The forecast said 90 percent chance of rain today but we woke up to sunshine – I’m sure it’s coming but we are going to try to fit a little touring in before it arrives. Right down the street from us is the ferry that goes back and forth across the Rhine to St Goar. We watch it out our window. Saint Goar is a bigger town than St Goarshausen and it is more touristy. It is a stop for many of the Rhine Cruise ships. There is a big castle on the hill that we want to see and a beautiful church we’d like to visit.
We started with milchkaffee at the local bakery (it’s hard to learn the right name for the right coffee in each country. We both like strong coffee but with lots of milk or cream – Mikchkaffee suits us to a tee. Coffee and a yummy lemon filled pastry and then we jumped on the ferry and headed to St Goar.
It’s a neat touristy town with lots of German touristy shops and we browsed our way down the street. Beautiful carved cuckoo clocks, lots of Beer Steins and lots of liquor and wine shops. One lady had us testing so much brandy I thought we might toodle down the street but the tastes were little and we kept a straight line. There have been so many beautiful heritage items in each country and although Jim and I are done collecting tchotchke – I would have loved to bring something meaningful to each of the kids and grandkids; With no big luggage, shopping hasn’t been an option in any country, so we browse and taste and admire and move on. Our souvenirs will be memories for us and a few tiny things we’ve found for family.
While we were looking at steins the shop lady spoke a little English and was so interested in Saskatchewan. She was asking us all about our town and province. Before we left she said, “Be sure to stop at the cafe down the street – you will have the best Black Forest Cake of your life”. Guess where we went next. And it was delicious!!! We shared a piece but next time I’m getting my own.
The sun is still shining so we are going to visit the church and head up to the castle. We could walk but it’s far and it’s up and up and up so we took a city bus. We found the bus info board with the schedule and to the best of our English calculation with a German schedule, we found the bus stop and it appears to run every half hour. We stood for a few minutes and a young gal came over and said Caw-sel? We must have looked like tourists and she assumed we were heading to the biggest tourist attraction. We smiled and said yes. She then took my hand and led us across the street. Evidently we had the right bus, but it does a loop first so we had to be on the side of the street going away from the Caw-sell in order to catch it. People are so helpful!! It arrived and took us up the hill.
Rheinfels Castle is a castle ruin It was built in 1245 by Count Dither V. After expansions, it was the largest fortress in the Middle Rhein Valley. It was the largest castle overlooking the Rhine, and historically covered five times its current area.While much of the castle is a ruin, some of the outer buildings are now a luxury hotel, “wellness” centre, and restaurant. There is also a museum within some of the better preserved structures explaining its interesting history.
We really enjoyed touring and spent a good couple hours wandering and reading BUT we didn’t keep an eye on the sky and by the time we finished touring the rain had started. There was no shelter at the bus stop so after getting rained on for 5 or 10 minutes we walked over to a tree and stood under for a little protection. What we didn’t know is that if there’s no one on the bench and no one on the bus that wants off – the bus buzzes by. We watched it go. So by the time the next bus came – we made sure our wet asses were on that bench and we waved and jumped up and YES he pulled in and 2 very soaked puppies got on that bus. Thank goodness it wasn’t cold – just wet.
So our wandering was over, although by the time we got to the ferry, the sun was shining again. But we were soaked to the skivies and were happy to go home and get into some dry clothes. We ended the day at a local restaurant in our little village enjoying some more schnitzel – different kind – same deliciousness – and called it a night.
Tomorrow the sun is supposed to shine all day!!