A Thing of Beauty

Keat's lovely poem assures us that:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness...

Having written in the last blog about the darkest hour of Germany's history, I want to leave you with some images of the many beautiful sites we saw.  We sailed from Amsterdam to Vienna, sailing on the Rhine River first, then connecting through the Main-Danube Canal, and finally ending our journey on the Danube.  The scenes below are arranged geographically along that trip, from north to south.

After World War II ended, there were many cities in Germany that were largely destroyed.  Think Berlin or Dresden.  Of course, such places have been rebuilt.  The winning side mounted various programs to force along the rebuilding.  But not all of Germany suffered such devastating damage.  


We visited many smaller towns that did not have military significance during the war, and were not part of the war machine.  Their lack of significance in the war effort meant that many of these places were largely untouched:  Rüdesheim, Miltenberg, Würzburg, Bamberg, Rothenberg, Regensburg.  


So, before we leave this trip--take in just a few of the scenes of beauty we enjoyed.