Once in Koblenz we were discussing which train to take to Moselkern when a lady near us told us that we were in the right place to catch that particular train. We recognized her as a lady we had seen get on the train at the same time we did in Bacharach this morning. She was from Arizona, and her name was Kathy.
Since we were staying at the same town and had plans to go to the same place today, we began to talk with her. As it turned out, she was traveling alone and was a hard-core Rick Steves traveler. She had even dis-assembled her tourbook as we had! At Rick Steves suggestion, she had decided to go to see Burg Eltz castle today, just like we had. She told us that she had eaten too much German food lately, so she planned to hike up to the castle from the train station at Moselkern for the exercise. We had pre-decided to take some sort of transportation to the castle (taxi or shuttle bus of some type).
The train ride to Moselkern was delightful, following the Mosel River past castles, old churches, typical German villages and many vineyards. When the train stopped at Moselkern, the three of us were at the train door ready to exit. The train stops only momenatarily at small villages, so we knew we did not have much time to make our exit, and we were obviously the only ones getting off there. Kathy hit the "automatic open" button to open the doors so we could get out. Nothing happened. Quickly, Olen hit it, and then I did the same thing. At this point the train started moving on, with us still on it. (This is something unplanned...so it is an "adventure", remember?)
The three of us looked at each other and decided to ride to the next little town, get off, and catch the next train back to Moselkern and hope the exit doors work on our second pass-through. This wasn't much of a decision. We didn't have any other choices other than possibly jumping off a train moving at 60+ mph. It was not long until the train arrived in a town no one ever heard of called Muden. Muden has no train station, no places of business, and only a few houses, and the people who lived in them were still in bed, except for one lady who was watering her geraniums. There was, however, a sign, so we had our picture taken by it.
It really wasn't long until another train came by, we hopped on it and went back to Moselkern, finally arriving at our destination for stop #1 today. Kathy began to walk toward the castle while we looked around for a means of transportation. There was none. Since we had come this far (including the side trip to Muden) we were not going to miss seeing Burg Eltz, so the three of us started the hike together.
Mind you, this is a 90-minute-up-a-mountain hike we had not planned on taking today. We had to do some convincing with our leg muscles and feet, but we did it.
Now, Burg Eltz is a wonderful castle. It has never been desstroyed in a war. The Eltz family still lives there in one part of the castle, and they have tours available in English. This castle is authentic with original furnishings in all 80 rooms. Burg Eltz dates from 1157 and by 1430 the castle looked like it looks today...well almost. This is the year that they have chosen to shore up the castle to make sure it remains available for future generations to enjoy. Therefore, there is scaffolding obscuring the beautiful view of the castle. But...that is the way it looked the day we were there, so that is what is in the photo. Regardless of the photography problem, we enjoyed the tour and were glad we had gone to have seen it.
Kathy, Olen and I found out that we could call for a taxi at the gift shop and ride down. We elected to share the price of the taxi and save our muscles a 90-minute hike back to Moselkern...a very wise decision.
We all boarded another train in Moselkern and went to Koblenz, where we bid good-bye to our new friend, Kathy. It was a nice experience.
She was a great travel partner, and we enjoyed visiting with her as we hiked together.
Once in Koblenz Olen and I decided to take the train back to Bacharach and perhaps climb to the castle if we could convince our leg muscles to cooperate. The hike to the top of the mountain where the castle is located was not too bad, and we got some excellent photos in the late-afternoon sunlight.
We had our photo taken from the castle with the Rhine River below us.
This castle is the one that is now used as a local pension, and the castle courtyard was full of activity. Lots of children were enjoying a night of sleeping in a real castle. Their parents were just seated at one of the outdoor tables drinking a cool beverage and enjoying the view.
Once we got down the mountain we decided that we needed some "comfort food" since we had used up so many calories today that we were no longer concerned about counting calories. We figured that climbing two mountains today qualified us for something...like pizza. We went in a small establishment with the colorful title, "Bacharacher Pizza and Kebap Haus". It sounded interesting. While our pizza was cooking, we tried to talk to the owner. He spoke very little English, but was able to tell us that he was originally from Turkey. (We had already figured out that he was not local!) So, here we were in a small town in Germany eating Italian pizza prepared by a Turkish man. How is that for international flavor? (Inexplicably, the pizza was very good.)
We strolled down the little street and stopped at the gelato shop for a cone of ice cream for dessert, sort of like a "progressive dinner". (Does my husband know how to show a girl a good time, or what?!) Then, after our multi-cultural evening we walked back to our room at the zimmer and are powering down for the night. Tomorrow we have to leave this lovely place, but we have faith that more wonderful experiences lie ahead of us.
We wish for each of you wonderful experiences in the day ahead, also.
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