Stories of this Canadian girl's adventures exploring Europe & beyond...join me!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

loreley

The legend of the Loreley says that a blonde-haired nymph sits on the rocks below the cliffs, combing her hair to distract sailors from the perilous curve in the river, sending them to their watery deaths. The area is incredibly beautiful, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, and I think that if I were a nymph I would spend my time grooming there too-why not?

Two weeks ago, as we walked atop the Loreley, big franky says to his wife, after she avoids telling him details about a camping trip which took place about a hundred years ago:

Honey, I’m an open book, but yours is written in Braille.

And a few day later in Vejer, Spain, as they are disagreeing on the version of some event which has happened, he says:

Well, you have your version, I have mine. Nobody’s going to read Braille anyways.

It’s a little embarrassing for me because I laugh and laugh at the things that come out of his mouth. I find them pretty fun to be around, and am sad to see them head back to Canada tomorrow.

The cliffs of the Loreley rise 130 feet straight up, creating a narrowing in the Rhein a quarter of its normal width. This squeezing of the water through the passage causes a torrential current, making ship navigation around the cliffs incredibly challenging.

About three weeks after I arrived in Germany, a large freighter capsized at this point, killing two sailors and closing the Rhein for the next 2 months. Great guy and I went to see the ship lying on its side, at the feet of the Loreley nymph statue, a few days after the havarie (nautical accident) happened. It was a sad sight, and one that is very rare in these times of electronic navigation. The Rhein was experiencing very high waters, and many towns were flooding, but the exact cause of the accident is still unknown.

Personally, I don’t believe that any nymph, whether she’s called Loreley or not, would enjoy watching these watery disasters.
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  1. One of my favorite Pogues songs is Lorelei. It almost always makes me shed a little tear at the end. Hard to believe such an unattractive, toothless man could sing something so beautiful :)

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