Day four 6th June
Up early and down for the ferry to cross over the Mosel for the Rhine trip, the ferry was on the wrong side of the river but we had plenty of time before the sailing. The trip we had chosen was by paddle steamer and we where informed when we got the tickets that it was an extra €1.50 each for the Goethe, collectable onboard (it was in the brochure as well) but no one ever mentioned it.
I got a nice seat over the port paddle but Dot wanted to sit in the bow, so we moved, it was not a bad seat but there was young Englishman, with questionable hygiene and opinions, sat next to Dot, so we moved back to the original seats.
Back on our original seats we had we had some breakfast bars we had brought with us as we hadn't have time for a proper breakfast before we set of. The boat was bigger than than it looked but there where several larger tour boats travelling in the same direction, one floating hotel seemed to be in such a hurry to pass, it almost took our bow off as it swung back in front of us.
Our boat was a daily scheduled service with stops all along the Rhine from Koblenz to Rudesheim but to fit in with our needs we were only going as far as Bacharach. This was a four and a half hour cruise to Bacharach, with one hour forty five to look around and have something to eat and then a two hour fifty five cruise back. Its quicker going back as that's the way the river flows and it flow really fast.
The scenery was amazing and there were too many castles and villages to put all of the photos on this site but I will give you a flavour of what can be seen. There were also many campsites and motorhome parking places right on the river banks.
I even had a beer on board, a Franziskaner Hefe Weissbier, one of my all time favourites, how good is that good beer and fantastic views. I didn't get as many photos along the river as I should have as I was trying to take video. I still have the photos I did take, I have no idea where the video it.
Bacharach is a very pretty village, we had a walk around and had a look at the Stellplatz by the river (it was very crowded but as I have said before these places do not appeal to me anyway), before looking for something to eat.
Thought about a pizza from a takeaway but settled on a sort of bier garden in a courtyard, we weren't very hungry so only ordered a couple of starters, sort of dip things with bread and pretzels and a couple of beers. They only brought us one meal which was lucky as there was far too much for one person and you could have as much bread as you liked.
The ferry MS Jeverland, was a lot smaller and a lot newer than the one we had arrived on, it was also very crowded and seemed to be full of Japanese tourists. We were very lucky and got a seat together, we were even luckier to get that seat on the same side of the boat as we came on and therefore got to see the other side of the river on the way back. Again we ordered beers to have along the way, Erdinger Hefe Weissbire, this time another favorite.
A couple of drop-offs later, all of the Japanese party disembarked and once more we had plenty of room to relax and enjoy the journey back to Koblenz, with another beer.
A couple of drop-offs later, all of the Japanese party disembarked and once more we had plenty of room to relax and enjoy the journey back to Koblenz, with another beer.
Back in Koblenz we got food at a place near the big monument, it was a sort of open-air self-service restaurant with excellent meet dishes, we both got pork with chips, caramelised onions and sauce (a very nice gravy). Drinks had to bee ordered separately from a bar around the corner form the serving counter and then all paid for at the till, with the deposit for the bottle and glass.
Must say the food was wonderful (could be because we hadn't had much to eat all day) and the views were good as well, it was a great place for a very cheap and enjoyable meal. Then, after getting our deposit back from the bar (actually you get a chit from the bar to cash in at the till), we headed for the ferry back to the campsite.
We got back in time to see England win (for a change) and then made plans for travelling the next day. We did have provisional plans for sites and route but as we had been in Koblenz for a day longer than we had planed and as we had already had a Rhine cruise (something we were going to do as the next stop), we made the decision to miss out the next stop and go straight to the third place on the list, Bad Liebenzell, in the Black Forest.
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