Last week I shared some pictures from my Viking River Cruise of the small town of Kestert, a little village along the Rhine River in Germany. Today I want to share two more tiny villages that we passed by on our way to our next castle on this afternoon of enjoying the upper deck of our Viking Longship Ingvi.
We really were very lucky on our day to view the castles that line the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a Unesco World Heritage Site. We had a sunny day with off and on clouds and at one point a brief light hailstorm. It lasted about 5 minutes and we were all able to still remain on the upper deck. It started as a very light rain shower and then for a few minutes there was a light amount of hail. And then there was sunshine again. We were not complaining.
In between the castles we also saw some amazing scenery and some pretty little villages, including the small village of Hirzenach.
I love how they post a town sign along the bank of the Rhine. It made it a lot easier for me when I got home to figure out where I took that picture of that village, since I took over 1,000 pictures just on this day alone on our trip!
Hirzenach is small, with only a little over 300 people residing there today. It is part of the larger jurisdiction of Boppard. I guess it must be like a suburb here in the United States.
And like all little towns along the Rhine, there is a church, the Church of St. Bartholomew, a Catholic parish church, which dates to 1296.
The town mainly relies on tourism today.
It sits at the base of the Rhenish Massif, or the Rhenish Slate Mountains. There are hiking trails all along the Rhine and you can easily see that this little village would be a nice place to stay while exploring this part of Germany.
I love the little houses that line the banks of the Rhine. They look so pretty with their lace curtains and windows overlooking the river.
But we were sailing on. On to the next village or town before our next castle came into view.
It really was wonderful to sit up on the upper deck of our ship that day. We had plenty of space. My friend June and I camped out by the wheelhouse. You can see I had my Journal
I always carry a journal with me when I travel like this. I find it best to help me remember details of the trip. I also take pictures of signs so I can look up information when I get home. Another reason why I took so many pictures this day. I included a lot of pictures of the KM markers and town signs. But then again, the Germans really made that part easy for me.
There were several bends in the river we had to navigate around. And remember, we shared the river with other cruise ships and barges, like the one in the picture above. The ship would slow down around some of these because traffic would be one way and we were told sometimes it could get really backed up, especially if there was a wreck. And evidently there was a few weeks before our trip. A barge didn’t navigate correctly and it backed things up for quite some time while they cleared up the wreckage.
But you know what? I don’t think we would have minded too much being stuck here. This part of the Gorge is where the Rhenish Massif or Rhenish Slate Mountains were located.
They were beautiful. Evidently a Massif is a geologic formation where there is a disruption in the earth’s crust and the internal structure remains intact during displacement. You can see the almost vertical lines of rock beneath the trees and shrubs on this side of the Rhine, which by the way is at km 561.
Here you can see it a little better. And these mountains are made mostly of slate, so there you have it.
The beaches along this part looked so inviting and I bet in the summertime they are full of people enjoying the outdoors.
It was still Spring when we visited and probably a little too cold for swimming just yet. The trees were just starting to leaf out.
I could imagine having lots of picnics if I lived here.
These rocky mountains reminded me a lot of the New River Gorge in West Virginia.
It really was a great day for cruising.
And every now and then we would spot some old stone walls up on the steep sides of the mountains.
But you had to look real hard or you might miss them.
And then before we knew it, we had stumbled upon the next little village. And this village was really tiny. This pretty much was it. It used to be a mining town, you can see the slag dump behind the buildings on the right.
It was the village of Ehrenthal, at km 560. And the building above was it’s claim to fame.
This is St. Sebastian Catholic Church (on the backside) which dates to 1542. It used to be a monastery and is now a parish church. But the building attached to it is the former convent and now a tavern or pub.
I love the golden rooster weathervane on top of the bell tower of the church.
It really stood out against the green of the mountains when we passed through.
And the story that our guide shared was that you could go enjoy the libations at the tavern on a Saturday night and then head on over next door and ask for forgiveness come Sunday morning at the church. We found it very odd that the two were connected like that, but then again, when we visited Oude Kirk in Amsterdam, it bordered the Red Light District.
And after we blinked, Ehrenthal was gone. And we were sailing past more of the Rhenish Slate Mountains.
And there were more of the ancient stone walls and what looked like old mine entrances.
Here you get a better perspective on how steep those mountains are. I don’t think it would have been fun to build those walls or try to work on such steep slopes. There was also an old Walnut Farm in this area. Maybe at one time that is what was grown here and why the walls were built.
But we were only a kilometer away from our next castle. So it was time to make sure my camera battery was good and my disk was empty so I would be ready to capture images of Maus Castle.
This is not a sponsored post. This is my experience from my trip with Viking River Cruises. Email me to find out how you can save $100 when you book your first cruise with Viking through their referral program. Affiliate links are for products I have used or are similar and that I recommend. Opinions are my own.
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