Bacharach

A village on the Rhine

We arrived in the gorgeous village of Bacharach, and craned our necks skywards to see our hostel WAY UP THERE! Bloody hell — how are we supposed to get up there.

After downing a beer in the Posthof, a very resourceful, (and probably a little desperate as she was quite ill), Stacey called a taxi to take us up to the Castle the long way. I was okay until he decided to back in — it was actually a minibus — and he reversed along the edge of the cliff.

The fact that he had done it many times before did not calm my fears and I visualized us crashing off the edge to our certain deaths in the valley below. I was quite traumatised, and it wasn’t till we arrived that I could see there was a guard rail (but not very high) the whole way. On the plus side, the trip was only 15 euro and I was sure I couldn’t have walked up to the castle with my luggage in tow. I wasn’t even sure I could do it carrying nothing — but I did the next evening!

I showered and rested (well, tried to rest) while others traipsed off to explore the village. There’s only one negative about Castle Stahleck. It has a group of about a hundred noisy, very excited 12 year olds on school camp here, and the teachers don’t seem to care how much noise they make! They were even running in and out of our private room while I was napping.

Stacey had taken the key with her so I couldn’t lock the door. I ended up giving up and joining everyone in the courtyard for a few vinos before dinner (moselle of course!) We managed to push our way through the noisy throng to a delicious dinner of spaghetti bolognese (of which I had two helpings), fresh artichokes, olives, cucumber in a dill sauce, and lovely fresh German bread and ham. And tinned pears for dessert! All this for 7.50 euro!

Back to bed in our tower room (yes really!) with 5 double bunk beds, two tables and 8 chairs and million dollar views down the Rhine! If this were a hotel, it would be at least $200 a night instead of just 17!

We woke up to a very quick breakfast of muesli, yoghurt, fruit and bread with a variety of cheeses and meats before we hurried down the 372 steps (I counted them!) to catch the 8.30 train to Bingen where we picked up a ferry to the other bank of the Rhine. We hopped on gondolas up to the Kaiser Wilhelm monument. They each carried just 2 passengers over vineyards all the way to the top. We even saw grapes being picked by hand.

We then wandered through a beautiful multi-coloured forest — it was October and we don’t have autumn at home — until we spotted a hotel. Both Keeley’s and my first thought was do they sell beer? (It was only about 10.30am but we were thirsty.) We downed a couple of beers and headed off down the path to the chairlift that was to take us down to the river. The rest of our party was nowhere in sight so we hurried to jump on the chairlift thinking they must be ahead of us.

In the process of jumping on, I dropped my camera and quickly jumped off to retrieve it. Keeley’s chair had left so I grabbed the next one. I was a little worried as the operator wouldn’t let me sit on the right hand side, and here was Keeley’s chair in front of me tilting dangerously to one side. I took photos all the way down to take my mind off the ride. I am NOT good with rides of any sort, particularly those that occur above ground. It took me years to be (sort of) comfortable with flying.

We still hadn’t seen any of our other travelling companions. We checked the time, and decided we had missed the boat so were just sauntering along the riverside path, enjoying the beauty of the scenery on a gorgeous sunny day when the rest of the gang came running up behind us — closely followed by the boat we had to catch. It pulled in, dropped off a couple of people and started to pull away from the jetty immediately. Talk about a quick stop!

This cruise up and down the Rhine was free so we didn’t dare complain too much — it was one of the extras on our 3 month Eurail pass. The boat travels from Mainz to Koblenz and you can get on or off at several villages along the river. It’s the poor man’s version of the Rhine River Cruise. We sailed past the Lorelei, a huge slate rock on our right hand side. There was a legend that a young forsaken maiden threw herself from the top into the river and perished— if I heard it right.

My sister, Lorelle ran down the jetty flailing her arms to signal we wanted to board and they kindly put the gangplank back down and we all jumped on. Other passengers cast us disdainful looks. We were looking red-faced and dishevelled, I suppose.

Sailing down the Rhine, I devoured my packed lunch of bread roll and boiled egg. This running makes me hungry! We disembarked at St Goar, and everyone except Keeley and me decided to trek up to the castle. My toes were still complaining from the 372 steps down this morning, so I decided I’d find a nice bar and sit down to rest my poor little tootsies.

We found Stefan’s Wine Paradise, sampled a few wines, and ended up buying some lovely wine, a peach brandy and a pack of cards — all we needed for a picnic on the banks of the beautiful Rhine. Stefan was lovely — he even gave us a free bottle of wine and invited us for dinner. Sadly, we had to decline as we had to catch the 5.20 boat back to Bacharach.

We spent a lovely afternoon sitting at a picnic table enjoying the sunshine. I taught Keeley to play two-handed 500 with our new German cards! And of course, drinking the lovely local wine! Naturally, this bliss could not last and soon rain clouds were scudding across the sky, and as we headed for shelter, the skies opened.

We thought we had run into a bar but we had actually enetered a restaurant attached to a hotel. There was just one couple drinking wine so we thought we’d play it safe and order a wine (not that we hadn’t had enough already!) We weren’t there long when we were spotted through the thick glass window by eagle-eyed Stacey who happened to be walking past, so everyone joined us for a drink while staying dry. So of course we had to have another glass of wine! We trooped onto the boat as it pulled in and sat in the warmth ( and dryness) of the dining area. Our boat struggled against the current so it was quite late before we arrived back at Bacharach. We sussed out a few restaurants before choosing the Altkolnischer Hof, another one of those hotel restaurants similar to the one in St Goar. The décor was dark wooden panels with actual paintings of local scenery, and old chandeliers hanging from the rafters. I spied rouladen on the menu, so quickly made my choice. It was delicious with a bottle of the local red, and real iced coffee for dessert.

Our lovely waitress tried calling us a cab to no avail so we had to hoof it up the 372 steps (plus the steps to our tower room!) It wasn’t as bad as going down but quite challenging in the semi-dark and after an afternoon of drinking. Stacey had to guide me through the darker places as the steps were uneven and slippery after the rain. I was totally exhausted so showered and curled up in bed. I was too tired to read, so thought I’d be asleep in minutes, but lay awake until after one am. I must have been overtired! I slept with my toes peeking out from under the doona, because they were too sore to have anything touching them.

After only a few hours sleep, my alarm woke me at 6 am as I had to pack and get down to breakfast by 7. Needless to say, I didn’t pack very well. I asked a receptionist for a maxicab, but a normal taxi arrived so us three oldies climbed in with everyone’s luggage — 12 euro and worth every cent! We left the young ones to walk — I was NOT walking down those steps again — yesterday’s effort was still etched into my toes!