Germany Part 2 - the Rhine Valley, Burg Eltz and the River Tour

We got off to an earlier start on Day 2 in the Rhine Valley since we had a lot planned.  We had snagged some delicious German pastries in downtown St. Goar the previous day and noshed on those for breakfast before heading out.  We drove back north (downstream actually) and to the west, across the Mosel River, and finally into a heavily wooded area.  We parked in the lot and decided that the crisp cool air was perfect for taking the walking trail to Burg Eltz.  We walked through some incredibly gorgeous, green hiking trails flanked by beautifully forested valleys.

With the fog hovering over the trees it was almost unreal.  And finally we come to a bend in the trail, turn the corner and all let out a loud gasp at the completely gorgeous sight that met our eyes:

Burg Eltz is one of the only privately owned castles still inexistance in German.  It never fell in a battle and as such it is one of the most well preserved castles in the region.  The family that owns the castle actually still maintains a vacation residence in one wing of the castle.  Could you imagine - vacationing in a castle surrounded by rolling hills and the trickling of the River Eltz flowing below?  It was magical.

We signed up for the English tour and then proceeded to use up our 30 minute wait time in the "Treasury" where the family stores all of their old trinkets museum style - it was the only interior portion of the castle where we were permitted to take pictures.

This is one of the family tree of crests that was on display.  Our tour was not very long, but VERY detailed - the tour guides could tell you the history of every painting and piece of furniture in there.  After tour we ate our lunch at the outdoor cafe overlooking the beautiful valley and it was actually rated amongst all three of us as one of the best meals we ate on the trip.  S got some beer that he deemed quite delicous along with a big soft pretzel (he got these EVERYWHERE that he possibly could) and a garlic-y German style pizza, K got a super delicious venison goulash served over spaetzel, and I got some pea soup with German sausage and a glass of hot mulled wine.  Yum!

We then hopped back in the car and made our way back to St. Goar through the vineyard covered hills that surround both the Rhine and Mosel rivers.  We actually parked along the Rhine in St. Goar in order to board a nearby river boat to take a Rhine River cruise.  We spent about 2 hours on the river heading upstream to Bacharach, taking pictures of castles, and small towns, and vineyards along the way.  The view was lovely.

I got a little filter-happy, I know.  I love the way those pictures turned out, though, since the weather was kind of grey and gloomy and didn't do much to enhance the natural pictures I took.  Another feature of this area is the Lorelei rock, basically a huge cliff.  We didn't really get the appeal, but it is plays a huge role in the history of the area as this rock was known to be the most dangerous point along the river and caused many boating accidents over the years.  At one point its danger was mythically linked to mermaids and sirens...

Not too exciting to look at, but the legends make it fun.  Once we arrived in Bacharach we had about 45 minutes to explore.  After making our way under the highway bridge and into the completely adorable town we kind of kicked ourselves for not giving ourselves more time.

We managed to tear ourselves away in time to catch our boat back to St. Goar.  The trip back was with the flow of the current and so it went quite a bit faster.  When we returned, we headed to another of our favorite restaurants from the trip, Philipps Muhle, a small restaurant owned by a local vineyard.  We'd heard that vineyards had establishments where they served dinners and were determined to try one, Wolfgang and Gabi recommended this one and we'd highly do so as well!

We had a crazy good cheese dip for an appetizer (similar to a liptauer dip I made for our Oktoberfest party), cold cut and cheese platters with homemade sausage slices for dinner, and of course the vineyards wine - probably the best wine we had the entire trip.  I bought 2 bottles to take home, though one was consumed over the course of our trip and only 1 actually made it home!

Day 3  of the Rhine Valley coming up next week!  Have a lovely weekend!

Germany Part 2 - the Rhine Valley, Burg Rhinefels

Ok, get ready, because for the rest of the trip we were camera (or rather iphone camera) happy and we took a TON of pictures!  After Nurburg we drove down to the tiny town of St. Goar along the famous Rhine River.  This area of the Rhine is referred to as the Romantic Rhine because of the many vineyards and castles (this area has 40 something castles along a 20 mile stretch and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site), so we were sure to appropriately hit up a handful of castles and drink a lot of Riesling! 

While in St. Goar we actually stayed in an apartment rental that I'd HIGHLY recommend - the owners Gabi and Wolfgang were incredibly friendly (when we complimented the delicious scent of a dinner they were cooking, Gabi actually ran down to grab us a couple of samples to taste!) and a great source of information on the region.  All of our dinners were at restaurants they recommended and all of them were delicious!  On our first day we got a bit of a late start since S finally took the opportunity to recover from his jet lag (now that the sweet siren's song of Nurburgring wasn't keeping his adrenaline pumping...)  After a leisurely morning we got lost and then proceeded to walk down the steepest hill ever to the town's resident castle, Burg Rheinfels.

 

 

Burg Rheinfels is a castle in ruins right on a small cliff overlooking the Rhine.  It was a gorgeous view (our first of the Rhine River actually!) and the castle itself was a lot of fun because we could wander around the entire thing at our own will. 

There was no tour, just a map and signs that took you through the underground tunnels, to the "dungeon", through a cavernous hall, up to the top of a tower overlooking the river, and all around the now overgrown interior.  We felt like kids in our own secret hide out!

There were some beautiful views of the Rhine Valley from the castle too.  The leaves had just started changing colors and I was SO excited to get to experience autumn!

 

And this is the view from the top tower that we climbed too.  The Rhine River is still an incredibly busy waterway.  There were cruise ships and barges constantly floating by.  

 

Eventually we made our way down and then proceeded to ravenously consume Italian food in the castle's restaurant (we didn't want to overdo it on German food) as we'd worked up quite an appetite with all of our climbing and exploring!

After Burg Rheinfels, we headed down into the "downtown" tourist area of St. Goar to look at shops filled with cuckoo clocks, beer steins, and pretzels.  We eventually had to then make our way BACK UP the incredibly steep hill to the apartment.  It was ridiculously tough (I think the sign said it had a grade of 17) and we continuously referred to all strenuous activity after that as "not that bad compared to the hill in St. Goar".  For dinner that night we drove to the edge of town for some mushroom slathered schnitzel with spaetzel (an egg noodle that is everywhere in Germany and that I of course couldn't eat...).  S was a little less than thrilled with the proliferation of wine at every restaruant around here (he wanted some German beer!!!), but K and I were thrilled - it was delicious!

Ok, that's a pretty long post.  I'll come back tomorrow with the pictures from day 2 in the Rhine Valley!

Whoops! And Germany Part 1 - Nurburgring!

Yeah, so I skipped a week when I promised to post.  Not off to a good re-start.  I was going to post Halloween pictures, but the only ones I've seen with me in them are either blurry or not flattering.  I'll contact some more friends to dig up a good one.  In the meantime, here's the start of the Germany pictures that I promised!

We flew into Frankfurt on Saturday, October 5, got our luggage and rental car, and immediately hit the road to head to Nurburg, home of the Nurburgring racetrack!  This was obviously an S request since he's so into cars, but it was definitely an interesting experience for K and I as well!  When we got to our hotel, K and I crashed hard due to jet lag, but S was so hyped up on adrenaline that he went out to meet a friend of a friend who is part of a German Corvette club.  We met up with our new friends again for dinner (it was nice to get a lay of the land and basic food translation from someone who spoke English!) and then joined up with the rest of the Corvette club afterwards at a Discotheque!  We were a little too exhausted to boogie down, but we did have a good time!  Also, it turns out that there isn't really any good German pop music, so all of the radio stations and clubs play American music!  We heard a LOT of American Top 40....

The next morning we finally hit up the ring!  S took 2 laps around the ring on his own in our rental car (a pretty nice BMW 535 (in the background of the first picture).  We got passed left and right by porches and corvettes and sporty little souped up cars, but S was in his element - he actually got to drive on this famous 14 mile long race track!

We also had fun oogling all of the cars that were parked between laps (every lap there are anywhere from 2-4 minor/major accidents on the track - crazy daredevil motorcycles or cars overheating, cars taking a curve too fast and spinning, etc - and so all cars were stopped for about 30-60 minutes between laps for clean up crews to come through). 

We met up with the guys from the Corvette club again for lunch and then afterwards S went back onto the track as a passenger in one of the 'vettes for 2 ridiculously fast and thrilling laps (it was the TRUE Nurburgring experience) while K and I hit up some shops for souvenirs (I'm a total foodie nerd and got a cookie cutter in the shape of the ring....).  That evening after S rejoined us we set off for part 2 of our trip in the Rhine Valley....

Happy Halloween! And I'm back!

Well, first of all - Happy Halloween!!!  It's one of my favorite holidays and I can't wait to share details of my (3!) costumes this year!

Second of all, I'm so sorry for the two months of radio blog silence!!!  I have a couple of excuses, but only one of them is really a good excuse.  It all started back on Labor Day weekend when my 3 day weekend was shortened into a 2 day one by the failure of the hardware that I'm lead for on-orbit.  Madness ensued and for the next 2 weeks I was busy beyond belief at work and either busy or passed out when I got home.  Free time for blog posts was a losing battle when compared to sleep or just enjoying a couple of hours of my day with S.  Finally my hardware was replaced and things gradually became normal over the next week.  Ok, so that's 3 weeks accounted for and while I could have posted, I think most of you can understand why I didn't.

This was followed by 2 weeks where I wasn't overwhelmingly busy, but I was still extremely exhausted and I went into "easy"mode.  I just wanted to relax and enjoy myself.  I also spend part of that time preparing for vacation - you know, calling credit card companies, booking hotels, set up itineraries, packing, etc.  This is followed by my good excuse: I was in Europe!

Trust me, there are many pictures that will follow!  S and I went to Germany for 2 weeks with our good friend K, including a side trip to Salzburg, Austria and Prague.  It was amazing.  It had been 4 years since I'd been on any kind of extended vacation, so it was long overdue.  We only had spotty internet while we were over there and who wants to spend time writing blog posts instead of enjoying Germany?!?

So now I'm back.  A thousand apologies and I'll try to keep back up with things.  Pictures of my Halloween costumes and trip are coming soon...

(image from here)