Frankfurt to Bacharach (Tuesday 12th September 2017)

The Cristall Hotel was really nice little 3-star hotel in a great location. Perfect for people passing through Frankfurt by train. Certainly not cheap but, then again, neither was anything else in the area. The price of convenience. The breakfast, included in the price, was back up to par again. We had a room on the opposite side to the station which was completely silent. Past patrons on Booking.com has commented about the noise but could have heard a pin drop.

We checked out straight after breakfast and took the five minute walk to the station, bought a ticket to Langen (a town about 25kms south of Frankfurt) where we were to pickup the car. The Renault Eurodrive office was an easy 10 minute walk from the station. It was really the local Sixt car rental office.

The chap who met us was very friendly and helpful. We respectfully nodded and expressed understanding as he pointed out all the features of all three Renaults we own at home. We’d booked a Renault Clio but had delivered, instead, a Renault Captur. It’s essentially a Clio presented in SUV form. Like in 2103 it’s black. :( . Just down the road was a Shell petrol station so we filled her up and went in search of a coffee. After we’d filled up we set the SatNav for Bacharach on the Rhine. This is castle-country where we’ll spend five days exploring the region.

Most of the drive was on the autobahn. The chap at Renault Eurodrive was not exaggerating when he said that Germans drive fast! The little Renault got up to 130kms a few times just to keep out of the way! Before long we turned off the autobahn onto the quieter roads running alongside the western bank of the Rhine. Over just a few kilometres we had moved from the anonymity of the motorway to the beauty of the Rhine valley and it’s little villages. Bacharach is one of those villages. With a population of about 2,000 people it’s very small and quiet. Separated from the river by just the railway line and the arterial road Bacharach picture-postcard Rhine village. The houses, business premises and public buildings are classic Rhineland. Narrow cobble-stoned streets and lanes separate the buildings with just about every one of them sporting a magnificent display of annuals from their respective balconies.

Our Pension is on Oberstrasse, the main street of the village conveniently located next door to a bakery. Actually, everything in a village this small is conveniently located!. Our host is Hans Dettmar, a dear old 78 year-old and his wife. He very proudly showed us to our room on the first floor, complete with a full kitchen and a balcony of our own.

The village is overlooked by an ancient castle which has been turned into a youth hostel so we decided to drive up the hill for a look at it. The narrow, winding road full of tight hairpin bends provided an opportunity for a very steep learning curve. It took quite a few kms before I started to a better idea of how to drive this car. Hey, don’t forget I’m sitting on the left-hand side of the car, changing gears with my right hand and instinctively always looking in the wrong direction. The view up and down the Rhine was magical from that high vantage point. We took too many photos and could have stayed there in the warm sun for ages.

But we pushed on determined to begin our exploration of the mid-Rhine. GPS-girl was back to her old tricks and sent us deeper into to hills rather than back to the river where we were planning to go. We drove for 20-odd kms in a big circle and wound up in the next village upstream of Bacharach rather that the next one down stream. Along the way we passed a huge castle ruin sitting atop a little village. A side road looked like it might take us there so we ventured up it. After 10 minutes we arrived at the base of Fürstenberg Castle. The castle dates back to the Middle Ages – 1219 in fact! We were able to wander freely around the extensive, vegetation-covered ruins at will. There was no-one else there, no gates, no locks, no fences just a giant castle standing on the top of a hill. The only sign that anyone had been there since it was abandoned centuries ago was a ladder installed to help explorers like us get up a difficult part of the ruin. It was truly one of those events in life that will always be remembered clearly.

After the castle exploration we found our way back to to the river and thence onto the town we had planned to visit. We drove on downstream past the famous Lorelei Rock on to St. Goar. A massive dump of rain hit us there (we never got out of the car) so we u-turned and headed back home. Pre-dinner drinks on our balcony was splendid way to end a great day.