Generally if Penny and I gamble with the weather we lose. This time we won the bet. (This was a thrill, but not so thrilling as to make it tempting to duck in to the “mini-casino” we saw. I am not sure if there were fewer crap tables or the ones they had were itty bitty.)
We looked at the weather for Friday and Saturday. Both days were rainy but Saturday had less of a chance and we opted to cruise the Rhine on Saturday. The weather was gray with occasional spots of sunlight.
The day was trains, boats and more boat. Our first transportation task was to figure out the Frankfurt subway. We were to travel to our first train change by subway. The subway (S-Bahn) turned out mostly to be a supraway. It was underground for only a few minutes and then it became a regional train as we emerged from the tunnel into the suburbs. Most subways we have been on around the world require a ticket to get through the turnstiles to gain access to the trains. The ones in Frankfurt are like the trains, you just walk on. We were told by the nice man at the ticket counter in the main train station that a conductor would check our tickets, but no one did. People got on and off with no one checking. The same thing happened on all our trips on Saturday, including a bus. We got on a city bus and paid the fare to the driver for the trip to the train station. But as we rode people got on and off without paying. I think Germany has a law that only people carrying a camera have to pay.
We had decided to catch the boat in Bingen because the man at the info place said that in the city we were thinking about starting our cruise (Mainz) the train station was a long way from the pier. In Bingen the peer was right across from the station.
Right across is only a description that is helpful if you remember to ask “right across what?” The lady at the Bingen train station directed us to cross the Rhine River and then turn left.
We started out and were soon joined by a young oriental couple who were clearly as confused about what left to take on the other side of the bridge as were we. The river bank was not easily seen from our street position. By this point in our travels I am growing less and less likely to just wonder around trying to figure it out without stopping to ask directions. The problem is that the route we were on had few people to ask. I spotted three men near a building and showed them my brochure and looked lost. (I did not start looking lost at that point. I merely continued looking lost.) It was pretty clear that the one I was closest to did not know.
When I said boat another in recognition said "boat!, that way and left." As I walked away he laughed and said to his companions "I speak English, Yah?" and then they all laughed.
The oriental couple and I saw a large boat and headed to it - wrong boat. Down the river some more we went. We made it to the correct peer a full 5 minutes before the boat arrived.
The boat is very large and very crowded. There are two inside restaurant sections with table clothed tables. There were almost no empty seats and those that were empty had reserved signs on them. We found a table that did not have a sign and sat for a few minutes before someone informed us that it was reserved despite the lack of a sign. We moved to the top opened deck.
There were white plastic chairs stacked in the middle and tables around the edge. The weather was chilly but not at all miserable with the breeze blowing. The boat cruised fairly quickly downstream but not fast enough to blow people and chairs over the side (never saw this actually happening). We unstacked some chairs and placed them in a strategic location so that we could see both sides of the river and where I could pop up and down like a jack-in-the-box and take photos.
The river was magnificent. The towns and villages were lovely. One particular town had a row of houses that looked as if they had been transported from Bergen, Norway (see the previous blog). That is not terrible surprising since the houses in Bergen were built by the German Hanseatic League who settle in Norway back in the 14th century.
Around every other bend in the river was a castle or a castle ruin. The castles were built at a time when Germany was not one nation but rather some 300 independent nations (all rather small). They built these castles along the Rhine and would put chains across the river. When boats would come by they would have to pay a toll or tax before the chains were dropped and they could sail on down to the next castle and pay again.
Penny went down to order us some lunch as I remained up top and did my photographic duty. She ordered me the special dinner and a diet coke. When they brought the food there was a diet coke and a beer. She said she did not order a beer and they said it is comes with the special dinner. (More on Penny the alcoholic later.)
The food was very good. Penny had spicey pork and french fries while I had sausage and potato salad. I think I like German food.
A young lady from Texas joined us at our table and we chatted with her. She is an accountant and her company sent her to Germany for 4 months. She was about at the end of the time. She said she really enjoyed her time in Germany. I only spent a few days here but have found that it is a delightful people and a lovely country.
While we were sitting there chatting we passed the Loreley. This is a big rock (450 feet high). It is in a part of the river just downstream from some reefs. Many medieval ships never made it past the reefs and they blamed it on a blond woman who lured them to their deaths. We did not see a blond woman (in the water) but it is a large rock. You have never seen so many people taking so many pictures of a rock. (I was one of them.)
At St. Goar (more on that below) the boat stopped and 85% of the people got off. The next hour and a half or more we had plenty of room. We went down and sat inside. I still ran out to take pictures. In one of my photo excursions I noticed that the other end of the boat was the nonsmoking section. We moved.
The German people are all going to die of cancer from smoking or second hand smoke. It has been so pleasant in England. England passed a national law that bans smoking in every public building. German has just passed a no smoking law for the trains but not for anywhere else. The restaurants do not have no smoking sections. Our boat was the only place I saw that had a no smoking section while in Germany.
We sat inside and ordered ice cream and I took pictures. It was very pleasant. There was a door to the deck right by our table.
We arrived at our departure point, the city of Koblenz. We exited the boat and took a city bus (the one we paid for and no one else did) to the train station. We caught a train that followed the river, back tracking the path we had taken in the boat. It was interesting to see the back yards of the houses along the river.
In St. Goar we stopped to see Burg Rhienfels. (A Burg is a defensive castle while a Schloss is a showplace castle.) We took the Tschu-Tschu (tram) up the very steep hill to the castle ruin. They charge you to get in and give you a map. We took our Rick Steve guide and followed the directions and read the information.
It was interesting to learn about the toilet that hung over the outside wall. This may have discouraged people from trying to scale the wall at that point.
At other places in the wall they had installed large trough like openings. The inside was wide and the outside opening was kind of narrow. If people were attacking they would pour boiling pitch down these troughs. Ouch.
We did not see the mine tunnels that are only a few feet high and muddy. They built the tunnels under some fields that are just outside the walls. That side of the castle is the only real approach to the walls as the other sides are very steep or on the river side. What the plan was (and used once) was to pack the tunnels with gun powder and if the enemy gathers in the field you blow them up. It evidently worked against some Spanish invaders in 1626.
The other interesting event at the castle was a wedding. As we were on top of the castle we looked down at a hotel near the foot of the castle and saw a wedding party getting into a convertible. A bit later they were going into the castle when we were leaving. There was a large interior room that had used candles and heaters and lights. We are not sure if they had their wedding somewhere else and were just taking photos or if they were married earlier in the castle.
Here is a little German Medeival Bathroom humor.
We went back and took the train back into Frankfurt where we had decided to go for Chinese food. We had planned to go to a restaurant that we had seen on our first night in Frankfurt but as we crossed the street from the station we saw a nice Chinese restaurant on the corner. It was on the first floor which in Europe is really the second floor. We found a very lovely wood paneled restaurant. We sat down and soon discovered that we had stumbled on the Chinese Cheers. Several large family groups arrived and were having a great time. Almost everyone in the place was oriental but us.
Penny suggested that we order the dinner for two which included 4 different main dishes, eggrolls, fried bananas and “espresso." The eggrolls were the size and shape of a hot pocket from the freezer section and very good. The main courses were duck, pork, chicken and beef. Then they brought the fried bananas and the “espresso.” The bananas were what we expected but the “espresso” was a confusion of some kind. They brought us plumb wine. My wife, the teetotaler, managed to order booze for us twice in the same day.
On Sunday we took the bus back to the “Frankfurt” airport (the one that is almost two hours away). We were in line checking in and saw 4 of our students who were on the same flight.
We got to visit with them for awhile and heard their adventures. They had been in Fussen in southern Germany where Mad King Ludwig’s castle is located. Neuschwanstein Schloss is the castle that Walt Disney used as a model for Cinderella’s castle. They had a good time there. But when they went to find their hostel it was not as convenient to the train as they had thought. They got off at the train stop and it was about 10:00 in the evening. The small town was closed. They did get directions from a local saying it was close and started to walk down the road. They stopped a bit down the road to confirm that they were headed in the right direction and a woman told them it was too far to walk and that her husband would drive them. He pulled around in a van and they said they had visions of never being seen again. But he was a very nice man and took them to their hostel. At the hostel they could not find a manager to let them in to the room. When they final got someone they did not have a reservation. They showed them the receipt where they had paid and they found that they had paid for the next day because that had put 1:00 AM on Saturday when they were arriving Friday. It worked out and they did have a place to sleep. The next day they went to the train station and one of the girls found she had left her purse (not passport) in the van the previous day and she was very upset. But fortunately the nice little old man noticed the purse and drove back to the hostel but the girls were already gone. They had left their contact information at the hostel and they called her to let her know it had been turned in. And then the lady at the hostel even drove back to the train station to return it to the girl when she took the train back to retrieve it. It is nice when you have it confirmed that there are nice people everywhere you go. Normally you only hear about the other kind.
Our train back to Grantham from Stansted was really two buses. They frequently work on the tracks on weekends and use buses instead. Our timing was pretty good and we got back pretty quickly.
We had a very good experience in Germany and I highly recommend you all go there.
Ray
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