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From the top of Lorelei Rock, 1976, looking down at the Rhein River. When I was in the Army in Germany, one of the lieutenants in my battery had a good friend from West Point who was stationed with an engineer battalion in the same town. So the lieutenant borrowed four inflatable rafts and inquired if anyone wanted to take a two day raft excursion down the Rhein to the Lorelei, climb to the top, and rappel down. All as "Adventure Training," i.e., not required to take any annual leave. I was falling all over myself to sign up. We ended up with one empty seat in each raft. I had been worried I would be not be picked because I had never rappelled before. My lietenant assured me learning to rappel was the whole point of this lark. We got dropped at a riverside park in Mainz-Kastel, pumped up our rafts, spent the night on an island in the Rhein, and got to Lorelei the next day in time for a full day of climbing up and rapelling down. It was great. At the end of the second day, the trucks that had dropped us off picked us up. Never had to paddle against the current. What a blast! One the way down the Rhein, we did piss-off several barge tug captains by paddling furiously so we could splash through the tugs' wakes as they overtook us. And, of course, we waved and blew kisses to all the girls on passing river cruise ships
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