Yesterday, Thursday, was a travel day. We left our Rothenburg hotel at 7:20. The innkeeper offered us two bottles of water since we were going to miss breakfast. We stopped at a pastry shop as we were walking to the train station. Karen picked us out two jelly-filled donuts, which we carried to the train with us.

It took us about 10 minutes to walk to the train station. We waited only a few minutes for the train to arrive. We were the first on the train and since there was no one else on the train, we ate our donuts. Nothing at the train station was open. There was no waiting room, just benches by the single platform. Outside it was 49 degrees but nice and warm on the train.

Not long after we arrived numerous school children started getting off the bus. We supposed that catching a train to the next town was much akin to catching a school bus. There were students of all ages, all carrying backpacks.

One of our trains was 24 minutes late because of track construction. We got on the regional train and arrived about 9 a.m. in Wurzburg. There we hopped on an ICE train, don’t know what that means, but it is a much nicer train than the two regional trains we had taken from Rothenburg. Our train arrived in Koblenz where we boarded a regional train to Boppard, Germany, where we are staying two nights.

Our hotel in Boppard, the Bellevue Rheinhotel, is directly on the Rhine River. We arrived about 1:30 p.m. and spent the afternoon walking around the town. Because we had not eaten anything since the donuts earlier in the day we were getting hungry and started scoping out restaurants. The real problem with that is none of the restaurants posted menus outside are in English. We just had to guess what we were looking at on the menus.

The restaurant we picked did bring us an English menu. Karen ordered onion soup with bread and cheese and I had a baguette covered with ham and cheese. We both enjoyed our lunch.

We rested a little and then walked along the sidewalk that ran the distance on the Rhine River. We were amazed at the number of huge ships that cruise up and down the Rhine. None of the cargo ships look like anything we see in Morehead or Beaufort at the terminal. These ships are very low to the water and are very long. Another thing that surprised us were the number of cruise ships sailing up and down the river. These were like the Viking cruise ships we see advertised on television but all that we spotted were not Viking cruise ships. Two of the ships had docked in Boppard, which apparently is a good docking place on the Rhine.

After walking until dark, we decided we’d look for some dessert. Again, no menus in English. We returned to our hotel, which had a very nice restaurant and found that we could read the dessert menu there. There was only one problem, we found the desserts a little pricey. I ordered the scoop of chocolate ice cream with mixed berries and a very small piece of chocolate muffin. Karen ordered some kind of pear tart with walnut ice cream. Both were delicious but both were very small. We also ordered coffee. What was hard to swallow was the bill. It was 32 euros for our two desserts and coffee. A euro is roughly $1.10 in US currency.

But, we enjoyed the experience and went to bed happy.

We had told the front desk that we would also eat the breakfast buffet rather than going out looking for breakfast food. It was a notch or two above what one might get free at a Hampton Inn, but was 16 euros each. We were a little disappointed with the selection, but the coffee was good.

FRIDAY, OCT. 18–CASTLE TOURING

Our goal today was to visit Marksburg Castle, only a few miles away but on the other side of the Rhine. Our plan had been to catch a tour boat down to the city where the castle was located, Braubach. However, the tour cruise was canceled because of needed repair. Karen had already figured out we could get there. In Boppard, almost in front of our hotel was a ferry that took both cars and individuals across the Rhine river. We had about a one mile hike once crossing the river to a little town called Filsen, where we caught a regional train to Braubach. It took about 45 minutes to cross the river, walk to the train station and arrive in Braubach. We needed to get there because the only tours in English were at 1 and 4.

After we got off the train in Braubach, we had to hike to the castle. It was steep, really steep. And, after getting out of the city limits, we were walking on a dirt path toward the castle. In places it was not wide enough for us to walk side by side. And, did I mention it was steep. We paused every few minutes to catch our breath.

We finally made it to the castle and were shocked to see a bunch of cars in a parking lot. We did not know that cars could drive up. Not that we had a car, but we might have considered a taxi.

Marksburg is the only hill-top castle along the middle Rhine that has never been destroyed. As we were riding the train yesterday to our destination we rode beside the Rhine and saw numerous castles. Nearly all looked to be in ruins. That’s why we wanted to see Marksburg because it was still standing.

According to the brochure we were given, Marksburg is the best preserved castle that shows the different eras of castle construction over the centuries. Our guide spoke pretty good English even though he was German. Only a few times did we not understand what he was saying. He gave us a history of the owners and reasons the castle was never destroyed. As he said, German history is very complex. It certainly is.

One interesting point the guide made was why so many medieval beds were so short. He said that people slept sitting up. The castles were sooty and smoky so people sat up to breath better but they also believed only the dead lie out straight.

After finishing the hour tour, we stopped in the snack bar and ate some bagged pretzel sticks and had some water and then headed down the hill. Going down was much easier than going up. We got back to Braubach, caught the train back to Filsen, walked back to the ferry and rode it back across the Rhine. All in all a very interesting day and probably our last castle to tour.

We returned to the hotel and rested for a while and then left in search of supper. We had seen a pizza restaurant not far from the hotel and decided it would be hard to go wrong with a pizza even if we couldn’t read what kind they were. We asked for an English menu but there were none. Our waiter said he’d be glad to translate if we needed help. We picked out a pizza with cheese and spinach and it was very good. Having not eaten since breakfast, we were ready to eat.

In walking around the town, we spotted a grocery store and decided we would buy some food for breakfast rather than eating in the hotel restaurant. How about going shopping where you cannot read anything. We were looking for orange juice, yogurt, plastic spoons and some type of pastry for breakfast. Our hotel room came with a small refrigerator, although it was stocked with beverages. We took a couple of them out so our stuff would fit. Our grocery shopping amounted to 14 euros, less than half of what we would have to pay in the hotel restaurant.

Tomorrow we will board the train to Amsterdam. It appears it will be at least a half day journey.

The top photo is us standing in front of Marksburg Castle. The middle photo is the view from the castle looking out over the Rhine valley. The little town below is Braubach. And, just for fun, the elevator in our hotel has a bench seat in it. One of the larger elevators we’ve had in our many stays. There’s a mirror behind it and that’s why I’m also in the photo as well as taking it.