Today was another of those days that Chrissa and I had been really looking forward to for years – a trip along the Middle Rhine. After breakfast we caught the train to Koblenz, then the Middle Rhine train along the western bank of the Rhine to Bacharach. The train trip was revealing as there were castles seemingly every kilometer along the river on one bank or the other. Bacharach was quite beautiful, and typical of the towns in this stretch of the river, complete with its own castle.
We walked from the station to the ferry terminal, and bought tickets for the ferry downstream to Sankt Goar. What a beautiful vista. Absolutely stunning.
We eventually reached Sankt Goar when we saw the bend in the river and Lorelei Rock.
Sankt Goar is much busier than Bacharach, and it’s castle is much better known, Burg Rheinfels.
We were not keen to walk up to the castle, and taxis were scarce, so we caught the ferry across the river to Sankt Goarshausen, then walked to the train station to ride up the eastern bank to Braubach. Braubach is best know for Marksburg, the best preserved castle on this stretch of the Rhine. We wandered around the streets, and had a gelato, looking for a taxi to take us to the top.
We eventually found one, and we were treated to a quite spectacular view.
By now it was getting on to 5.00pm. We found the trail-head and walked back down into town, before heading to the station to catch the train to Koblenz. Koblenz is the town at the junction of the Rhine and Mosel rivers, so when we got there we caught a taxi to that sport, called Deutsches Eck. It has been made into a beautiful parkland to honour these two great German rivers, and there were people everywhere.
We walked through the old town of Koblenz back to the station then caught the hour long trip back to Koln. It was now getting quite late so we had dinner in a restaurant within the main train station, Schweinske. It was a simple meal of pork schnitzel and chips.