From the Heart

This day began by waking up to the sounds of the Ahr River outside our window.  Since most places don’t have air conditioning we sleep with the window wide open all night.  The river sounds from about thirty yards away are a refreshing way to start the day.  Before breakfast we hiked up the the Castle Ahr (Are) ruins that overlook the city of Altenahr.  It is becoming a habit for us to ascend steep inclines through small, confined spaces and our bodies are starting to protest.  We ain’t as young as we used to be!  The castle ruins cut an impressive profile from their commanding position on the mountaintop.  This began as a Roman fortress and still shows signs of the famed Roman architecture.

Once we left Altenahr and the mountain vineyards of the wine region of Germany, it was on to Koblenz and the Deutsches Eck.  This location where the Rhine and Moselle Rivers converge is known as the “Heart of Germany” and has been of considerable strategic importance in the region’s history.  The point extending out toward the confluence of the rivers is almost sacred to the German people.  German Emperor Wilhelm I is honored here with a remarkable statue looking north down the river.  It is an impressive site!

This site was more amazing because we took a cable car ride across the Rhine River to the site from the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress on the heights across the river.  Rufus had never been in cable car before and insisted on riding in the front window as we descended.  You can see that he wouldn’t take no for an answer!

We rode back across the river to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress and got some impressive views of the river valley and the city of Koblenz before departing for Mainz.  The next destination was the Gutenberg Museum.  This is one of the oldest museums of printing in the world and has an impressive collection of memorabilia and artifacts devoted to their local hero.  Johannes Gutenberg was named by Time Magazine as the “Person of the last millenium” meaning he was the individual with the single biggest impact on the world in the past 1000 years.  This museum is impressive in that it houses two of the remaining 49 complete original Gutenberg Bibles from 1455.  Only an estimated 180 were produced.  These are so valuable that even a single page from a Gutenberg Bible would sell for over $100,000!  We also got to watch a demonstration of printing using the methods of Gutenberg and hope to post it separately.  While in the museum we had to keep a close eye on Rufus to make sure he didn’t get his hooves caught in a printing press as it exerts 1000 lbs. of pressure when making the print.  Our companion was honored to be visiting the locale of such a famous individual and asked to have his picture taken in front of the museum.

And then we drove…and even at speeds between 140-160 km/h it took over four hours to get to Munich.  It was a sunset drive for much of the time over some of the smoothest and safest highways we have ever seen.  After we recover from the late arrival we will be in touch…