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