Day 32     Wednesday, October 1, 2025

We take a funicular to a park area high above Wiesbaden, a town about an hour from our bnb in Frankfurt. This funicular uses water as its power source.  The car at the top fills with water and it is used to counterbalance and power the car that is going uphill. When the funicular car gets to the bottom it empties its water tank, which is then pumped back up to the top of the hill. It is quite ingenious.

Halfway we meet the funicular car that is descending.

There is a panoramic view of Wiesbaden from the top.

This is a monument to the German soldiers that died during World War I. I think I may have mentioned that there are big trees in Europe? This hollow tree was cut down, I presume for safety.  Can you see me in the other end?

We see golden domes in the distance and walk along a path to this ‘Burial Church’.

This Russian Orthodox Church is a declaration of love from the deeply grieving husband Duke Adolph to his young wife, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who died in childbirth along with her baby. He built the church with funds from her dowery.

I took this photo before I was told that no photos were allowed in this church. The dome is gorgeous. There is lots of gold decoration and many icons in elaborate gold frames on display.

Outside the chestnuts are falling.   They are incredibly prickly!We had our picnic lunch on a bench beside the church, overlooking the town far below, then walked back uphill to the park.  We hear a lot of laughter and screaming so decide to find out what is going on. Just a short distance away there is an enormous Tree Climbing Adventure Park that covers several acres.
The first thing we see is this youngster trying to get up the courage to step off the high platform, which eventually does happen. I was wondering if someone would have to go up and rescue them?

I googled these climbing parks. “Using cables, ropes, bridges, planks and branches, the participants, equipped with harnesses, climb. walk in balance, jump, leap into the void and cross various obstacles. It is the variety and difficulty of the obstacles that makes these courses fun.”

I have never seen such a big park or one with such high platforms and challenges. I love watching all the kids as they make their way around the park. These swinging plaforms look hard enough to cross, but…they are also very high above the ground!

Most of these kids have no fear whatsoever! 

Crossing from one tree to another on these stirrups was a challenge for this young lady, but she persevered and made it!

While we are watching all the activity above, I look down and see all sorts of mushrooms.  I absolutely love the different shapes and colours of mushrooms and I took some photos to draw from later.This platform high in the trees…

…has two young boys jumping and laughing as the platform they are standing on sways back and forth!   The kids liked that I was taking photos.

This looked tough. These girls needed to hang from two pieces of wood above their heads and swing towards the next piece of wood to stand on! These kids are so strong and confident.  It was wonderful watching them!

If I were just a few years younger I think I would have loved to give something like this a try.  I was much more fearless then. Now I will have to be content with hugging trees instead of climbing them!

We walk down a trail instead of taking the funicular back down to the bottom.  I find more beautiful mushrooms.

The funicular car passes us on the way down.  It is faster than walking but we really enjoyed strolling down on the path in the forest.

Next we drive to Rudeshiem where we catch a boat to view castles along the Rhine.

While we wait for the boat to dock I see a little lizard sunning itself in a bit of sunshine.

I do some quick sketches of the castles along the shore.

We pass a lot of vineyards. This area is famous for its red wine.

We spot a few workers high on the hill.

Some of the castles are in ruins.

We pass several charming small towns along the Rhine.

Some castles are still in use.
The castles look different on the return trip.  Interesting how a different view changes so much of what we see.

More vineyards on the way back to the dock.  It was a 45 minute ride with commentary in German and English.

This little castle was a signalling station on the Rhine River and it was in use until the 1980’s.

It looks like this castle might be in use as a hotel?

There are a lot of boats and ships on the Rhine River which is a very wide river, with some islands in its middle.

A Viking River Cruise ship passes us.  It is bigger than I expected…still a lot of people onboard.

Another selfie.

Several barges that have lots of pipes and valves visible…perhaps carrying oil?

This castle is now a museum.

Here are my sketches of the castles I drew as we sailed by.We stroll down some narrow streets on the way back to our car.