We are now officially over the half way point of our trip. This makes me a little bit sad, wish this trip could go on even longer. It has been so much fun exploring with the love of my life. Trains were nice and easy today; we are really getting the hang of it. Though it is very interesting how different riding the high speed vs. the little train we took to our final destination for the day, St. Goar. Also, 1st class is just a couple of seats worth, compared to the whole cars worth on the high-speed trains. It was a beautiful train ride as we got our first glimpses of the Rhine valley.
We felt incredibly welcomed at our hotel, Rheinhotel St. Goar, the owner greeted us and told us the best places to eat in town and a couple of things we could do. We enjoyed some pizza and then decided to hike up to the biggest castle/fortress on the Rhine River. After eating some pizza it was a tough uphill hike, but the views made it all worth it. The castle was really cool and used to be a huge fortress that protected a very important point on the Rhine. In its prime it could sustain life for 4000 people for 6 months if the came under siege. And this happened many times over the centuries until the French finally took it over and destroyed it during Napoleon’s conquest of Europe. It was so much better for us to enjoy than the residence, except when Dot (my wife) got scared of going into the semi-dark places. To be fair it was pretty creepy in certain parts.
After our fortress adventure we went to the town over, Bacharach. We had heard it was a fun town to check out, but it wasn’t at all. We were there during the shoulder season and the town felt like a ghost town. It was like we were the only ones there, so we made our way back to the train and back to our home base of St Goar. Dinner in St Goar was great, good quality German food in a pretty empty restaurant. Our evening finished sitting on our balcony and looking out at the Rhine. Looking out we could see another castle across the river. It was a great end to a fun day.
Travel Tales From BB-8 