Bacharach

After the manufactured tourist trap of Amsterdam, I couldn't wait to get to Bacharach, a tiny German village in the Rhein valley right along the river.  The train ride there was especially cool - as we passed each village you could see a castle up on the hill and the village down below.  Someday it would be cool to come explore all of these castles.

Bacharach has it's own castle, too - castle Stahlek.  This castle is also a hotel, so we began hiking up the mountainside to see if they had rooms available.  On the way up we walked by the ruin of the Wernerkapelle where there was a play going on - King Lear, I believe.  Stu stayed to watch while I hiked the rest of the way to the castle, which was unfortunately fully booked.  The view from the castle was amazing, though.  You could see the whole valley and more villages down the river.

Back in town we stayed in the first hotel we could find - hotel gelber hof.  It was like a time capsule from Germany circa 1970.  There were a lot of tourists in town but they were all very old German tourists - no Americans in sight (okay, maybe a few).

In the morning we got breakfast at a cafe and met some fellow Americans who were studying in Germany.  They were taking a boat tour up the Rhein and had stopped in Bacharach for some milk shakes.  They suggested that we could probably pose as students and get on the boat, t that it was leaving in just a few minutes.  Stuart ran back to the hotel to grab his computer and went with them. 

I didn't know where the boat was going or how we would get back, or what we would do with our luggage if we left.  Besides, I had different plans for the day, so I didn't go along.  Turns out it is a good thing to worry about where younwill end up, as Stu did not make it back to Bacharach.

I spent the day traveling around the valley, down to the village of Bingen.  I wanted to visit a guitar shop there to see if they had one of those thin traveler guitars.  The shop was already closed by the time I got there, it being Saturday.  The town was cool though, I explored a bit and walked and sat in the park by the River.  They had these cool park benches that were more like reclined chairs so I sat in one and relaxed for a bit.

I headed back to Bacharach to the hotel so I could email Stu to see where he was or what he was doing.  He told me to come meet them in Assmannhausen but it was already too late.  He said he was headed to Frankfurt and would be back in the morning.

I spent the evening in the next village down the river.  They were having some sort of carnival or something, but who can be sure?  It was very small and an awful band was playing.  Well, I say playing, but I'm pretty sure the guitar player was only strumming without actually playing anything.

By the time I was ready to head back home the trains had already stopped running.  I walked the 4 or 5 kilometers back to Bacharach.  It was very dark but the path was easy enough to follow.  I listened to some good music and enjoyed the night views of the villages on the other side of the river.

As I said, Stu never made it back to Bacharach.  By the time we had to check out I still hadn't heard from him so I packed up his things and put them in the lobby.  I finally got ahold of Stu, and offered to meet him in Frankfurt and set out with my and his things.

I arrived a few minutes late and got very lucky to run into Stu and Sarah (a girl from the previous day) who were walking around I think about to give up on waiting for me.