A video of our group learning German on the bus.
Herr Jung, our Bacharach tour guide.
A video of our impromptu piano concert.
Had breakfast at the hotel at 7:45. Met our local guide, Herr Jung at 8:30. He is a 78-year-old man who has a lot of interesting history to tell. He was born in eastern Germany and just got out in time before they put up the Berlin Wall. He told us of his experiences as a young boy during WWII. He told about hiding in their basement while the bombs dropped and the planes fought each other. He took us all through the town and showed us all the interesting things about Bacharach. We sang O Come All Ye Faithful in a church, we had an impromptu piano concert in a woodburning shop, we climbed up the mountain behind the town and looked down on the town and the Rhine. It was one of the most awesome experiences ever. Words can’t really describe this guy and the experience that he provides.
After the tour, we took a 20-minute bus ride to St. Goar, a little town that is also on the Rhine. We ate lunch here and then walked up to the top of the mountain behind the town and took a tour of the Rheinfels Castle. That tour was ok, but in the middle of that tour was an experience that I have to say really STUNK! We “walked” through an underground tunnel that was part of the castle and it was really just a man-made tiny little cave with no lights (we had to take flashlights which weren’t bright enough by the way) and were hunched over the whole time. (Which by the way, I am not supposed to do because of my back problem, let alone, stay in that position walking for somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes.) The tour guide said it would be 4 minutes and there would be a few places we had to hunch down. Well, it was way longer, we had to be bent at the waist the entire time, it was dark and slippery and tiny and I was freaking out. PLUS, some group ahead of us without flashlights, held us up, so we were actually stopped in this place for about five minutes or so! I actually started yelling for people to move it! Forget about being nice, this was crazy! Everyone hated it, but especially me! My poor buddy, Jamie, was in front of me and she is 6’2” tall! She was having a really terrible time. She ended up crawling on her hands and knees towards the end. Ugh! Everything else about this tour has been great, but that tunnel thing gets a huge thumbs down! I will be complaining about that experience for the rest of my life, I am sure of it.
After that, we had a nice stroll through St. Goar, which is a very cute town, also. Grabbed a gelato and one of our friends, Catherine, from Monterey, shared some tart type treat with us. Then we went down to the dock at St. Goar and took a cruise on the Rhine River. That was so great. We looked at all the castles along the river and Jennifer, the Rick Steves guide, treated us to apple and cherry streudels, which she had bought in St. Goar. Yummy! The cruise dropped us off at Bacharach, right in front of our hotel and we walked around for a bit and then we ate dinner at a local place with four of our group-mates. We ate out on the sidewalk and it was very pleasant. For dessert, we all had apple streudel AGAIN! So in about a 3-hour time period, I had gelato, streudel, dinner, and more streudel! Back to the hotel to blog and rest up and get ready to head out tomorrow for Rothenburg.
1 comment:
I am very certain that I would not have gone into the tunnel. I am not chlosterphobic but HATE being underground and just won't do it. I can share you feelings about being hunched over too. But back to the struedel! Looked good as you were eating it. It doesn't matter how many times a day you eat struedel I have always heard!! :) I listened to the german lessons on the bus but the other video would not play for me. Keep blogging, it's fun to keep up.
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