Well it's very pretty on the Rhine, with beautiful and ruined castles high above many charming little narrow towns sandwiched between the mountains and river.
When we arrived in Bacharach, we walked down the main street and up a side street just past the church to our guest house, where we settled in for the next two nights.
This place was OK, but it was sort of really old fashioned, out of date and not quaint at all... just sort of utilitarian, dry. But, we just sleep there, so we dropped our stuff and headed out.
First we hiked up to our town's castle, following a path along through a vineyard, then got up in a tower for the view and listened to the bells toll. You can see up river a ways, and we watched the long, low ships slowly move by.
We walked through town, sampled the local Riesling wines (this is a HUGE wine growing region), had Riesling gelato, drank coffee while it rained, walked along the river, then stumbled upon the local "Wine Celebration" parade. We watched the King of Riesling and his court go by on a tractor-pulled wagon, saw the Wine Queen on another tractor, heard the local bands and people who just joined in.
The next day we took a ferry cruise down the Rhine to another town about four towns away, passing castles on both sides, and one in the middle of the river itself. It is so interesting to see the commercial ships go by, with their Captain's house at the back (often with flowers and trees in pots, and their car parked on top, and the crews' apartments at the front of the ship. We stopped at every small town on both sides of the river to pick up and drop passengers before arriving at our destination: the town of St. Goar with it's ruined, but well preserved Berg Rheinfels castle. We spent a fun day wandering through the ruins, exploring the tunnels under the castle (with a candle we bought for € 0.50) and imagining what it must have been like...
Amazing... How did they build them?
That night we found a nice restaurant with a view over the river. But, the town is so narrow that the cafe was right on the train tracks, looking over the river. This was OK except for about every 20 minutes when a train would come by. Conversation came to a halt, even with a glass sound barrier in place. But, a minute later it was all back to normal.
Well, it was worth it because the food was fantastic, and the wine fantastic-er. We were eating this great meal, letting the waitress pair the wines (all white, all dry Rieslings... who drinks white wine with meat? The Germans, silly!) these fantastic wine selections, and we are enjoying the food, and then...
The couple two tables over noticed and they too were really enjoying their food and wine, so they toasted us, and we, them. The waitress served them what must have been the BEST wine of all, because the next thing you know the man was over at our table, offering us a taste of the wine... from his glass.
Well, OK.
And it was really different, but great! Kind of had a dry pine taste to it is all I can say, but really great.
Well, even though I had answered him, and was speaking with him in German, he could tell right away I was NOT German. Was he surprised to find out we were from California, as were the other, eves-dropping and amused people around us.
Ralf and Kordula Sextro are their names, and they come to the Rhine every year.
So, in typical European fashion, he and his wife talked to us, from the corner table, over the couple at the table in the middle (At times I did run out of words. But they were very gracious and switched back and forth, English to German...). Anyway we have this three table conversation going on and the next thing you know they are sitting right at our table and sharing bottles of wine. I ordered that pine scented Riesling they had, and they ordered more for us, and we all had dessert, and then...
Then it is past 11PM, everyone else is gone, so the waitress closes up and sits with us for a half- hour, chatting. The other guy and I head off to the wine cellar with her, purchase one last bottle of wine, and after opening it and settling up our bills, the waitress leaves!
She leaves us alone in the restaurant, with basic instructions: please put the empty wine bottle there, the glasses here, bread basket over there and blow out your candles. Pull the door shut.
So the four of us sit in the candle light, talking. It starts to rain, then pours down, but we are warm and dry, well fed and well drunk, getting to know each other.
We ate, drank, I translated German to English between Gail and them, and when we got stuck we either drew pictures or pantomimed, or just threw up our hands, laughed and had more wine.
The funniest thing they said (that I remember) is how they were very angry about how inefficient the German trains had become, and how slow and dirty they now are, even though taxes had gone up. The train cars are two years old now, gott im himmel!
The same amazing German train system that is a wonder to me!
Well after midnight we staggered back to our pension in the rain, and exchanged email addresses.
The food? This was our third great meal of the trip!