Castles!

Location: Bacharach, Germany

Germany is amazing. Absolutely picturesque. The little town we stayed in is called Bacharach. We stayed in a tower (converted into the 18 floor hotel Kranenturm, 700 years old~!) that is one of the 16 towers that were part of the fortress walls protecting the Rheinfels castle. We are a stone-throw away from the still highly used Rhine River.

Our first day begins with a historical walking tour with a Bacharach local name Heir Jung. He is an 80 year old gentleman who is a survivor of World War II (10 yrs old at the time) and gave us his perspective on German history (all the nitty gritty parts). His recollection of lying the floor with his mother during bombings, losing his 17 year old brother to combat, and living in extreme poverty during and after the war was extremely touching.

Looking at him, you'd never guess he was 80 years old--not by the way he was leading up and down the town streets, hoping up on building ledges, and trudging up the vineyard hills (OMG, the vineyard hills were beautiful!). He even took us into one of his good friend's shops and demanded "now sit down and play us a song" on the piano, to which his friend enthusiastically obliged (I'm sure they've done this routine for many tours before us ;-] ). Heir even told us about his efforts to do good for the world because of the "dark" parts of his country's history (Nazi rule). He is a retired school teacher who now teaches refugees from other countries how to speak German and its history. He houses Jewish immigrants in his home to help them get settled and learn the ways of the community. He was adorable and we wanted him to stick with us for the rest of the day!

The town of Bacharach is a gem along the Rhine River. It looks authentically historical without trying to be tourist trap (ahem…Leavenworth). The town exists just as it did when it was first settled into, the architecture isn't a gimmick but how they truly live. Adore it. It’s a two street city, that's it. Two main roads, the rest are ally ways.

After his tour we hiked to the Rheinfels castle which over looks both the river and town. Rick Steve's describes the castle as a "dead pit bull" above the town. This castle is dubbed the "mightiest of castles" because during the war no one could over take it, not even a 20,000 siege by army troops in 1679 couldn't do the job. We get a guided tour through underground tunnels, the wine cellar, a dungeon, and along the top of the fortress walls. This place is everything I expected a castle to be! SO cool. Definitely the highlight of my day. The castle's history is quite interesting as well, it was finally blown up by the French after they occupied it for 2 years in 1797 (but that was only because the current ruler knew the French commander who was going to invade and he refused to fight against his friend, so he ordered all German soldiers to evacuate). What is left are the ruins, not rebuilt by the following rulers due to high cost for the stone.

Then it was back to the hotel via ferry down the Rhine River. At dinner a small group of us ventured to the end of the main drag to a little restaurant. We totally ordered dinner in German, and the waiter understood us!

Me: sprechen sie Englisch? (do you speak english)

Waitor: Ein (a little)

Us: (thinking in our minds) oh crap

--bust out the translation book--

Us: Haben sie…blah blah menu stuff (do you have…)

Me: die rechnung bitte (the bill please)

Us: danke shen (thank you very much)

Good Times! Then we took our skills to the Gelato store!!