I am glad we stayed in a cute village last night, because floating on the Rhine River, you see a ton of cute villages and you want to visit them all! But we were on a boat, headed to Koblenz (where the Moselle River meets the Rhine) and did not get off until then. The Rhine River Valley is beautiful, dotted with castles from many different historic eras, lined with houses, vineyards and train tracks along the edges.

We thought of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” but this day was about boats, lots of different kinds of boats. Trains, too, many varieties. Some automobiles make it to the shore of the Rhine, but roads in and out of the valley are few, and bridges across it are even fewer. Where villagers need to cross the large, fast flowing river, they have ferry boats that take them, sometimes with their cars but mostly not.

We took many photographs, but will share only a few. We synchronized the times on the cameras and can no longer tell who took which picture.

The train we planned to take from Koblenz was delayed at least an hour because of a break in the line. So, we took a series of slower trains to get to Baden-Baden (hence more verbiage for you). We went back through the Rhine River Valley, and I can now say with confidence it is much better on the boat. You have to be fairly quick to get good pictures of the castles from the boat. You have be light speed to do so from the train (and this is the slower train!). Also, on the train you have to deal with reflections from the windows, while on the boat that is not a problem.

• Europe 2018