Day Three

Germany Blog – Day Three – Rhine and Mosel Valley and across the top of the world

Most everyone slept til about 7 or so this morning.  I got up at 5:30. I just woke up and could not go back to sleep so I didn’t see any sense in staying in bed.  I dressed, grabbed Steve’s book, the map, my computer, coat and gloves and went upstairs. No one was awake there yet either and the only light that was on was in the section where the stairs are located.  I sat on a step and read the book and studied the map while the world slept.  It was a nice quiet, cool, time.  About 7 I went to Paula and Sue’s door and very lightly tapped on it, thinking that Sue was probably awake and ready to go.  Since she didn’t answer my light tapping, I tapped harder.  And then harder still until she opened the door.  How about that – I had woken her up and she was not terribly happy about it.  So, I said sorry and went back downstairs.  A few minutes later, the hostess type of lady came up the stairs with fresh groceries and the hotel started coming to life.  Lights were turned on and there was noise in the kitchen.  I put my things back in my room and really bundled up to go outside.  The sun was up a little bit so I walked to the Rhine River.  There was lots of boat traffic and lots of wisps of fog on the river.  The river was much more active since the waves were stronger and the noise was louder.  It was very nice and quite private since no one else was walking around.

I went back to town and wandered some streets as the restaurants were opening and cars were beginning to move.  It was a nice morning time for me.  I arrived back to our room about 8 and heard an alarm going off.  I had really gotten used to the outside cold air and almost melted when I walked back in the room.  My glasses even totally fogged up.  It was interesting.  I had discovered late last night that my computer charging cord would not fit into my recharger converter so I tried to find pliers to pull out the grounding plug but Linda had an adapter so that everything fit together just fine.  I went up to the hotel restaurant and started charging my computer. 

The other girls came in and we started breakfast.   The buffet had lots of kinds of food and all that we tried was delicious. We had the reading and approval of the previous day’s blog (with only a couple of additions) and then we discussed our plan for the day.  It was a very good breakfast overall.  We were ready to go to the Jost store and I found a cuckoo clock that I thought Rachel might like but have decided that should get her one from the Black Forest since that is one of their signature products.  I also bought a little Bacharach pin, but now I can’t find it.  Maybe it’ll turn up.  We walked around town for a while, explored the local church, looked in a couple of other stores, but didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without.  Sarah did not find the watercolor of Bacharach that she wanted so we are still looking for one of those.  Sarah and Sue even hiked up to the ruins above the church and saw a wonderful view of the river.

We gathered back at the hotel and then headed out of town, going north back to Koblenz.  Sue had our route all planned out and we navigated around Koblenz with ease.  We drove way down the Mosel River Valley but never found the small towns that we would need to travel though to get to the Burg Eltz, a wonderfully preserved castle. We did find Beilstein, the Cinderella city, and it really was like something from a fairy tale.  It was a very small area and crowded with tour buses and tourists, so we didn’t stay long.  We wanted a very small lunch so we went into a small café that served apple strudel.  We had very good desserts, instead of lunch, and we asked one of the employees questions about Burg Eltz and getting to Bacharach cross-country instead of going through the river valleys that we had used that morning.  He and his friends gave us detailed instructions and we bought two maps because they are much more detailed than the one we have been using.  Life should be much easier for the rest of the trip.  His directions took us up out of the Mosel River Valley and away from tourists.  It was a glorious road that was narrow, VERY curvy and went through beautiful towns.  It was like being on the top of the world because we were above the river valleys.  We saw lots of farms, villages, churches, and wind generators.  We almost lost Paula after stopping for a bathroom break because she could not shut the sliding van door; so I pulled up off the slope to make it easier for her – however, she almost feel out of the door as I pulled up.  Sorry, Paula.  And then later, we were sharing the snacks when I asked Sue to do some task for me very quickly.  She was very efficient at that task but forgot to return Paula’s chips that she had hurriedly put down – Paula waited a few minutes before asking for them back and it was really funny to see Sue’s reaction to ‘stealing’ Paula’s chips.    It was scary at times because some people thought that I was going a little too fast on some occasions, but it was a good drive.  I won’t say that anyone in the back seat, Sarah, uttered any curse words at any point on this day’s drive, but I would be lying.  At one point, it was a one lane road and that was really interesting with the switchbacks we had to drive around.  Many of them were 180 degrees!!  Thanks to Sue’s skill with a map, we made it back to Bacharach and since we entered it from the mountain side we discovered it was a much larger town than we had known about before.  We actually saw a wagon load of grapes waiting to be processed into wine.  We also glimpsed a cemetery, so I took all the girls except Sue back to the hotel so they could rest and prepare for our special dinner and then Sue and I went back to the cemetery. 

We found our way back up the mountainside but I passed the cemetery – not that I was driving too fast or anything, but anyway . . .   I found a spot in which to turn around, but I didn’t judge everything perfectly so I kind of ignored Sue’s warning about that wall behind me and I bumped into it.  There was a driver waiting for me to turn around and she saw me hit the wall.  I immediately pulled up out of her way and stopped to see what damage I had done to the wall.  Wouldn’t you know that she was the owner of the wall and the house that was attached to it?!?!?!?!?  She was very, very nice and said that I did no damage at all.  I certainly was glad to hear that.  Sue saw red flower petals on the car bumper so I must have been very close to some flowers.  However, no damage done.  Thank goodness. 

We went back to the cemetery, walked around, took photos and talked to some of the people there.  They said that after 20 or 25 years families may either pay more to keep the graves or the graves will be ‘made new’ – I never did understand if that meant that anything was removed from the ground or if some other process was used.  A large part of this cemetery had recently been made ‘new’.   Almost all these graves were from the 1990’s and newer except for one very large section in the center.  As we were leaving the lady came up to us to tell us that that plot contained a soldier who had died in 1945.  She also told us about the other cemeteries in the area.  So, needless to say, we were hunting for them. 

Again, I passed the cemetery on the mountainside overlooking the Rhine River (placed so that the inhabitants will always be looking at their beloved Rhine) and had to turn around again.  I did not hit anything this time, even though I came close, but we found another cemetery right where we turned around.  It was beautiful as there was a tiny chapel with the graves behind it, a vineyard farther up the hill and then some very old ruins at the top of the hill.  Just beautiful.  We went back to the mountainside cemetery and wandered there for a few minutes.  This appeared to be an older cemetery and was interesting.  We quickly became chilled since the sun was setting, so we hurried back to the hotel.  I almost didn’t get the van into the parking lot but after some turning around, I pulled in.  That means that none of the 8 or so cars will be pulling out until after we do.  We left the van keys at the reception desk in case they need to move the van for some reason. 

We had only a very few minutes before we had to leave so we quickly rested up and went to the lobby.  Our special guests, Maureen and Thilo, had arrived for dinner.  Linda had been Maureen’s teacher about thirty years ago and the couple live about an hour north of Bacharach.  We ate at the Altes Haus just off the square in town and it was wonderful to meet with them.  The food was excellent and the company was even better.  Linda was very happy to see Maureeen again and meet Thilo.  We had two bottles of Riesling wine that is made in this area – that’s one of the products that makes this area world famous.  Thilo explained some of the rules of the highways and the road signs to me and now I feel much more capable of driving around Germany.  They are a very cute couple who obviously are very happy together.  I was not very good company since I was so tired but I enjoyed the experience very much.  They walked back to the hotel with us before they set out for the long ride home. 

We settled back down in our rooms getting ready for the next day when all of a sudden we heard a very loud boom.  Then another one, and another, and soon they were booming and echoing quite regularly.  We decided that fireworks were being set off but we were all too tired to go see them.  Sarah came out of the bathroom wondering if there was a war happening!!  She had shut the bathroom window just in case!!!!

Score for the second day of driving:  The back bumper just barely touched a wall (some people might call it tapping, crashing, slamming) while I was turning around.  That’s not too bad for all the time we spent in the car today, is it???