Tour day 4 con't
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2008
1
12
40
Trip End
Sep 24, 2008
Bacharach,
Rhineland-Palatinate,
Germany
Friday, September 5, 2008
A little about the language. You may be surprised, but the ugly American is actually trying to use as much of the local language as I can. Greeting folks with a hearty Gutten Morgen, Tag or Haben at the appropriate time of day. Ordering "Swei kaffee bitte". Which resulted in a rapid stream of German questions that caused some real panic in yours truly. I thought Dave R. had morphed in to a female German barrista. I imagine my body languag was quite comical; stepping backwards, hands held up in front of as if trying to fend off a physical blow, a slack jawed, cornered animal expression on my face. After the panic subsided, I realized that she asked me something about "milch" and "sukker". I'm certain my recovery was quite graceful as I replied, "bitte". Too bad Heidi likes her coffee black. By the time she got to "for here or to go", coffee lady was in full-on English mode. I think she appreciated the attempt, or was at least entertained by it. Who knew that speaking a foriegn language very poorly could be so much fun!
On to castle Rheinfelds. More perfect weather. Cool and overcast. No rain. The first medieval castle on our trip and the first one I've ever toured. It sounds like most of these castles along the Rhine sprung up as medeival get rich quick schemes aimed at collecting duty from the ships passing by. I guess they hadn't invented driving ranges yet. We had a tour gude that regailed us with tales of many battle fought and won by the local forces. One of the cool tactics was that after a section of the outer defenses were taken by the enemy, someone would scurry into the tunnel below and set off barrels of gun powder bneath that location. Boom! Instant enemy stew. The castle was never conquered (I think) but at one point a bunch of French Revelutionary folks cam calling and the local leaders decided to let them occupy the castle for some time - at least that's the way our German guide characterized the event.
After the castle we decended the hill and sought out a beer and a brat. We found both to our liking. Don had the Paulaner dark. I tried it, not too bad but I still find black/brown beer to be strange and frightening. Like something only Orcs and Trolls would drink. Heidi and I stuck the the new standby, Heffeweissen. I've tried enough by now to realize they are not all created equal. I think our Heffe was also Paulaner. Not sure, but it had a very nice flavor. Less chewy than some others I have tried.
Our tour day ended with a 1 hour boat ride back to Bacharach. It was raining by then, but we had a nice covered deck and our tour guide broke out 3 flavors of Kukken - a strudel-like confection. Cherry, apple and rhubarb. I like the German pastries because they don't make everything so super sweet like in the U.S.
We get back to Bacharach and do some quick shopping. I got a cool wood box for my poker cards. Then dinner at the hotel. Schweine(pork) schnitzel and more Heffe. Not sure why, but I find myself quite sleepy after dinner.
Gutten aben.
