We were still behind schedule, but Viking had an excuse for everything: the lock broke, the bus is late, we're stuck behind a cargo ship, the traffic usually isn't this bad, the swans are in the way, etc. etc.
The remainder of cruise was spent aboard, watching the river banks go by. Very interesting, all the campers in tents and trailers and caravans along the banks. We understand that by law, a camper can only stay in one place for 9 months, otherwise the government assumes that you live there and you have to pay taxes. So these people stay in one campground for six months or so and then move to another one. This is retirement living for some people.
We sailed the Middle Rhine, which is dotted with castles all the way along. We called it the Castle Crawl, and here are some highlights. First, Castle Reichenstein:
The purpose of the castles was, of course, somewhere to live, but upkeep for the places was provided by charging tolls to boats moving along the river. Here, a toll station belonging to Castle Gutenfels, which is in the background:
Several years ago, we stayed at Castle Rheinfels with the Grand Prix Club (ToursF1.com). Rheinfels has a hotel built into it. We remember watching the river boats go by, and now we got the view from the other side:
Finally, Marksburg Castle, the best preserved of the lot and a popular tourist destination:
The next day, we actually got off the boat in Cologne and walked around town. It was Sunday, and we happened to walk into the Cathedral of Cologne just before mass. They fired up the pipe organ and it practically shook the walls, accompanied by a full orchestra. Very professional and very impressive. We're not Catholic (by a long shot) but even to us mass in German sounded strange.
