Renee and David's Europe Trip Part 3
August 17-22, 2014
This last leg of our trip was so necessary. The previous week was an absolute BLAST in Holland with the family. We were ready for some downtime. We had time booked in Bacharach, a little town on the Rhein River we found because of Rick Steves and my parents. This part of the trip felt like a second honeymoon to us as it was so quiet and relaxing.
August 17: Arrival in Bacharach
We took the trains from Holland to Germany, stopping over in Koln for a quick lunch.
When we got to Bacharach, we found our hotel/B&B, Irmgard Orth. We were welcomed with open arms into Irmgard's B&B. She speaks VERY little English, bud made us feel very warm, welcome and at home right away.
Our room has two single mattresses in a king size frame. We also have our own bathroom. The sheets are very soft, and the towels very scratchy. We have a balcony overlooking some other peoples'. After settling in, we decided to walk up to Burg Stahlek, the castle turned youth hostel in Bacharach. It was a 30 minute hike (mostly stairs) up the hill to the castle. We enjoyed a cookie and some Reisling Halbtrocken (half-dry) at the cafe up top.
After touring around the castle for a bit, we made our way down the North side, admiring the vineyards and enjoying the sun. I noticed a tower in the vineyards. We went over with directions from Rick Steve's: Germany and hiked up to the second highest floor. It was gorgeous and we (Dave) took some great photos of Bacharach. While we sat up there, we met a man, his wife and their daughter from Seattle. It was nice to hear some English.
On our way down it started to rain so we ran to a restaurant Mom & Dad recommended, Altes Haus restaurant. Definitely would recommend it to anyone! Our waitress spoke little English or German (she was from Poland), so our German phrase book was of little help. I ordered a glass of Reisling Trocken (dry), which Dave and I both enjoyed. also got a "Fleischbruhe" soup which was beef broth with "pancake strips" The waitress couldn't explain these, but they were sort of like dumplings or perogies with meat. Soup hit the spot. THEN There was the Flammkuchen. Deeeelicious! It's like a flaky pastry pizza crust with some sort of white sauce, cheese, meat, onions. Definitely a hit!
In Koln just outside the train station
Our charming room at Irmgard Orth (which we only found because of Rick Steves' book)
On the hike. Rick Steves (or as we call him, Steve Reeves) book with us at all times.
Burg Stahleck
I wrote in my journal that our B&B lady Irmgard loves Rick Steves. She hugged me because we had his book.
When you're hiking in this area to a castle, you just have to follow these markers.
A strange chapel thing we found on our way back down the other side
The tower we climbed
From up in the tower. Burg Stahleck on the top right, then the chapel thing in the middle, and the town of Bacharach on the left. Gorgeous
Altes Haus Restaurant
August 19 - Rheinfels Castle
We got up and had breakfast at 8:30 with Irmgard downstairs. She is so great. Makes you feel like you're eating in your Oma's place. We both got hugs and warm responses when we attempted to speak German. Then she pulled out her iPad and opened an English-German translator app. We were able to communicate that she has 7 grandchildren, that we were in Holland, and our plans for the day.
At 10:15 we took the "Koln-Dusseldorf" boat tour from Bacharach to St. Goar (about 45 minutes), seeing many cities and castles along the way. We arrived at St. Goar and headed for a nature trail Mom & Dad took from Rick Steves to get to Rheinfels Castle, the biggest castle ruin in the Rhine.
The walk was about 15 minutes and there were random obstacle course type things along the way. Of course we couldn't read the plaques because they were in German. Eventually you round a corner and catch your first glimpse of the castle. We got our tickets and followed Rick Steves' tour, and took some random side paths getting us lost. Oops. The tour took almost 2 hours. We loved the explanations in the book allowing us to imagine and feel living there. We tried to do the "Dark Tunnel Detour", but it was closed unfortunately.
From the castle, we walked back down the nature trail and enjoyed the sun by the river before taking the train back from St. Goar to Bacharach. The machine wanted exact change which we didn't have and wouldn't accept our VISAs for some reason, so like the major rebels we are, we didn't pay for our ride.
After a quick nap we went to the grocery store to get some snacks for our long day tomorrow then went for a walk and sat in a park on the river. We noticed the wind pick up and a cloud roll in. We ran back to town and just made it to a train track underpass before the rain came bucketing down. I had never seen anything like that rain before. We were trapped there for 10 minutes with 8 other tourists before the rain let up enough for us to make it to our room.
At 6pm we headed out for dinner - back to Altes Haus. Dave was craving the flammkuchen! Dinner went late and we were tired so card games and sleep was on the menu for the rest of the night!
Dave was very excited to see a basketball hoop haha
Just castles littered everywhere
Approaching St. Goar
Underpass to get to the trail head
Heading up
And up
Following the R castle markers
One little obstacle course thing
Approaching the castle!
A model of the castle when it was complete
Wish I could remember what some of these things are haha
Walking along the top of the wall to a tower
Strange dark creepy room
With a trap door in the roof?
Lunch and bevvies on the terrace. Where I saw a lizard!
This was back in the day when Dave didn't really drink, so I always got beer and he always got coke. Our bills would be a lot different if we went travelling now haha
August 20 - Burg Eltz
At 8:00 we had breakfast downstairs again of hard boiled eggs (done perfectly), homemade honey and jam and cheese and meat, bread and buns, and of course coffee and tea. Today we stole the buns and used them to make sandwiches for our long day. Irmgard brought out her iPad again, but this time she was asking Dave for help with something. Just like Oma and David, only they can actually communicate.
At 9:22 we took the train to Koblenz and transferred to get to Moleskern, which is by Burg Eltz. First thing I noticed on the train was the incredibly smelly man sitting behind us; so bad we had to move. Then I noticed how clean the Mosel river is compared to the Rhine.
We had to walk from the train station tot he castle. About an hour into the walk, we saw a switchback in the trail and David said, "GREAT! We passed the castle!" Just then, I rounded a corner and saw the amazing, original, in tact Burg Etlz rising above us through the trees. It was a 15 minute walk to the castle gates from there, for a total of 1 hr 15 minutes.
We bought our tickets and visited the Treasury where old gold, jewels, weapons, etc. were kept.
Our English tour had about 20 people, plus a very dry, rehearsed, burnt out guide. No photos were allowed inside the castle unfortunately. They had furniture set up and little scenes in each of the rooms to express what it would be like to live there. The tour was about 45 minutes, after which we went for lunch. We checked the train schedule at 2:30, and saw that a train comes at 3:42 and 4:42. We decided to book it back to the train and made it all the way in about 45 minutes - almost half the amount of time it took us to get up to the castle. This includes running into a funeral procession exiting the Catholic Church. We had to walk the same way as them, so we took a detour to the train station. From the platform we could see the burial and Catholic traditions and hear their songs.
About an hour and 45 minutes later we're back in Bacharach. We got cleaned up and changed for dinner at Post Hof. There was a man there playing the harp, so we sat aoutside to listen and look up at the old ruined chapel. It was very romantic.
After dinner we went to "Eis Cafe Italia" for gelato (as per Rick Steves). I ordered the Riesling gelato which was very tasty, but also sweet. More like Sprite than wine. Our day ended with a walk by the river enjoying the sites and seeing castle silhouettes in the distance.
I look like a super fun travel partner, always buried in the Rick Steves book haha
Arrival in the town Moleskern
First glimpse of the castle
Not sure if we were being sneaky or if we're actually allowed pictures in a few of these rooms
View from our lunch spot
I had to befriend all the dogs of course
The funeral happening on our way back to the train station
This picture was taken from the train station - just right there.
View at dinner at Post Hof
I think we had a chuckle reading this sign because it sounded like Fart... We were very mature haha.
August 21 - Biking to Bingen
Our last day in Germany! Breakfast with Irmgard and then we rented bikes to ride to Bingen. The bikes in Holland were MUCH nicer. We biked the 16km to Bingen, south of Bacharach along the river. When we got to Bingen, we sat by the water in the sun taking pictures. Across the river were many vineyards in the tourist wine town of Rudesheim.
We biked the 16km back from Bingen and were exhausted. It was a long, but flat bike ride. We hit up the "Bacharacher Pizza & Kebab Haus" and saved half our pizza for the next day's breakfast. I walked out with my beer after dinner and took a swig while walking down the street. A random old man nodded at me and said, "Prost." under his breath.
From here, we went to "Weingut Karl Heidrich" for wine tasting. We got 6 reislings of mixed dryness and rated them all. Then w did a blind tasting game with the two of us, and I only got 2/5 while Dave got 4/5 (Dave has never let me live this down. Also I'm not sure what happened to the 6th wine now).
After a nap, we walked up past the "tower" we climbed our first day to a bench overlooking the whole valley. I almost sat on a lizard! While we were up there taking in the sights, we were rudely interrupted by a fighter jet blasting through the valley at our level. Dave was very excited about this!
After our hike we followed more Rick Steves advice. A walk by the river and then dinner at Hotel Kranenturm. We were the first customers of the evening, so we were doted on by the owner. We sat on the terrace and had trains roaring right besie us as they passed through!
Instead of getting dessert at the restaurant, we went back for more gelato and had one final walk by the river and down Oberstrasse (the main street in town) to take some photos.
Found this adorable little rodent creature on the path
Wine tasting
Probably hunting for lizards or something
Restaurant for dinner
The Post Hof courtyard where we ate with the harpist
Sitting on our balcony playing a game of I-Spy haha
August 22 - London Layover and back home
This day was an exhausting travel day as we took the train from Bacharach to Koln/Bonn Airport. We flew to London and checked into the Bloc Hotel at the airport. Our flight home left the next morning, so we decided to bum around London for a bit before checking out for the night. We are both really ready to be home, but what an incredible trip!
Back to Green Park. Nice way to bookend our trip
Our teeny tiny hotel room. Literally just a bed and a bathroom. Luggage goes under the bed.
I'm so glad we could do this when we did. We had no responsibilities. No dog, no kids, no mortgage. It was just us! Sherlock was born 3 days after we got home, so we got back into real life pretty quick! :)
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