In the morning it was grey and rainy. We were moored in Koblenz at a lovely park but we did not go into it. We walked with our tour guide past a few nice gardens and buildings to our waiting buses. Marskburg castle is up the hill not far from Koblenz 
We got off the bus and walked up a little bit more of a hill and gathered in the courtyard for someone from the castle to open the door with a big key. We had a tour guide from the castle and it was very interesting. The initial entryway was very rough broken cobblestones with stones pointing very way and missing completely so you had to be very careful how you walked but after the initial 100 feet it was pretty safe walking . 
It was a very cool old castle with arrow slit windows and spectacular views of the river from the top of the hill where it was situated. We walked around the outside of the castle and then the inside. I sprinkled mom and dan in the rosemary bush in the narrow herb garden. There were Tin mines down the valley. There were crests and cannons and a very large kitchen with a huge fireplace. Narrow little laneways in-between buildings, upstairs , downstairs, bedrooms with great tapestries and stoves in the corners that were lovely. This castle also boasted an indoor bathroom which was very posh in those days.
The oldest door in the castle was at least 1000 years old. There was a whole room filled with suits of armour from over the centuries. Back outside into the narrow lanes and into the torture chamber with its tools an accruements 
Our tour done we headed back to the ship for lunch . The remainder of the day was spent on the river viewing old castles and small towns, one old castle up on the side of a hill was now a boarding school. The siren in the river warned sailors of dangerous rocks and bends in the river. The train tunnels were all decorated to look like castles so that they would not be bombed during the war. The most dangerous part of this stretch of river was a blind bend so it had a lighting system so that captains would know if someone was already in the turn of the river. There were beautiful vineyards terraced up the sides of the hills and little towns nestled into the valleys between the high hills some very interesting buildings , some of them in the middle of the river.
There were ruins of castles and castles in need of repair. There were churches of all sizes and names we could not hope to pronounce. Beautiful little villages with medieval looking buildings. The smaller villages of Germany were not targets during the war so they were spared the bombing s of the large cities and all that history was saved. It was a lovely river afternoon with lots of vineyards and castles perched in the rocks.
Dinner came and we sat at a table of new people. Getting to know some of the people on the ship was interesting. There were mostly folks from Canada, England, and the US but all walks of life. We met dairy farmers from England and Canada, there were lots of retires folks too. After dinner we went for the talk about the next days activities and then there was music by the Russian couple played and she sang or she played and he sang. We went to bed.
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