Here a Castle, There a Castle, Everywhere a Castle...

I am cruising down the Rhine River headed South in Rhineland, Germany headed toward Bavaria. The Rhine is a fast moving river, not too wide. Its surrounded by rolling hills with towns nestled next to the river with vineyards going up the hillsides. I even saw a herd of mountain goats dotting what looked to me like a sheer cliff. Almost every hilltop has a castle on it, each unique, grand and beautiful. The scenery looks unreal to me. Castles on every hillside, every bend in the river brings another cute town (Boppard, Bad Salzig, Kamp Bornhoffen, St Goar) looking like gingerbread or those little ceramic Christmas houses that people buy to collect and create cute little towns. I never realized these places actually existed. I thought of them as part of myths or stories like with Hansel and Gretel and a big bad wolf. I suddenly realize that I am comparing it to the only American frame of reference that I have of something remotely similar....Disney World.

After a while I am starting to get somewhat blasé about castles. They are everywhere. I am no longer scrambling for my camera. I think Germany has castles the way we have Starbucks...

I'm not a history buff but I suddenly get it -- what people say about seeing history and the impact that it has on you. Here in Germany I am acutely aware of walking in the footsteps of history. It becomes tangible, more real. And we are not talking about history dating back a few hundred years but history that goes back thousands of years of religion, politics and wars. I toured a church today that was over 1000 years old. Not to be too dramatic but I thought I could picture what it would have been like - horses running on cobbled streets, guards at the gates, and a worried bishop pacing on worn floor boards in the center chamber. This church was more like a fortress with a defensive position high on a hill, stone walls, battlements, and a dungeon. Hearing about the history it was ruthless and bloody. I feel grateful to be living in more enlightened, stable times -- at least in comparison...