We were sad to be leaving our friends, but a little excited about venturing off on our own. So far, George had been holding our hands along the way-which is exceedingly nice when you’re visiting a new culture! We had grown accustomed to George taking care of transactions and we were about to find out how ready we were to do it alone. Dennis had tried to pick up some beginning German, and we had a dictionary, so off we went into the bavarian wine country.
The real challenge for our first day alone was going to be the 3 or 4 train transfers. If all of the trains were on time, then we’d be golden. Believe it or not, you can’t set your watches to the train schedule as rumors have it!
By the time we got to Stuttgart, it was time to forrage for grub. We walked a few blocks from the Bahnhoff (trainstation), and found a nice outdoor mall. We decided to go greek, so we had falafel and sat outside for some fantastic people watching.
We had two more trains to catch, from Stuttgart to Bingen, then Bingen to Bacharach. As we got closer to our destination, the geography changed dramatically. It went from flat farmlands, to rolling hills, to drastic mountains. The river we followed accentuated the vista.
We stayed in a youth hostel in Bacharach, that is situated in a castle on top of a hill. Probably 500 vertical feet above the town proper. It is quite an amazing place to stay, but it is very popular now that Rick Steeves has published this special spot. When we arrived, we were greeted by 20-30 children who were running around the grounds playing games. Our room was as small as a closet, with a bunk and an even smaller bathroom.
We walked back down the steep trail to town. We selected a small little local restaurant. We decided to sit outside because it was very smoky inside.
In Germany, as soon as you sit down at the table, you are expected to order right away. They assume that you have spent time outside the restaurant, looking over the menu and that you know what to order. Dennis & I learned this while with George, and so we were excited to be ready to eat on our own. We ordered our meal right away with the waitress, and she brought us our drinks.
Then we waited almost 2 hours for our food to come! I’m not sure if they forgot about us, or if the waitress just didn’t want to come out in the cold to serve us, or if they had to go to the next town to obtain the salmon, but eventually the food came and it was good.
After waiting so long to eat, and scarfing down the food, we decided to stop for some dessert. Gelatto hit the spot, yum!