Rhine Falls - a day trip

We went to the castle side of the river - the upper right side of this picture to see the falls essentially from the top.  VERY nice view.  We could have walked over on the tramway and down to the bottom portion of that picture to see the falls from the bottom, but really?  After climbing all those stairs it wasn't really on my mind and it was also about 5pm by the time we decided to head back to the house.  

So let's start this day - the comment was made we would leave the house at 10:30 which means we leave the house more like 11:30 by the time we backtrack to find things we have forgotten and need to go back in and get etc.. So - on the road.  There was quite a bit of traffic, lots of stop and go on the autobahn - there was one HUGE accident on the north bound side where a car had flipped and crunched the top, front and BACK of their car... hope the folks survived... the car in the middle looked intact but the door had to be pried open to get them out apparently.  ouch!  That traffic was backed up for about 20km.  WOW!

what are you looking at?  You are looking between the two fence posts at the pointy mountain/hill in the distance.  Why?  I was thinking "that would be a COOL place to have a castle"

Turns out it WAS a cool place to have a castl and there are ruins up there.. would be a heck of a hike up there to see them... but it was cool to drive past them on the autobahn  There were two ruins in the local area.  I didn't get pictures of the other as they were on the other side of the car.

Fields, fields everywhere!

We saw lots of wheat fields being harvested, lots of corn fields getting close to being ready to harvest and even some apple orchards with green and red apples ripening in the sun.  Well I say we, but it was really ME looking out and about while Butch drove.  

So - even with a very large shoulder they will create a lane in the middle for emergency vehicles - weird, eh?  it IS nice when there are no shoulders - you KNOW if you need an ambulance to assist you that one will be able to get through no matter what.  I DO like that about Germany!

Truckers don't wear clothing much here... seriously - the guy in the cab has what appears to be swim trunks on... the guy talking to him?  Lordie... that belly!!!  That took some time and effort to grow!!!  But once pointed it out to me I noted that most truckers are shirtless in the their cabs.  How very strange... but I'm sure they are quite comfortable!  Maybe they don't have A/C in the trucks or it takes their milage down too far?  Who knows... very strange indeed.

Entrance to Shloss Laufen 

Laufen Castle (German: Schloss Laufen) is a castle in the municipality of Laufen-Uhwiesen in the Swiss canton of Zurich. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance^[2] overlooking the Rhine Falls.

The first documented reference to the castle dates to the year 858 when it was the home of the Barons of Laufen. It passed through several owners until the Old Zürich War (1439-1450) when the castle was acquired by the Fulach family, from whom the city of Zurich bought the castle in 1544. Following the Helvetic Republic (1798–1803) the castle was once again in private ownership, with the city of Zurich reacquiring the castle by buying it again in 1941.^[1]

The castle now serves as a tourist attraction, and contains a restaurant and a youth hostel. Between 2009 and 2010 a project was undertaken to restore and expand the facilities, including a visitors’ centre situated in the former staff quarters, an exhibition in the northern part of the castle, and a wheelchair-accessible circular walkway with glass lift between castle and river levels.^[3] Laufen is overlooking Wörth Castle, on the opposite side of the Rhein river, in the Canton of Schaffhausen.

The Rheinfall railway line passes through a tunnel under the castle, halting at the Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall station to the south of the tunnel and beneath the castle walls. The station is linked to the castle by a walkway.

Starting to walk out to the falls... you can HEAR them... and you can get glimpses of them through the brush...

And then, there they are!  WOW

There is one observation deck that you have to go through a small cave and into a small room over the water to view the falls - Notice that not very many people are wearing masks and NO ONE is doing social distancing at all.  I'll be a little paranoid about my exposure once I get home for a while, I'm sure...

We wore our masks when we would be in close contact with people but I have to touch hand rails - why?  I have ZERO balance and the neuropathy in my feet make me very unsteady going up/down stairs.  It's sad but I have to hold onto something to make it up stairs unless they are perfectly smooth and standard steps.... on the side of a mountain they are none of those things... so I'm very "tippy" to say the least - so my hands touched a LOT of surfaces.  I was very aware of this and used my hand sanitizer a LOT but it was still a concern with close quarters... i even put my back to people when we used the ONE elevator on the last few flights of stairs going back up.  Honestly I trust NO ONE during this time!!

Back out in sunshine and the lowest observation deck.

ANNNDDDD going back up again...

The water is beautiful and clear and I assume cold

This door way says 1778 - wish there wasn't so much graffiti and such on it.. sad.

There was a small history area that was a self guided tour - this model shows the observation areas - the small one jutting out from the cave in the middle and the long one right over the water.  All well worth the hike to the bottom of the hill!  The elevator only cuts off the area from about 1/2 way up... and it's tucked on the other side of the hill.

THIS is what happens when you can tour a place with no supervision - you open windows for better pictures of the river.  The windows were highly tinted so opening the window was the ONLY way to get a good picture of the beautiful river.  Can you imagine living in this castle?  What a view!!

And of course we had to sign the guest book!

Proof that we were there on August 1st 2020

SUPER pretty place.  We will definitely go back again for day trips with visitors as it's not that far away!

The drive back was a bit calmer for me - all the traffic jams were long gone and I was able to zip on home without any delays!  And thanks to the Waze app - no tickets :)

The COVID update and a short Saturday adventure!

Well, technically it's been 131 days since the "lock down" began, but we're not "really, really" in lock down anymore.  What do I mean by that?  Well, we have more freedom to come and go and stores are less strict about visitiontsion and keeping a strict limit on the number of persons who can enter at a time.  they still count you to some extent but you are allowed to enter shops fairly freely as the limit on numbers is pretty high.  I would honestly have to go and look it up as to how many are allowed in at a time anymore but it's not the tiny number of 10-20 for a small store so it's easier to get in without a wait.  Case in point.  Antikissimo.  A place I had wanted to go for quite a while but had been putting it off was OPEN without appointments.  VERY nice to have that option of just going in and browsing without thoughts of "oh, crap, I need an appointment".  

So you guessed it, I went there this weekend.

Their facebook site will give you an example of what they have:https://www.facebook.com/antikissimo/

And it's just as fun in person... it's dirty and dark and a mystery around every turn.  When you come out you HAVE to wash your hands...yeah, my kind of junk store - ha!  They had lots and lots of STUFF and what did I come out with?  Nothing but pictures

This is the "open" side where there are no covers over the glass roof - yes this is a converted green house that they use.  Its just chuck full of goodness!

The lights were hanging LOW on this side of the place... and you can see into the back where it's dark and there is a mesh over the ceiling... yes, it's like that throughout with dirt floors and concrete strips for the tables for growing I would imagine... or maybe the dirt was where they used to grow things and the concrete strips were for walking?  yeah, that would make way more sense... but with this conversion they have moved all of the items off of the dirt and onto the concrete so there is a strip of "stuff" in the middle of the dirt walkway and barely a walkway straddling the dirt/concrete ...it's definitely cramped.

FUN keys!

What I really love are the glass dry good drawers from old hosier cabinets... these all had some cracks/breaks on the corners so they didn't come home with me at $45 for the set... but I think if I can find some without breaks I will grab some... they had the smaller version in singles in there but again, all with breaks on them, so nope.  Not going to pay top dollar for ones with issues.  I can pick up large ones for 10 Euro and small for 6 euro if I search around... so we'll see if I ever come up with any.

BLUE demijohns... they did have a few but they were 50 euro for the larger and honestly I don't want to pay that for one.. so I passed.

I truly thing it's coming down to want vs. need anymore.  I have zero NEED for this stuff and unless it really makes me smile and I think "oh, I have the PERFECT spot for this - it's not coming home with me.  I have enough junk :)  it is soooo much fun to look though, isn't it?

I WAS going to the flea market in downtown this week too but there were protests scheduled so we're advised to stay away from those areas... and of course it was all day on Saturday - Sunday the sidewalks are pulled up around here - nothing is open... so I did my running in the morning even went to the grocery store - then went home and took a nap... ah Saturdays!  Love them!!

I did go last weekend - did a LONG walk as I was learning the whole "where to park" thing.  I went and tried to park under the train station - that was a bust due to construction... BUT I found the parking under the shopping areas there... managed to park at the WRONG end of the parking area, but that was OK too - I ended up walking about 2 or 3 miles by the time it was all said and done, but no harm, no foul.  I could use it!  I wandered the market hall and the flea market and even the flower market before making my way back to the car and heading to the base to their thrift store.  All was fun during that weekend too - flea markets here in Germany had remained closed until three weeks ago - so opened for the first time on the 4th - I didn't go that weekend... BUT I will be going again - it's fun to wander the market... I need to learn to slow down and get a coffee while I'm there too - but I'm solo so I'm less likely to stop and just watch people.  Next time, next time...

SO on to COVID.  The US is really NOT doing well with controlling this crap at all  I am super happy I'm in Germany at this point - the numbers here are looking SO much better over all in europe.  I complain that we are not allowed to fly anywhere yet, but I also have a paranoid husband who is digging his heels in... so I guess I'm stuck in Europe with just little jaunts out and about.  I need to plan my birthday trip too (*yeah, you can read the snark in that one... wtf, plan my own birthday trips?).... Anyway, I have something in mind.

So for historic reasons as I print these out yearly for my journal - here are the numbers as of today.

So you think the numbers being so different and the US is super high - you really have to look at the true statistics per million population.  The fact is that USA has 4X the death rate per 1M population.  And astronomically more on the total cases per 1M population. now is that there is more testing in the US?  Who knows... but the percentages are much higher there than here.

There is also the daily new cases - again, this isn't really a 1 for one without taking into account teh massive population difference but the trend is what I look at - look at Germany - spiked then went down to a nice LOW number of daily cases....

THEN look at the US... they never really did get that downward trend from the initial spikes... they just kept on climbing... this is one case where freedoms that americans demand make our country look like the "florida" of the world as someone put it so aptly.  Hopefully with mandated masks in stores things will calm down over there... but I'm not so sure... we shall see, we shall see...

AGAIN - actually GLAD I'm in Germany at this point... I feel safe here... I don't feel like I'm exposed unduly to infections.  We did have a scare in our building this last week... we're all masking up in public areas now... for the most part.  So we're aware and I'm working in an area with military who are ordered to wear masks and comply because, well, it's an order!

Cochem Day two adventures in Cochem proper and last day :(

Good morning again!  Today we were off to see Reichsburg Castle.  We (*I*) wanted to shuttle up because let's face it, I don't know that I could have lived with that hike... honestly.  I would have had to stop about 20x going up that hill... or more... then I would have been a hot sweaty mess at the top - so not worth it to me!!  So shuttle it was!

the shuttle is a small bus.... the streets are super narrow and other cars are attempting to come up/down the same street the shuttle was attempting to navigate.  Yeah... made for some close squeezes through the town, but we made it!

We had roughly an hour before we could catch a tour, so we opted to sit in the tents (yes, the very ones you can see from our hotel) and have a beer overlooking the river... it was nice to watch the folks working in the vineyard to the left of the hotels... he was going up and down the rows spraying or something... and it was fun to see the container ships going up and down and the tour boats.  We never made it on a tour boat BUT we did see one of the river cruises go up... they look nice.  I think we'll have to do one of those either this year or next.  They are the same size as the barge you see below, so they are quite large.

These are lions with the knights mask on with the visor pulled down.  I like the idea that they are frogs still, but I was outvoted by the folks that work here... they are lions with masks on.... ok, fine, but it's not nearly as cute as a frog.  

My new friend!  He's looking a little worse for wear but he is the quiet type... :)

Butch accused me of covid sniffing because these roses smell JUST as good as they look... there were these peach ones and some red ones and they all smelled devine!!!

Vineyards surrounding the castle on just about every side!  Small - steep vineyards.

View from the balcony on our tour... what a VIEW!!

Oh, my the hair!  It's not quite long enough for a full pony tail and it was SO windy at the top today I opted for a half pony tail... I didn't look at the pictures I was taking so seeing these now I just chuckle and move on... it is what it is... I was a mess!

showdown between the CAR and the BUS... the car had to squeeze to the side... and the cyclists who came up after the car had to get off and walk to the side and duck into an alley!  

Cute book place just for Liz.

These are CAKES!  I should have bought one... they cracked me up..

The general theory of "makin' bacon" as it was "this is how pork is made" in the translation app!  ha!

Lunch... snack

Flammkuchen.  it's the consistency of  a cracker with cream topping with bacon (spec) and other things ... you choose.. they are DELICIOUS!

 We then went to the mustart place...

https://www.senfmuehle.net/ 

Sorry folks, no pictures here but we did come home with mustard from a recipe from 1820, some with cayenne and some with curry... all of them yummy!!

Then we walked past the mustard place and this is where Butch went wrong... he walked me in the direction of the Sesselbahn... hahaha!  I had wanted to go up this and he had said "NO" a few times... but he didn't notice as we left the mustard place was he was walking me RIGHT towards the chair lift - hahaha~  I just muttered Sesselbahn, Sesselbahn, sesselbahn to his oblivious self, got in line and we went where I wanted to go!  hahaha!  I loved it.  Great trip up, nice sketchy walk to the edge of the mountain to boot!

Our hotel is right between our heads :)

going down?

Mask signs everywhere... and masks all over the mountain under the lifts as well.  Sad, but true.  They get away from folks in the wind apparently.

After we finished with this we headed down to town and went to a wine house and bought some wine for the house... took a bit of a break then went to dinner about 7pm.  We lucked out and snuck into a little place called Da Vinci's down the road.  Italian place that had wonderful tasting bruschetta and wonderful pizza.

AND this is the view of where we were on top of the mountain ... far away...

and close up... we were standing right at the base of the cross...

And with that this was the last night... no grand sunset as it started to cloud up.  We had some rain on the way home as well, but all in all a GREAT weekend.

The pretty bridge over the Rhine just before getting within an hour of home...

Can you see all those birds?  They were riding the wind just floating and circling in the massive updrafts...

They are cranes!!

Oh, goodness that reminds me I didn't tell you guys about the DUCKS outside the hotel.  I swear there were times it sounded like they were landing on our patio they were so loud in the wee hours of the morning!  Quacking away as they were coming in for landings on the river.  Too funny!