Pictures of the trip

Hello faithful followers,

We thought we had a good internet connection so will try to show you some pictures from the past couple of days.

The Viking Helvetia in Cologne, Germany.

Mary & Greg with the boat in the background.  Wednesday, May 3 in Braubach, Germany.

The view from Marksburg Castle.  Wednesday, May 4

Hey Tim, this one is for you.

At Marksburg Castle.  One of the cannons used to enforce collecting tolls from the boats that went past on the river.  They could also use the cannons for self-defense if necessary.

Another one for you Tim.

This was a knight's helmut.

The view of Marksburg Castle from our room on the Viking Helvetia.

Much of the scenery along the high bluffs of the "Middle Rhine" reminded Mary of the Mississippi River near Fountain City.  The Rhine River is much narrower than the Mississippi River.  Much of the Rhine River has dikes or retaining walls to keep the river from flooding.

One of the many castles along the "Middle" of Rhine River.

There are lots of little villages all along the way and they all have at least one church.

One of the many villages with the church in the village and the castle overlooking the river and the village.  We were told the church was always built in the highest part of town because the Rhine River used to flood a lot.  It doesn't flood as much any more because of the dikes and retaining walls but apparently flooding is a major concern all along the river.  We have been told the river is very low at the moment due to lack of rain for the last 2 months.

During World War II, the allies didn't bomb any of the castles along the Rhine River.  So the Germans built facades to look like castles at the entrances to their train tunnels so the allies wouldn't bomb their train tunnels.