Rhine River cruise

We stopped at a rest stop just before the city of Wurzburg. Carol pronounced the bathrooms as "top notch" which they usually are in Germany as there is always an attendant there keeping the place clean. Don't forget to drop some coins in their little tip plate on your way out.

You can get gas (Benzine) for your car here or have a meal or pick up some snacks or maps or sunglasses at the well-stocked shop. It's just South of the city and has great views down into the valley.

We arrived on the banks of the Rhine at a town called Bacharach and as we were too early for our 3 pm hotel check-in we thought we'd enjoy a short Rhine cruise on one of the many tourist boats that ply the river.

This would be our boat-called the Berlin

 We bought our tickets at a kiosk on the dock. The boat we took was going all the way to Cologne (Koln) but we didn't have time for that so we just booked to a town called St. Goarshausen and would get off there and wait for another boat going back to Bacharach.

Here we pass Pfalz Castle in the middle of the river-ships used to have to pay a toll to pass here as the castle keepers pulled up a chain stretched across the Rhine to stop them proceeding.

There was a bar on the boat so I had a refreshing beer

The scenery glided slowly by

This rocky promontory which forces the river to bend sharply to the right is called the Lorelei

We'll see several castles on this voyage

Here we see a barge carrying containers overtaking us

We get off in St. Goarshausen as planned and wait for our next boat to arrive. Then we are back on the water for the last part of our cruise.

A campsite opposite the Lorelei

Two trains pass going through a tunnel

Away in the distance, 1000 feet above the river we see our hotel- an old castle

A freight train on the other side of the river-the right bank as we sail south

We are approaching the town of Oberwesel which will be our home for the next two days

Our room would be the pointed turret in this next photo

After a relaxing sunny 90 minutes on the waters of the Rhine we were back in Bacharach

Next we check into our hotel, high above Oberwesel...