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.