Jul 8, 2011 - Bacharach, Germany

The drive from Stuttgart was very scenic with lots of fields and vineyards. Our next stop was to spend a couple days along the Rhine River. Our base was a small campground called Camping Sonnenstrand in the little town of Bacharach. Our site was right along the Rhine, where we could look out at the passing boat traffic on the river. We could walk to the boat docks and town within less than half mile. Perfect! Bacharach consists primarily of two parallel streets that stretch parallel to the Rhine along the base of a hillside. We spent a...

Jul 3, 2011 - Bacharach day 2

We did just about nothing today. We decided to take it easy and not deal wih more trains and people and just lounge. We checked out the town down the hill from where we are staying and found a great restaurant cafe that had a large 3 course meal for only 7 euro, so we got a glass of reisling to sip and it was delicious. I wish i could say more about today but it was just a relaxation day.

Jul 2, 2011 - Burg Eltz

Today we woke up a bit late and slowly worked our way outside to the boat tour area. There we decided that we would take a boat ride up the river to check out all the castles on the Rhein. Unfortunately, our boat was supposed to go all the way up to Koblenz but only went halfway. But for the time we were on there it was alright. It was windy and really cold. The best cold weather gear that we have are windbreakers, but we were forced to go up on deck outside because we had previously bought kebaps to eat for lunch and could not eat...

May 26, 2011 - A day on the Rhine

We awoke to sunshine and went down for our generous breakfast—who knew a scrambled egg could be a novelty?! The Rick Steves tour from the night before didn’t eat everything, so we had our fill. (They were the ones who had all the better rooms!! We headed out to catch the 10:15 boat going down the Rhine, and rode on a pretty full boat for about an hour to St Goar. We had great views of the castles, viinyards, barges, and little towns along the way. The barge traffic is heavy with lots of cargo, including tankers. Most of them have living...

Apr 29, 2011 - The Rhine Valley

We found a lovely little "Zimmer" (German for room) in a town called Bacharach. It is in the heartland of the Rhine Valley. We rented bikes and rode a small portion of the bike paths that run along the Rhine river. It was very interesting to watch the barges and cruise boats move up and down the river. It was incredible to see the number of barges that move along the Rhine. Quite the commercial highway.