For our final outing, Kerali and Brian took us to Rudesheimer and we took a ride up and down part of the Rhine River
Garth is in front of the office where they got our tickets for the boats.
Kerali took off at a run to make sure we made it before the ship left.
Although it was cold, we chose the top deck where we could see everything.
I liked this old tower we saw on shore as we passed by
Another shore scene
This really old building was another one that caught my eye
It wasn't the best picture taking weather but I had to take a few of the castles.
This one has obviously been abandoned for years but there is still quite a bit of it standing. That gives you an idea of the strength of their original construction
Another castle but it is much better condition.
If we were to take the full Rhine River tour we would see many, many castles.
Some were built early as customs' houses and later turned into residences.
The lovely castle Kerali and Brian took us to see is the Rheinstein Castle. It's brief history - built in the early 14th century as a counter fortification to other castles and helped serve to protect the Mainz territory and the customs posts there. This castle was never destroyed but from the 17th century on it gradually decayed. It was restored and additions were made. In 1817 Prince Phillip and turned the castle into his summer residence. In 1823 it was bought by Prince Friedrich of Prussia and he and his family used the castle as a summer residence even after 1850. In 1975 the castle was sold to the former opera singer, Hermann Hecher, who preserved it from misuse and imminent decay with the help of preservation groups.
Janice and Garth at the entrance gate.
Garth, Kerali and Brian inside the gate
I'm not sure how authentic this is but it was colorful
This was apparently the dungeon of the castle
This small church was built later in the history of the castle
A close-up view of the castle. We went up into this tower.
One of the most charming things was the restoration had tried to be as close as possible to the original and also serves as a museum with a lot of things from the periods of its use.
More museum pieces
And a close-up of the armor
This is rather a nice kitchen
Probably an older oven where coals were put into this area with the food to be cooked.
A rather nice sink, wouldn't you say?
This is the main part of the castle and the rooms inside on 3 levels have been beautifully restored
Another side view of the castle and of Kerali
Janice and Garth in the top of the round tower
Every effort seemed to have been made to make these rooms look as much like they did when occupied and used.
The furnishings in the rooms were done in a way that I felt that the people who lived here were just allowing visitors to look at their home.
Another beautiful room.
A bedrpp,
A music room
A dining room or breakfast room
Another bedroom
This charming little office was in one of the round towers with lots of sunlight.
Our return trip to Rudesheim
We took a little time in the village where Kerali wanted us to go on the Mechanical Music
We were taken through the rooms and various mechanical musical instruments were shown tous and played for us.
The large piece in this picture was a full band with quite a few different instruments.
In this cave-like room they had a lot of magical children's type displays.
You can see our guide on the far right.
This one was a merry-go-round
This one is another merry-go-round with added things
We didn't get to hear most of these play but you can use your imaginations.
In this room we were shown the old phonographs first and discs that had holes in them to make the music.
This was a most amazing player piano and player violins. The center band on the violins went around to act as the bow and the strings were "fingered" with metal levers that went down in the proper place at the proper time.
The house this display is in is very old as shown by the vaulted ceilings and cobbled floors, thick walls, etc. This was a display of smaller music boxes that had various things happen when they played.
The ceilings of the house were painted in intricate patterns.
This beautiful, ornate cabinet contained monkeys and people who moved or played instruments when the music was played
Note the monkeys are on the front row with the instruments.
We finished our tour in this room where Garth was invited to be the "organ grinder man".
We saw one room where there were the implements used to create these mechanical music boxes. A person really had to be an artist to make the music come out perfect and to design these things.
It was a fun tour and opened up a whole new world of types of music for me.
In the lot by the museum sat this old car and Garth wanted a picture with it.
It was a lovely day and a pleasant way to end our time in Germany.
Thanks to all who made it possible!
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