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Published: August 2nd 2012
Rhine River Castles
This is the Burg Stahleck Castle. It is just above Bacharach. One of so many on the Rhine. This one is now a youth hostel.Thursday, July 26
Our plans for the day were to drive to the village of Bacharach and ride a river boat down river to St. Goar, tour the ruins of Rheinfels Castle and return up river to our car. From there we planned to drive down to the Mosel River to find a hotel. The village of Cochem was our target.
Once again we were lucky with outstanding weather. It was warm enough for shorts as we toured the Rhine. We had R. Steves guide book to tell us the history of each of about a dozen castles along this section of the river.
In St. Goar, we took a shuttle up the mountain to the Rhinefels castle. It was enormous and amazing to see how mighty it once was and how it is now. R. Steves calls it the "mightiest of the Rhine castles that rumbles with ghosts from its hard-fought past." We felt the ghosts all around. It would be fun to be there at night!
We walked back to the village and killed an hour or so waiting for our return trip. The next ship was departing upstream at 2:30pm and we had time
for a couple glasses of wine.
After returning to the car we drove down the Rhine to the Mosel River valley. We were impressed with two things, one the number of vineyards along the way and the number of camper trailers and tent villages along the river. We learned that the Germans will claim a stop as early as April for the campers and use them as vacation sites all year. It seemed to us that they were all here while we were.
We were lucky on finding a hotel room right in the village of Cochem, facing the river. Parking was free and nearby. That evening while we were dining, I noticed a river cruise boat near the hotel that appeared to be loading with people and we could hear music. We had 30 minutes to finish dinner and buy tickets to go aboard this dancing cruise to nowhere. It passed up the river and then back down past Cochem for about a mile, then returned. There was a four piece band playing all sorts of music that had the Germans dancing. We even joined in for a couple of songs.
PS. We have had many
Rhine River
This is the river boat that we took to St. Goar. fun filled days which have taken most of the day and evening. I've tried to keep up with the blog but have had poor luck with uploading photos with weak wi-fi. But recently, I have gone back and added photos and updated some earlier blogs that I have posted. Please skip back and see the improved version and be patient for the remainder. I am now several days behind but will post a blog each day that I have time.
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kathie kirts
non-member comment
The river is alive....
with the sound of music..... did you do the chicken dance on the evening cruise boat to nowhere?