The Peripatetic Coyote

  Completely insane vertical vine rows.  Super steep slopes and nowhere to hang on. This is the rock the inspired the songs and novel:  Loreley Rock And corresponding wine road. Remember the Maus castle?  Here’s the Katz castle. Legend has it that the Katz brothers were taking over the neighborhood and the local archbishop didn’t want any part of it, so…he built his own place a mile or two down the river.  Since it was smaller than Katz, the locals mockingly called it Maus :) Starting the day (with a climb, of course) Typical Rhine river scene - boat, river, castle  Another And another and… Another And another.

Well, it felt like it first thing in the morning.  A (rather abrupt) 800 feet up and we were able to enjoy a lovely day with all sorts of new experiences.  We started checking off castles right and left (literally), traveling some lovely forest paths and open meadows.  We walked through an unexpected and delightful village up on the ridge overlooking the Rhine with locals teasing us as we went.  At one point, a gentleman had set out a table and two chairs near the trail and came out to greet us when we stopped for a snack.  We enjoyed a break at a hiker’s cabin in the midst of waving fields of wheat surrounded by poppies, foxglove and wild roses.  We had the obligatory lookouts over the Rhine (they never get old) and close up looks at Maus (Mouse) castle - story to follow with tomorrow’s post.  Our accommodations were without electricity for a while (the circuitry in our room was the problem) but it was resolved and we enjoyed one of our more tradition...

  Last year’s Portuguese Camino de Santiago was different than this year’s hikes is several significant ways.  One is that the Camino was a commitment of sorts; we intended, barring significant injury or illness, to walk every step of the way.  This year, our two week-long trips are part of a vacation, and consistent with that, when this morning brought brought the forecast of 6 hours of rain and 6 hours of very challenging terrain, we decided to hike up to the famous Marksburg Castle and, if the weather was still nasty when we came back down, to cover most of the remaining distance by train.  Happy with our decision, we’re ready for another challenge tomorrow.  Below you see the castle (photographed on a brighter day) and the soaked serfs emerging from the castle after their overnight chores.  

- hike for almost 8 hours but rarely on level ground? - see cows and horses and dogs and deer and wild boar along the trail? - walk through mud deep enough to suck your shoes off? - gain about 2500 ft. total elevation? - cover about 13.5 miles distance. - travel under blue sky, cloud cover and in a couple of rain showers? - lower yourself down a rock face, hanging on to a rope railing with one hand and and a hiking pole in the other? - hike down a waterfall(!) hanging on to a cable (for dear life)? - see forests, rivers, and castles along the way? - and end up staying in an inn, the original version of which was built in the 1300’s?  Well, we did just that.

…we’ll start hiking.  Today was a travel day - by train from Frankfurt where we’ve been acclimating and acculturating (wd?), to Koblenz which is the starting point of our first hiking stage - which we begin tomorrow.  It promises to be a beautiful day and a challenging hike.  Oddly, this town has Chinese, Thai, Mondrian, Japanese, Greek,…,and Croatian food, and even a cowboy burger bar, but what?  No German food?  Well, we had another quite good Italian meal in Germany and hope to find German food someday soon.  The big deal in this town is riding the cable car across the river to visit the fortress, which we did. Logged another 6 miles going nowhere and doing nothing.  Also this is where the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine rivers happens, so it’s kind of emblematic of our itinerary over the next couple weeks.  Tomorrow, a report in from the trail.

Willkomnen in Deutschland!  We’ve arrived in Germany with high expectations for another hiking adventure.  We look forward to spending one week each hiking along both the Rhine and the Moselle rivers.  First comes a couple days in Frankfurt, acclimating to the time zone and remembering how to accomplish important things in German…ordering beer, wine, finding the bathroom, etc.  Having never spent time here, it’s been delightful getting to know the city and its history a little bit.  One of the most striking things to us is that on the one hand, they chose to rebuild most of the historic buildings destroyed during the Second World War, but on the other, they chose not to isolate the old town geographically from any new construction, so you’ll see centuries old structures side by side with skyscrapers. (Watch for that in the photos). The mall with a whole in it. Breakfast Lunch   Tomorrow - off to Koblenz on the Rhine.

  It's been almost two weeks since the last time we just stepped out the door and walked for eight hours.  In some ways, it seems like yesterday, and in others, it seems like ages ago, or perhaps we never did it at all...just dreamed it.   A few lingering impressions: The walk definitely had sections, but for me, rather than being divided into physical, mental, and spiritual (as predicted by others), the categories were a good deal more practical.  They were more like coastal sand & boardwalk, endless cobblestones (also known as Portugal), super-lovely forest walks, and joyless plodding through large cities. Some days just got swallowed up in the task of getting from one place to the next.  Several, however stood out.   Day 1 was memorable probably because it was Day 1, but more so by the novelty, for us anyway, of walking miles of sand (Atlantic) beach on a well maintained boardwalk and the ridiculously high winds that ended up sandblasting u...