Our Trip to Europe

Day 20 – Bacharach, Germany

I was not feeling well this morning after our wine tasting last night. I skipped breakfast but met up with the group for a tour of the city with Heir Jung. This is a local resident who was a teacher in the area and is about 75 years old. He is a true character. He led us through the city explaining life way back when and now. I left the tour a little early to go back to bed for a while before we had to meet to take our bus over to St. Goar. Paul stayed with the tour and got the privilege of picking up Heir Jung on his shoulders – thank goodness he was a small man!!

Once we arrived in St. Goar we were free to get our own lunch. We stopped at a little place recommended by our new tour guide, Karolina. Unfortunately, Ferdi had received a call the day prior that his mother had been taken to the hospital and was in intensive care so he had to leave the tour and be replaced. Paul tried the schnitzel and I just had potatoes and soup. We then walked up the mountain at the edge of town to the ruined castle – Rheinfels Castle. We had a local tour guide for this. Paul and I opted not to go through the dark tunnels beneath the castle as you had to walk in a crouch the whole way and use a flashlight to see. We did, however, go through the dark walkway of part of the castle and up and down circular stairs but you didn’t have to crouch as low to get through that portion. Took a lot of pictures overlooking St. Goar and the Rhine. It is very beautiful up in the castle tower.

We met back in town at the boat dock and had strudel, apple, rhubarb and cherry before boarding our ferry for a trip down the Rhine River. It has started raining again but we were able to get under an open air roof part of the boat so we could stay somewhat dry yet get decent pictures. Lots of castles on the hills, pretty little towns and in the middle of the Rhine a tax booth where in medieval times they put a chain across the river to stop boats until they paid the lord of the area a tax to be allowed to continue on their way. If they refused to pay, they would be placed in the dungeon below water level at the tax booth.

Got back to Bacharach and had the rest of the evening free. Paul and I walked through town and he showed me everything that I had missed that morning. We then met up with Barbara & Bruce for dinner and ended up back at our hotel to eat when the restaurant we wanted to go to wasn’t open because they said the owner was out shopping and they couldn’t let us in until they returned. Paul tried the spaetzel tonight with is a German type of dumpling. He said they were very good.

Tomorrow we leave by bus for Rothenburg.