Rainy Days in Bacharach

Well, trains have become my place to blog! We're currently on the way to Brussels. Kelly is sleeping and I just finished another chapter in Lord of the Rings (summer reading for the win!). We arrived in Bacharach on Monday afternoon to overcast skies and generally dreary weather. Bacharach is a small town on the Rein (we're getting used to places with one main street) and it was especially sleepy due to the rain. We checked in to our Pension and Lettie, the eccentric hostess, showed us to our room. We immediately decided to get an afternoon snack and then catch the riverboat for a cruise up the Rein to see all the castles, naturally. The cruise was free with our eurail passes (score!) and while we waited for the boat, we passed the time by starting our walking tour. Despite its size, Bacharach is a pretty cool place -- overlooked by a castle (now a hostel) and ruins of a majestic church. The "Romantic Rein" riverboat named, "Goethe" arrived and we snagged seats outside in the front. It was quite pleasant gliding down the Rein and learning about all the robber-barons and their castles. We also saw the Loreley that my dad has been telling me about ever since he learned we were going to the Rein (it's a cliff...and mermaid. Google it). Unfortunately then it started to rain. Not too hard, but enough that we had the entire deck to ourselves. We were determined to defeat the rain! Never give up! Never surrender! But surrender we did after about 30 minutes. We went inside and the view just wasn't as good. Also, overcast skies do nothing for the scenery. We got off at Koblenz and walked through the town (more of a small city) in search of food and the train station. Thank god Germany has signs everywhere. We found Doner and the station and headed back to Bacharach for an early night. We're totally catching up on sleep in these quiet towns. The next morning we had breakfast at our pension (eggs and waffles. So not German, but delightful all the same) and set out on our adventure for the day. We nixed bike riding around the Rein -- too overcast -- and decided we would find Burg Eltz, which is apparently an awesome castle. To kill time before our train, we finished more of our walking tour of Bacharach. This town looks like Snow White lived here -- old wooden and stone houses. We walked along the vineyards in the misty morning and decided to save climbing up the towers and hiking up to the castle for later. Fun fact: The wine from the Rein tastes sweet, because the rocks of the mountains hold heat for a long time. Anyways, we caught our train to Koblenz and from there to Moselkern. It was raining when we got on the train, but stopped by the time we got off. Moselkern is kind of a bizarre town? All we could see were houses...and no one was out and about.... No restaurants, stores or people in sight (except at the cemetery, which was beautiful, as every plot had a little garden on it). Luckily, there were easy to follow signs that led us through the empty (almost suburban?) town and into the forest for out 90 minute hike up to the castle. It was a pleasant hike -- not very strenuous -- very green and we followed a creek the entire time. There was lots of mud though, for which we cursed the rain...again. We found Burg Eltz in the middle of seemingly no-where, surrounded by hills and greenery. It is a gorgeous little castle. It looks like it was carved out of the mountain! The castle is still privately owned and partly still lived in. The family that owns it now is related to the Habsburgs (go figure). We grabbed soup at their restaurant and toured the castle. Everything was at least 500 years old (so cool!) and very small (people were smaller then. Kelly could fit through the doors, I had to duck). Apparently the area around the castle had at one time been a booming trade route, which is hard to believe now, as it seems rather isolated. Three families used to live in the castle, until the 1900s. At that point, one family couldn't produce a male heir, so they were out and the other family sold their share to the remaining family who currently own it. After the tour, we wandered around the castle, generally enjoying ourselves and then hiked back to the station. It started raining again, but cleared up by the time we got back to Bacharach. We decided to finish our tour of Bacharach and climbed to the tops of one of its towers. FINALLY the sun came out and it made such a difference. The Rein looked glorious and the town was picturesque. If only the weather had been like that the whole time! We hiked up to the castle and explored the youth hostel somewhat -- lots of families and kids running around the inner courtyard. Coolest hostel I have ever seen! They were booked solid when we tried to get a reservation, but I'm kind of glad it didn't work out, because I think Kelly and I would have been reduced to tears trying to hike up that hill in the rain everyday. Also, fun fact: it's been a youth hostel since 1926. We made our way down and got ice cream in town at italian eis. As we walked, we heard "mamma mia" blaring and turned to see a woman's exercise class dancing to the song. It was hilarious. At the ice cream shop, we ordered Spaghetti Eis (ice cream that looks like spaghetti), which I had heard about since middle school German class. I think we even tried to make it in 8th grade. It was DELICIOUS. The perfect way to end the day. We went back and caught up on sleep and had a more traditional German breakfast this morning (fresh rolls, cold cuts, cheese, fruit, yogurt). Now we're off to Belgium! Super excited to see things and eat waffles, fries and chocolate. Kelly is naturally excited for all those things as well PLUS beer. =) The train ride thus far has been fun -- announcements are made in four languages (german, flemish, french, english). So weird to be in a different country again!