13Oct – Boppard, Germany

We departed Speyer in the wee hours (1 AM) of the morning. Most passengers slept through the sail-away party. (Just kidding. No party. Altho’ that would have been a chance to introduce “4th Meal” to an already packed meal program.)

After breakfast, most people assembled topside or in the front lounge for the much-anticipated “romantic” segment of our journey on the Rhine between Speyer and Boppard. Our Program Directors tag-teamed one another to provide scenic commentary from the bridge as we sailed lazily northward.

Along both banks of the river, nestled above the river are numerous castles in a variety of conditions. One fact to know is that most of these citadels, if not a decrepit-but-picturesque ruin, are reconstructions. This is not due to WWII, as one might suspect, but the work of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France. In his unrelenting mission to neutralize the perceived threat of all the petty German fiefdoms, he had pretty much every castle destroyed on or near the Franco-Prussian borders. Today, the nice ones are hotels, hostels, museums and, in a few cases, private residences.

Castles that make the Rhine romantic

As we approach the northern terminus of the romantic part of the Rhine, we sail past the sailors’ nightmare: the infamous Lorelei. A massive rock formation on the east bank. it marks one of the narrowest and most treacherous stretches of the navigable river.

[A little historical aside, it was atop the Lorelei in 2016 that, in my haste to find a new view to capture, I stumbled and fell (down not off), drawing blood and suffering th’embarrassment of adult clumsiness.]

After our leisurely voyage through the gauntlet of Rhine castles, we arrived at Boppard, a town so small that our walking tour was expected to take a mere 30 minutes. The town suffers from a lack of real tourism, the kind where people stay for several nights and really contribute to the economy. They’ve scheduled a huge flower show/event in 2029 in an effort to promote Boppard as an overnight destination.

We walked the riverfront promenade. It is very well-kept and lined with flowering plants and planters, fine homes and restaurants, and splendid views of the busy river it embraces.

Reaching the Imperial Gate, we entered the city proper which, by all appearances, has a healthy business community of shops and restaurants. But before we were freed to explore what Boppard had to offer, we did a quick tour of the inside of St. Severus Church.

Promoted to basilica by Pope Francis in 2014, the romanesque church of St. Severus was built in the 12th-13th centuries over the site of the former Roman baths. The church has numerous decorative frescoes, samples of which are included below.

Also of note: the church still has its original bells, which tolled the noon hour just as we finished our walking tour. During WWII, the Nazis confiscated all available metal, church bells, stained glass window frames, etc., to convert it into wartime materiel. And while none of the stained glass windows in St. Severus are original, the town had the foresight to remove and secret the church bells, allowing them to be rehung and rung after the war.

After lunch, we three set out to ride the Boppard Sesselfahrt (chair ride) to the top of the Hill of the Four Lakes. After a very slow and steady ascent in lift chairs made for two, we made our way to the large biergarten perched on the edge of the hilltop, commanding an incredible view of the Rhine River valley below.

Securing a table on the edge (well, next to the fence actually), we each ordered a bier or bier combo and enjoyed the scenery. What we did not see is how the meandering Rhine below could be “seen” as four separate lakes from above, which is what gave the hill its name.

Having had our fill of the beer and the view, we returned to our ship where we remained.

However, before heading to the pre-dinner port talk and dinner, we welcomed Peg and our biergarten buddy Traudel, to our room for an impromptu cocktail hour, finishing two of the three bottles of wine we purchased in Riquewihr: a dry Riesling and a Gewürztraminer. There were chocolates and nuts as well and we all conversed until the ship-wide announcement called us away.

Such fun in Boppard!

As dinner wrapped up, we set sail for the (romantic) Mosel River, putting the Rhine behind us for a few days. Shortly thereafter, we reached Koblenz and “the German Corner,” as the junction of the two rivers is known, sailing into the Mosel valley under the watchful eyes of Kaiser Wilhelm, the unifier of Germany, astride his steed.