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One thing was that there are many small towns along the river, rarely more
than 5 miles apart. Some of these are very old with churches built in 11th or
12th centuries still standing; many have fine examples of old half-timbered
house construction, of old stone towers or town walls, etc. In a sense then
they fit with the story of the "romantic Rhein" which every visitor comes
to see. But when you consider the next two observations to follow, the
townspeople are not really so romantic at all, and they certainly don't sit
around in peaant costumes waiting for the tourist trade.

The second thing to notice was the variety and extensiveness of the
farming operations in the Rhein Valley. In the northern end we saw lots of
truck farming in high plateaus or gentle slopes above the river, or in the
flats right at the river's edge. Gradually as you move southward, the slopes
rise to steeply and immediately from the rivers edge; at this point truck
gardening gives way to vineyards, which produce the famous (and justly so)
Rhein wines. Every hillside then is not scenic thick green virgin forest -
on the contrary almost every inch is vineyard. Almost all of them are
on land sloping at 40 degrees or better, sometimes almost straight up. It is
unbelievable (by American standards) that such rocky, shaly, steep ground
should be cultivated; it must of course be worked by hand, plowed, planted,
fertilized, sprayed, tended, harvested, etc. It's truly amazing that they grow
anything, much less some of the world's best wine! As we moved south today
(leaving Rudesheim toward Mainz) the steep hills melted away again and
vineyards were replaced by truck farms or grass lands to some extent.
All in all the main impression is that every foot of ground produces (with
much willing hand labor encouragement) the maximum yield.

The third and at first most surprising observation was that there is
a tremendous amount of industry in the valley. Every town has several
good size factories, with huge smoke stacks as prominent as the church
spires on the sky line; also in many of the small side valleys there are mining
or factory operations. This is really not surprising when you think for
a moment of the excellent, cheap transportation available. Not only the
river barges, which are seen loading all along the way, but also a
steady stream (several every hour, even more frequent than the passenger
trains!) of freight trains running back and forth on both sides of the
river.

The composite picture I've formed in my mind of the Rhine valley is of lovely
natural scenery in a romantic historical setting - the green hills and old towns and
castles aspect - plus intense, energetic human activity, a
busy, active, industrious, but jolly and cordial people. They work hard and well,
but they like to relax over the good wine too, and in Mainz and Koblenz each year
they have the best Fasching carnival celebrations in all Germany. Obviously the
Rhein is many things at the same time, and thus all the more interesting.