Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Cochem Interior


After climbing all the way up the hill, getting through all the gates and passing through the gardens Heinrich finally got to the inner courts of the castle.

 

Inside the castle there were lots of cool things from the times of knights and kings. One of the rooms was called the hunting room. It had deer and elk antlers, a stuffed wild boar, and stuffed birds. The tour guide said that the spear that killed the boar was the one on the wall next to him.

 
There was an unusual ceiling lamp. It was in the shape of a mermaid but had wings made out of deer antlers. There was a spot on the mermaid's stomach. The legend is that if you rub he tummy it will bring you good luck. Heinrich wanted to test this theory and gave the tummy a good rub.


Heinrich really enjoyed the main dining hall. Beautiful carved woods, sculpted fireplace and mantle, and fancy artwork. This is where the Lord of castle would have his big dinners with lots of guests.



An older dining hall was in another part of the castle. This section was a lot more crude and rough. This is where the lower knights would feast. The chairs in this room only had three legs. The three legs were easier to balance on the uneven stone floors. The knight would sit backwards on the stool like it was a wooden horse. The wood arms were not for the back. It was for balancing his arms while he drank big steins of beer.



In another room they had a table with some huge beer steins. The biggest were 5 liters. These were for the monks and that was how much wine they were allowed to drink every day. The smaller mugs were only 3 liters big. These were for the nuns. That's a lot of wine for one person for one day.


All this touring had made Heinrich very hungry. He was invited for dinner in the old chapel that is in the middle of the castle courtyard. The inside of the chapel had some beautiful stain glassed windows. Most of them showed saints and apostles. Heinrich really liked the one that showed Melchisedech. The dinner was very good. It was Saurbratten, tomato soup, bread with garlic bread, and salads with vegetables. The dessert was grapes over cheese chunks with a stick holding them together. Heinrich wanted to get a picture but the camera went dead just before he got the picture with the meal.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Cochem tour


From the high perch on the hill the Cochem castle had a spectacular scene of the valley and village below.
 


While Heinrich was admiring the view from the castle entry way he noticed the statue of a guard watching over the valley. He thought it looked like a big frog but the people in the castle say that it's a lion in armor.


Close to the last gate is a series of small cannons under a little roof. They were pretty small and weren't used to defend the castle. They are signal cannons that would fire a salute when someone important would come into the castle.

Heinrich met the castle guide near the final entrance. There was a huge gate with a time line to explain the history of the castle. She was a very good guide but spoke English with a very slow a deliberate pace. It was good but kind of funny too.


Inside the gates there was an impressive view of the castle. There are lots of towers and parapets and bays. Around the bottom of the wall were lots of really nice flowers and gardens.


There was also a special garden full of herbs. Each of them had a little sign that would give their names and tell how the herb was used for cooking or medications.
 

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Cochem exterior


After about a month from seeing the castle at Cochem from a distance. Heinrich got a chance to go back. This was the castle that looks like the Disney World Castle a little bit. The castle is on a high hill that looked really hard to climb. Instead of climbing all the way up the hill he found a back way to the castle entrance. This was a lot closer than from down n the valley.

 
It didn't take long to get to the pathway that leads into the castle. Heinrich liked getting his picture in front of the old castle.


The castle had 4 gates to go through on the way up the path. The first one had a tower and a portcullis (a pointing gate that hide up in the wall)

Just through the gatehouse is a grand view of the Mosel River and valley. There was a bunch of tourist from France sitting there. The vineyards run right up to the castle walls. And down in the valley you can see the old church with the fancy steeple.

At the next gate there was a knight in armor standing guard. Heinrich thought it would be a good idea to make friends so he got a picture on the knight's shoulder. You'll notice Heinrich picked the side that didn't have the sharp pokey parts. Its called a halbard and it really hurts if you get hit by one.
 

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Yard Decorations


When Heinrich is driving around he often finds interesting and sometimes funny designs and decorations. Some of these things are on people's yards. One yard had a whole family of clay animals playing on their grass.


Another family had put out a sign to help neighbor dogs remember to stay off their lawn.


Some people even decorate their whole house. One family painted a face on the end of their home. They used the windows to make the eyes.

Homes aren't the only places that people choose to decorate. Heinrich found a van that was painted with beautiful scenes. On one side there was a forest scene with some very well drawn animals.


On the other side of the van was a picture of the African savanna. The elephant looked very impressive.
 


Another place that Heinrich found creative artwork was with some of the train tunnels. This was a double set of train tunnels and the one looked just like a castle.



Monday, November 12, 2012

House Barges


Lots of people work on the Rhine River. Some of these people spend so much time on the river that they have houses on the boat they work with. Heinrich saw one of these boats. On one end it had a huge holding chamber for transporting different kinds of cargo. When the ship had delivered its load and the chamber was empty, the owners could have some time for themselves.


The boat had living quarters in the middle. It also had all kinds of communication antennas including satellite receivers for the family's entertainment center. Out on the deck they even built a little playground area for their children.


On the near end of the boat the family had a large crane to help load things. Just as Heinrich was walking past he saw the crane unload the family car. It is the black car on the pier at the side of the boat. This allowed the family to drive around when they pulled into a port. There was also a small boat on the deck that the family could use to make trips up and down the river while they were working.
 

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Loreley


The Loreley is a very sharp curve in the Rhine River with a steep cliff on one side. The legend is that a beautiful girl sat up on the hill and would sing pretty songs to the sailors down on the river. The music was so beautiful that the sailors wouldn't pay attention and would crash their boats on the side of the cliff. The girl's name was Loreley.
 

Heinrich went to see this place. It is in a beautiful part of the Rhine River Valley. There is a rocky cliff on one side of the river. That was the Loreley cliff.


As Heinrich watched, he saw several of the ships pass by on the river. When they got to the sharp curve of the Loreley, they had to be especially careful not to run into each other.


To help the ships there is a “traffic light” Since ships have a hard time seeing each other around the corner the lights help to show them whether there are boats coming from the opposite direction. There are three sets for lights for the three sections of the curve. If the light is on the bottom there is no one coming in that section. If the lights on the side are lit up it means there is either a ship going up on one side or coming down on the other side in that section of the river.

 
Heinrich went down and stood on the river bank. There were lots of very flat stones there and Heinrich had a lot of fun skipping stones across the river. He had one that even skipped 8 times before it finally sunk.


Saturday, November 10, 2012

Rhine Boats


Heinrich was very curious about all the boats he had seen down on the river. He decided to go down to watch the boats and see what they were all doing.

 
Since the Rhine is such a big river there aren't many bridges. To help cars get from one side to the other there are several cities that have ferries to cross the river. The cars drive on to the boat on one side of the river. The boat carries them to the other side and then the cars drive off the boat onto a bridge and back up to the regular roads.


 
Boats on the Rhine carry things besides cars. Some of the boats are cruise ships. They take tourists up and down the river.

 
Other boats carry materials up and down the river. Sometimes then carry coal, sometimes stones, and sometimes sand.

 

There were also boats that are large tankers that carried all sorts of things down inside the boat.

 

The boats sometimes also carry large containers. These containers can be loaded onto trains or semi trucks when the boats get to the end of the river. Sometimes they are put onto even larger ships and sail across the ocean to places like America.

 

Heinrich noticed that the boats had to follow the river where ever it went. There was one place where the river made a really sharp turn. That made it tricky for the boats to go around. This place is called the Loreley.
 

Friday, November 9, 2012

Kamp Castles


After his hearty breakfast, Heinrich spent the morning exploring. Above the town of Kamp Bornhofen there are some old ruins of a castle that was named Berg Liebenstein.

It used to be a very strong fortress up on a tall hill but now it is only a ruin of old stone walls.

From the walls of the castle Heinrich could see the Rhine River down in the valley. The Rhine is a long and very important river way that helps people move all through Germany.


It is a narrow river valley where the Rhine goes past Kamp Bornhofen. In this valley along the river there are many cities. Each one snuggles up to the river and also stretch up onto the hills.


As Heinrich watched down over the river he saw a lot of traffic along the river. Instead of cars and trucks the traffic was made up of boats.


As Heinrich watched, he saw several boats come and go to small piers that stuck out into the river. Boats would pull up and people would get on and off. In this part of Germany the boats are like buses and people ride them up and down the river. The people would get off onto the piers when they got to the city they were headed for.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Kamp Breakfast


The next morning Heinrich had breakfast in the Hotel restaurant. It was a very nice place and had an wonderful elegance. The napkins were embossed in gold letters with the words,”Guten Appetit”. That means, “enjoy your meal”.

There was a very nice buffet set up for breakfast with a great selection of breakfast foods. After Heinrich dished up, he had a wonderful spread set up on the breakfast table.

He had a bowl of double chocolate cereal. It's called double chocolate because there are too different kinds of cereal. One kind of cereal is puff balls. The other kind is like round flakes with a chocolate flavor. Really yummy.


Heinrich also had a bowl of granola. Besides the oats there were also grated nuts, chocolate puff balls and square chunks of chocolate.


There were some big breakfast rolls. The buffet had several choices of foods to eat with the buns. Nutella is a chocolate cream made out of hazelnuts. There were also some special meat spreads. The restaurant had three different kinds. Each was made out of a spread called liverwurst. It tastes better than it sounds. There were labels with red, green and orange stripes to show the three different flavors.


Extra choices to eat with the buns also included slices of cheese, salamis, and ham. It was a very very good breakfast.