Old Retired Guy Blog

Jun 30 - Jul 2, 2010

Our room in Bacharach looked out at the wall surrounding the town and the hillside vineyards.

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Bacharach and St. Goar (Page 1 of 2)

Note: This is part 3 of the authorized edition of The Anderson's European Vacation.

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We checked out of our hotel in Cologne and headed back to the train station.  We took a train to Koblenz where we transferred to a local train to Bacharach.  I'd never heard of Bacharach or St. Goar before I saw them in one of Rick Steves' Europe shows on Public Television.  They are in a beautiful stretch of the Rhine River where the castles and small towns sweep you back to the middle ages.  (Unfortunately, we were not returned to our middle ages.)

As we walked into town from the train station I asked a local woman for directions to our hotel, the Pension im Malerwinkel.  She spoke no English so I worked on my very rusty German.  I was able to understand that we were to go down the road past the bank and look for a road on the left.  After that I wasn't quite sure what to do.  Fortunately, we soon saw a tourist information center and headed there for help.  The little I had understood was correct and we were able to get the rest of the story in English.

 
Left: The path leading to the Pension im Malerwinkel
Right: A view of Bacharach from the vineyards above the town.

We spent a lot of time wandering around town enjoying the historic buildings lining the narrow winding streets.  We also enjoyed the Italian Ice Cream stores, which seem to be everywhere in Germany.  (Since the temperatures were well above normal during our entire 3-week vacation, we visited many of these establishments.) 

Quite a bit of the original wall still surrounds the town.  You can climb up the stairs and walk around on it.  Businesses line the inside of the wall, so you can easily access shops, restaurants, and hotels from it.

There are many vineyards in this part of Germany and they are all on very steep hillsides.  It must be incredibly difficult to work in them.  We were told that the grapes grown in these slate rock hills along the Rhine River make the very best Rhine wines.
 

 
On the vine, and in the glass...

'Bacharach and St. Goar'
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