Day 5 - Rhine Cruise / Stahleck Castle [Germany]

Koblenz is a very old city, and if possible, has more history than even Trier. Its founding goes back to the time of Christ, and the Romans spent much time and money here. The electors of Trier were connected here as well, but I'm not quite sure how that panned out (the electors were royals from around the area who would elect an emperor if necessary. obviously, they had a lot of power at their hands, and would often elect a weak emperor to maintain that power). I woke up late, and wandered around Koblenz, taking in all the buildings and people.

I stopped to eat lunch in the old city square, called Plan. They used to joust here! I ate at an italian joint called La Mamma. Not exactly german food, but since I was only an hour or so away from Italy, I figured it was ok. Regardless, lunch was the best italian food I had ever eaten. 3 different types of pasta in 3 different sauces - a shrimp scampi, a sausage dish, and a steak in heavy cream. Mom - how do you say delicious in Italian!

After lunch, I headed to the Rhine and bought a ticket for my cruise. The boat was huge, but only a few people were on board, as this is off-season. There were a bunch of blue-haired old couples, and a rowdy group of middle aged german women on a wine drinking cruise. The weather was perfect - warm, a cool breeze, and only a few high clouds. With the castle guarding Koblenz over my shoulder, I was ready to go.

The boat proceeded at a leisurely pace, which was fine with me. It gave me time to read along with Rick Steves and get to know a little about each castle. I could definitely see why they call this the Romantic Rhine, it reminded me a little of my bro-mantic cruise I had with Ty last year, except it wasn't hot, polluted, or extremely over-crowded and ruined by tourism. The valley walls are lined with grape vines famous for producing Reisling wine. The river was clear and clean, and the air fresh. At all times, at least one majestic castle was in view, often times several.

It turns out these castles made their money by tolling commerce on the Rhine. At least one castle had gigantic chains that they would lower into the river, and only raise them when the ship captain had paid the fee. This was repeated at varying intervals along the river. The rustics little villages along the river are still very quaint, and it is easy to picture them a few hundred years ago.

I ended my cruise in the town of Bacharach, once the capital of Germany (for 2 years, the crusading emperor left his bro in charge). I toured the little village for a while and then headed uphill to Berg Stahleck, a castle turned youth hostel.








One word, awesome!

My room tonight, is on the fourth floor of a tower smack dab in the keep in the middle of a castle, high above the Rhine. I'm staying at Burg Stahleck, an old castle converted into a youth hostel. I asked the lady at the counter if they had any rooms besides the dormitory, and she gave me the tower room for only 5euro more. All in all, the room cost about $30. Plus they had a cheap buffet dinner, and for the first time since I got here, I ate like a champ (potatoes in mystery gravy, cooked mystery meat, and mystery fish breaded and cubed).

My room is the second one from the top, in the picture below. The view from my window is a commanding one, looking over miles of the downriver Rhine. I'm looking forward to sunrise tomorrow morning. Here is another link (the english article sucks)

Tomorrow, I want to go back downriver to a town called St Goab. Here they have a ruined castle, it used to be the largest on the Rhine, that you can explore on your own. After that, I don't really know. I think I'll end up in Switzerland somewhere, but I'm not sure how I'll get there.