KD Rhine Cruise

Hellllloooooo again. I realize I forgot to mention one thing in my last post about our trip to Paris for the 1/2 marathon.

Everyone knows the old stereotype about French people being rude. We have never found that to be the case. One guy helped our friends carry their stroller over a gate that was too small for it to fit through. One guy saw us standing on a subway platform, with a map in hand, looking confused. He immediately came over to us and asked if he could help. No one was rude to us; no one 'shunned' us because we were Americans.

Just wanted to put that out there.

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On to our next adventure. I had so much fun with my cousin & her bf on the KD Rhine Cruise, that I HAD to go back & take the Mister. We also brought our friend Linda along, and our dog (Sasha). Josh was going TDY (military speak for going away on business) for two months, and this was the last full weekend before he left. October is considered the 'low season', and not as many boats run (there are also winter runs, but they are VERY limited) So - we had to take advantage of it while we had the chance.

As highlighted in the Rick Steves book, the most picturesque route is to go from Bingen to St. Goar. There are many different boats in the fleet - they all have a restaurant in them and outdoor decks where you can sit. They also have a voice recording telling you of the sites along the way.

We left pretty early - it's about an hour drive from Ramstein to Bingen. Josh & Linda in the front seat, and me and the dog in the backseat. Story of my life. Although it is fun to watch Sasha create fresh nose art on the windows. :/

When you get to Bingen, there is a row of parking right by the railroad tracks, which run parallel to the river (and the docks) - it cost us something like only €2 to park for the whole day!! At least, I'm pretty sure that's what the parking machine said....in any case, we only paid €2.

We decided to do the same route as I did with my cousin a few weeks before - Bingen to St. Goar. There are 5 stops in between those two towns - and you technically could get off on all of them if you wanted (at least during peak season, when there are more boats). But, our plan was to get off at Bacharach. When you go to buy your ticket - just tell them your final destination. Then, if you want to get off at a town in between your starting point & your final destination, you just have to get a stamp from one of the guys on the boat. Just talk it over with the guy you buy the tickets from - he'll help you out.
A roundtrip ticket from Bingen to St. Goar & back is €21.60. The dog's ticket was €3.90 (but I don't remember if that was one-way or roundtrip).

Aaaaand, that's enough of the housekeeping. Now on to the adventure.

Of COURSE it was a dreary, cold day. It's Germany, in October. It's to be expected. Honestly, I love dreary skies - except the scenery down the Rhine is so awesome, and there are so many castles to see, that it was really a shame some of them were covered in fog.

The boats are on a timetable, and they realllllly mean business about their times (sometimes they're early - which means you better be ready early). I was a little worried about how Sasha would react, so I was planning on sitting outside with her on the upper deck, if need be. But, some of the people in our little group were too cold (ahem, Linda! ;) ), so I decided to try sitting in the dining room with the dog (yes, that's allowed in Germany).

And HOLY CRAP was Sasha the star of the boat. You'd think she was flipping Lassie walking through. People were literally waving at her. Yes. Waving at the dog.

Waving. :|

It really bothers me when people go up to Sasha and just start petting her. But, of course that happened. The boat was filled with Japanese tourists (yes, I know they were Japanese - no, I'm not just assuming because they were Asian. They were doing a wine tasting event, and the flyers were in Japanese) and while I took Japanese for 2 years, I somehow missed the chapter of our textbook entitled, "How to tell strangers not to get in your dog's face."

Luckily, Sasha always does way better than I give her credit for. After everyone's initial ooh-ing and ahh-ing over her, she settled under the table while we commenced to drinking wine.

We were on the Rhine River. We HAD to drink wine! We did NOT purchase the wine on the ship. Typically, alcohol is all the same price throughout Germany. No matter where you go, a liter of beer costs the same, a glass of wine costs the same. Except this black-hole of a boat where alcohol was almost double the cost. We're not positive we were allowed to bring our own drinks on the ship, but we did. No one said anything to us, so no harm, no foul, eh?

It took us 45 minutes to get to our stop in Bacharach. The sites along the way were so awesome, though. So much awesome, everywhere.

Plus, Assmanhausen.

"You ARE the Assman!" (Every person that doesn't get that reference makes me die a little on the inside)

So, we get off the boat in Bacharach, just as the sun starts breaking through the clouds. I swear I heard angels singing.

Ok, those were seagulls, but still...

We had two hours to spend in Bacharach, before picking up the next boat to take us to St. Goar. So, we did the Rick Steves walking tour that took us all over the town. It is a very small town, but so flippin' cute!

(ignore the street construction)

Other than Sasha having to pee on everything, she still did very well. I think she enjoyed it, although that may just be the anthropomorphization talking. There is a hill overlooking the town, and at the top, a tower. We sat up there, looking out over the Rhine Valley below, drinking more wine (it was shaping up to be an excellent day). Sasha had some cookies. Good stuff.

We continued on our walk, and explored the town a little.

In the Rick Steves book, he recommends a gelateria (Eis Cafe Italia) that specializes in Riesling gelato. Well, to continue our wine theme - we HAD to try it! They saw our Rick Steves book, and gave us a discount as well. I'm not a huge ice cream person, but this was really good - tart & sweet, almost like a lemon sorbet. But, you could definitely taste the Riesling.

Back at the dock, there is a little shop that sells the local Bacharach wine. Karen and I had some when we were there the last time, and it was reallly good, so of COURSE I had to have Josh and Linda try it. And I may or may not have had a glass.

Just so you know - I know I keep talking about all the wine we were drinking. But really, it was over a long period of time, we were also drinking a lot of water, and doing a lot of walking. We were *all* fine, no drunky-drunks.

Says the alcoholic.

I KID, I KID!!!

But really. Wine is good.

Soo, finally it was time to get on the next boat. From Bacharach to St. Goar was 40 minutes. It seemed like eeeeveryone wanted to get off at St. Goar.

Here's where I almost lost my shit. Certain groups of tourists have been known to not have the same "boundaries" that certain other groups of tourists have. By that, I mean...some people just don't believe in personal space. They're okay with crowding in as close as possible. In this situation, it was crowding the door to get off the boat. I was standing in back, with Sasha, trying to keep her out of the way. Then, all of a sudden, I'm mushed into this sea of boundless people. I'm so terrified that Sasha is going to have a bad reaction. At least, I was terrified, until this little bitch cut me off from the dog. Then, I wasn't terrified. I was mad. I didn't know I could throw 'bows that quickly on someone else. Or that fiercely.

Three snaps in a Z shape.

A group of tourists that believe in personal space (and not crowding the plate) saw me almost knock this lady down, and must have seen the look in my face. They circled me & the dog and basically created a force-field so that other people couldn't step on us. I was *very* grateful.

Where was my husband in all this? Already off the boat. He was mad that everyone was pushing in on us, but his reaction was to push back & get off the boat first.

Helpful, babe.

I will say that when I was on the boat with the cousins, it was NOT that crowded, and there were NOT that many people swarming to get off (and, that was still during peak season).

Finally, we're off the boat. My eyes lost their fire.

And, it was time to eat.

St. Goar is a bigger town than Bacharach, and home to Rheinfels Castle. We had 2.5 hours to spend in the town before the boat came to take us back to Bingen.

Rheinfels Castle

Rick Steves suggested eating at an Italian place, Ristorante Alla Fontana. It's a little Italian restaurant, and what goes better with wine than pizza? Answer: nothing. Or, more wine.

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE the European custom of letting dogs in restaurants? Well, I do. We sat down, had the dogs water dish placed right next to her, and a few more treats. She was good to go. (Most restaurants that we've been to have their own 'house' dog bowls for water - we just happened to have our own doggy water bottle). We did see another group of people in there with their own copy of the Rick Steves Germany book on the table.

The food was good - we were really hungry. It wasn't the best pizza in the world, but it was definitely good!

We did a little walking around & window shopping. We wanted to go up to the castle, but we didn't have a whole lot of time left, and it was starting to rain. A big dog yelled at Sasha while we were walking down the street, and after that, I think she was done. She HAD had a full day, after all. But, the town is cute, and I DEFINITELY want to go back & tour the castle.

This is the "world's largest freestanding cuckoo clock". Woo.

We headed back towards the boat, with a little time to kill. Josh & Linda went to a wine tasting place. Apparently Toby Keith had been there before to do a tasting as well (woo...hoo). I took the dog to chase some ducks around.

Back on the boat! Now it was just time to relax. The boat going back was a lot less crowded. It also goes a LOT slower, since we're against the current. It took us 2.75 hours to get back. We played card games, snacked, had some drinks. I walked in on an elderly Japanese lady in the bathroom.

Fun times.