Saturday started off even less inviting in the morning. At breakfast we looked at the dark skies and the constant wind, hinting at imminent rain. It was a good thing that we had a plan for just such a situation, an afternoon/evening boat trip south on the Rhein, to St. Goar and back. We headed down and grabbed our rental bikes from the hotel parking area for an easy ride tothe banks of the Rhein so that we could get our boat tickets early and go enjoy a little more of the area. I say easy even though we had to dodge numerous pedestrians because Steph had a bike bell that make sure people were aware of us (mine made more of a weak clunk sound). Even the getting the boat tickets was a bit of fun because of the attendant's surprise that we wanted to take the last boat down river to St. Goar and then 20 minutes later start e journey back to Koblenz. She questioned us to be sure that all we would want to do is take the boat down, get off, and turn around and get back on to come back. Yeppers, that was our plan indeed.
With tickets purchased and time to spare we decided to make further use of the bikes by going down the east side of the Rhein for a few miles. This side wasn't as scenic as the west bank of the river, and the flooding river banks seemed to still be rising since we arrived on Thursday. In fact, just north of the the bridge we intended to cross to come back into Koblenz, we had to backtrack because the water had risen above the trail far enough that ducks were swimming over it. Coming back up to the head of that section of trail we ran into German and English bikers who got a laugh when we told them that it was no longer passable since ducks were able to be swimming where the trail was supposed to be. We then took the road a bit further south to the rail bridge over the Rhein that had a bike way beside the tracks. This was not an ideal crossing for Steph but she was game enough to try it and predictably a cargo train passed on the tracks nearest us when we reached the midway point. Surviving that and having an otherwise comfortable ride back into town we dropped off the bikes at Zanger. They were so kind and personable, getting the deposits back was no hassle.
Next up on the day was taking a quick jaunt down through the shopping area, which in some sense reminded us of Sauchiehall in Glasgow. Steph finally broke down and picked up a couple of scarves. It was something she had been resisting since we got into Freiburg. The shopping center wasn't so impressive as to get us spending lots of money and being just after noon time we decided it was time for coffee. We stopped at Hoefer's and relaxed and enjoyed watching the world go by us for a little bit. I know you are figuring we stop for coffee often, and we do, but it isn't quite the same frou frou coffee culture as there is here. Yes, Starbucks does exist, but we have stuck with finding more localized or regional places.
With a refresher in place we headed down to the boat docks and were not sure what we should expect of our boat tour because of the two groups that crossed paths. A stag party stumbled down the gangway off the boat and an equally loud hen party came up to the boat as well. (Both groups were german, so there was no room to complain about it being stereotypical American or English jerks.) to our good fortune it was only the hen party that joined, and they chose to be off on their own in a different section of the boat. The chance to see all of the castles and the vineyards at a more leisurely pace was immensely enjoyable. It also made us aware that there were a number of nice small towns along the Rhein that would be worth a visit or a stop over on a bike tour of the middle Rhein. In the 20+ mile stretch from Koblenz to St. Goar there were seven lovely castles to take in on the hillsides. Of course we still had a smaller stag party, we didn't know they were initially as there were only four of them who were relatively quiet, sitting near by. We couldn't get over how much alcohol they put away on the three hours up river, a six pack of Beck's for each as well as several shots of bitters, Underberg to be exact. They weren't bad to be near and Steph and I also got to enjoy some Sion kolsch on the ride to St. Goar.
St. Goar is one of those pretty Rhein towns, on the west side of the river. We had a few minutes to walk around and get a little sense of the place, of course we found the bakery before closing to get something nice for the river trip back. That is the two of them from back in the room later in the evening as we reserved our desert for an appropriately late time.
It did get a bit cool and blustery as we awaited the paddle steamer for the trip back. It turns out that the boat, The Goethe, was celebrating 100 years this summer and that was our ride back to Koblenz. It was a lovely and comfortable boat and it made great time up the river due to the faster current with such hi water. We couldn't get over just how high the water was creeping everywhere.
The evening was rounded off by a walk back through town, where there wasn't much of dinner that looked appealing, so we walked back out to the hotel. As we walked in to the bar/restaurant it turned out to be halftime of the German football cup, so we went up to the room, freshened up and went down to watch the second half and have a small bite of late dinner. All in all Koblenz has been great fun and we head out of Germany for the Low Countries on Sunday.
Prost!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment