Last 'Romantic Rhine' stop, 'Romantic Road' next!

Riding sidesaddle on a lion in Rüdesheim!

Sunday was forecast to be miserable, though it started well it didn’t last long, the front blew over with the rain. Fortunately the wind didn’t last long or I may have vetoed the ferry. We headed a few km north, the ferry was our side with a very wet looking cyclist on. As we drove on I did a full on ‘Gromit’ impression, chewing all my fingers in a nervous fashion. The captain up on his bridge saw this, imitated me and laughed. A lot. And with that we were off, our own private ferry. It was a very short trip, but a very small boat and a very fast flowing river. It’s possible I was overreacting, but we’ve seen the huge barges ploughing up and down with no regard to anyone else, and Ted told me he was scared!

Kitschy Rüdesheim

A short but very pretty drive down the eastern shore brought us to Rüdesheim, described by the Lonely Planet as kitschy and wonderful, visited by 3 million day tripping coach tourists a year, mostly for a little medieval alley called Drosselgasse. Actually the stellplatz was at a swimming pool about a 20 minute walk back to town where we were made very welcome by the helpful lifeguard who assisted us buying our parking ticket and explained that the token entitled one of us to swim (parking location: 49°58'52.8"N 7°56'44.1"E).

Rüdesheim market square on a wet Sunday

The rain was not deterring people, there was a singer in the market square and food and drink stalls. Along with a tractor display...? The drink was the new season wine, looked horrendous, not just cloudy but almost chewable! Brian wasn’t sure, but I said we had to try, so a red and a white for a Euro each, so it didn’t matter if we didn’t drink it.... it actually wasn’t too bad, though you wouldn’t want a bottle!

The white umbrella marks the spot we chose for lunch

I'll have the Schweinehaxe please

It was the perfect place to be on a wet Sunday, Christmas shops, tat shops, a wine festival and lots of people. We’d decided we’d have a lunch, our first since leaving the U.K., apart from a few ‘sausage in a bun’, or bratwurst mit brotchen and a couple of kebab sandwiches! If curry is the U.K. favourite, kebab is the German, they are everywhere... We didn’t go for anything flash, I’d been quite obsessed with schnitzel, so that was my choice, though pork not veal, and Brian had a schweinehaxe, or pork knuckle. Beautifully roasted, and even with crackling, it would have done us both, but hey, a meal each! Along with a couple of glasses of Rüdesheim reisling. All very pleasant.

Oh yes, it's quite big then!

Going up on the cable car over the vineyards 

While wandering we’d found the cable car station which persuaded us we had to stay another day, so up on Monday, back to town, popped in to the tourist information, great chat with a very helpful man and bought our ticket. Up the cable car to the ‘Germania’ (like Britannia) monument celebrating the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian war and the creation of the German Reich in 1871. A walk through the woods with views over the Rhine, though the cloud inversion meant we were under clear blue skies, but couldn’t actually see the river, via the deer farm, to the cable car. Down the cable car where we both got very cold into Assmannshausen. Into the most ridiculous restaurant (the picture will explain) for a fabulous hot chocolate before boarding a boat for a 40 minute trip back to Rüdesheim. Great little trip.

That's the Rhine down there under the cloud

The 'Germania' monument

A second night meant we’d got a second swimming pool token, so although it’s not our favourite activity it seemed too good an opportunity for a ‘free’ shower, and we did feel virtuous, swimming before breakfast! 

The mist clears to show the junction of the Rhine and the Nahe rivers

Off to Lidl for lots of things, the fridge was bare. I shall have to catch the last of the Stilton we brought with us, to go with the last of the gammon to make a blue cheese and leek risotto tonight. But now I’ve got a litre of Chinese stock in the thermal cooker, so tomorrow will be Chinese pork after a full day in Mainz where we arrived today (Stellplatz location: 49°59'55.1"N 8°14'47.0"E). The last stop in our driving book of the Romantic Rhine, a 5-7 day, 235km trip that will have taken us 17 days! And that’s without actually starting at the beginning, with Düsseldorf and the first 44km! I know we are snails, with our home on our back, but we really are very slow snails....! And why another blog? Well free WiFi obviously!

Cold but clear on the viewpoints

Local wildlife. They were described as wild, but they were fenced in

Going down on the chairlift to Assmannshausen - it was freezing! OK, that's an exaggeration but it was cold

Warming up in the very 'over the top' pub

Our boat arrives (the white one, not the smaller green one)

Ehrenfels castle viewed from our boat trip

The mouse tower on an island in the Rhine

Rapids on the Rhine. The line marks where the deeper channel on this side allows large ships to safely navigate 

Our campsite in Mainz tonight

A couple of days in Bacharach on the Rhine

Puffing up the hill on our bikes

A domestic morning, putting the gammon joint we brought with us into the thermal cooker, washing and planning our next couple of stops. Looks like Ted will be going on the ferry. The Rhine is big and busy and fast flowing and has surprisingly few bridges, so although most of the things on the driving tour have been on the West Bank, we are getting to a trip highlight, Rüdesheim, on the east bank, so it looks like we will have to cross! My preferred ferry is north of here, and we stopped to look at it on the way past, so tomorrow we will have to be brave!

It was worth it for the view at the ruined castle though

Not sure how safe it is though!

We met our first native English speakers in a long time, (not sure what to call them, they are from England, moved to Oz 16 years ago and have taken a year out, with their 9year old son, and dog to do three months in Europe, three in the U.K., three in Europe with a final three in the U.K. with friends and family before returning, with their van, to Oz). Their route and our route are the same, but in opposite directions, so we’ve got all their stuff on the Romantic Road and we highly recommended Boppard and the Via Ferrata to them.

Once we stopped talking we headed off on the bikes, just for a little potter, taking in a ruined castle and a little town. Pleasant little ride, but just as well we’d already decided to stay another night and do a big walk today or we’d never have made it!

It dates back to 1243 apparently. It's free to go around, but very overgrown and 'at your own risk'

Not the ferry we're going to use to cross the Rhine, but similar in size

Brian was very surprised that I suggested the ‘big walk’, it’s just the way it was sold in the guide. “The Stahlberg loop has been classified by the experts of the German Hiking Institute as an ‘excellent path’ that offers variety and fantastic views.” It was a good walk, deer, woodpecker, castles, woods, fields and vineyards, finishing with the last of the city walls. 14km, 4hrs, a cake from the bakery and a big beer back in the village. Fab. To be followed by ham egg and chips (well fried potatoes). I do love a gammon joint!

I don't know, she told me to get on and then took a photo

All we have to do is keep the windows shut. We got invaded on Thursday night, by squillions of horrible little flies, some of which when splatted on the furniture left red smears, though fortunately these have come out! We bought some fly spray yesterday, that B doesn’t want me to use, so it’s now there “in case”. The woman in the grocers explained that they wouldn’t last long, apparently they appear when they finish pruning the grape vines, are very irritating for a few days and then vanish, so we just timed it badly, but they were horrible!

One thing I forgot to say about Boppard, was sitting in Ted one afternoon suddenly there was a loud siren, probably covering the whole town. Nobody panicked, but bearing in mind how close we were to a big river, I was ‘interested’ I walked to the kids play area, picked a likely looking lady and asked her if she spoke English? She was a good choice, she explained they have a volunteer fire brigade, so it was the call to service! Interesting to know, and glad we didn’t have to panic, and again amazed at the ability of all and sundry to be able to explain things like that to strangers in a foreign language!

On our walk today

So why another blog so quickly? Free WiFi and we are paying for electricity on this site, so too good an opportunity....

Todays ruined castle high above Bacharach Steeg from across the valley 

Slightly unusual this, it's a marker post in the middle of nowhere on our walk. The white item at the bottom is a toilet brush screwed to the pole and, above it, is a toilet roll holder. We have no idea why

Old mine shaft now labelled as a bat cave

We managed to get inside this one but didn't see any bats

Bacharach Steeg from the ruined castle, looking towards the Rhine

Inside the castle grounds and you can just see wheel tracks worn into the rock

We crawled inside the castles tower to take this one looking straight up

A picnic bench with a view. The bench, however, is solid marble - you don't see that normally

Coming towards the end of our walk now, this is the view from the remains of the highest tower on Bacharach's town walls. A commanding viewpoint. we'll be heading onto the far bank of the Rhine tomorrow, we'll first go left, past that island, to catch the ferry across, then drive right on the other side and off into the distance 

Heading down the hill to Bacharach. Up on the hill on the other side of the valley is the castle of Bacharach, now a youth hostel, in the town is the church and, just above it the roofless old chapel. Big Ted is parked right on the river beyond the trees. If you zoom in you might just pick out parked motorhomes

Jackie leading the descent by the town walls back into town. You can see more clearly the church, roofless ruined chapel above it slightly and the town castle up on the hill. The white tower is part of the old town walls

Back into town and time for a large beer in the afternoon sun

Three days in Boppard on the Rhine...

We moved on from Andernach on Monday to Boppard, though not until we’d had ridiculous amounts of trouble filling with water. Sounds simple, and always has been until now. I thought it was funny, Brian was not amused!

We arrived in Boppard, 45 minutes away to find the carpark with 5 motorhome spaces had become a building site, we’ll go back to that campsite we passed, 4ish km but with a big flat cycle path along the river, it was closed for the season. Hmm, ok, park4night, what can you tell us? There are 2 motorhome spaces in free carpark 2 by the police station on the other side of town. We got there, to find a van in one and a Volvo in the other and the rest of the carpark full. Brian on the roadside while I nipped to look at another possible got hooted at, twice, by a bus before he could reverse out of its way. (He wasn’t having a good morning!) With that the car next to the Volvo, in ‘our’ space left so while I stood in it he went to get Ted, by which time Mr.Angry from Boppard has tried to run me over and I assume told me I couldn’t ‘keep’ a space. He went on a bit, I could do nothing other than speak English and try to explain..... to be fair to him, he did see another space and move in to it, but not before he’d spread the ‘not having a good morning’ feeling!

The market square and church in lovely Boppard

Our parking spot in Boppard

So, closer, but not legally parked, does it matter? Who knows. We’ll have lunch and see what happens. Just about to give it all up as a bad job and move on the woman from the Volvo appeared. Hurrah. I’m sure it would have been fine, there was another van just parked up in the car park, but not inhabited, but we just don’t want to upset anyone, don’t want to risk being moved on after a glass of wine, and we were parked behind the police station after all! Parking place location: 50°13'55.1"N 7°35'57.7"E

Setting off towards the Via Ferrata by the chair lift to the summit

Feeling much happier we skipped off to the tourist information to plan the next few days. A walk around the pretty town filled the afternoon and all was well with the world.

We set off the next morning to do the via ferrata, or kletersteig as they are called in Germany, mentioned in the Rough Guide. The woman in the TI had looked a little worried when we asked her about it, but we’d told her we had the equipment so she’d given us the leaflet, in English! We were slightly thrown as the first ladder, when we finally found it, went down. As did the second. 

Unusual for a Via Ferrata to start going down!

We carried on and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. It wasn’t hard, and was certainly contrived, but had a few interesting sections amongst a hillside walk with some fabulous views. The sun came out and we got back to town in time for a sausage in a bun (we’ve been eating a few of those), some chips and beer. Fabulous.

The next morning didn’t dawn quite so sunny, in fact there was quite a lot of mist on the hills, a shame as we were planning on taking the Hunsruckbahn train, Germany’s steepest scheduled railway route to its first stop before walking the 8km back down. It’s only €3 and it’s not raining, we might as well give it a go. Nice little 10 minute train journey, tunnels, views, fab. Equipped with our map, but only a German description we set off overtaking another couple. Now this was probably where the problem started, we shouldn’t have followed them at all, before skipping past them. I’d just uttered the words “OK, we can see some wild boar now” when there they were, mummy, daddy and four or five piglets trotting along on the other side of the stream, great. 

But then it got better

Steaming off downhill we soon found ourselves at a road, hmmm, shouldn’t be a road here, and the workmen weren’t much help! It would appear we’d taken the direct route down, and were back in town after an hour, rather than the two we were expecting. We hadn’t seen the viaducts the train went over, and hadn’t had the views (though we may not have had them anyway), but if you are going to get lost then halving the time taken rather than doubling it is definitely the way to go!

We were really tempted to get back on the train and try again, but it was an hour and twenty till the next train and by the time we’d had a chilli hot chocolate from the Choccobar and my knees still hadn’t recovered it seemed like tempting fate, so we didn’t bother!

With views that got better and better

More interesting bits

Overall however we are delighted with our stay in Boppard, from the minute we got into the ‘legal’ space.

We left this morning, and arrived at Bacharach after a very pretty half hour drive. We are on an Aire, so paying some money, but there are some services, which is always good. The washing machine however is busy till 11.00 tomorrow morning, so we’ve booked our slot! (Campsite location: 50°03'17.7"N 7°46'19.8"E)We walked in to what Brian has decided is an even prettier town, we’ve walked most of the town walls, and convinced the Tourist information lady that I am mad. On our second visit I asked her how come there are no cats in Germany? We’ve seen cat doors, and cat food bags, but no cats. “Cats? Meow cats?” She asked. “Yes”. “Well there is a black and white one lives on this street.....” 
Coming down from the town walls, on our way back to Ted and who should we meet? A big black and white cat. He had places to go, and things to do, and was obviously nervous about being catnapped by a nutter he’d heard about, but he did stop for a few strokes. Perhaps my luck will change?

Not a bad place to take a break

A particular place on the walk (after we finished the Via Ferrata) where the River Rhine looks like four lakes. It was mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide so we had to find it (obviously!)

That's a very big chair (or a small Jackie)!

Walking back down beneath the chair lift with fabulous views of the Rhine and Boppard

Boppard was such a photogenic place

We liked Boppard, but Bacharach is probably even better...

We had to walk up to that castle on the hill...

Nice view from the top

The town walls of this 14th century town are still partially standing

Here's some of them

And little alleyways to walk through. There's Jackies face peeking round

The Peterskirche Protestant church in Bacharach. Our Lonely Planet guide told us to look out for the naked woman inside with snakes sucking her breasts. It said its a warning about the consequences of adultery. 

Intrigued we had to go and find it

Quite a nice church inside

Jackie finally finds a cat, but it wasn't that interested in her

So here we are on our campsite overlooking the Rhine for a couple of nights stay