Castles on the Rhine

The last two nights I've been in a Gästehaus near the city of Bad Kreuznach. The inn was an old mill with thick stone walls and, boy, was it cold inside! Must be great in summer, but I had to wear several layers to bed. It was okay since I was only there to sleep. I chose the location because it was convenient to several places Grant mentioned in his diary.

Monday I recreated a trip Grant made down the Rhine to Speyer with a stop in Worms on the return trip. Both cities have marvelous Romanesque cathedrals. The trouble often with traveling on Mondays is that many museums are closed. I would have like to have visited the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer, but it was „geschlossen." They had enticing posters all over town for an exhibit called "Witches: Myths and Truth" with a photo of a big green toad.

In the afternoon I intended to explore Mainz and find the exact location of the barracks where Grant and his outfit lived for several weeks. But once again I ran up against carnival! Roadblocks at every turn! So I parked the car and took a tram into the city. I followed the costumed throngs into the old part of Mainz and found a parade in full swing. I gave up trying to find the tourist office. Everything was closed anyway. So I decided to join the party for a while. I had a beer and snapped some photos of the crowd. I had to be careful where I walked because the pavement was littered with bottles of all kinds and other refuse. The crowd had clearly been enjoying themselves for hours.

This morning I drove up the west side of the Rhine from Bad Kreuznach to Koblenz, again recreating one of Grant's jaunts. Even though it was hazy, the castles that adorn both sides of the river were very visible. What also stood out were the incredible (nearly vertical) vineyards. Someday I would like to come here at harvest time and see how they do it. It must be hard to pick the grapes without tumbling down the mountainside.

I remember making this same journey past the Lorelei Cliff (only in the opposite direction) with my parents in the spring of 1984. My dad drove, of course, I navigated from the front seat, and my poor mother, who had a cold, lay down in the rear seat, rallying every once and a while to gaze at a castle before sinking back down again.

Once I hit Koblenz, the sun came out and I had bright sunshine the rest of the day. It's ironic that on my last day in Europe I had the best weather in three and a half weeks! Since it had snowed heavily for the past few days I had a beautiful drive through the forested mountains east of the Rhine to Limburg an der Lahn. The snow clung to every tree branch. The sunlight on the snow was blinding at times. In picturesque Limburg I wanted to talk to someone on in the tourism office, but it was closed for carnival. Grant evacuated a prisoner of war camp and I wanted to find its exact location. I had similar intentions later in the afternoon in Gießen, but gave up. These questions will have to wait.

Around three o'clock in the afternoon I arrived in a small town northeast of Gießen. It was an emotional experience for me because it happened to be the hometown of two brothers who live in my building in New York. Their family lived and worked in this small town for many years. And then the Nazis came to power. During World War II the family was deported to Theresienstadt (where they lost the grandmother) and thence to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There the parents were murdered in the gas chamber, but these two young brothers survived. Eventually they emigrated to America, settled down in New York and raised their own families. I feel lucky to know them.