I've seen a lot of pet dogs and our friend Shelley found (and pet) a local cat. While on our bus ride up the hill to Heidelberg Castle, we saw Scottish highland cattle with long hair. Today, while spending the morning in Boppard, we saw a herd of goats standing on steep rocks and then a herd of sheep farther upriver. Finally, while walking along the river in Boppard, we saw mounds and mounds of white clamshells that made a pretty tinking sound as the river flowed over them.
As some of you students know (especially those in Ms. Litman's class), I love plants and trees. Pruning, or trimming trees for their health, is very common in the U.S. However, there's a special pruning technique that we rarely see in our parks that is all over Europe. It's called "pollarding" and people have been doing it for over 2,000 years. In this process, gardeners will choose about four or five branches and trim off the rest. Then, they trim the ends of those branches. Over time, the ends of the branches will form a knobby "head." The branches grow out of these heads and create a leafy umbrella to give people shade. This technique is extremely rare in the U.S., but is very common across parks in Europe. I think it makes trees look so cool!
Since people have been living along the Rhine River for over 2,000 years, people have experienced flooding along the Rhine for just as long. In many of the cities and towns, we have seen markings on paths and bridges that show high water marks from floods over the last 500 years.
