Bacharach was our last stop before returning to the U.S. It is only 50 km or so from Frankfurt, our point of departure, so there would not be a long drive to the airport on the critical morning. Even so, getting there in time was of concern to us, especially the car return, so we decided it would be worthwhile to drive around the airport on our way from Baden-Baden to Bacharach. We did that, and used the practice run to set important landmarks into both the Garmin memory and our memories. One of these was the Shell station on the airport campus. The rental agent had warned us that if the tank was not full we would be changed about $12 per gallon for the deficit. The Frankfurt diversion was worthwhile.
From Frankfurt we drove on to Bacharach and our hotel Pension Binz (left). No grand views here, just our cozy little street.
Antiques are often part of the decor of the pension.
The sign is advertising Deutscher Federweisser, 0.2 liter, for 2.30€. This is a popular drink around here this time of year. In English it is called "New Wine", but the literal translation of the sign is "Feather White". The drink is actively fermenting white grape juice. It is cloudy (hence the name), low in alcohol, and carbonated. Unfortunately, we didn't get around to trying it.
Also interesting is the standardized serving size. Most serving glasses of liquid refreshment had a hash mark on the side indicating volume, like a measuring cup. We assumed that this was a manifestation of a "consumer protection" law.
Also interesting is that we saw the use of the € sign both before and after the numerical amount. In print, I have only seen it preceding the numbers, like a dollar sign.
Bacharach is on the Rhine river. Salt is not the pricipal commodity here, wine is. Both our hotel (left) and the weinstube next door were adorned with grape vines.
But the serious vines surround us by the thousands. Here the hills are alive with sound of grapes growing.
You can get a sense of scale from the van in the picture on the right.
Too bad we never saw any harvesting in progress.
We had planned to go down the Rhine (in a sense, down is up, since the Rhine flows north) a bit to see the sights, but hadn't made definite plans. At our first breakfast we were alone in the dining room with our host who was serving us and seemed to want to make conversation, but whose English wasn't much better than Don's Deutsch. After quite a struggle (a pleasant one though) we worked out that there was a wine festival in a town, Oberwesel, just a few miles down the river on that very day. We thanked our host with a few danke schoens and set about making our detailed plans. We decided to take a cruise boat rather than the car or a train and stop at St. Goar as well as Oberwesel. The boat ticket seller said this could all be done on a round trip ticket.
Here Marty is enjoying the sights (left).
A castle is a common sight. Why are there so many castles here? Because they could extract "protection" money from the river traffic. Much like modern governments.
And some scenery (below) which is self-explanatory.
Here (left) is the "Lorelei" cliff which is fabled to lure sailors to their misfortune.
And here is the witch herself (right).
Here is how the pilot docks the boat. There is one of these outboard "bridges" on each side of the boat from which the pilot can see the dock and the side of the boat and steer with precision. His normal station is inside on the real bridge.