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Breakfast is included at the Bacaracher Hof and it is a great European buffet (please do not make sandwiches to take away). The coffee was brilliant, the cheese awesome and the sliced meat fresh…having a little head ache Rosie avoided the bowl of boiled eggs.
Crawdaddy and Airmiles were already tucking in, looking as fresh as anything. We arranged to have dinner with them at 6.30…Rosie was already groaning and promising herself to take it easy on the Troncken. They were going in the direction we had planned today….we then decided on the cuff to go in the opposite. We like to hang on our own and anyway, then we would have something different to compare at dinner.
So we jumped in the car and headed back upriver to Boppard. Along the way are so many camping grounds on the banks of the Rhine, they are beautiful open strips of land with great views and big beer gardens and restaurants next door. Leathery brown skinned Germans with paunchy bellies were already lying out in the sun in nothing but speedos at 9.30 in the morning.
Bad,bad, Rosie, she is comparing everything to the beautiful Bacharach, Boppard was OK, but nothing out of the extra -ordinary, we wandered round the market place, and strolled along the Rhine Promenade where the cafe terraces are lovely and shady with overhanging trees. Rosie cant wait to get on the river to see all the faces of these towns from further away. At the end of the promenade was a Chair Lift that took you up a steep incline to view the Four lakes panorama and see the perfect horseshoe bend in the river that Boppard is famous for.
The chairlift was amazing, Rosie has never been on one, ever…she does not really like heights at all but was so busy concentrating getting into the seat cleanly, as it dosnt stop moving, that she never even thought about how high she was going.
It felt the best being in the open air, it was warm, the sun was shining on us and there was not a breath of wind, it was so quiet, all you could hear was the birds singing in the trees, it was such a great feeling soaring free above the view. The Operator told me to stop wriggling around with my camera, so Rosie sat back and enjoyed the ride, all 20 mins of it to the top.
It was a short hike to the Gedeonseck, the amazing view of the hairpin bend in the Rhine. My wide angle was not good enough on my iPhone, Rosie has come across this a couple of times so far….but never fear, tried out the trusty Panorama feature….am loving it!
Is this not the best view you can have while having a nice cold beer on a hot day from a terrace….we didnt. Two bus loads of tourists were standing pretty much behind Rosie and were just about to take all the seats in the place….we were not going to wait for service and listen to Chinese yap…we hiked on.
After a 5 min walk further on through the bush along a lumpy bumpy goat track, (this was the calibre of the whole track to date), we reached the Vierseenblick Which translates to the ‘Four lakes View’. The unique geography of this outlook creates the illusion that you are looking at four different lakes rather than the one river….hhhmmmm….The Operator thinks it is a gimmick set up by the restaurant right next to it just to make people walk out there for a drink. You did see four lakes in the distance though no disputing it. Rosie and The Operator turned to walk back…oh, there is a road and its half the length of the winding goat track. Oh well, good training for Rosie, whose knee I must say is holding up really well…must be slow reacting Holy Water.
Time to go home, it was getting really hot, we descended the chairlift, just as much fun going down!
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We called into the wee town of St Goar and saw the sprawling ruins of Burg Rheinfels. This castle fortress was once the mightiest on the Rhine. Built in 1245 it was once the base for the dastardly Count who built it and ran his illegal toll collecting operations from it. His medieval scam? Was to impose a toll to each boat passing by his castle.
Home in Bacharach Rosie settled onto the balcony to do abit of writing and The Operator went for a hike in the steep hills above the town, he got some great pics looking back over the town.
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We met for dinner with Crawdaddy and Airmiles in the Hotel restaurant and had a sensational meal. The Bacharacher Hof has been owned and run by the same family for the last 8 generations….Dirk and Ellen are mid 40s and have been there for the last 25 years, his cooking is exceptional and it is no wonder they are No1 on Tripadvisor for local restaurants! 4 hours later, 4 bottles of wine later and Rosie was going off to bed alot later than expected….but man did we sleep well, even with the flat pillow and dodgy duvet.
Tomorrow it seems like the fine weather is coming to an end….rain is coming and we have a couple of plans up our sleeve depending on whether the sky is leaking or not….stay tuned.
