The day started with the excitement of getting the second wash done and hung out as the first dried so quickly in the sunshine on the veranda.
After breakfast Colin was on driving duty today as we headed out (still in sunshine) along the Rhine to visit a succession of little towns most with very impressive castles. We drove up to Sant Gore castle first only to discover it was covered in scaffold. We drove back down the hill and after a brief walk through the almost deserted town, we drove onto the delightfully named Oberwesel. Nearly all of the towns that we visit are full of three and four hundred year old buildings, all surviving but at rakish angles with not a ninety degree angle in sight! We stopped for a coffee and cake and I had an interesting conversation with a woman who lives close to the town all about Brexit an the lack of benefits - just wanted to explain it was not my fault! The post office I had spotted was closed so after a stroll we went back to the car and drove the brief distance onto Bacharach. This medieval town was a little bigger than the others and positively stuffed full of old timbered buildings with dates in the 1700’s carved on the front of them. We popped into St Peter’s church to hunt out some rather dubious wooden carvings that Colin had read about and found the almost too easily.
The town (like some others) is or rather was walled and I decided to head up a very narrow and steep cobbled footpath in-between houses to see if we could get a better view over the town. I had to quite bargained for how steep the path was in-between the vines up to a watch tower. The views were well worth it and the weather and clouds just perfect for photographs over the slated towers.
Back down again with a reward of a refreshing ice cream (mine was Riesling flavoured) before heading back to Kaub where we could take a little car ferry to the other side to have a closer look at what was supposed to be an impressive geological feature near a place called Loreley. I’ll be honest, it was not that impressive - basically a rather small slate cliff face above the road.
We continued the drive up towards Boppard and took the same ferry as yesterday back across the river (old hands at this now). We briefly checked out the location of the chair lift up to the top of a peak overlooking Boppard for a visit tomorrow and then drove home (via Aldi again!) for dinner. A very nice meal of fresh asparagus, steak and salad although we discovered there is no washing liquid which despite the presence of a dishwasher does make clearing up rather a challenge.
