Further journeys down the Rhine

After a night in a very good campsite in Loreley we continued our journey down the Rhine. There a small breakwaters at various points down the river, they create small harbours as shelter from the constant current for the boats. We walked down to the end of one of these breakwaters to check out the statue of the nymph (see previous post for the legend of the nymph).

After this gentle stroll we tackled the zillion stairs to climb to the top of Loreley and were rewarded with a fantastic view down the Rhine.

It would be so easy to spend months on this river. The views of the boats, vineyards, castles and villages are so special.

Next we hit the village of Knub and the castle of
Pfalzgrafenstein (Pflaz for short). Pflaz is a small castle on an island in the Rhine.
It was established by the Counts Palatine as a toll gate for passing ships in
1338. This proved to be a bad move as the Count was excommunicated by the Pope because there was already a toll in Koblenz in the north and Mainz in the south. Clearly the church had it well sewn up and wasn’t keen to share. The Count continued however, I guess the money was more important than salvation in the after life. If you refused to pay you got lowered onto a platform that floated in the well 8 metres beneath the castle tower, that’s assuming the Count didn’t blast you to bits with the
numerous canons.

The village of Knub was very pretty (as they all are).

We then headed to Mainz, a big town at the southern end of the middle Rhine and have debated our route from Germany. It will be sad to leave the Rhine behind.