The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-11-20
Correspondence Baltimore County Union
A FIRST VISIT TO EUROPE.
PAPER No. 3.

The traveller, taking the Rhine boat at Cologne
looks in vain for the far famed beauty of the rive
until Bonn is we'll passed, and various and stron
are apt to be the EXPLANATIONS of disappointment
among Americans making the trip for the frs
time. "Humph And this is the famous Rhine !!
"Why it's nothing to compare to the Hudson.
| "Good gracious, what fuss these foreigners max
| over q little bit of scenery ~ &c &c. But whe
| once a realization of what nature and man hav
done for the storied interest of this wonderful
| stream begins to seize us, we silent with min
| gled amazement and awe. Far back in the glaca
| period frozen nature in its slow but awful trea
left here its everlasting footprints deep and wide
and when the melting influence of a milder ag
caused the gathering together of the waters, thi
river must have torn its pioneering way with fear
full violence before it found the level sheltered be-
in which it gldes to-day.
To the height of six, seven, eight hundred evel
a thousand feet, rise its banks, sometimes beauti
fully sloping, sometimes startingly precipitous
but always vine covered, even where walled ter
races necessary to support the vineyards; anC
browning the Hottest SUBMITS ut happy intervals
stand its castles, those wonderful monuments G
mans power and pride.
First breaks upon the sight the ruin crowned
crag of Drachenfels, then another and anothe
and still another of these picturesque remnants 0
Feudal grandeur comes into view until We forge
to count them lost in admiration of their stately
towers, their ivy covered walls their superb anC
commanding locations. How the spirit boils with
Indignation to think that these magnificent struc
tures-buit with the soldity almost Of the eterna
hils-structures that might have withstood all the
ravages of time-owe their present ruinous con.
ditOn to the vicious vandalism of the modern
French. few have been in part or wholly re-
stored, but by far the greater number are slowly
crumbling to decay, many having but portion OF
a tower. q section of grand apartment or per-
haps only single wall still standing. Stolzenfels
one of the most beautiful, has been purchased and
restored by the German Emperor, and is used by
him as a residence during a brief portion of the
year. Ehrenbreitstein, perhaps the most wonder
full pile of all, is in sufficiently good state OF
preservation to serve as an arsenal and to be Oc
cupied by a garrison. Then there are Ehrenstein
and Lichtenstein, Hammerstein and Rhemstein,
and host of others, all in various stages of decay
or preservation.
Three of the most interesting to our taste are
Die Katie, Rheinfels and Reichenberg the first
being simply shells, with enough of the origi-
nal left to give some idea of tho msqai fespt SCALA,
e5lfstrdcted; the latter being partly ruin partly
a restoration the restored portion being
during part Of the year by sel9n % ali these
centuries-since the year one thousand A. D.-the
present Count Reichenberg himself.
To visit these one lands at St Goar, a tiny town
hueeing the foot of the Rhenfes sleeps; town
whose rearmost houses face precipitous wall OF
earth and whose streets ascend to this back
most one by little flights of stone steps at their
ends. But of all charming places in which to
snend a summer week St. Goar is the most charm
ing. Here the fancy has rich food to feed upon
for within sight is the Brock of the Lorlei," and
everywhere is the surrounding country alive with
natural beauty, historic interest and poetic lore
The ascent to "Castle Rhenfes" is less steer
and laborious than any which we climbed, being
broad tree bordered road cut into the side OF the
hill and having seats at intervals on which to rest
From the top of its noble tower we commanded q
view of the river for miles either way and OF the
loveiest fertile valleys in the rear Before us OF
the right rose more sharply defined than before
the ruins of "De Katie" 1.-THE cat), and to the lief
the much smaller and less imposing one of "Thurn
berg. better known-as the custodian of Rhein
fels informed us-by the name of "The Mouse
We stood for many minutes entranced by the view
then turned to muse long upon the evidences 0
the wealth and power of those Feudal Lords. M
wonder, we thought, that they were filled with al
most Satanic pride as they looked down from thes
battlemented heights upon the lands and peopl
| of their "fefdOms," each saying to himself "A
| these are mine and the glory of them"
| At the foot of Rheinfels we take the littl
ssDampschff' (steam ferry) to ST. Goar Hansen
another tiny village across the river, and landln
| proceed to mount the rough and narrow foot pat
to the almost inaccessible "Die Katie" We i'm
it less picturesque but more pathetic than Rhein
| fels its tower airs all gone, the flooring OF II
| turret chambers even crumbled away, leaving a
inward vista into the very blue of heaven. DE-
scending we take carriage at st. Goar Hause
for Reichenberg, through the lovely Schweitze
| Thai.
Tho partial restoration of this castle has NJ
added to its picturesqueness to our mind, for M
only is the drawbridge gone, but the very moat
filed up grassy terraces and rose parterres mari
! ing the place thereof. But here both tower an
stairs are remarkably intact, and we mount to tn
very top and pluck tiny fern from the BATH
ment walls. We are admitted later to the gre'
hall, with its wonderful Norman arches in pc
feet state of preservation, and allowed to inspe
the museum Of antiquities collected therein-ol
furniture, armor, &c.-on which the Count grea
ly prides himself
modern foil to these monuments OF olden TIN
is that of the Nederwald, occupying one OF Il
Hottest SUBMITS of the Rhine region and reacht
by means of cog -,Oheel rdil,oay. 1t commem
rates German bravery during the Franco Russia
war, and consists of symbolic groups of bron
statuary on a vast and balustraded pedestal
white sandstone. From its height we look'
down upon "Fair Bingen" and gazed our la
upon the Rhine. A few hours later we we're
our way toward that storied region, the " Bla'
Forest" of Baden. M. A. u.