A dozen of us made off to Mulheim, a manufacturing town on our side of the Rhine, where we joined a boat party of 400 or 500 diggers, and set off at a fast pace upstream. The ferry was roomy and comfortable. We followed the stately curves of the Rhine, passing under the three Coln bridges, and seeing small towns and villages, on either bank, loom up and fade behind us. The small picturesque university town of Bonn passed, we soon had a glimpse of the narrow gorges and irregular hills where the typical Rhine Scenery begins.
At the tourist resort of Konigswinter, our steamer (the Hindenberg) was moored: disembarked for an hour and a half. Above our heads hung the famed and legended Drachenfels with its mysterious ruined castle, a place I have heard about all my life, but never thought to see. On a smaller knoll to its left is built a sumptuous hotel. The return journey was made in quick time, so that I was back in time for a snack and a wash, and off to Fidelio. What with the heat there, and want of sleep, I made a very drowsy spectator. I felt that I was hearing the work of a genius struggling with an uncongenial medium. Beethoven, the great master of pure music, fumbling about with opera.
[Image: Postcard of Konigswinter, c1919, from Lincoln Lee’s papers]
[Image: Postcard of Drachenfels Castle, c1919, from Lincoln Lee’s papers]
Walk March 