Today we took a drive up the Rhine and back down the other side of the valley, collecting church and castle sightings along the way. Many stories and memories for my mother and many thoughts of bringing my partner Ellie along this path someday.

I don’t know the names of many of these little castles and towns we blew through driving with our little blue cruiser, but one place in particular we stopped was a ruin called Rheinfels Castle.

It has an interesting history that and was finally destroyed in 1794 by the French revolutionary army.

I put myself in the mindset of Ludwig Tieck’s “Der Runenberg” and found myself rounding corners expecting to find a woman with a foreboding gift for me, although I feel as though I have already received this gift from the dark mother of Germany and I am unsure what to do with it.

The castle was built to withstand an attach and so had fortifications to be completely independant of the surrounding land while having the ability to house a large portion of the population. The castle was home to a mason with access to their own stone mine, a blacksmith, an apothecary, gardens, a well, a massive cellar for food storage, a butchery, a bakery, and I can only assume they had a wizard somewhere in the mix. This is an example of the carpenters tools, one of the trades that were present when this castle was up and running.

A few church stops later and we arrived in the small town of Bcharach to find ourselves driving down alleyways just as wide as the car. The entire length of the city is maybe six city blocks. I’m excited to see what comes out of this little town tonight.