Rhine

Comment by Pete and Maggie Haggart on May 7, 2008 at 8:52pm

We did the Rhine trip several years ago and then added on a week in Berlin. The Rhine trip is really a good introduction to that part of Germany. There are so many interesting places to visit - even just spending an evening on the waterfront in St. Goar can be a rewarding experience. If you have any questions we will be happy to help. We stayed at the Christmas apartments in St. Goar.

Comment by Linda and John Clausen on May 25, 2008 at 4:30pm

We will be going to the Rhine on the sampler this August. Any suggestions of things not to miss would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Comment by Donna Mollet on April 4, 2009 at 4:37pm

We will be staying at the Weiler apartmnet in Oberwesel in Sept 2009. We would appreciate receiving information about this tour and/or area. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks.

Comment by Dick Coffin on June 25, 2009 at 6:21pm

Got back from the Weiler apt. 6/3 after 2 weeks. Weilers are great hosts
and eating in the courtyard was pleasant after day trips. Walking Oberwesel was fun including trail to castle. Oberwesel is quiet,not
much action but was relaxing after day trips. Historische Weinwirtschaft
is a must to eat at. Web sites www.bahn.de and www. k-d .de for train and boat schedule are helpful in planning day trips. We did day trips to
Cologne,Mainz,Bacarack,St. Goar, Kaub (3 day festival),Braubach(visited Marksburg castle tour),Ruedesheim (chair lift), Koblenz,Cochem. Goggle Rhine Valley and you will get info on all these
towns and others. Before leaving I wasn't sure we would find enough
to do. No problem.
If you want to contact home this was difficult. No phone and closest
internet is in St Goar.
Have a good time.

Comment by Pete and Maggie Haggart on August 2, 2010 at 9:20pm

We did the Rhine tour and stayed at St Goar.

The trains are easy to use and on time - the schedules are posted at the
station plus you can get printed schedules. Most of the small stations
offices are now closed. As I recall the train pass is activated and then
marked by conductors when you use the train. We found that many times the
conductor did not come through the car or did not mark the pass - so we
ended up with extra days on our pass which got us a trip to Berlin - our
next stop on our untour (not included in untours now).

The boats work well too - but are obviously faster down stream than up
stream. You will travel 2nd class using your train pass.

In your village is the Church of Our Lady. The windows were outstanding and
it has beautiful chapel areas – one headed by a three dimensional GOLD
triptych - one of the real treasures of Germany!

A trolley runs up to the Castle Burg Rheinfels situated above St. Goar. The
hill is very very steep! We spent several hours exploring the castle grounds
(there is an entrance fee) on a self-guided tour. It is fascinating – the
walls are 12ft thick – so the interiors very cool. There were passage-ways
and steep spiral staircases that required the use of a flashlight for
navigation. There are many castles on the Rhine and they always seemed to be
under attack and so the fortifications were strong.

We caught the ferry to St. Goarshausen and then took our first train ride
south to Rüdesheim – a very touristy town – but it has a great Christmas
shop. Had lunch at a shady café and then after a brief look at the Christmas
shop – we took a chair lift which took us over acres and acres of vineyards
to the Niederwald Dentanal – a monument to the establishment of the German
Reich. There is a great view at the top looking down to Rüdesheim and across
the Rhine to Bingen. We followed a marked trail on a 30 minute flat walk
that passed through the Niederburg National Park (hard wood trees) that led
to another chair lift that took us down the hillside to Assmanshausen – the
red wine capital of the middle Rhine.

Cologne is 90 minutes away. As you walk out of the train station you are
overpowered by the Cathedral’s massive size. It sits right next to the train
station. We waited until the afternoon to visit the church – to get an
English guided tour. Our main stop was the Wallraf-Richartz/Ludwig Museum –
a few blocks from the station. The exhibits started with early middle ages
(1300-1500) with many triptychs and went on to the post-impressionists.
There were several paintings by Renoir (including a self-portrait), Van Gogh
(the Drawbridge), Degas (The Dancers), Rubens, Cezanne, and Monet. We spent
several hours in the museum, especially enjoying the old masters

Remagen is the site of the famous WWII bridge and now a Freedom Museum. The
woman at the train station provided us with a town map and marked the way to
the bridge site. That route took us through the town and a long walk up the
river Rhine. All that remains of the bridge are the entrance towers on each
side of the river and the tower on the west side that now holds the museum.

Mainz has the Gutenberg Museum. They have three of his original Bibles from
1542 – two old testament and one new – in a room that looks like and in fact
is a vault – big heavy doors. All is under glass with special lighting –
very impressive. They even had working replicas of his early printing
presses, displays of later presses; plus hundreds of documents that were
done with different printing methods. Also St. Stephens church and along the
way, while looking at the map, a gentleman came up to us and offered help in
finding the right street – this happened many times on our trip – people
were very friendly and helpful. In St. Stephens are 9 stained glass windows
done by Mark Chagal – they are blue and they are glorious works of art!

Took the ferry across the river and caught the train to the only castle in
this Rhine valley that was never destroyed – Marksburg. While waiting for
the trolley to take us to the castle we were joined by 22 sixth graders,
their teacher and ten other adults. Turns out they were “Army Brats” (their
own description) from a U.S. Army base and they invited us to come along on
their English guided tour of the castle.

Touring the old section of Koblenz – ending up at the Mosel River and then
walked down the river until it met the Rhine. This is called the “German
Corner” and has a reconstructed statue (very large) of Emperor Wilhelm I on
his favorite horse. Coming and going to this spot we also went through a
couple of churches dating from 1200 – St. Florin’s was gilded and St. Castor’s
Basilica had wonderful colors on the walls and ceiling – blues and reds.

Those are a few ideas

As far as the Euros go - get some when the arrive at your destination
airport. Then use that ATM machines to get more. For other purchases use a
Capital One credit card - they do not add on extra charges for purchases in
Europe!

In any case - go with the flow and enjoy a relaxed time - getting lost lets
you find new places............

Pete
in Moscow
haggart@moscow.com

Comment by Patricia and Jay Edie on August 2, 2010 at 10:10pm

Pete...thanks for great reply!!

Comment by Chris Erickson on August 6, 2010 at 9:54am

Hi Patricia and Jay - we just returned from St. Goar and had a wonderful time. The Rheinfels is a very interesting castle to explore - it's hard to believe that only 1/3 of it is still there - it's quite huge (my 11 yr old daughter loved it). There's a small store (on the main street) for canned goods, cookies, crackers, supplies, etc, a small shop next to it with fruits/vegies/dairy products, and a couple of bakeries, and plenty of restaurants. Try the Loriley Hotel (spelling!!) for a great German lunch/dinner (on main street) - I had some sort of sausage with some excellent mustard, fab-u-lous potatoes, saurkraut, and of course a cold beer. Re: money - use ATMs - withdraw max amount (for me, it was about 220 Euros), so you won't have to pay so many fees (for me, it was about $3.50 for various fees). I had all my money in my checking/debit account - but I brought a Visa charge card just for backup (which I didn't need). We also really enjoyed riding the KD up and down the Rhine - sitting on the deck (kind of a free for all re: chairs, but there was always plenty of room), enjoying the view (castles every 50 feet and vineyards everywhere) (and a cold heffeweizen - wheat beer) (one morning, the KD person came by with big warm pretzels for purchase). The train schedules are really easy to figure out. In St. Goar, we also enjoyed visiting Stefan's Wine and Christmas Shop - all Christmas items made in Germany, and the brandy is most excellent (he'll provide free samples, and he ships to the US).

Comment by Patricia and Jay Edie on September 13, 2010 at 5:37pm

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. We leave tomorrow afternoon and will let you know how it went.

Comment by Eric and Sue on February 2, 2013 at 4:42pm

We are excited to have booked our Untour to the Rhine this sping.   We will be staying in Oberwesel (Weiler) for two weeks and have enjoyed reading the comments of those of you who have stayed there.   This will be our fifth Untour and second to Germany (Castle).    Hoping to hear from many more who have been in the area recently.

Comment by C&J on February 2, 2013 at 7:40pm

Eric&Sue, we too will be staying in Oberwesel(Weiler) in September for two weeks; it is our fifth Untour and first to the Rhine; we also are doing an add on back to Kuchl, our third to Salzburg; would appreciate any comments upon your return; happy travels.

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