In Lorelei, we found a great parking space right by the river so we stopped and went for a walk.

You really don't expect and cars on these narrow cobblestoned streets, but they're driving both ways on them and bikes and pedestrians, dogs altogether good thing it isn't very busy .Most cars here aren't very big and I suppose there's a reason for that.

Whoopi woohoo, I found a store I recognize. There was an entire wall of wine for sale in there

what tomato grows in perfect strings like this?

When you're driving along and you come to a sign with a red cross, it's a detour so Alice in the box goes stir crazy, and Mom are telling her to take it easy we'll get back on track eventually, but it is annoying

The Lorelei is a 132 m (433 ft) high, steep slate rock on the right bank of the River Rhine.
The translation of the name Loreley (in German) would be: "murmuring rock". The heavy currents and a small waterfall in the area created a murmuring sound, and this combined with the special echo the rock produces to act as a sort of amplifier, giving the rock its name. The murmuring is hard to hear today owing to the urbanization of the area.

The rock and the murmur it creates have inspired various tales. An old legend envisioned dwarfs living in caves in the rock.In 1801, German author Clemens Brentano composed his ballad Zu Bacharach am Rheine. It first told the story of an enchanting female associated with the rock. In the poem, the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, is accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to death, the bishop consigns her to a nunnery. On the way there , accompanied by three knights, she comes to the Lorelei rock. She asks permission to climb it and view the Rhine once again. She does so and thinking that she sees her love in the Rhine, falls to her death; the rock still retained an echo of her name afterward.

In 1824, Heinrich Heine seized on and adapted Brentano's theme in one of his most famous poems, Die Lorelei. It describes the eponymous female as a sort of siren who, sitting on the cliff above the Rhine and combing her golden hair, unwittingly distracted shipmen with her beauty and song, causing them to crash on the rocks. In 1837 Heine's lyrics were set to music by Friedrich Silcher in the art song Lorelei that became well known in German-speaking lands. A setting by Franz Liszt was also favored and over a score of other musicians have set the poem to music.
There's countless of artists that are inspired by Lorelei and one is the composer Felix Mendelssohn began an opera in 1846 based on the legend of the Lorelei Rhine maiden for Swedish soprano Jenny Lind. However, he died before he had the chance to finish it.

Mom decided she really wanted to take a boat trip on the Rhein, and so we did. Such a gorgeous place still 95 F (34C) so here again Mom decided to order a beer while we waited for the boat to take us up the river and back. 

The girl in charge of tying up the boat couldn't stop cuddling with me in between the stops, and I didn't mind one bit.

This trip took us 4 hours and was well worth the 15 Euros but Mom was so stupid she forgot her spare battery for the camera, and of course she ran out of juice......oh well lesson learned

It was an awesome ride

Mom has been noticing that Lucy may have a problem with her brakes but had no luck in Germany.

We are now just over the border in Holland (we didn't even notice when we crossed the border)

and we have two repair shops that may be able to help so we are  staying at a campsite for 2 nights in a row. That hasn't happened in a long time. Feels good for a change, and Mom thinks so too.

that's all folks

Buttons

once again up early and this time it's even earlier than usual. Mom woke up to a very strange noise and at first couldn't figure out what it was. We had to take into a camping site since all the RV parking places were already filled up, and a guy in a tent next to us is snoring really loudly. ahhing, this is one of the reasons we don't like campsites, but it's illegal to wild camp in Germany. That on the other hand, could be questioned in an RV, since you're allowed to park it, who says I'm camping? it's a technicality,but Moms German is not good enough to argue that point with a cop, so here we are.
Anyway, the night before we stayed at a farm, way up on the mountain .Lucy really had to work hard in second gear all the way up, and Mom started to worry about next day driving down, which we also did in second gear by the way.
This was a playground and it's terrific for little kids and doesn't have to cost $60 000 like the American safety restrictive places. I'm sure an old tractor leaves much more to the kids imagination than a slide and a swing.

We are now continuing our drive following the river Rhein (nowhere close to Munich or a mall)

The Rhine is a river that begins in the Swiss canton of the southeastern Swiss Alps and forms part of the Swiss-Austrian, Swiss-Liechtenstein border, Swiss-German and then the Franco-German border, then flows through the Rhineland and eventually empties into the North Sea in the Netherlands. It is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe (after the Danube), at about 1,230 km (760 miles) with an average discharge of about 2,900 m3/s (100,000 cu ft/s).

The Rhine and the Danube formed most of the northern inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days, the Rhine has been a vital and navigable waterway carrying trade and goods deep inland. The many castles and fortifications along the Rhine testify to its importance as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire. In the modern era, it has become a symbol of German nationalism.
We are at the Middle Rhine which flows through the Rhine Gorge, a formation which was created by erosion. The rate of erosion equaled the uplift in the region, such that the river was left at about its original level while the surrounding lands raised. The gorge is quite deep and is the stretch of the river which is known for its many castles and vineyards. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site  and known as "the Romantic Rhine", with more than 40 castles and fortresses from the Middle Ages and many quaint and lovely country villages.

Every turn we make is offering another gorgeous scenery. The amazing fields of grapes growing in a pattern that makes you think of a quilt. So many castles on the mountain tops make you wonder how in the world did they manage to build like that.

There's a lot of vines made here, and even a museum, but we were too early it wasn't opened yet, and besides Mom are not allowed to taste any since she has to care for Lucy.

The roads are narrow and the speed limit way to fast for our taste, so we stop and let others pass as soon as it's possible. We pass so many cute little towns there's no way we can stop and explore them all because the parking is very sparse.

The internet is really starting to act up, guess more people are awake now.

I'll continue later when I get better connection ..............until then 

no worries