Germany Day Three: Rhine Cruise

On Tuesday, we took a train to Blingen and then were planning to cruise down the Rhine. We were supposed to head for the KD dock. When we got to the water, we looked for the KD dock, but didn't immediately see it. We walked a little ways and eventually saw the sign for it. Unfortunately, between us and the dock was a huge fence and a sign that said "Entrance Forbidden" in German. We walk down the dock a little further, but there's nowhere else to go. We called Meg and Daniel and they confirmed with the company that this was where we were supposed to be. So we walked nervously around the sign and walked to the dock just as our cruise ship came in. The cruise was very nice. There were a bunch of Japanese tourists and a group of Italian high school students. There were a million castles along the Rhine. Some are shown below. They are really a lot like plantations. They were owned by lords to collect money from the land. Most of them were destroyed by the French in 1692. The one on the bottom was in St. Goar and we wandered through it. It was the only one not destroyed by the French in 1692. Instead they handed it over to the French in 1743 whereupon the French destroyed it. Some of it remained and the rest was rebuilt. You could wander through all of the different passage ways and even into the mines. We really wished that we'd brought a flashlight. Still fun though.