Days: 6 - 8
August 28th (Wed) - 30th (Fri)
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Page Index
What We Saw
•  Cologne Cathedral
•  Rheinfels Castle
•  Sankt Goar (St. Goar)
•  Boat ride from St.Goar to Bacharach
•  A time out on the Rhine
Where We Ate
•  Hotel am Markt
•  Posthof
Where We Stayed
•  Hotel am Markt

  Overview Tour Itinerary

Day 4 (Wednesday - Aug 28) Cologne and the Romantic Rhine 
This morning we'll head straight for the Cologne Cathedral, the single most-visited site in all of Germany. You'll appreciate why as our local guide takes us exploring through northern Europe's most massive Gothic church. Then we'll continue on to the Rhine Valley and our charming riverside village, where we'll have dinner together. Light walking: 2–4 miles throughout the day on mostly level terrain. Bus: 6 hours. Sleep in the Rhine Valley.




Day 5 (Thursday - Aug 29) Rhine Castles and River Cruise   
We'll begin our day in St. Goar, where we'll hike up the hill to tour the mighty medieval Rheinfels Castle and enjoy its commanding view of the Rhine Valley. Then we'll board a boat for a relaxing Rhine River cruise, passing picturesque villages, vineyards, and feudal castles. After disembarking in Bacharach, we'll take a walking tour of the village with an entertaining local guide, followed by free time. Tonight you'll be free for dinner to feast like a feudal lord.  Strenuous walking: 2–8 miles throughout the day with lots of hills, stairs, and uneven terrain. Boat: 1 hour. Bus: ½ hour. Sleep in the Rhine Valley.
  What We Saw Cologne Cathedral
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Our stop in Cologne was primarily for the Cathedral.  After a quick snack to tide us over to dinner, we had a guided tour of the Cathedral. What a magnificent structure.  It is truely MASSIVE.  Rivaled only by St Peters in Rome, this place is second to none.  As you can see in the story below it took five and a half centuries to complete.  This included sitting partly complete with no activity for several hundred years.  QWhen they finally go back to work they finished it according to the original plans.  Image, the plans were around for over 500 years, still usable and still used.  Wow! No one succeeded finishing the construction "their own way".     



 Background from Wikipedia 
Cologne Cathedral (Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a cathedral belonging to the Catholic Church. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996. It is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 6 million people a year. At 157 m (515 ft), the cathedral is the tallest twin-spired church in the world.  Construction of Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 but was halted in the years around 1560. Attempts to complete the construction began around 1814 but the project was not properly funded until the 1840s. The edifice was completed to its original medieval plan in 1880.

Cologne Cathedral
Domkloster 4
50667 Köln, Germany
Tel: +49 221 17940555
      
 
 
  Where We Ate Hotel am Markt
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
We acually had three meals at our hotel.  First was a group dinner on the night we arrived.  The food was great as was the service.  The other two meals were breakfast on our second day in Bacharach and the morning we left to move onto Rothenberg.  Both breakfasts were good with a decent selection of warm food, cold cuts, fruit, etc.  A great way to start both days.

 

Hotel am Markt
Oberstrasse 64-66
Bacharach
Tel: 011 49 67 43 17 15
      
 
  What We Saw Rheinfels Castle
Thursday, August 29, 2024
We had a great surprise when we arrived at the Castle.  Instead of a very difficult (art least for our age) climb to the castle, we were bused up the hill to the entrance.  Wow what a difference.  We walked up the hill the last time we were here (in 2006) and clearly remember the climb...not something to be forgotten!  Our tour guide for the castle was outstanding.  He brought the ruins "to life" with descriptions of what life was life in and about the castle.  Very knowledgable.  He even serenaded us (in German) near the end of the tour (check out the video below)a

Of course the castle is ruin.  We found out that basically the castles along the Rhine which aren't ruins are mostly recent remodels leaving very little of the original stuctures. So for those visiting a castle which looks intact, what you're seeing is probably much newly then your host would want you to know. Reinsfield on the other hand is structurally maintains but not updated.  



 Background from Wikipedia 
Rheinfels Castle is a castle ruin located above the left (west) bank of the Rhine in Sankt Goar, Germany. It was started in 1245 by Count Diether V of Katzenelnbogen. After expansions, it was the largest fortress in the Middle Rhein Valley between Koblenz and Mainz. It was slighted (razed) by French Revolutionary Army troops in 1797. It is the largest castle overlooking the Rhine and historically covered five times its current area

 

Rheinfels Castle
Schlossberg 47
56329 St. Goar, Germany
Tel: +49 6741 383
      
 
  What We Saw Sankt Goar (St. Goar)
Thursday, August 29, 2024
We didn't spend a lot of time in St. Goar.  After walking down from the castle, we had just enough time to stop by a bakery (always time for a bakery) and grab "lunch" to take with us onto our boating excursion back to Bacharach.  Yup another apple crisp (will that's what we would call it in the US) the size of a large piece of sheet cake.  That's one for each of us of course!  A great treat.  We then walked to the dock and loaded onto the boat (more below).

 


 Background from Wikipedia 
Sankt Goar is a town on the west bank of the Middle Rhine and is well known for its central location in the Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since July 2002. Above the town stand the ruins of Burg Rheinfels, one of the castles for which the Middle Rhine is famous, and across the river lies the sister town of Sankt Goarshausen with its own castles, Katz and Maus (“Cat” and “Mouse”). The famous Lorelei rock is close by, slightly upstream on the opposite bank.  Sankt Goar lies in the Rhine Gorge and the narrow canal on the Rhine that flows through the Rhein Massive. This part of the gorge on the left bank borders on the edge of the Rhein - Hunsrück, on the right bank it Borders on the Banks of the Taunus. 

Sankt Goar (St. Goar)
Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis District
   
 
  What We Saw Boat ride from St.Goar to Bacharach
Thursday, August 29, 2024
One of the best ways to see and appreciate the Rhine is to ride on it.  We caught the boat in St. Goar along with a bunch of other tourists.  The best place on the boat was outside terrace on the back of the upper deck.  While the outside temperature was in the 90s (very unusal for Germany) it didn't feel anything close to that moving down the river.  Half way through we were treated to a sample of the local beer. What could be better then a cold brew on a sleepy cruise up the Rhine.   


Boat ride from St.Goar to Bacharach
 
 
  Where We Ate Posthof
Thursday, August 29, 2024
We decided to eat at a place just down the sreet fom the hotel.  The menu had a number of Germany food choices which we found met our needs.   Good for us.


Posthof
Oberstrasse 45-49
55422 Bacharach
Tel: 067 43 047 18 30
      
 
  What We Saw A time out on the Rhine
Thursday, August 29, 2024
After dinner we found the eveing still very warm so we decided to walk down to the park which bordered the Rhine and have some quiet time just sitting and taking in the boats as they passed us by.  Very peaceful!

 
 
  Where We Stayed Hotel am Markt
The hotel was actually very nice.  We did laundry our first night without issue.  The room was spacious and the air conditioning was great...just had to make sure the windows were closed and that the air conditioning switch was pressed.  In our room the switch was a small box on the wall with a push button on the front near the bottom...below a note which said to close the windows.

Also the Internet was free and the speed was pretty good, i.e., I was able to upload pictures without a problem and stream a couple of our favorite programs from YouTube.  Note that the Internet is NOT secured so if you're at all concerned about your traffic, you should use a VPN.  We use Express VPN and have had no issues from anywhere in Europe.


Hotel am Markt
Oberstrasse 64-66
Bacharach
Tel: 011 49 67 43 17 15
         
 
 
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