Travels Through the Rhineland Essay -- Travel Writing Descriptive Ess

On mountain peak the gods' abode; resplendent shines the proud-standing hall! (From Wagner's Das Rheingold, qtd. in Evensen) My friend dropped me off at the KÃ ¶ln Hauptbahnhof under the warm summer afternoon. The train station was nearly under the shade of the KÃ ¶lner Dom, the great Gothic cathedral of KÃ ¶ln. I had first seen the Dom at night when it was partially illumed by floodlights and the moon, though most of it remained in shadows. The twin black spires hung over me and I stood, marveling underneath the 600 year old Gothic spectacle without knowing fully what I was experiencing. But between the midnight and the 500 foot sooty towers I was compelled to pause and reflect some of the cathedral's light. In the train station I marveled at the schedule board as it fluttered rhythmically when its times changed. I boarded a train for Mannheim and it rolled out of KÃ ¶ln into the countryside of the Rhineland. The countryside was definitely different from what I was used to in Canada and I did enjoy the pleasant scenery. But I must admit that I was not wholly concerned with taking in the splendor and that my memory of my travel down the Rhine is limited (it was only a two hour journey by train after all). However, I found that the more Romantic descriptions of the Rhine I read the more my memory was restored. Also, as I read I begin to understand my experience differently and new sensations on those old memories are evoked. The day was perfect for travel: the weather was warm but not uncomfortable, and the sky was a matte cerulean though it was speckled throughout the journey with cirrus and cumulus clouds. As far as I can remember, the train followed the Rhine for most of the journey to Mannheim where I caught another... ...ts of text and music in Wagner. 2 Apr. 2005 http://www.trell.org/wagner/multi.html. Miall, David. "Wordsworth: Rhine (3)." Romanticism: The CD-ROM. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997. "Rhine." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2 Apr. 2005. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine. Radcliffe, Ann. Excerpts from A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794 through Holland and the Western Frontier of Germany, with a Return Down the Rhine: to which are added, Observations During a Tour to the Lakes of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. Romanticism: The CD-ROM. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1997. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Oxford: Project Gutenberg, 1993. 2 Apr. 2005 http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext93/frank14.txt. Wordsworth, William. "Tintern Abbey." Romanticism: An Anthology. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1998. Travels Through the Rhineland Essay -- Travel Writing Descriptive Ess On mountain peak the gods' abode; resplendent shines the proud-standing hall! (From Wagner's Das Rheingold, qtd. in Evensen) My friend dropped me off at the KÃ ¶ln Hauptbahnhof under the warm summer afternoon. The train station was nearly under the shade of the KÃ ¶lner Dom, the great Gothic cathedral of KÃ ¶ln. I had first seen the Dom at night when it was partially illumed by floodlights and the moon, though most of it remained in shadows. The twin black spires hung over me and I stood, marveling underneath the 600 year old Gothic spectacle without knowing fully what I was experiencing. But between the midnight and the 500 foot sooty towers I was compelled to pause and reflect some of the cathedral's light. In the train station I marveled at the schedule board as it fluttered rhythmically when its times changed. I boarded a train for Mannheim and it rolled out of KÃ ¶ln into the countryside of the Rhineland. The countryside was definitely different from what I was used to in Canada and I did enjoy the pleasant scenery. But I must admit that I was not wholly concerned with taking in the splendor and that my memory of my travel down the Rhine is limited (it was only a two hour journey by train after all). However, I found that the more Romantic descriptions of the Rhine I read the more my memory was restored. Also, as I read I begin to understand my experience differently and new sensations on those old memories are evoked. The day was perfect for travel: the weather was warm but not uncomfortable, and the sky was a matte cerulean though it was speckled throughout the journey with cirrus and cumulus clouds. As far as I can remember, the train followed the Rhine for most of the journey to Mannheim where I caught another... ...ts of text and music in Wagner. 2 Apr. 2005 http://www.trell.org/wagner/multi.html. Miall, David. "Wordsworth: Rhine (3)." Romanticism: The CD-ROM. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997. "Rhine." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2 Apr. 2005. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine. Radcliffe, Ann. Excerpts from A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794 through Holland and the Western Frontier of Germany, with a Return Down the Rhine: to which are added, Observations During a Tour to the Lakes of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. Romanticism: The CD-ROM. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1997. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Oxford: Project Gutenberg, 1993. 2 Apr. 2005 http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext93/frank14.txt. Wordsworth, William. "Tintern Abbey." Romanticism: An Anthology. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1998.