Along the Rhine

Today we drove along the Rhine from Biebrich to Koblenz.  We saw castles, churches, cute little towns, and lots of trains & boats.  We first drove from Biebrich through Eltville to Kiedrich and then on to Rüdesheim.  It was very interesting because the GPS routes you to the center of any town you select as a way point.  Most of these towns have tiny, cobblestone streets and there were a few times we couldn’t actually turn where the GPS wanted us to.  The narrator on the GPS was also pretty hard to understand at first, I don’t think she has very good German pronunciation guidelines.  There were a couple of times we thought she instructed us to turn on blah blah blah Strasse which Anna thought was very funny.

After making our way through Rüdesheim we boarded a ferry to cross the Rhine.  It was a very different experience from our usual ferry ride to Oma’s .  First, we drove right up and on to the boat.  Second, the holding area was three small lanes in the middle of the street.  It was so small we almost missed the turn.  Second, it was a small, single deck open air ferry which we drove right on to.  Third, it only cost 6.20 euros for the car and all four of us.  Sabine loved it even though it was a bit chilly and windy.  She was enthralled by the river.

The ferry docked in Bingen and we drove up along the other side of the river to Bacharach. Here we got out to walk around for a bit. We walked through a tiny downtown with many old buildings - one dated to 1398. We also walked up the hill a bit to see a ruined church which was quite impressive. There was also a pretty decent view down into the river valley from here. On our way down the hill, it started to rain. It rained for about 10 minutes and then stopped. That was the pattern for the rest of the day. In fact, you could see the rain clouds come and the blue sky behind them. They just moved right over, dumped their rain and moved on.

Next we drove up to Sankt Goar.  The southern edge of the town is directly across from the Loreley rock.  It was a pretty big bend in the river and the boats passing it by gave it a wide berth but it was just a rock.  We didn’t see a spirit luring boats to their doom.  We stopped at the view point to take pictures and stayed for lunch.  We were the only customers in the restaurant we chose and the woman who helped us was very nice.  Her dog came out to visit us and stayed for a bit hoping the girls would drop something.  The food was very good.  Anna and Sabine both had kinder Schnitzel with spatzle.  Anna ate all of her schnitzel and about half of Sabine’s while Sabine ate all of her spatzle and only a few bites of schnitzel. 

After lunch, we continued on to Boppard.  It was the site of a Roman military camp and ruins remain to this day.  We walked through two churches (the first had lots of stained glass windows which Sabine loved), and into the main part of downtown.  Here Sabine found her favorite fountain.  We went back to see it three times and Patrick even took her picture with it.  We then walked up to and through the ruins.  The walls were huge and once we saw the picture of the forts original size we were even more impressed.

We wanted to make our way up to the Vierseenblick (four lakes view).  It is a place where the Rhine curves in such a way that it looks like four separate lakes instead of a river.  We put the address into the GPS and ended up in a very nice group of houses in the hills on the south side of town but no viewpoint.  We then used my phone to find the real one.  It led us to a very narrow, winding, single lane, private road that took us up to the viewpoint and restaurant.  By the time we were at the top both of the girls were asleep.  It was good since it was interesting but not terribly entertaining especially for the girls. 

We ended our day in Koblenz.  Our hotel is right on the edge of downtown. It is very new and funky.  The biggest selling point is that they have family rooms that include bunk beds which was a big draw for the girls.  They are asleep in them now, Anna on the top and Sabine on the bottom.  When we first arrived at the hotel, they both spent a lot of time climbing up and down the ladder to the top bunk.

We walked around the old part of Koblenz tonight and found plenty of fountains and churches for Sabine to enjoy.  We also walked along the Mosel river to the place where it meets the Rhine.  It is called the Deutches Eck (German Corner).  It was windy, raining and cold but had a nice view.  We even saw a huge, white swan swimming upstream which Sabine loved.

Our final task of the evening was to find a place to eat dinner.  We were all hungry and tired which made it a bit challenging to find food but we did it.  We ended up at a small place serving Flammkuchen.  It is kind of a cross between pizza and a crepe.  It has a very thin crisp crust with a thin layer of white sauce followed by toppings.  Anna had nutella on hers and Sabine had cinnamon and apples.  Anna LOVED it.  She ate 6 ½ slices (they were fairly small but she was very proud of herself).  Sabine ate a bit but wasn’t really interested.  She is still adjusting to all of the new food, places, etc.