip. Amazing, i had never sit in an 20 year old VW GOLF car that run so well.

So, it was really nice for her to drive us around, and we were going to rhine valley. Is about 1 hour drive.

We had to run, cause the departure was like 1030hrs, and we were there like 1025hrs maybe.

The Rhine (Romansh: Rain; German: Rhein; French: Rhin; Dutch: Rijn) is a European river that begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps, forms part of the Franco-German border, then flows through Germany and eventually empties into the North Sea in the Netherlands. It is the twelfth longest river in Europe, at about 1,233 km (766 mi),^[2][3] with an average discharge of more than 2,000 m³/s (71,000 cu ft/s)

It was actually very cold and windy on that Saturday morning.We didnt know she actually bought this groupon deal for us to ride the cruise.

She went to look or the bosses cause she didnt bring the printed one.Lucky the bosses knew her and actually told her she didnt need to buy.

We started of a cup of nice hot coffee for the cold and windy weather.

The Rhine (Rhein) is Germany’s longest and most important river. The fertile river valley was settled early in German history. It formed the backbone of the Western Roman Empire, of the Carolingian Empire and later became the central axis of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Rhine is the longest river in Germany. It is here that the Rhine encounters some more of its main tributaries, such as the Neckar, the Main and, later, the Moselle, which contributes an average discharge of more than 300 m³/s (11,000 cu ft/s).

The Rhine and the Danube formed most of the northern inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days, the Rhine has been a vital and navigable waterway carrying trade and goods deep inland. It has also served as a defensive feature and has been the basis for regional and international borders. The many castles and prehistoric fortifications along the Rhine testify to its importance as a waterway. River traffic could be stopped at these locations, usually for the purpose of collecting tolls, by the state that controlled that portion of the river.

                                  Upper deck for the smokers, and it was really cold....

 The Loreley Valley

The Loreley ( Lorelei ) is a 433 feet high slate cliff in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage near the town of St. Goarshausen. The view of St. Goarshausen, from the Loreley ( Lorelei ) outlook point, with Castle Katz and the view of the town St. Goar and its Fortress Rheinfels, leaves a wonderful impression on all Loreley ( Lorelei ) tourists.
The Rhine, at the Loreley ( Lorelei ), is up to 82 feet deep and only 371 feet wide. Because this area is so deep and narrow, it is one of the most dangerous places in the World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Ships, crossing each other here and all along the section between Oberwesel and St. Goarshausen, are directed by light signals, called “Wahrschau”.

History of the Loreley ( Lorelei )

First traces of human settlement have been apparent from the time the Loreley ( Lorelei ) Plateau was level with the Rhine (600.000 years ago). During the Middle Ages the Loreley ( Lorelei ) was well known, along with the Binger Loch, as the most dangerous section of the Rhine. Many mariners in their wooden dinghies came to tragedy here. In St. Goar, directly opposite the Loreley ( Lorelei ), the Saint Goar settled to save shipwrecked mariners and nurse them back to health.

 

Variation of the Loreley ( Lorelei ) Myth

The name Loreley ( Lorelei ) appears in a romantic ballad written by the poet Clemens Brentano in 1801. In this ballad, Loreley ( Lorelei ) is a beauty from Bacharach who wants to take her own life because her truelove is unfaithful. The bishop, fascinated by her loveliness and humility, takes her to a convent. En route to the convent, she stops at the cliff to look back on the palace of her truelove. When she sees him riding away, she throws herself in despair into the turbulent waters below.
In the Rhine fairytale of 1810, Brentano varied the theme so that Loreley ( Lorelei ) appears as the distraught woman Lurley, sitting on a rock combing her long golden hair and luring the bargees into their destruction.

                                                    This is my favourite picture

The whole ride is about 3 1/2 hours, in which at one point, the boat will stop and made a u-turn to the starting poing.

After the turn, we ordered their resling onboard for 12 euros. thats cheap !

 It was such an amazing ride, with different experience with friends whom I actually met in Phuket.

                   
                                     THANK YOU FOR THE LOVELY BOAT RIDE ! WE ENJOYED IT !

source : http://www.germany.co.za/rhine_valley.html
http://www.loreley-info.com/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine