The Rhine Untour, Summer of 2004
St. Goar on the Rhine
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We were met at the rail station by an old man who asked, expectantly, "Kimble."
We nodded and he took off down the hill with our bags on his handtruck to
Heerstrasse, the main street of St. Goar. We were pleased that it was a
pedestrian street that only allowed vehicles when making pick-ups and
deliveries. The entrance to our second floor apartment was about 15 feet off
Heerstrasse, in a narrow lane. (Our arrangements were made through "Untours" an
Idyll, Ltd. company: www.untours.com)
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He showed us around the somewhat old-fashioned apartment, but since he spoke
little English, it was mostly "show, but not tell." It had 12 foot ceilings,
nice windows, and old but clean furniture. In the corner of the living room
area were French doors to a small balcony, and in the other half of the room
were a table and chairs, and a kitchen unit.
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A short hall leads to the bedroom and bathroom. Both were spacious and clean.
We'd been told we could get CNN on the TV, so before the man left we tried it.
Unfortunately the remote didn't work, so we had to do it manually. He tried a
new battery in it, but that didn't help. Punching buttons 19 times to get CNN
was to remain in effect for our two week stay.
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Marilyn tried the balcony and found the view was excellent. Directly below her
was a store (with the yellow Post sign) which sells newspapers and sundries,
and has a counter for DB (German railway) where you could get schedules and
tickets. There was a small general market about a half block away (right) and
in the distance was Rhinefels Castle on a hill overlooking the village. There
were a number of indoor/outdoor restaurants and shops all along Heerstrasse.
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Next door to our lane was a Bakery, whose windows were brimming each morning by
7 a.m. with freshly baked, mouth-watering pastries!
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We did some minor shopping at the mini-market. We didn't need much this first
day because our fridge had been stocked by Untours prior to our arrival with
milk, bread and lunch meat-a nice touch. There were two priority items,
however, that we had to buy: a bottle of good Rhine Reisling for Marilyn and a
few bottles of their excellent dark German wheat beer for me.
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Now we were ready to do a walkabout in order to get our bearings on the village
layout, and then the promenade along the Rhine and the river steamer docks and
ferry. Marilyn, of course, eye- balled the shop windows as we walked about. We
had a new home for the next two weeks!
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