It rained off and on all the way back to St. Goar. Most of the ship's passenger
stayed in the salons, with just a few hardy souls remaining on deck. I felt
sorry for those who had only this day to see the Rhine.
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Despite the rain there were sights to see on each shore of the river and folks
rushed to one side and then the other to see as much as they could.
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The weather cleared from time to time and fortunately was clear when we passed
Pfalz Castle It rises as a strange fortress in midstream. If ever there was a
good place to put a toll booth, this is it. Built in the 14th century it worked
very effectively to tax medieval river traffic. The Pfalz raised its chains
across the river when boats came. merchants paid their duty. Those who refused
to pay were imprisoned in the fortress. The town of Kaub grew rich from this
control of river shipping.
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We had dinner that night at the Am Markt Restaurant in St. Goar where we had a
delicious dinner of wild boar.
Afterwards we walked down Heerstrasse to a shop where they sell gelato. Ummmm, delicious! |
| Today we took the train to Koblenz after breakfast and changed for a train west to Moselkern. The Wares and Aguayos got off there so they could go to Burg Eltz castle. Contrary to what the guide books say, one can't call a local cab to take you to the castle. Instead they found they had to walk, uphill, over an hour to get there (and another hour to walk back to Moselkern). We continued on the train to Cochem. We had stayed there several days when we were motoring through France about three years ago, and decided to explore the Mosel River. One thing we had not done was tour the castle perched high on a hill above the town. | ||
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We took a shuttle bus from the busbahn up to the castle. The tours are all in German, but you are given guides printed in English which aids in under- standing the commentary. The castle has an interesting history from medieval times to the present. Destroyed in the 17th century it was rebuilt in the 18th century by a German millionaire. He subsequently lost title to the Nazis after the war began, and it finally, in recent years, became the property of the City of Cochem. |
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The castle guide was quite good and we had little
trouble following the descriptions in our printed guide. Although he spoke
entirely in German he would repeat an explanation in English when he saw
puzzled looks on our faces.
The castle had been carefully restored and maintained by a succession of owners and contained beautiful furniture, tapestries and paintings. |
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After the tour we took one last long look at the castle towers and began
trudging down the steep cobble- stone streets to the market plaza. We had a
little time before our train back to Cochem, so we walked about for awhile,
enjoying the nice day and the ambience of the village. We met up later with the
very tired adventurers who went to Burg Eltz and shared a fine Italian dinner.
Good conversation and good Chianti made for a pleasant evening, topped off with
a walk along the Rhine before bedtime.
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