Apparently a voyage along the Rhine is the first river cruise that most people do. Not so in our case as we have previously done cruises into the hinterland of St Petersburg, along the Dnieper in Ukraine (described in Visa 56A-57) and along the greatest of all rivers, the Nile. The Rhine is perhaps less exotic but we wanted to do it nevertheless and finally did so last summer. We started and finished in Cologne, getting as far upstream as Strasbourg. I had previously been to both these cities but not to anywhere in between.
From Brussels we transferred by coach to Cologne. This was rather tedious: three hours of pounding along motorways in the dark, for much of the time in driving rain. The one bit of interest was to find ourselves, to our surprise, in the Netherlands. When we had travelled by train between Brussels and Cologne, we had crossed from Belgium straight into Germany. But the motorway is further north so takes one through the southernmost Dutch province, Limburg, which interposes its territory between those two countries.
Just across the border in Germany, we had a comfort stop at a service station. I don’t much like service stations back home and rather assumed that this was just the sort of thing that the Germans would do better. Not so if this one is anything to go by. It was very basic and the toilets were in portakabins outside the main building, meaning one had to go back into the rain. A lady sitting in a cabin nearby expected to be paid for the privilege of using these facilities. Say what one will about British service stations – I could start with the fact that one is charged for using their ATMs – they do accept, at least for now, the obligation to provide decent toilets at no charge.
Our boat was moored a little upstream from the city centre. On the whole we were satisfied with it. We had selected this particular cruise because the boat had hotel-like rooms with a bed rather than bunks and a bath as well as a shower. Rather luxurious compared to previous cruise experiences. The meals were generally good. Our one criticism was that it was free seating, our first experience of this. To us, it seemed rather impersonal. And, as a couple travelling on our own, we might find ourselves perched at the end of a table otherwise occupied by a group of friends on holiday together. But a different point of view was put to us by one of our tour guides. With assigned places, one can be landed with people one can’t stand. She recalled a cruise where she had felt, by the end of the tour, like murdering the woman who had shared their table.
Hardly any of the staff were German. The captain was Dutch and most of the staff, including at fairly senior level, were from former Communist countries. In the Cold War era most of these would not have been allowed to travel, let alone work, anywhere near the Rhine which of course flows through former West Germany.
After dinner we ascended to the deck to watch our boat set sail, the rain having finally stopped. The boat went a little way downstream so we were in sight of the city centre, with its magnificent Cathedral, now floodlit, as we turned full circle. The first stop was in Koblenz, which lies at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers. Some cruise boats turn right here and carry on down the Moselle, which by all accounts is very scenic, as far as Trier, Germany’s oldest city. A nice story about Trier was told to us by another of our tour guides, who was a WW2 buff. Towards the end of the War General Patton took the city with two divisions. Subsequently he received a message from General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, telling him not to take it unless he had four divisions. “What do you want me to do”, he telegraphed in reply, “give it back?”
It seemed to be our lot that our shore visits coincided with major events. Koblenz had been chosen as the venue of the Federal Horticultural Show and I am sure it would have been very interesting to have paid a visit. But the short amount of time on shore did not allow for this and with various streets closed, navigating oneself around the city was not as straightforward as might otherwise have been the case.
We found our way somehow to the Deutsches Eck (or German Corner), so called because it is at the confluence of the city’s two rivers, an area of great natural beauty. A massive memorial towers over the site, dedicated to Emperor Wilhelm I, who presided over Germany’s unification in the nineteenth century. Shortly before the end of WW2 the statue of Wilhelm was destroyed in an American artillery attack. It was re-established in 1993, following Germany’s second unification. I was intrigued to see that, around the foot of the monument, the shields of the former West German Länder (including Berlin though much of it was in the East) were depicted, with the exception of the Saar, which was separately listed at the side along with the lost provinces of the East. Rather odd, I thought, since the Saar was in the West, being indeed the Land furthest away from the ‘interzonal’ border with the East. The explanation was that the Länder were those that were in the Federal Republic at the time ie the early fifties: the Saar had been occupied by France since WW2 and did not rejoin Germany until 1957, following a plebiscite.
We moored in Boppard overnight. The following morning we cruised the most scenic part of the River, the celebrated Gorge. We were lucky with the weather. Later on during the day the heavens opened up but it stayed dry, albeit very overcast, in the morning. This really is the Romantic Rhine, towering cliffs and a fair few castles. A recurring theme was how the castles had over the centuries been battled over by the French and Germans. Culminating in WW2, France and Germany went to war three times in the space of seventy years. Germany was indisputably the aggressor on all three occasions but in earlier history the reverse might have been the case.
The famed Lorelei Rock is passed on this section. Somewhere on the cliff face is a small statue of said maiden and I looked for it in vain. My focus is not great. On a drive round a national park in Alaska there was great excitement in our bus when a moose was espied. Rather like elephants in Africa, the moose is the animal everyone wants to see in Alaska. Trouble was, the animal was in the distance and so small I couldn’t make it out. The whole bus was willing me to see it. “You could have pretended to see it”, Cathy later admonished. (The happy sequel was that a moose wandered across the road directly ahead of our bus; even I saw that one.)
From now on the Rhine is a border. We had been sailing through the Land of Rhineland Palatinate and this continues for many miles on the west side of the river. On the east side one comes first to the Land of Hesse and later on to Baden-Wurttemberg. Further south again the river forms the international border between Germany and France. Confusingly some of the territory on the west side, including the Palatinate’s capital Mainz, is known as Rheinhesse, albeit it is not in the Land of Hesse. Historically though it was part of the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, one of the numerous independent entities that existed before German unification. Evidently there are some in Hesse who still think the area is rightfully part of their Land.
Our afternoon stop was in Mainz. By now it was pouring and some opted to stay on board. But we don’t like letting the weather get in the way of seeing new sights. In particular we wanted to visit the Gutenberg Museum which entailed a fairly quick sprint through the rain. A good place to go on a rainy day but also one we would have wanted to go to anyway. Johannes Gutenberg was the inventor of the printing press. Mainz and Strasbourg both claim to be the place where he did this; what is not in dispute is that he was born in Mainz. The Museum is fascinating. An original Gutenberg press is there and one is given a demonstration. Its most precious exhibits are the two Gutenberg Bibles.
The rain obligingly left off as we were coming to the end of our visit. So in the remaining time left we could explore Mainz in the dry. The special events jinx followed us here. There was some sort of festival in progress meaning that the city’s handsome streets were in part obscured by marquees. I suppose that visitors should not complain if townspeople want to enjoy a festival but I still wonder why on earth the authorities permitted a marquee to be erected immediately alongside a beautiful and historic fountain, causing it to be turned off.
The following day we were due to land in Mannheim and from there be driven to Heidelberg. We were informed however that due to some problem or another in Mannheim, we would instead land in Speyer. This, it turned out, was something of a bonus. Speyer is a gem whereas Mannheim, worthy place though it doubtless is, is essentially an industrial city and not really a tourist destination.
Heidelberg is one of the highlights of any Rhineland tour and one of our reasons for choosing this particular holiday: we had both long hankered after going there. Sometimes one ends up disappointed when one finally gets to a place that has been on the wish list but not so here. This is a historic university city that has close ties to Cambridge. On the way into the city we saw many fine residences and our guide pointed out a couple of these. One of these belongs to Mannheim born tennis star Steffi Graf and her husband Andre Agassi and the other to Chancellor Angela Merkel. I was rather surprised for, as is well known, Frau Merkel hails from the former East and her usual place of abode is near Berlin. But she has also acquired this bolthole in the far southwest of Germany.
The main thoroughfare running alongside the Rhine is named from Konrad Adenauer, a Rhinelander and first Chancellor of postwar (West) Germany. Well into his eighties by the time he stepped down in 1963 – he was known as Der Älter, or the Old Man – he presided over the Wirtschschaftswunder (or Economic Miracle) and, after the horrors of Nazism, played a lead role in re-establishing Germany, in the Western Länder at least, as a peaceful, democratic and essentially decent country. Some, including the then prime Minister of Britain, feared that a reunified Germany might not be like that. One French observer opined that he liked Germany so much that he was glad there were two of them. After all, if West Germany was essentially a Rhenish-Bavarian-Hanoverian republic, East Germany was, well, Prussian. But the Germany of today is still very much the one that Adenauer founded.
We were driven back to Speyer and had a bit of time to look round this beautiful city. Most first time visitors will, like us, make for the Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site. But there is plenty else here to enjoy. We strolled down the main street and racked up four churches, including the Cathedral. Our last one was the Memorial Church of the Protestation, a Protestant church that was constructed in memory of the protest that took place at the Diet of Speyer by the Protestant states of the Holy Roman Empire in 1529. Despite this early association with Protestantism, Speyer, like the Rhineland generally, is today strongly Catholic. Due to the Rhineland, and also Bavaria, the Catholic: Protestant split in former West Germany was around 50:50. In unified Germany Protestants are in the majority due to their preponderance in the Eastern Länder.
We awoke the next morning in a different country, France, and in the city of Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace. This province, along with its neighbour to the west, Lorraine, was long in dispute between France and Germany and they have changed hands on various occasions, most recently in 1945 when they were restored to France after having been forcibly incorporated into the Third Reich. After WW2 Western Europe was blessed with some wise and far-sighted statesmen and those in France and (West) Germany resolved not only that their countries would cease to be enemies, but that they would become steadfast friends. Germany accordingly renounced any further claim to Alsace-Lorraine whose inhabitants consider themselves to be every bit as French as Les Parisiennes, albeit they might have a fondness for sauerkraut. They might though call it choucroute.
Another outcome of postwar statesmanship was that Strasbourg, for so long a symbol of conflict instead became a symbol of European unity. Indeed it is the unofficial ‘capital of Europe’. Clustered in an area a mile or so north of the centre are major European institutions: the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the European Court of Human Rights.
A good way of seeing Strasbourg, if one only has a short time there, is to take a boat trip. This takes one through the picturesque Petite France area. An appealing name though the origin is decidedly unromantic: it was once a place where people with syphilis, or the “French disease” as it was known in German, were treated. As well as taking one around the central waterway system, the boat diverts north to give a view of the European institutions before returning to the boarding point.
We then had a last wander round the centre. The only thing here that jarred was a group navigating their Segways through the pedestrianized area, looking to a man and woman like zombies as they concentrated on their vehicles, oblivious to their beautiful surrounds. Is this to be a new form of harassment for pedestrians along with the ‘lycra lout’ variety of cyclists? I understand though that segways are not allowed in public areas in the UK. Phew!
After lunch on the boat, we saw more of Alsace, this time heading south to Colmar, for a while travelling along the historic Wine Route, which takes one through delightful villages in idyllic countryside framed in the distance by the Vosges Mountains on one side and the hills of the Black Forest on the other. On the way in to the town we passed a replica of the Statue of Liberty, the original of course having been a gift from France to the USA. After parking, we walked through an unprepossessing shopping mall. Then, as we exited, all changed. We had travelled not just through space but through time. Colmar is an unspoilt and very beautiful medieval city. If a boat trip is the best way of ‘doing’ Strasbourg in a short visit, a noddy train is the way to see Colmar. An annoying name but they are for adults and the way to see as much as possible of its historic centre, including an area known as Little Venice.
Our return journey to Cologne now started. There was just one stop en route, in the town of R?desheim. Whereas Boppard is just to the north of the Rhine Gorge, R?desheim is just to the south and again we moored overnight. The special events jinx returned. We were forewarned that Motorbike Week was in progress. We were thrilled, not. Sure enough the place was swarming with bikers. But the atmosphere was congenial. Mainly middle-aged men whose pride and joy was their Harley Davison. No excessive noise and not a Hell’s Angel in sight.
Rudesheim , with its picturesque and narrow main street, the Drosselgasse, is one of the Rhine’s tourist hotspots so one can expect it to be teeming with visitors even without the bikers. Lonely Planet is a bit sniffy: “if you’re looking for a tourist thimble, this is definitely the place to come”. But we liked it and one can very easily escape the crowds as it small and surrounded by beautiful countryside. We boarded a cable car which took us over a vineyard and then up to the top of a hill from which fine views over the Rhine Valley, stretching as far as Mainz, could be enjoyed. Here is located the striking Germania monument, which commemorates the creation of unified Germany in 1871.
Now that we were doing the journey by day we were able to appreciate how beautiful the stretch of the river north of Koblenz is. Here was the famous bridge at Remagen. In WW2 the advancing Allies were surprised to find that the Bridge was intact and that they could therefore cross the river unimpeded, hastening their drive eastwards which took them to their rendezvous on the Elbe with the Red Army. The Bridge is no more as it collapsed soon after capture . Its western end houses a memorial.
On the final stretch before reaching Cologne, we passed Bonn which was for some forty years the capital of West, and then for a brief while reunited, Germany, before Berlin resumed this role. There was some surprise that this relatively small city was selected as the capital of the Federal Republic rather than, say, centrally located Frankfurt. It’s rather as if Britain had been divided in like fashion to Germany and Bath had been made the capital of the non-communist west. The fact that Konrad Adenauer was a native of Bonn just might have had something to do with it. But not for nothing was Der Älter known for his shrewdness. He believed, correctly as it turned out, that the division of Germany would be temporary and he wanted the capital to have a temporary look and feel so not be an obvious choice. Frankfurt might have settled down too comfortably in the role.
Finally we came to Cologne but we had one more night on board and an afternoon in which to explore the city. The city was devastated by WW2 bombing but it was right at the heart of the Wirtschaftswunder and has long been a prosperous place. Running down to the banks of the Rhine is the pleasant Old Town area and there is of course the magnificent Cathedral which, like St Paul's in London, survived the bombing. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And it has a tower. Give me a tower and I want to climb it so I duly bought a ticket not realizing it involved a climb of over 300 feet and 509 steps. A bit of a challenge for a sixty something gent but there could be no turning back. On leaving the Cathedral I espied our three tour guides and, somewhat uncharacteristically, went over to them and announced that I had climbed Cologne Cathedral. After dinner one called me aside: she presented me with a commemorative scroll.
First Published in VISA 103 and 104 (June - August 2012)
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