Other rocks – other Landscape

Another village is already near: Guttenbach, just afterwards a lock, then a sharp bend in the river with the line village of Binau, opposite in a hollow the little village of Mörtelstein with its church splendidly situated on a hill from whence it can be seen afar off. Ten minutes above Binau we find to the left on a slope remains of Dauchstein Castle built of tuff, weatherworn and overgrown with brambles and forest trees.

Chalk and tuff are now suddenly predominant in the landscape. They have taken the place of the bright sandstone which since Heidelberg rounded the somewhat higher Odenwald mountains and gave them their green forests but also a rather poor soil. The valley is now wider and fertile fields appear. If we go up to the tops of the hills, for instance to the Schreckhof, picturesquely peeping over the edge, then just in this district we have a splendid view of the wide valley basin. Three fairly large places lie close together to the left and right of the Neckar: Diedesheim, Neckarelz and Obrigheim, with the Nauenburg like a powerful block towering above on the slope. Here are field crops and vegetables, here are numerous smaller and larger industries, but there are also — above all in Neckarelz — pretty framework houses and other buildings worthy of note, among them the Church of the Templars from the 12th century. In the whole neigbourhood chalk and gypsum were found, so that numerous galleries and pits were burrowed into the earth and there are also big subterranean workings.

It is worth while to go from Neckarelz a few miles into the EIz Valley and visit the charming town of Mosbach, a pearl among the German framework towns with splendid buildings. Although it does not lie directly on the Neckar it may well be regarded as part of the landscape on account of its special character. Above all the Market Square and its surroundings are worth seeing. During the l5th century Mosbach was the residence of a Palatine sideline; but today the former castle with its few remains has been built into other buildings in the town.

A small but delightful interlude now approaches with Hochhausen on the high bank to the right. We find there a very pretty castle of the Helmstatt counts with a park, and above all the little church with some old and valuable artistic memories of the Notburga Saga, for instance, the tombstone of Saint Notburga, her portrait on paintings, frescoes and altarpieces.