Our Trip to Europe

Day 19 – Amsterdam to Bacharach

Left early this morning after breakfast for Bacharach, Germany. It is about a 6 hour drive but we will have a stop after about two hours at Arnhem, an open air Dutch museum. It is raining again!!

Arrived in Arnhem and did a walking tour of the outdoor museum. We saw an old farmhouse where one third of the house was for the family to live in and the remaining 2/3 was for the animals and there were no walls separating them. They said this was because there was no heat and they used the heat from the animals bodies to help keep their home warm. I imagine the odor was awful. We also saw several windmills used for various jobs, grinding grain, pumping water, etc. We visited an old laundry where they beat the daylights our of their clothes using big wooden devices and a papermaking place where they took their old rags and made them in to paper.

We had lunch together at the museum at a Pannenkoeken Café. Each table of four got four pannenkoeken to sample. Our first was an apple, raisin & cinnamon, the second a bacon and cheese, third a farmer’s pannenkoeken with vegetables and bacon and the third had baker’s cream. They were very good and not like the pancakes we have in the USA but more of a cross between a pancake and a crepe. They were very good – especially the sweet ones!! After lunch we had free time to wander the museum on our own before we reboarded the bus for Bacharach.

We only drive two hours at a time before stopping. Once we entered Germany, we got on the Autobahn where there are no speed limits. Our bus driver is only allowed to go 65 mph but some of the people were absolutely flying.


We arrived in Bacharach and checked into our hotel. It is very old with adorable rooms, each unique. We all left our doors open and went from room to room checking out each others décor. The Hotel Kranenturm is part of the old tower and wall that wrapped around the city from the castle on the hill. There are a lot of half-timbered buildings which I absolutely love. We all met in the hotel restaurant for dinner then went out to a local wine tasting house. We are in the Rhine part of Germany where they make a lot of Riesling. The hills are covered in grape vines. We purchased about 6 bottles of wine and all had tastes. It was a good time and I think I drank a little too much!!

Back to the room, which has railroad tracks right outside our windows so we slept with our earplugs in and of course the fan running as none of the hotels so far have had any air conditioning.