European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 10, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By ship through6ermahy s soul cruising on the of my we on first anti Mitton of what tin called mass Tot continued irom Page i3j Ernst a Only Arndt a passionate 19th-Century advocate of German unification under Prussia. Without the Rhine Germany s Freedom cannot Long endure or try Max Schneckenburger a contemporary Olarndo s and an Zulnor of nationalistic verse dear false Rand. Thou May a be Calm True and Steadl Asl is the watch on the Rhine Evon Nedrich Engels. One of lha fathers of communism was not immune from Rhine patriotism. In 1840, Engels chastised travelling John bulls who languish in their Cabins irom Rotterdam to Cologne and Only then go up on deck because heir Panorama of the Rhine from Cologne to Mainz begins there. The Young of Germany should choose As their place of pilgrimage some loss frequent of place like Xanten Home of the hero  the Confluence of the Moselle end Rhine at Coblenz is Grandi Osely called Das Deutsche Eck the German Corner and is bedecked Wilh a huge Flag on the base of what had been a statue of Kaiser William i. One of the most spectacular views of the River anywhere can be taken in Al the Niederwald Monument almost a half mile above the town of Rudesheim which was erected Between 1b77 and 1833 to Mark the re establishment of the German Empire. And there under a 32-Ion Bronze lady named Germania a militaristic version of to statue of Liberty equipped with an Imperial Crown and a sword is Max Schneckenburger s watch on the Rhine emblazoned in Stone with its stentorian exhortation to the Rhine to the Rhine to the German Rhine who will to the protector of the mighty River you expect to come across stuff like this in Post Imperial France or Britain but somehow in Germany it scorns the victorious allies might have angrily torn Down such monuments Eisenhower and ration were of course in a hurry to get eastward after crossing the Othineal Remagen in 1945 on my second birthday As it happens so they May not have had Lime to think about the Niederwald Monument which is probably just As wet. Today it is a pilgrimage Point Lor German schoolchildren who go More for the View and adjacent Eagle  than for us antiquated political message. Tho Niederwald site is the clincher in the opinion of Kart Baedeker who observed in 1839 most travellers think they have seen the beauties of the Rhine when they have undertaken a Quick journey up and Down Stream by steamship. It cannot be often enough repeated that no View can be More erroneous 1han this. However pretty the scenery May appear from the River its finest charms Are displayed Only on the  now i you live in Bonn your quotidian encounters with the Rhine will not always have to do with its great Beauty. First of All it swells and floods in the Spring which is a bore for people who have their Homes or apartments near its Banks. Second As conquerors going Back to the romans have discovered it is an immense natural Barrier time is wasted waiting for the car ferries to make their wide arcs across the watercourse and get you to the other Side in time for dinner in Obs pleas. Third the weather is �0 consistently miserable in the implausible capital of the Federal Republic of Germany that the Rhine is usually glimpsed draped in a Gray wet Buzz. One night the fuzz lifted slightly As my family had just finished a pizza in Koni Swinter on the right Bank we glimpsed a Rhine tourist Steamer packed with elderly germans doing the Bunny hop up and Down the stairs snaking through the decks. From our Remote outpost it was a hilarious comedy in mime since we could t hear the music but just watched the silent jumping Hope hop hop the kids laughed All night. It occurred to me recently that familiarity was Page 14 the stars and stripes Breeding inappropriate sentiments Aboul this neighbor of mine and that i ought o re educate myself. So i set out to be a tourist on the Rhine borrowing from the quota of sunny summer Days allocated by the almighty to those of us who live in Northern Europe. Naturally one of Tho first things a tourist does on the Rhine is to take a Rhine cruise. Starling at Tho wrong end of the fiver i clambered one saturday at 5 30 . Aboard the Nederland in Nijm Egen. A pleasant dutch City on the Waal which is what the dutch Call the lower Branch of the Rhine Beloro it dumps into the sea. Just As in arabic there Are countless words for describing a Camel a sleeping Camel a thirsty Camel Etc go the dutch have concocted a proliferation of terms for the branches of the Rhine the be Derrion lower Rhine the Kromme Rion curving Rhine the of Derion pm thine and mysteriously the Lek. Cruising on the Rhine was one of the first intimations of what today is called mass tourism. In the Early 19lh Century the British were the initial Large scale converts to steaming up the Rhine and were served by the prussian Rhine steamship company the forerunner of today s of ten Dussel Dorfer line. Conditions have improved from the Days when Annette von Rosto Hulshoff a leading 19trvcentury poet shuddered Down the River in 1s2b, complaining in a Tetter of such a hissing sound that it is difficult to hear what people Are  on the ship she continued there is a Tan thick column irom which the steam continually pours out in a column of smoke with immense noise like that of the flames in a burning building. When the ship is not in motion or when there is so much steam that it opens the safety valves the Hing begins to Roar and howl to so fiercely that it seems to be about to Lake Olf into the  by comparison Rhine cruises nowadays Are conducive to rest if not quite soporific. Sliding out of Nijm Egen where the Breeze still has a table at the sea to it a Nederland made hardly any noise at ail in was Only evident we were moving because Nijm Egen was slipping away. I had to repair to my ample Cabin on the Lorelei deck above the lowest deck called the Rhineland deck which is a Little cramped to hear the great rivet slapping softly below. Its in photo Vlf Stuch m tort Dor the route along Trio Rhino. There s no steam no lire no Prelak Eoll sensation a the Nederland. Yonder on the Grassy Banks Brown an White cows grazed in a landscape whose foreground graced by the occasional Windmill could have been lined by Pieter Bruegel the elder the scattering of smokestacks and High rises in the background owed their inspiration in the Industrial revolution. The stretch Between Rotterdam and  German steel City and biggest Inland port in the world is the busiest for lha hulking barges and tankers thai 5 labor up and Down the Rhine. There Are some 12,000i these watch Riqing Industrial monsters the biggest few belongs to the Dulch. Followed by the germans the i belgians the French and the Swiss. While i m no Rel no romantic. I find Iho sight of these chugging vessels almost As evocative As the appearance of a Felucca s i sail on the Nile. My imagination tends to invest Rhine captains Wilh an Aura of adventure. To get a better grasp on reality i headed up to the Nader land s Pilot deck and found Gottfried Kaufer a Ruddy White haired Veteran of the River in conversation with a passing Tanker baptized magically the Alchimist Basel. Three to one Tor  crackled a radio voice. They were taking bets on West Germany s i chances the following evening in the world cup finals Mexico. Not a bad guess for Tow Tanker Captain the argentines won 3-2 not As picturesque As a Felucca either. It s Prett Quiel Ana has to admit said Kaufer i amiably spinning the wheel right and left to keep the Nederland on course on the right Side of the River. J on the Bank our hushed Progress was marked by of passing of Large billboards thai give the Kilometre i distance irom the Hook of Holland to the Bridge Over the Rhine at Constance the tenths of a Kilometre Are j gauged with smaller postings and half Kilometres with Black Cross thai to the ignorant might look like signs riverine piety. From where Kaufer sat the Rhino seemed Prelly much under control the Lingua Franca of the River suggestively is German on me starboard Side a Gia armed launch of the West German Frontier police uttered up to Check passports. One of the features of the Nederland is a very Small swimming Pool on the upper deck and a chess game with very Large Waist High pieces. I passed up the poo but was checkmate by a polite teen Ager from Brazil who was mourning the elimination of his National lean irom the world cup dinner was a competently served broiled sirloin sle with tried onions the background noise was a table o riotous americans in logging shoes who. In keeping Wilh our democratic National traditions introduced j themselves by their first names to an italian waiter. To european guests whispered to each other Al their i tables. F the Best part of the evening was being jiggled to i sleep in my Cabin by the Nederland As it trembled Ovel the Rhine. I was awakened at 5 40 . By an Orange Sunball rising Over a sign telling me that we were 730 Kilometres that is Aboul 450 Miles irom Constance f Church Bells were tolling i i an invisible Village at 9 15 . We docked in Cologne practically under the Beutling Shadow of the City s great Cathedral. To my j genuine regret my Rhine cruise had come to its punctual end. Fatties an to inextricably involved Wilh the re fms that even the modern Day Railroad tunnels along the River have parapet like entrances. My feelings about castles have tended to run along the lines of once you be seen one you be seen them All. I will confess to i revised my opinion after visiting the 12th-Century Marksburg above staubach which is the headquarter of an organization called the German Castle association. Each caste is an individual explained Basso von d Dosien the association s director when asked top rout wednesday