March and May 2020
This post begins before Covid shut down travel and picks up right after.
At school we had the opportunity to go backstage at the Stuttgart Opera and see where they make everything in house.
If you lined up all of their costumes it would be over 7 kilometers.
The last trip before the Covid shutdown was a day trip to Bonn, Germany. The birthplace of Beethoven.
Here he is in his hometown. Ludwig van Beethoven
This is the house Beethoven was born in.
Took a hike up to a castle.
We could not go in because of Covid, but it was still a nice view of the mighty Rhine river.
This castle is now a retreat center for Vodaphone.
After never spending more than two weekends in a row without travel, Covid forced me to give up travel for almost two months. The first trip back was to Triberg, Germany to see the largest waterfall in Germany.
Black Forest Koo Koo Clocks.
Allegedly, the world’s largest Koo Koo clock is inside here, but Covid had it closed down.
The following weekend included a trip down the Rhine River to Mainz and Wiesbaden.
Mainz has a nice waterfront area where you can enjoy food and drinks.
Mainz is the birthplace of Gutenberg, the inventor of the movable type printing press. This invention allowed for the mass production of text and lead to an increase in fictional writing. The distribution of fictional writings shared the plight of the common man. Previous texts were almost exclusively religious or stories of heros. This lead to a significant reduction in violence and an improvement in the way people treated each other.
Took a local train over to Wiesbaden and enjoyed Schloss Biebrich.
The following weekend took me to Koblenz.
This is Deutsches Eck, it is where the Rhine and Moselle rivers meet. The Rhine is a major reason why Germany is so wealthy, as it connects German industry to the major port in Rotterdam, Netherlands and thus global sea trading routes. Over 90% of global trade happens on water because it is the most cost effective way to move goods. A major reason why the United States is the wealthiest country in the world is because it has coastlines on both the Atlantic and Pacific, navigable rivers, and only two neighbors. The USA is the most geographically blessed country in the world.
I see you Kaiser Wilhelm II, and this statue was very much so built to be seen and display power. Kaiser Wilhelm II was the last emperor of Germany and King of Prussia. He, along with chancellor Otto von Bismarck, united Germany and made it into a world power, but their reckless foreign policy played a significant role in the lead up to WW1.
Checked out another castle and got to wear these two awesome left footed shoes.
It was a beautiful train ride along the Rhine. Saw over 10 castles just looking out the window.
Germany is a great country to travel and easy to get around by train.