Basel
The Black Forest
Heidelberg (on the Neckar River)
Rhine Castles
Wine Tasting
Cologne
Arhnem
Amsterdam
Rotterdam (via canal)
Brugges (via bus)
Antwerp (via canal)
While currently under construction (in a big way), each of the above documented stops on the trip/blog posts can be accessed in reverse order as I write them by scrolling down or by clicking on the blog's archive to your right.
A map of the Rhine in Europe:
Two more detailed maps of the Rhine River:
The following are facts about the Rhein/Rhine:
-The spelling of the river Rhein/Rhine uses the same letters in English and German
-Readers are split on which spelling they consider more grammatically correct*
-Both spellings of Rhein (German) and Rhine (English) can be found in my dictionary
-The river flows north from its beginnings in the Swiss Alps and finishes in the Netherlands where it splits into five rivers or canals
-It has an average discharge of more than 2000 m3/s
*According to some data I made up
The best anecdote from the Wikipedia article is:
"Length:
Until 1932 the generally accepted length of the Rhine was 1,230 kilometres (764 miles), but in 1932 the German encyclopedia Knaurs Lexikon stated its length as 1,300 kilometres (810 miles), presumably through a typographical transposition error. This number was then copied the next year in the authoritative Brockhaus Enzyklopädie; apparently no one spotted the mistake, and the new number became generally accepted, finding its way into text books and official publications. Only in 2010 a researcher noticed the discrepancy. These findings have been confirmed by the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat, who determined the length to be 1,233 kilometres (766 miles)."
another fun one:
"In November 1986, fire broke out in a chemical factory near Basel, Switzerland. Chemicals soon made their way into the river and caused pollution problems. About 30 tons of chemicals were discharged into the river. Locals were told to stay indoors, as foul smells were present in the area. The pollutants included pesticides, mercury, and other highly poisonous agricultural chemicals."
and for those eager to have a slightly deeper cursory knowledge of the Rhein River there is the entire wikipedia article, which you could search for yourself, but I am going to show off my ability to do this and give you the entire link in this post:
Rhine Wikipedia Article
An even more entertaining site can be found here:
Rhine River Website
