This was our first Untours trip. Both of us like to travel in other countries. We did a lot in our younger years. In fact, we met in Africa. However, child rearing and careers caused us to put our overseas travel plans on hold until our retirement, four years ago. While these tours had their appeal, we found that we enjoyed most the tours that located us in one place for two weeks with daily trips out from that location.

friend happened to mention Untours to us, and after going to its website, we found great appeal in the concept. We decided to give it a try. The reason we chose the Rhineland tour was not only because of its inherent appeal, but also because I (Claude) have relatives in Germany that I have never met. The trip would allow us to visit these relatives. Following is a diary of our two-week Untours trip beginning on May 21, 2003. It was originally written by Carol and then edited and transcribed for this website by me.

Because it is very difficult to fly directly from Rochester, NY to one of the exit airports, we utilized Jet Blue to fly from Rochester to JFK. I was concerned that if our bags did not make it to JFK with our plane, they would not follow us to Europe. So we did not make as tight connections as we could have and had a long wait at JFK for our overseas flight on Lufthansa. However, the Jet Blue flight was comfortable, direct, and cost only half of what the fare would have been with the major airlines.

Our overseas plane was scheduled to take off at 9:30, but it did not take off until 10:15. It was a full plane. The service was excellent. However, the usual problem of an overseas flight is not only the uncomfortable economy class seats, but also the shortened night. So, as usual, we only got about 2 or 3 hours sleep.

We landed in Frankfurt at 11:15 local time. Our bags arrived, and we went through customs and immigration with a wave. Christine, the Idyll representative, was waiting for us in the public area. We thought there might be other Untours people on the plane, but Christine informed us that we were the only ones on this flight, and there would be only three other couples on our tour. She cited international fears that have affected the entire travel industry.

Christine helped us get our rail passes validated, and then we went outside the building to wait for the taxi that was to take us to St. Goar, where our apartment was located. Due to all the construction around the airport, we had quite a wait, but the taxi finally got there and we began our trip north.

I got a chance to practice my German a little bit with the taxi driver, and it seemed to go OK. It rained lightly on and off during the entire trip. When we got to St. Goar, Walter Huppertz, the landlord, met us and helped us carry our bags to the apartment. Our apartment was Christmas Lower. It is directly across the street from the Rhine, above the Christmas Store. It is one of five apartments in the building that he rents to Idyll people and to independent visitors.

Herr Huppertz guided us up the one flight of stairs to our apartment. We were very pleased with it. It is extremely well-equipped and was spotlessly clean. We also were provided with bread and coffee. No need to worry about breakfast.

Carol went to bed to take a nap. I went out to scout out the town. St. Goar is touristy, but not tacky as so many American tourist towns are. The apartment is within a minute walk of the KD boat landing and the ferry landing. There are several hotels in town and a number of souvenir shops. There are two banks with ATM machines, a grocery store, produce store, two bakeries, and a meat market. Of course there were a number of restaurants, many with outside seating, as well. I found the grocery store and the bakery, and bought more extensive provisions plus desert for tonight. I got back and woke up Carol. She showered, dressed, and we then went out for dinner at a nearby hotel. After a tasty dinner of Spargel (asparagus), smoked salmon, and potato fritters, we went back to our very comfortable apartment and had cake and coffee for desert. We went to bed around 9:00.

This was the day of our orientation. It was overcast and sprinkling on and off. After breakfast, we walked down the street to the Lorelei hotel where we were to meet Ute, the Idyll staff person and the other Untourists. Ute is a tall, attractive German woman who speaks fluent English, German, and Russian. She lives with her family in Kaub. The other Untourists were three very pleasant couples: Dave and Kay from Colorado; Don and Judy from Kansas; and Larry and Betty from Oregon. Each of them were staying in a different town.

We received a number of handouts: activities in the various towns during the two weeks, railroad timetables, and a number of brochures. We also introduced ourselves. The meeting didn t last as long as Ute planned, because the room had been booked for a German tour group. She told us, however, that we would learn how to use the railroad tomorrow on a group trip to Cochem. This is something new that Idyll was doing, at least in the Rhineland package. Ute said that previous Untourists had felt insecure at first using the trains, and they thought this would be a good way of helping people learn how to use them.

We had lunch together at the Lorelei and then went our separate ways. There were still light showers on and off. We wanted to find the Bahnhoff (railroad station), and when we got there we met again David and Kay who were waiting for the train to their town, Oberwesel. Together we explored the very old church that was by the Bahnhoff.

I wanted to get some cash from the ATM machine because I had only gotten a small amount at the airport. I had difficulty with the machines at both banks. They didn t accept my card at first. I found that they eventually did work when I did not click on the set amounts, but filled in specific figures. We went back to the apartment and then decided to try the ferry and go across to St. Goarshausen. I can t recall the exact cost of the ferry. I think it was about 3 Euros, round trip for the both of us. Both St. Goar and St. Goarshausen, though touristy to a degree, have retained their quaint quality. With their half-timbered houses, they look like fairy tale villages from across the river.

We took the ferry back. Carol did some cross-stitching and I read materials concerning our trip tomorrow. Then a light supper of sandwiches. Finally a half hour walk along the river before heading for bed with our books. The weather seemed drier.

I was up early as usual, and took my hour walk while Carol got ready. There is a paved sidewalk and bikeway connecting all the towns on the river. Great for walking. The sky promised a much better day weather-wise. We had breakfast and then went to the train station to wait for the train. It s only a two minute walk from behind our apartment. Arrangements were for all of us to meet with Ute in the Koblenz Bahnhoff. Koblenz is a major transfer point north of our towns. Ute had given us specific written instructions about the train time. After today we would be able to read the time tables ourselves. The rail passes are very easy to use. The one pass is for both of us. You write in the date. The first time the conductor checks it, he punches it, and after that they just look at it. We found that on some of the shorter trips the conductor doesn t even get around to check it.

The train was on time at 9:32. It was a pleasant 25-minute trip along the river, stopping at every town. Three of us couples were on the same train; Larry and Betty were on the other side of the river. We all gathered with Ute in the Koblenz Bahnhoff. We then boarded the train to Cochem, which traveled along the Moselle River. The countryside is simply beautiful: lush and green, with vineyards on the hillsides and castle ruins above almost every town.

Once we got to Cochem, Ute took us on a walking tour of the old city. The weather was sunny and warm, the location was splendid, the buildings are picturesque and flowers are in bloom everywhere. Germans love flowers. We had lunch together at one of the Cochem restaurants. This was our first experience with sauerbraten. It was quite good. Much better than I remember as a child in the home of my German grandparents.

We took the tour. It was in German, but with a written handout in English. We hiked down, bought ice cream cones on the way to the Bahnhoff, caught an express train to Koblenz, and then the local back home to St. Goar.

We arrived in St. Goar before the shops closed at 5:30 and bought a few items for supper and a desert from the bakery. We had supper, watched CNN, read and went to bed about 9:30. It was a good day, and the weather was beautiful all day.

I m not going to include the entries from these days, because they were the weekend I spent with my relatives, and I don t believe this would be of much interest to other Untourists. We were picked up by one set of relatives on Saturday morning and they drove us the 150 miles to Warendorf where they lived, and where we spent the weekend. It was a fun weekend. My German got better as I was more and more forced to use it.

One thing may be of interest, however, to potential untourists. Carol and I were a bit concerned about how we would be received by Germans in light of their strong opposition to our attack on Iraq. And that dislike was strong. But we as individuals experienced nothing but politeness and frequent warmth from the German people. The only unpleasant individual we encountered on the whole trip was a bus driver in JFK.

Most of the day was spent with relatives. Another set of relatives drove us back from Warendorf to St. Goar. We arrived back at our home late afternoon. The weather had been warm and sunny all day. After we said goodbye to our relatives, we went out to dinner at a local restaurant. Carol had her first Wiener Schnitzel of the trip and I had bratwurst and sauerkraut, for which I developed a real fondness. I thought I would be drinking wine with every dinner, but I found that I didn t particularly care for most of the German wines I had tasted. And their beer is wonderful. If we could get beer like that, I could easily switch.

After dinner, we looked ahead to the rest of our time in Germany. We realized that we had only slightly more than a week to do our Untour . One of the things we loved about the Untour experience was the options it gave. Untour permits this. We like to take a slower pace. We planned on doing at least one thing a day, not starting before 9:00 a.m, and being home for wine and cheese followed by dinner or a light supper if we had had our big meal at noon. Untour also permits that. You decide what your vacation will be.

Weather was cloudy and cool initially, but brightened and warmed up in the late morning. Up at the usual time. On my early morning walk, I stopped and bought some freshly baked bread. To our tastes, the crust seems tough. Try the Vollkornbrot. It is a very heavy whole grain bread. Different than anything we get in the U.S.

We took the ferry to St. Goarshausen so that we could catch the train on the other side of the river to Assmanshausen. The station in St. Goarshausen keeps the track entry doors locked until right before the train arrives. We arrived in Assmanshausen, a town renowned for its red wines (most German wines are white). It was early, and not many people about. Like all the other towns we had seen, it was lovely. We wanted to see the Niederwald monument, and then go on to Rudesheim. We found the chairlift, and took it up the hillside, getting great views of the Rhine and the countryside. It was peaceful and you could hear the birdcalls as the lift carried us up the hillside. It s about a half hour walk. The monument is impressive. More impressive for me was the view it gave us of the Rhine and Bingen across the river. After resting there a while, enjoying the view, we took a cable car down to Rudesheim.

Rudesheim is a favorite stop of the river tours. It was already quite crowded around 11:00. In Rudesheim is Drosselgasse, a famous party street. Neither of us found it appealing. In fact, all of the tourists took away a lot of the charm of the town for us. We decided not to have a regular lunch, but had banana splits instead. We were fortunate to be only one of two couples. Our guide used both English and German during the tour.

By now, it was sunny and warm, and we decided to take the KD boat back to St. Goar. It is a slow but pleasant trip. We took the KD boats three times, and each time they were loaded with Japanese tourists. We got back to St. Goar at about 4:00, rested and had our usual pre-dinner routine. We decided to have dinner at a restaurant outside of St. Goar. So, we walked past the riverside camper grounds south of the town to a restaurant with outdoor dining. We both had turkey schnitzel (Turkey&.Puten&.is on a lot of menus. It s really turkey breast and is cooked the same ways they cook pork.) The walk back to our apartment helped us work off some of the calories. It was our first full day untouring by ourselves, and it was a nice day. We decided that tomorrow we would go to Cologne (Koeln).

The day started out cloudy with sunny intervals, and it ended up mostly sunny. We packed a light lunch for the trip. We took the 9:30 train to Koblenz and there transferred to a train going to Cologne. It was a 2 hour trip. As soon as we exited the railroad station we came face to face with this massive cathedral. It is indeed impressive. The square in front of it teems with people, mostly tourists. There was also one very noisy group of German students who acted just like American junior highs. Kids are the same all over. A mass was going on when we entered the cathedral, so we walked around the perimeter of the sanctuary. As we started to leave, the organ began to play one of Bach s preludes, and we stopped to listen. Carol, who is a classical music lover, was very moved by hearing this great organ playing Bach in this impressive cathedral. Even to a low-brow like myself, it was beautiful.

After the service was over, we went out side to have lunch. I bought some juice, and we had our lunch in a corner of the square under some trees while we watched the antics of the school kids and the teachers trying to keep them under control. We then went back into the cathedral and explored the nave. We decided that we didn t want to see any more of Cologne, so we planned on getting back to St. Goar at 4:30. Waiting for our train to Koblenz, we spent some time wandering around the Cologne railroad station looking in the various stores. There are many stores, especially food stores and fast food restaurants, in the station.

We did get back to St. Goar at 4:30. Since May 29 was Ascension Day, a national holiday, and since stores are closed by 6:00, we did some shopping to get provisions. After showering, and having our wine and cheese, we went to Hotel am Markt, where we had eaten before, and both of us had salmon. It started to get a bit dark, so I went back to the apartment where we had coffee and cookies for dessert.

We talked about doing the wash. There is a washing machine in our apartment and a dryer in the nearby utility room. The machine was unfamiliar to us and the manual was in many languages, and it seemed a bit daunting. We had up to then been washing out things and hanging them on a rack provided in the apartment. This was working well, so we decided just to continue doing that nightly. Another advantage of staying in one place.

The day started and remained warm and sunny. Ascension Day is a national holiday with, of course, a Christian meaning. According to my relatives, however, this in an informal Fathers Day , and a lot of drinking goes on. There were more people in St. Goar than usual. We hadn t been up to Rhinefels Castle yet, so we decided to do that in the morning. We were planning on returning on Saturday when they had the medieval fest there. It s not a very long walk, but it is steep. We had to stop once to rest.

The castle commands a spectacular view of the Rhine. We took a self-guided tour in English. In the museum near the entrance, there s a wonderful miniature reproduction of the castle with various armies that tried to conquer it deployed in formations around it. We probably spent an hour touring the castle and taking pictures from the heights. I had a beer and Carol had a light coke.

Following was a brief rest in our apartment. Then we decided to see Bacharach, where one of our Untour couples was staying. We took the train to Bacharach, about a 20 minute ride. It s not as touristy a town as St. Goar, so there were not as many people on the streets. We walked around looking at buildings, and took a picture of a building that was constructed in 1366. We found a hotel restaurant where we had our main meal. We ordered a turkey salad, but they were out of turkey, so we had our second sauerbraten of the trip. This one was covered with raisin sauce, and it was quite good.

We decided to take the boat back, and as we were going toward the river, we passed an art shop that looked interesting. We went in and bought a picture of St. Goar to put on our travel wall . The boat was fairly crowded when it arrived, once again with at least one large Japanese tour group. It was a warm sunny day and the cool drinks we had on deck tasted good.

I had bought some sausage for supper, and we mixed it with some home-made sauerkraut our relatives had given us. We then heated it in the microwave. It was delicious. We felt we needed some dessert, so we went out and got sundaes at the same place we had had the drinks earlier. It was a lovely holiday.

Today is our day to visit Mainz. The entire day was sunny and warm. We caught the ferry to St. Goarshausen to take the train on the other side of the river. We arrived in Mainz about 11:30. A group of middle-aged men who were on some hiking expedition were in our car. They were as noisy as the junior highs. But it was interesting for me to watch German men on outings.

Once we got out of the train station we had a bit of a hard time finding the tourist office. It was easy to find the Dom. You could see it from a distance, and surrounding it was a vast open air market. Almost any vegetable or fruit was available, as well as tons of flowers. First seeing the one in Cologne, however, made this one seem small and rather spare. However, not so. The streets curve, and even with the help of a map, we found ourselves going in circles.By this time I was starting to drag, and since I m not crazy about museums, after viewing a few exhibits and the Gutenberg Bible, I did a lot of sitting while Carol went through the museum.

Our last stop was to be St. Stephen which had the Marc Chagall windows. It was easier to find than the museum. The windows are lovely. They are 30 different shades of blue and are very beautiful as well as providing an aura of peace.

On the way back to the train station I was really dragging, so we stopped at a restaurant for a cold drink. I had another wonderful German beer, while Carol had apple juice. We got back to St. Goar at 4:40. It was nice to get there and rest before dinner. It was nice having food that was totally different than what we had been having.

We caught the 9:26 train to Oberwesel, the next town over. The day was again sunny and warm. On the main street we ran into David and Kay, two of our Untourists who were staying in Oberwesel. This is the first year that Oberwesel has been a venue for an Untour apartment. It s a very attractive town. While I would still choose St. Goar for the conveniences there and the quality of the apartment, Oberwesel would be my second choice. It does not have the tourists, and it has more of the feeling of a real German small town. It also seemed to have a very nice collection of stores. The supermarket was much bigger than the one in St. Goar. We spoke with David and Kay for about 15 minutes. It was nice to see them again, and to catch up. They told us of Sunday morning organ recitals in the Catholic church after mass. We made plans to hear the one tomorrow. After we parted, we shopped for a while, ending up buying some bakery goods. We returned to St. Goar to have a lunch of sandwiches in our apartment.

I took a nap until 1:30. Then we headed back up to Rhinefels for the medieval festival that was being held that weekend. We especially wanted to see the knights tournament, scheduled for 3:00. The castle grounds were lined with numerous booths selling medieval foodstuffs and handicrafts. People in costume were strolling about. It lent an air of authenticity to the surroundings. It was a bit hard to find where the tournament was going to be held. It s not a very big area, right next to one of the walls. There is no regular seating, but there is limited space on the hillside. We got there about 45 minutes early, and found a spot on the hillside. I would recommend this to anyone in the future---get to the space early and find a spot on the hillside. Otherwise you will have to stand.

The tournament was a lot of fun. Several knights on horseback, including one definite good guy and one definite bad guy, were vying for the hand of the princess. They engaged in various contests and jousts with an announcer giving blow by blow results, encouraging the crowd to cheer for the good guys and yell at the bad guy. The good guy rode up and down, saluting the crowd, while the bad guy worked up the crowd by yelling and shaking his fist at them. Sort of like professional wrestling in armor. It was good for a lot of laughs, and the knights were really skilled. Well worth seeing.

We got back to our apartment, rested and cleaned up for dinner. Once again we ate in a St. Goar restaurant. I wanted to have the bratwurst and sauerkraut again. It was a great day.

It was cloudy early; warm and sunny most of the rest of the day. We took the train to the next stop, Oberwesel, to attend the organ recital. We arrived at 10:30. The organ recital wasn t until 11:30, so we looked for a place to have some coffee and kuchen. We found an almost deserted riverside beer garden, and had coffee, apple kuchen with whipped cream. It was so neat sitting there on this quiet, beautiful Sunday morning, drinking coffee and eating cake while we watched the river traffic. For me, a very memorable moment.

At about 11:15 we wandered over to the church, and there were Judy and Don, two of our other Untourists. They were sitting by the church, waiting for the mass to end. We shared some experiences, and then went inside to sit together during the recital. It s a very lovely church for such a small town, and the organ is excellent.

When the recital was over, Judy and Don and we separated. They were going to a red wine festival in Assmanshausen and we wanted to see Kaub, another of our Untour towns, and the one where Ute our resource person lived. We caught the train back to St. Goar, had some ham sandwiches on the fresh broedchen (buns), which I had bought that morning, and then set out to catch the train to Kaub.

Kaub seemed quite deserted to us on this Sunday afternoon. It is not a tourist town, and the locals were doing whatever locals do on a Sunday afternoon. No stores were open, of course, and only a few restaurants. We walked around, took some pictures, and then headed for the river because we decided to take the boat back. We had to walk quite a distance to get to the boat landing, and then we were quite early. So we had cold drinks across the road. The boat arrived, and we were back in St. Goar a half hour later.

We were thinking about dinner, and there was a knock on the door. It was our landlord, Herr Huppertz. He told us that he and his wife would take us for a ride in the car to see some sights in the area, and then take us out to dinner afterward. They would be back at 7:00. They were punctual in the usual German fashion. His wife is a real sweetheart. She cannot speak any English, and his is very broken, so I had to struggle a bit with the German. They took us high above the river for some beautiful views. Then they took us to a local restaurant where we had a delicious dinner. I had Spargel (asparagus), wrapped with ham. Carol had toast with ham, pineapple, and melted cheese on top. But it is good in all the dishes they build around it.

It was dark when we left the restaurant. The Huppertzes drove us down toward St. Goar, and we could see, for the first time, the village from above, lit up. When we got back to our apartment building, they showed us their other apartments. They have five, and Idyll is only one of their renters. This is his business, and he rents to both German and foreign tourists. One of the five is just now being built. He has a website, and this, plus word of mouth, is how he advertises. It was a nice day, and we were left with a very warm feeling toward the hospitality and kindness of the Huppertzes.

This was the day of our farewell dinner. It was sunny and warmed up quickly. We wanted to leave the Huppertzes with a gift to show our appreciation for their kindness and friendliness. There is a florist shop in town, and since Frau Huppertz is very interested in gardening and flowers, we bought a pretty plant to give her. We then did a little bit of souvenir shopping in the shops in town.

We went back to our apartment, and as we were eating our sandwich lunch, the doorbell rang.We gave her the yellow begonia, and she expressed pleasure with it. We then read and rested until 2:10 when we had to catch the train to our dinner in Winningen.

We caught the train to Koblenz, and on it were David and Kay and Judy and Don. We met Ute, Larry and Betty in the train station, and we all traveled together to Winningen, another charming town on the Moselle River. It was a delightful time. Rosemarie is a very charming person. She explained to us the various categories of German wine, and we had a chance to taste each one. This was followed by a delicious lunch she had prepared for us.

After more conversation and a tour of her former winery, we caught the 7:20 train to Koblenz. They were going back on the other side of the river. The remaining six of us traveled on to our various towns. It was a full and enjoyable day.

We would be departing St. Goar today. Our flight would be leaving Frankfort on June 4 at 10:00. Therefore we would have to be at the airport at 8:00 a.m. Though, with one transfer, you can take the train to the Frankfort airport, the schedules that early in the morning were not good from St. Goar. We had decided before we left the U.S. to stay overnight in Frankfort. I found on the internet a reasonable hotel supposedly only 2 miles from the airport. We had the option of canceling the reservation and having Herr Huppertz drive us to Frankfort for 70 Euros. Looking back on it, if I had to do it again, I would have done that, but we already had the reservation, the hotel was close to the airport, and it was reasonable. So we stuck with our original plan to take the 12:20 train out of St. Goar.

The day was again sunny and warm. We packed and cleaned up a bit. I went out to buy some salad dressing, a tomato, and some rolls. Carol made a big salad with Frau Huppertz greens. We left the apartment to catch our 12:20 train. Both of us felt a bit sad to be leaving. It was a wonderful vacation.

We made our transfers, and got to the Frankfort airport fine. From there we got a taxi to take us to our hotel. The internet site said that it was only 2-3 miles from the airport. That may be, but it must have been as the crow flies . It was a 20-minute cab ride that cost 20 Euros. The hotel was OK&.small but clean and adequate. It was in an area of light industry and suburban apartments. There were a couple of restaurants nearby.

For such a modest hotel, they had a very elaborate breakfast buffet. The day was again sunny and warm. We hurried through breakfast because our taxi was due at 7:30. You really do need the full two hours in the Frankfort airport. They had the most thorough security checks we had ever gone through. Besides our bags being xrayed, we went through two body scans with the wand. I would hate to have to deal with the lines and the security checks if we were closer to departure time.

To make a long and pleasant story shorter, our plane left on time. It was a full but pleasant flight. For airline food, the food was good. So was the service. Our bags were not lost. We made our connections with Jet Blue at JFK and arrived in Rochester safely.I m already thinking about our next trip.

1. You are going to deal with smoking in the restaurants. The earlier you go, the fewer people will be in the restaurant, and the less annoying the smoke. Weather permitting, you can also eat outside. There is nothing else you can do about it. It strikes me as strange that the Germans who are so ecology-minded in other matters, ignore the air-pollution that smokers create.

2. Try to learn some German phrases, at least the greetings, responses, and numbers. However, you win more friends and influence people if you attempt their language.

3. A tip on tipping. German waiters are much better paid than American waiters. Tips are less. You pay the bill at the table to the waiter. The tendency is to round off the bill, the difference going to the waiter. For instance, if the bill is 28 Euros, the German patron might hand 30 Euros to the waiter and say, Das stimmt (roughly translated, That settles it. ). Or if the bill is 40 Euros, and he wants to leave a 2 Euro tip (5% is not unreasonable in Germany), he might give the waiter a 50 Euro bill and simply say to the waiter, acht und vierzig (forty eight, meaning, Give me change for 48. The extra is yours. ) They do not leave tips on the table.

4. If you are on a tight schedule, check out ahead of time at the Bahnhof the posted time table. There was an occasional slight difference on some of the trips between the posted time tables and the ones we carried with us. These were not major, but might impact someone trying to make a flight from St. Goarshausen.

5. You have to deal with your own bags. Pack lightly and plan on doing wash in your apartment. You do not need dress outfits or elaborate clothing changes. Back packs are good for the day outings.