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join me as we explore a section of the
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Rhine which is a UNESCO World Heritage
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Site hi I'm Gary beverage of tips for
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travelers 67 kilometers between
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rudesheim and Coblentz full of castles
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quaint villages history and beautiful
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scenery and it's the unesco world
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heritage site it's known as the upper
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middle rhine valley so what are the
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things that you should absolutely do now
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the first thing I recommend you do is
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actually get onto the water and get a
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sense of the lay of the land so the
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series of great boat trips who take
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about two hours that run between
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rudesheim and end in a place called sant
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gore and something goranson you drift
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along the river and you pass up to 18
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castles and fortresses there is
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multilingual commentary so there's
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English is French the Spanish Italian
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Japanese they explain to you the
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different castles you've seen the
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different fortresses some of the history
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the struggles and battles over the
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centuries that happen along the stretch
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of the Rhine the boat actually stops a
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number of these very beautiful quaint
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towns where a peasant was neither
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embarked or disembark gives you a real
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sense of just how concentrated and
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significant the stretch of the Rhine is
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and it helps better understand why it
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became a UNESCO site it's quite
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magnificent because in addition to
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incredible scenery you just see castle
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after castle after castile let you get
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to see River cruise boats you get to see
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cargo boats and you get a real
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appreciation for just how important the
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Rhine is also from a commercial
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perspective now the reason that many
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people actually do this trip is to see
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the Lorelei a big craggy rock it's over
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130 meters high and it's a very
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significant part of the Rhine because
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it's where the Rhine is at its narrowest
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and its deepest so it used to be very
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treacherous part of the river and
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there's a fable and story in fact a song
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all about the siren that would be right
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on top of this rock jeff beautiful
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golden hair and she would sing and
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distract sailors and they would
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eventually ruin and wreck their boats on
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once you get to some goranson what I
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recommend is actually head back to
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varnish I'm on the train it's only about
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a 5-minute walk from where the boat
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leaves you and only takes half an hour
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on the train back to rudesheim the next
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thing I recommend you do is head up
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the cable car to an incredible memorial
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the near de valdon Kemal or the knee
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revolt memorial as you head up you get
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magnificent views of the Rhine value
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once you get up to the top there is
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beautifully maintained gardens the
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memorial itself is phenomenal it was
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actually built to commemorate the
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unification of Germany in 1871 now on
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top of the stone structure is the
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Magnificent a very dramatic ten and a
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half metre statue of the female figure
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called Germania underneath the memorial
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is a great viewing platform beautiful
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views you can then spend time strolling
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around the park before you get back on
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that cable car head back down into the
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Shimon now once you're back down in
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rudesheim there's a very important place
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to go and this is called the Drossel
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gasa it's listed as one of the hundred
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top one of the things you should see
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it's a very narrow street it's only a
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hundred and forty-four meters long it's
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packed full of crafts shops wine shops
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because the region saw facility very
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well known for wine restaurants there's
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really interesting buildings lots of
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Gaza is a really popular place to go
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it's also a great place to go if you
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want to get some really traditional
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German food or wine or beer it just
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really is a magnificent place to go from
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there I would recommend that you then
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head to your next stop which is over
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vessel now our vessel roughly sort of in
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the midpoint along the stretch of the
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UNESCO World Heritage Site it built two
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and a half kilometers of walls around it
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and the wars were anything between six
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to 16 meters high they are the best
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preserved fortresses and walls of its
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kind within Germany it had 22 towers and
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16 of them have survived many of those
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16 remaining towers you can actually
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climb up the towers and from the top you
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get great views above vessel for me was
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a really significant place because of
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those walls it's a great place to sort
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of be based at to explore other parts I
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would then head off towards complaints
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and go and see a couple of castles that
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you will not have seen on the boat tour
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the first of them is near Sand core and
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it's called the rheinfels castle and the
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reason I chose this castle is it is the
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fortifications of its kind on the Rhine
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a big part of it are actually ruins it's
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a very dramatic place with beautiful big
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thick walls there's also great Museum
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within the actual old part of rheinfels
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on my the old turrets you can look down
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across and gore the Lorelei and some
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chorus and so again magnificent views
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from this really really important and
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really significant to Castle the second
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castle I recommend is a castle called
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stolen fells castle which is quite near
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Koblenz the reason I chose this castle
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is because I like many of the other
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castles on the Rhine this is very gothic
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in nature and it's quite a modern castle
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relative to the other castles King
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Frederick William the fourth of prussia
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commissioned the current castle as a
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summer residence and was built in the
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19th century between 1836 and 1842
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beautiful gardens and certainly as you
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continuing a journey towards Koblenz
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these are two great castles along the
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way to stop at the last stop and the end
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of the UNESCO World Heritage Site which
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is the city of Coblenz
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and there's two really important things
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to see here the first of these is
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reached by this very beautiful and
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modern cable car the fortress of
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ehrenbreitstein so the fortress stands
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118 meters above the Rhine fortunes
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itself is humongous it was built to
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ensure that no one could ever take this
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fortress as big thick walls which was
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designed to take a big battering and
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inside there is walls within walls
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sections of them in sections and one of
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the big highlights is to this plaza area
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whereas a viewing platform you get to
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look down where the mussel River meets
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the Rhine River that view is absolutely
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magnificent now if you don't want to pay
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to go into the fortress but you still
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want to get the view in 2011 this
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viewing platform was built the view is
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not as good by any stretch I don't think
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it as the one from the fortress but this
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is another option next thing to see head
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back down on the cable car and a short
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walk away is the deutsches Eck or German
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corner it's 37 meters high and the top
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40 metres of it is a statue of the first
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emperor of Germany Kaiser vilem the
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first during world war ii the statue on
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our table was actually destroyed in just
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the plinth part was left so the statue
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the top was only replaced in the 1990s
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after Germany reunited this is a
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remarkable 67 killing me to stretch of
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the Rhine if you go on a Ryan cruise you
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pass through this area you get a glimpse
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of it you get a feel from it but
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hopefully as you've seen you're getting
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onto land and really exploring this
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there is so much to see now clearly you
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could spend ages visiting if you enjoy
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