Amazing!

We just went along the most magnificent stretch of the Rhine River. It was amazing. The sun was shining on the vineyard covered hills and around almost every bend there was another castle. Some of them were so beautiful, just like a fairytale. There are some horrible stories associated with some of them but they look wonderful and arouse the imagination. We saw the Lorelei statue, which would have to be the most overated landmark in the history of the world. It was supposed to be where a siren attracted men and caused them to have shipwrecks on a difficult part of the river. They just used the woman as an excuse for their poor navigation skill, just like Adam blamed Eve. There is a famous poem written about it, which I have read but it doesnt do much for me.
This afternoon we went to a town called Rudestein. We went to a Museum of Mechanical Music, which is not something I would have thought I would want to go to, but was really fascinating. They had all sorts of instruments, like you used to see on merry-go-rounds or those organ grinders that you turn the handle. There was a machine that actually played 16 instruments, a bit like a pianola, but due to all sorts of belts and pulleys, it played all sorts of other ones all at the same time. Greg would have loved the engineering aspect of them all.
We went up in a cable car to the top of a mountain where there was, on the edge of the forest, 250 m above the Rhine, a huge monument designed to symbolize the re-establishment of the German Empire and Germany's unity was erected between 1877 and 1883. We had an amazing view of the Rhine from the top because it was such a perfect day.