Hotel Restaurant Altkolnischer Hof Bacharach

... waltz in, and ask to taste. You get a few glasses of wine, chat, and move on....for free. My kinda place. We hit about 5 wineries today. Germany has some rocking Reislings, and my tummy is full of them.<br><br>After our housing debacle yesterday, we used HostelBookers.com to find a room for 2 nights in Wiesbaden, a cute little town near Mainz on the Rhine. The hostel had just 1 review: "It looks like the Shining hotel". Sold!!! So we ...

... 8217;s dinner and I enjoyed every course. Dessert was the traditional Baked Alaska with a flaming procession by all the kitchen staff. It took almost three hours to finish dinner so it was almost bedtime by then.<br>I stayed up, though, and watched the ship pull in to Cologne. Very pretty sight. St. Martin&#8217;s church and the Cologne Cathedral were illuminated and stood out against the dark sky.<br><br>

... Steakhouse). As people who travel often we wondered what the food was going to be like as we know Germans love their food and large portions. The food was well cooked and tasty, and the service was excellent. We were surprised in the steak house we ordered Rib eye Steak and got Fillet Steak although perfectly cooked not what we ordered (although we only paid for Rib eye), but everything else with the meal was extra ...

... are exactly what you picture when you think of a little german town... I bet it´s beautiful here at Christmas. That afternoon, to stay dry, we did some wine tasting. They are famous for their Reisling here and have it in dry (trocken) half dry (halftrocken) and sweet (liebich... maybe). Bacharach has some really good wines.<br>The next morning the sun had come out so we decided to take a bike ride up to the next town, St. Goar. From there, we ...

... the WW1 sacrifice of the local reserve infantry division based in the town. It seems a bit sad that the Germans don't remember their war dead as we do in Australia. Yes they were on the losing side and there were atrocities committed (by both sides), but many of the soldiers fought just as bravely as their enemies.<br><br> Rhine<br><br>We shared our Rhine River cruise with lots of German ...

... built in the middle ages to collect tolls from passing ships. Apparently they would raise a chain over the river, forcing ships to stop and pay a toll. I&#8217;ll just list out all the sites:<br><br>1. Pfalz Castle, on an island in the middle of the river, with Gutenfels castle on the bluff above it.<br><br>2. Schonburg Castle above the town of Oberwesel, with many roman remains &amp; medieval towers.<br><br>3. The Loreley, a big slate rock rising 450 feet above the ...

Few events taking place in Germany will beat this one - the Rhine River in Flames. This refers to a fireworks event with a near 80 year tradition (since 1931) along the Rhine. Every summer, a 45 minute extravagant fireworks event takes place along the Rhine river in four cities and I have also included the upcoming event dates:<br><br>Bonn: 01.05.2010, 07.05.2011, 05.05.2012<br>R ...

... huge. In addition, it sits on a giant base that can only be described as Stalinesque. The whole thing overlooks a spit of land that has been sculpted into the shape of the prow of a giant ship, pointing out into the Rhine. When we went up on the monument, the effect is that were were standing on the bow of a giant stone ship, with the great Kaiser towering above us. Deutschland Ubber Alles indeed.<br> We returned back ...

... with a view of the river and the sound of eight million bugs. Quick exploration of the castled revealed a pond, ramparts, a tower with more rooms, Huge dorm rooms for all those kids, and the rock that the castle was built on sticking out of the walls all over the place. We had chosen an excellent hostel for our stay on the Rhine. We met several of the Youth groups&#8217; leaders and after a long chat, we were invited to play Phase Ten with them. We knew the game better than ...

... the town. We found a fun-looking restaurant and had German-style pizzas for lunch. Mine, which was spinach and feta cheese, was delicious, and the others seemed to really enjoy theirs as well. After lunch, we walked up to the chapel ruins above the town, and then hiked up a muddy hill to the castle, which has been converted to a youth hostel but is still open to the public. The view of the Rhine River and ...