Rhine Romanticism

I have never been to the Oktoberfest. And I have no intention whatsoever to go there. Every time I say those two sentences to people from abroad who had just told me that they "Totally want to visit Germany... to go to the Oktoberfest", the reaction is sheer disbelief. And then they go: "So, where else should I go ??" And this is always the moment when I have to think hard and where I realize that I've traveled many beautiful places but that most of them weren't in my home country.

This last weekend, I made a real excursion which felt all touristy even though the place we went is just a couple of kilometers away from Mainz where I live. And although I've been there before (as a kid) and although I used to work - and will work again soon - in Bingen, which is just on the other side of the Rhine river, it felt all new and exciting. Maybe it was because of the fact that our tour started with the most touristic means of transportation I can think of: An aerial tramway.

Starting in Rüdesheim, we where floating over a landscape of vineyards up to the top.

Destination: Niederwalddenkmal. A  monument commemorating the end of the Franco-Prussian war.

On top of the Niederwald Hill it somehow feels like you are thrown back in time - sowhere at the beginning of the 19th century. When poets and thinkers traveled there and got some inspiration for their romantic poetry, their ballads, and gothic tales.

 

We drank a glass of wine on the foot of this enormous monument and started our hike to Assmannshausen.

 

We came across a hunting lodge and the Zauberhöhle ("magic cave") - including a short walk through a tunnel in complete darkness. People used to have such a stunning view down the Rhine river valley  at the end of this tunnel that they actually felt like being enchanted. Today, big trees obstruct the vista. But there are still plenty of picture opportunities along the way, spotting the castles which are seaming the river.

We had lunch at the riverside. "What goes up must come down"... but also the other way round...which is even more exhausting when it's a hot summer day and you just filled your belly to the top.

Back in Rüdesheim, walking through the famous Drosselgasse (according to wikipedia, about three million people vistit this small alley every year), I really felt like being on vacation:

How come that there are such fun getaway opportunities just in front of our doors, but most often we don't cherish the beauty of what is around us? No Australian would take millions of pictures of kangaroos, no one who is living in the Caribbean actually understands how it feels to see pristine beaches for the first time. Do we get blindfolded by our brains which only detect what is new and different as outstanding?

I'm still convinced that there is no need to visit the Oktoberfest. Convince me of the contrary.