April 15-22: Rhine Cruise and Soccer

 Horay! Castles!

Last week we went on a cruise along the Rhine river following the tour of a museum featuring Hildegard Von Bingem - a nun/mystic from the 12th century whose writings specialized in herbal remedies, theology and medicine. The museum also had an exhibit with some ancient Roman surgical tools found in the Rhineland. Afterwards we went on a cruise down the Rhine and enjoyed the view of some castles. However, my normal camera was dead, so all I had to take pictures was my iPhone camera, which really didn't do the scene justice. All the castles, no matter how big or small, looked magnificent. One of them is actually turned into a youth hostel, which I thought was a pretty neat idea.

We stopped along the river to explore the remains of St. Goar (seen above). It was super cool! It was nice not having a tour guide and being able to explore the castle on our own. This place was HUGE, definitely really easy to get lost there. There were even some underground tunnels that we could explore that were literally pitch black. If you didn't have a flashlight, well, good luck. The only thing that could have made the stop at St. Goar better, was if we had Nerf guns or air-soft guns to have a battle! This seriously would have been the perfect location for a game of hide 'n hunt.

Saturday we went to see Koln F.C. play against Stuttgart. Wow, these German soccer fans are not messing around. We saw guys pounding cases of beer on the train up to Koln singing football club songs, everyone sporting their team colors wearing red/white scarfs, and everything. The initial roar of the stadium when we were walking in reminded me so much of A&M during football season (I bought my sports pass immediately once I got home). I really enjoyed their traditions, the Koln F.C. songs, and the energy of the atmosphere at the game. Although they tied 1-1, it was still a good game and a very fun experience.

Until next time..