Wiesbaden, Germany

Our morning was spent seeing some of the sights of Wiesbaden. We drove through a beautiful area of town where all of the houses looked like (and were the size of) large villas or small castles. We were on our way to the Nerobergbahn, a funicular railway which opened in 1888 and is one of the few funiculars with water propulsion. At the upper station, tanks on the downbound car are filled with up to 1,800 US gal of water to ensure that it is heavier than the upbound car. The downbound car can then pull the upbound car uphill with a 1,483 ft long steel cable. When the downbound carriage arrives at the lower station, the water is discharged and pumped back uphill (thanks to Wikipedia for this description).

From the top of the hill we walked to the Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Elizabeth. The church was built from 1847 to 1855 by Duke Adolf of Nassau on the occasion of the early death of his wife, the 19-year-old Russian princess Elizabeth Mikhailovna, Grand Duchess of Russia and Duchess of Nassau (1826-1845).

We then drove to Köln/Cologne for our next two days.

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Eltville, Eberbach & Hattenheim, Germany

Today we started off in Eltville, the city of wine, sparkling wine, and roses. It is also the oldest town in the Rheingau region, having been granted its official town status in 1332.
The castle was quite interesting

and had a beautiful rose garden.

We stopped for a morning coffee at a restaurant right on the Rhine river.

There are also remains of the old medieval wall in several places around the city.

From Eltville we went to see the Cistercian monastery at Eberbach which dates from the 12th through 14th century. It was a very impressive place.
The buildings and grounds were gorgeous.

There was a cloister,

an incredible collection of 12 historic wine presses,

some awesome ceilings,

and a spooky wine cellar.

Our final stop was Hattenheim where the houses are painted in a very unusual way.

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Mainz, Germany

We arrived in Germany today and took the train from Frankfurt to our hotel in Wiesbaden. We met up with our friends from Sweden in the late afternoon and drove the short distance to Mainz. Here we wandered the old town and stopped for some wine and a meal at a beautiful restaurant. We were able to sit outside and enjoy the mild evening.

The were lots of charming half-timbered houses in the area.

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