We wandered around St. Goar for a bit waiting for our train down south to show up, but it was Sunday (I know, I had lost track of the days, too) and most everything was closed. There was a Stein Shop that was open that had a hell of a lot of souvenirs, including a run of steins made with bits of the Berlin wall. I thought about getting one, but decided to pass. My ‘tradition’, such as it is, is to get a container of some sort that reminds me of the trip. A stein seemed a little too german-specific. Still really cool, though.
Jess hanging out with some flowers.
We took the train down to Bingen, where we would be catching the boat. On the way from the station to the dock we found THE COOLEST PLAYGROUND IN THE WORLD. They could run water through the middle though a series of keys and locks and eventually it floated a little wooden barge at the end. It even had a cool Archemides screw and a backhoe that Jess played around with. We found a lot of really cool playgrounds in Germany. We’re jealous.
Me and the majesty of the Rhine.
We had to wait for the boat for a while, and so we walked around the (mostly closed) city and then sat in a park for a while on a bench. Jess let me nap on her lap, which was really nice. The boat showed up and we just flashed our Eurail pass and wandered right on. We used the guidebook to do some castlespotting, and then mostly just hung out, relaxed, and enjoyed the scenery. Lots of green hills with old vineyards *way* up in altitude. Every time we passed a castle everyone would get all excited and take pictures. I do have to admit, they were really really pretty. Some were just ruins, like the Rheinfels castle we had seen the day before, but many had been purchased and repurposed, either as hotels, restaurants, or just tourist destinations. The tiny little German towns along the way were pretty nice, too.
Jessie and some...castle. I dunno.
Eventually we started getting a little cold so we went to the inside of the boat and watched the landscape and castles from in there. Jess ordered some apple pie and hot chocolate that was really good, and before too long we were in Boppard, the farthest north stop that we cared about. We hung out in the city for a while, looking at plants and the river, then hopped a train back down to St. Goar.
Back in our ‘home city’ we checked out the now-open Cuckoo clock store and learned pretty much everything there is to learn about clocks: the different styles, what the different roofing types mean, and how to tell how often to wind a clock by the weights. We considered it, but didn’t buy one there. We had dinner at a german restaurant where we learned that Spargel (asparagus) was in season. We both had some, but it was white Asparagus, and very stringy and hard to cut. The beef and sauce was great, though, and it started raining and thundering while we ate, which was a nice touch.
Also: beer. We didn’t drink a lot of it, but they treat it a little differently over in Europe. As opposed to American restaurants which usually have at least five different beers on tap, most restaurants seemed to just have one, or maybe one company and a few different types. Most of the random stuff we tried was pretty good, especially after hiking around Germany all day. Jess found something called Colabeer which, as near as we can tell, is just Cola and Beer mixed together. It’s pretty good, actually. We may have to try it over here sometime. Just make sure you start with a light beer.
They have beer? In Germany? Also, the dark one is Cola Beer.
After our beers and food, we trundled back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit. Other than eat and look at the Rhine river, there’s not a whole lot to do in St. Goar. It was a really nice hotel, though, so we didn’t mind, and it’s always nice to unwind and not do anything too cultural for a while when on vacation.
-N
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