Rhine River Valley

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After checking out of our retrotel in Echternach, Luxembourg, we headed back east into Germany and towards the start of the scenic part of the Rhine River Valley, called the ‘Romantic Rhine’. This area had a fun mix of castles, wine (especially Riesling), and windy roads running along the river. The Rhine River valley was also busy with trains on both sides of the river and barges going up and down.

We stayed in St. Goar, one of the first towns we came to (driving north to south). Our hotel, Hotel An Der Fahre, was actually more like a B&B and the friendly hotel owner made us a nice breakfast in the morning and offered some driving tips when we left the next day.

We had a bratwurst and sauerkraut lunch in downtown St. Goar and then visited one of the biggest castles in the area, the Burg Rheinfels. The castle was more of a ruins (which we decided is sometimes more fun than a complete castle) and we got rained out towards the end. There were some nice views of the river valley from the castle walls and the grand finale was a bathroom with stone floors and walls, a well-like sink complete with hand pump, and a 5 foot long tube hand dryer.

After Burg Rheinfels, we drove 20 minutes south to Bacharach, a small town with plenty of half-timbered houses, wine bars, and an ice cream shop that sold Riesling flavored ice cream (interesting, but next time I’d rather have a glass of Riesling followed by a bowl of ice cream). We hiked to an old castle just up the hillside in Bacharach that had been turned into a hostel. Even though we liked out hotel in St. Goar, we wished we had gotten a reservation at the castle-hostel (how often do you get to sleep in a cool castle for cheap?) For dinner, we had a light meal in Bacharach (ie, not sausage) and then drove back to St. Goar.

- Jason

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Photos

Two generous pours of local Rieslings
Our day was a little less productive after this.