The Rhein Valley

Beautiful! We drove alongside the Rhine and there were castles after castles after castles! Be sure to stop by Burg Rhein Stein. It's on the west side of the river, between Koblenz and Bingen. It was my favorite out of all of them, and once you get in you're free to roam up and down towers, in and out of narrow corridors, and imagine what it would be like to have one of those circular tower rooms for yourself!

From Bingen we took the ferry over to Rüdesheim am Rhein, where we stayed in a nice vineyard/restaurant/hotel. At night we wandered the Drosselgasse, a narrow little street lined with restaurants, cafes, shops, and winesellers! There's also a Kathe Wolfhart store, where you can pick up a pyramid or other traditional German trinket for Christmas...

In the morning we went to St. Hildegard's Abbey, as well as to the Niederwald monument and its huge statue of Germania. Very nineteenth century, and unlike national memorials that are built today. I believe it was after the Franco-Prussian war that it was built...