Castles, Castles, Castles

Matt and I took at trip down the Rhine River, one of the major European rivers. It was like talking Gilligan's 3 hour tour twice with no big ship wreck adventure at the end. We sailed by a lot of little towns and big towns, tons of beautiful vineyard covered hillsides, and too many castles to take pictures of. Here are a few . . . I'm sorry I don't know any of their names.


And here are a few more . . .

This one is bright Yellow, and being remodeled of course.

This one is built right out of the mountain side. Those are my favorite.

Lots of castles were right next to each other, so Matt and I made up some theories about castle building and living. 1. If you take over someone else's land, you should definitely abandon their castle and build one of your own. 2. Just because two castles are right next to each other doesn't mean their inhabitants were neighbors, or even lived in the same century. 3. The closer to the edge of the cliff, the better the castle.

Other highlights of the boat trip include . . . This building that I mistook for the Crispy Cream Headquarters. Sorry Germany. Crispy Cream is good, but your stuff is way better.

The yummy Fruit and Nut trail mix that we brought along for the ride.

This yummy mix includes dried cranberries, toasted soy nuts, pumpkin seeds, yogurt covered raisins, cashews, and sunflower seeds. It is not homemade.

And a very large statue that seemed to be a main attraction for a lot of other boat riders. Tons of people got off at this stop. (It could have been the rum plant and wine tasting tour that was the big draw, but I doubt it.) We put this statue on our list of "future Germany trip attractions."

Check out all that land below the statue. This whole hillside is completely covered in vineyards.

To go on the entire river ride took 12 hours, so we got off at the very middle point and got ice cream, then took a train back to Mainz. It was like doing to whole boat trip backwards in super speed re-wind. 6 hours in 45 minutes.